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Forums Daily chat thread Click here for today’s chat thread Chat thread – Sunday 19th January

  • Rob
    HfP Staff
    2,705 posts

    This is today’s chat thread.

    If you have specific questions about Avios, hotels or credit cards, please ask them in the appropriate forum and not here. This thread is a good place to post interesting deals you have spotted or your general thoughts on travel and all things miles and points. Thank you for contributing.

    executiveclubber 529 posts

    Inspired by my (otherwise faultless) stay at The Caledonian in Edinburgh (former Waldorf Astoria), I wonder how others would deal with loud bass coming from a hotel function for three hours at night where the hotel “can only apologise”? Why’s it only Premier Inn that has a good night guarantee…

    Froggee 1,210 posts

    Firstly I would call reception and ask what time the noise was ending.

    Depending on the answer to the above I may ask to be moved.

    The next day I would ask for a meeting with the duty manager to discuss how a business that is by definition selling sleep can knowingly put guests in a room where they will be unable to sleep.

    Then I would be fobbed off with the promise of an upgrade next time but would not come back.

    Interestingly the Caledonian has just commenced an extension, building more guest rooms. Tricky given its location. So the car park will be closed for a year and my understanding is that there will be no internal access to the gym and swimming pool during this time so we will be seeing confused guests having to wander up Lothian Road looking for the side door entrance to the Spa. I wonder if anyone will brave it in their dressing gown or in their workout gear?

    I’m sure they could have made better provision than this but business is business.

    Swiss Jim 310 posts

    When that happened to me, albeit on a family of four holiday & on New Year’s Eve (when I guess you might expect noise, but not a full blown party in the hotel grounds onto which our balconies faced until 2:00am to which we weren’t invited) we were given an annual IHG lounge pass. I made clear that points or cash simply wouldn’t hack it – and that that’s what I wanted.

    To this day I can’t believe IHG agreed to that.

    So my suggestion is to tell them (IHG not the hotel) what you want. Even if like my example it’s unreasonable. I was of course prepared to negotiate down 😀

    The result may of course depend on your stay / status / spend pattern.

    Paul 228 posts

    It’s not just noise. Just spent two nights on a cheap mattress suitable at best for a child. I asked for it to be changed but couldn’t tell if they had, in any event the second night was just as bad.

    Usual non apology apology at reception so will be emailing the hotel to express my displeasure. Depending on response will complete the post stay review accordingly.

    Michael C 890 posts

    As regards the China visa on arrival, am I right in thinking that
    HKG counts as “Country C” or a third region?

    So I could do LHR-PVG (stay) / PVG-HKG?

    BA Flyer IHG Stayer 3,075 posts

    This popped up on my face book feed.

    The time HEX had a temporary station whilst the HEX was delayed

    Heathrow Junction Station

    Did anyone here use it? It was over 25 yeas ago though.

    SamG 1,893 posts

    As regards the China visa on arrival, am I right in thinking that
    HKG counts as “Country C” or a third region?

    So I could do LHR-PVG (stay) / PVG-HKG?

    Yep (for now…)

    Michael C 890 posts

    As regards the China visa on arrival, am I right in thinking that
    HKG counts as “Country C” or a third region?

    So I could do LHR-PVG (stay) / PVG-HKG?

    Yep (for now…)

    Cheers, @SamG (and good proviso that I should check this non-stop!)

    strickers 1,030 posts

    It’s not a visa, it’s transit without a visa (TWOV), it’s quite important you use the correct terminology at check in.

    Tony1 16 posts

    Number 11 St. Julians Malta Handwritten Collection is a haven for noise. There is a “bar” that is open 10pm till 6am – wow – so loud -Were there NYE – but was told it is the same every day / night. Hotel IMHO not that great either.

    Tony1 16 posts

    QQ – Any thoughts on the Fairmont at Doha ( I think there is an offer on a break in the flights from Qatar to BKK to stay there a few nights ? Is it worth it or any advice in general please ? ( Thinking about September ) – Have Accor Diamond so should get the Gold room access. What if any is the beach like

    Many thanks

    Johnie 25 posts

    No idea about the BA HQ, but the aircraft are frequently less than pristine. If you treat the staff, er, contractors like dirt though…

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jan/19/living-wage-foundation-accused-of-accrediting-firms-not-paying-the-living-wage

    At least they get to have the BA logo on their uniforms – pay is £11.44 an hour. “The cleaners work 12-hour shifts, including nights from 6pm to 6am. They claim they do not get extra for working through the night or on public holidays such as Christmas Day.”

    BA declined to comment.

    meta 1,719 posts

    @executiveclubber I stopped staying in UK hotels Thu-Sun for that reason. In any case had similar thing happening at Indigo Bath. They moved us in the middle of the night to a basement room but it was still noisy. In the end full stay including F&B refunded plus extra points. However, I had to speak to general manager, involve CS to get them to acknowledge that they should do something.

    Andrew. 625 posts

    Inspired by my (otherwise faultless) stay at The Caledonian in Edinburgh (former Waldorf Astoria), I wonder how others would deal with loud bass coming from a hotel function for three hours at night where the hotel “can only apologise”? Why’s it only Premier Inn that has a good night guarantee…

    “At night?”. What time does that mean?

    We had a Ceilidh in there about 8 years ago, hotel was clear that whilst a “Disco” must finish by 23:30 live Scottish music can continue until the first complaint to reception.

    Michael C 890 posts

    TWOV

    Thanks for that, @Strickers – you are of course 100% right
    and I’m now wondering if I didn’t use that term when we had our
    check-in hoohaa at T5 last summer!

    executiveclubber 529 posts

    Thanks all for the thoughts. We were offered 25k points or a meal on them (but my partner reminded me we already have £75 credit from FHR) so I will go back and ask if we could look at an upgrade tonight and enough points to cover a night here (50k rather than perfunctory 25k).

    JDB 6,205 posts

    TWOV

    Thanks for that, @Strickers – you are of course 100% right
    and I’m now wondering if I didn’t use that term when we had our
    check-in hoohaa at T5 last summer!


    @Strickers
    is correct to add the TWOV term, but to add further to your lexicon, the Chinese immigration authorities actually call it ‘visa-free transit’ so that term may also be in Timatic which is where airlines will source their decision to allow you on board. Let’s hope we get onto the visa free country list!

    andyroo 6 posts

    Best seat on 787 Gulf Air J?

    redlilly 149 posts

    Afternoon All – bit of a bad experience with British Airways “help desk”. I paid for a one way way Economy Plus ticket LHR – Athens early in Jan for a flight in late Feb. A couple of days later in Jan, I saw an op up for £154, so decided to go for it. Payment wasn’t accepted initially, then op up price reduced to £104. Tried again. Low and behold, I have been charged 3 times. Once the original economy plus ticket price, second the £154, and third the £104.

    Bloke on the phone yesterday claimed that this was normal – I said no way, why would I voluntarily pay twice for an op up, and how can that be when already at Economy Plus? Claimed it was a change fee. Emails I have received do not reflect that. The email for the £154 change, kept the fare at Economy Plus but allowed 2 check in bags!! Anyway, with patience wearing thin and being kept on hold for 40 mins, have ironically done a charge back via BAEC Premium Amex.

    This all happened around the time that BA was having issues with its payment system, earlier this month. Painful.

    Aston100 1,731 posts

    Bloke on the phone yesterday claimed that this was normal

    Just how bad is BA training these days?

    Jill Kinkell 218 posts

    God knows about training, but it is woeful the number of agents who just aren’t clued up. At least HfP has educated us and the brilliant and helpful posters, that we can usually spot rubbish being spouted forth. On the other hand , I’ve had agents who have been right on the ball, worked alternatives and a very happy customer in the end.

    jcq1 1 post

    Anyone else having problems uploading US address details to BA website, tried for 2 days now and just get “An error uploading change data”

    JDB 6,205 posts

    Bloke on the phone yesterday claimed that this was normal

    Just how bad is BA training these days?


    @Aston100
    – The training is not only poor and too short, but the trouble is they also don’t seem to be very good at recruitment. If you have fairly unengaged people who aren’t that interested in the job and none too bright, you don’t get good results plus WFH really doesn’t help.

    I trained on these systems and fare construction some forty years ago and the training was very thorough and the tests rigorous. I still find myself helping BA agents when they get stuck, especially on fares.


    @redlilly
    – I’m not sure why you rushed to a chargeback that risks getting your whole booking cancelled. Once you are dealing with one these poorly trained agents who clearly doesn’t understand the issue, abandon the call after five minutes and call back. It’s not a complex issue for a competent agent, nor difficult to resolve. When a payment doesn’t appear to be accepted, I would always check to see if it had in fact gone through.

    Graham-Walsh 64 posts

    Just thought I’d share this with fellow points collectors. Got an email from Nectar today saying thanks for spending your 20k points. Happened in Sainsbury’s miles away. Got onto them on twitter and they are setting me up a new account and returning the points.

    I’m guessing they must have cloned my card somehow.

  • The topic ‘Chat thread – Sunday 19th January’ is closed to new replies.

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