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Anyone know if there is any recourse for sending money abroad through Wise?
Some tour companies in Malaysia seem to only accept Wise for advanced bookings.
Will be around £500 – £600 or so for the first one.
There may be other bookings to follow.I did one booking a couple of years ago for a much smaller amount and it was fine, but I wasn’t (and still am not) sure what can be done if scammed.
Good evening from the Hyatt Regency Hesperia Madrid.
I booked a four night stay with two separate reservations: the first night on a Hyatt reward night, and the rest through a Prive rate with Emyr. The hotel was kind enough to keep me in the same room for all the nights, which I appreciated, though it seemed to cause a bit of confusion at check-in.
When I mentioned the Prive rate, the front desk agent didn’t seem familiar with it. She said I had breakfast included for the first morning (the reward night), apparently as a result of the second reservation—which doesn’t really make sense, but I’ll take the freebie! I just hope I’m not charged for it later.
As for the hotel credit, they handed me a benefits sheet that looked like it was from the American Express Hotel Collection rather than Prive, which added to the confusion. All in all, things felt a bit muddled, but the room is nice enough so far. First time in Madrid so looking forward to it after re-watching M.Portillo’s long weekend trips here
And the sun is out in Sarajevo this morning as well after a rainy afternoon yesterday!
I have very fond memories from when I was working in BiH and especially in Sarajevo. It is a lovely city when the sun is out and also when it has snowed, which was when I spent most of my time there.
BiH?
@Aston100 I’d insist on credit card even at a small surcharge. The Wise card is a debit one. I think s75 requires minimum transaction value of £100 ?
Serbian guide yesterday, this morning just with a Bosnian guide so very different perspectives!
Indeed!
@Lady-London BiH is Bosnia & Herzegovina with the ‘i’ being ‘and’ in Bosnian. BIH is the country code on number plates which are quite odd around here – eg HR = Croatia (based on the Croatian name for the country.
Thanks JDB.
I wonder how many people MGW thought amongst the breadth of the HfP audience, would recognise that easily.It’s been glorious all week here on Aegina in the Saronic Gulf. Last day here and then tomorrow ferry back to Piraeus and taxi to Athens airport for flight back to LHR.
I hope you have been enjoying pistachios! When I worked in Athens my boss brought them from his house in Aegina where we were also invited to stay a few. Never seen any pistachios quite like them. Those islands are lovely off season like now.
Anyone know if there is any recourse for sending money abroad through Wise?
Some tour companies in Malaysia seem to only accept Wise for advanced bookings.
Will be around £500 – £600 or so for the first one.
There may be other bookings to follow.I did one booking a couple of years ago for a much smaller amount and it was fine, but I wasn’t (and still am not) sure what can be done if scammed.
With Wise there’s nothing you can do apart from file a report and hope for some kind of recourse but very unlikely
I sent 5k for my Galapagos cruise that way to avoid a huge credit card charge by the cruise ship and it was a knee trembling experience.
Is 220,000 avios now the new norm for BA business return to Singapore ( or maybe it always was!). Also does anyone have any tips to stop the BA site defaulting to the companion voucher when just trying to check availability on other airlines. I cannot seem to get any other airline to appear to any destination I search. For example I can see availability on Qatar which is not showing on Ba and I think it because it keeps defaulting to the voucher even when trying to do a standard avios check.
110k avios each way will be the highest avios/lowest cash option for J to SIN. When you go to “book with avios”, isn’t there a button to click on where it says “Don’t use any vouchers”? This is normally just above where you see your 241 selected – it always defaults to that for some reason.
Good evening from the Radisson Red at Heathrow. the lounge is fairly nice and I’ll probably have a wonder to the pub across the road afterwards.
I’ll post tomorrow about my use of a companion voucher. I’m sure some will argue it’s quite possibly the worst use of a CV you could possibly do.
Have you used it for MAN-LHR? Cash prices can be outrageous so it may not actually have been the worst use!
@yorkshireRich Worst use is letting it expire? Pub wise, are you talking about The Pheasant, we quite like it.
Sorry if already discussed:
Amex Hilton £75 statement credit for a £300 spend.
The locations listed in the linked PDF seem to be in the EMEA region, but then I spotted a few in the USA at the very end.Does anyone know if a stay elsewhere (e.g. SEA region) could potentially trigger the offer?
@yorkshireRich Worst use is letting it expire? Pub wise, are you talking about The Pheasant, we quite like it.
yeah that was my justification and excuse strickers. Yeah it looks pretty good does the pheasant.
I prefer this lounge to the one at Radisson Blu Manchester. Everyone was practically paralytic by 20:00 in there.
@Aston100 I’d insist on credit card even at a small surcharge. The Wise card is a debit one. I think s75 requires minimum transaction value of £100 ?
With Wise there’s nothing you can do apart from file a report and hope for some kind of recourse but very unlikely
Thanks both.
No alternative. Not even cash on arrival (presumably as they are middlemen and need to make a non-refundable booking with the actual operator on my behalf).Sorry if already discussed:
Amex Hilton £75 statement credit for a £300 spend.
The locations listed in the linked PDF seem to be in the EMEA region, but then I spotted a few in the USA at the very end.Huh, wtf. That’s a new one as far as I’m aware. Not just USA but loads of other countries. All over the middle east and africa (nothern and southern) and tons in Turkiye too (Amex/Hilton obviously didn’t get the memo on the new spelling).
Does anyone know if a stay elsewhere (e.g. SEA region) could potentially trigger the offer?
Not a scooby’s chance.
I hope you have been enjoying pistachios! When I worked in Athens my boss brought them from his house in Aegina where we were also invited to stay a few. Never seen any pistachios quite like them. Those islands are lovely off season like now.
I have bought several kilos of pistachios to take home for myself and as gifts. I have eaten a fair few while here. It’s been marvellous. As you say never seen or tasted anything like them before. I always thought pistachios came from Iran. Turns out a doctor here in Aegina bought several trees back from Syria and started the whole business. The trees take 70 years to start producing the best crops so the good doctor had the bright idea of persuading the farmers to plant potatoes under the trees while they matured. Did a private tour of the island where we were taken to a pistachio farm and saw the trees in the wild. Apparently it used to be thought you need one male for every female tree but about 10 years ago they figured out that one male tree can fertilise about 40 female trees. Really fantastic island with its own temple to Aphia which is a scaled down version of the Acropolis in Athens but apparently pre-dates it. Not in much better condition sadly. Been interesting and relaxing and as I said weather has been perfect. Sad to be leaving tomorrow morning.
Is 220,000 avios now the new norm for BA business return to Singapore ( or maybe it always was!). Also does anyone have any tips to stop the BA site defaulting to the companion voucher when just trying to check availability on other airlines. I cannot seem to get any other airline to appear to any destination I search. For example I can see availability on Qatar which is not showing on Ba and I think it because it keeps defaulting to the voucher even when trying to do a standard avios check.
On Saturday I booked 2x BA business class flights to Singapore for next April that were 220000 Avios but I also used a companion voucher. Flights to KL are also 220000 so I guess this now the norm. I Can’t comment on how to turn off the “apply voucher” when booking as I now only tend to book BA to use the 241 vouchers we both accrue each year for long haul flights.
110k off peak one way per person for SIN and KUL as been the norm for some time
See this Aug 2024 article for example
https://www.headforpoints.com/2024/08/29/how-many-avios-do-i-need-to-fly-to-2/
At least I know 220,000 is not an anomaly. I constantly press do not use voucher but it constantly defaults so makes searching a bit of a pain….
And the sun is out in Sarajevo this morning as well after a rainy afternoon yesterday!
I have very fond memories from when I was working in BiH and especially in Sarajevo. It is a lovely city when the sun is out and also when it has snowed, which was when I spent most of my time there.
BiH?
Apologies, not an IATA Code. BiH is the abbreviation used for Bosnia and Herzegovina (the ‘i’ stands for the equivalent of ‘and’ when the local version of Serbo-Croat is written in Roman script. FBH is the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and RS Republika Srpska, the two main entities that make up BiH, along with the much smaller Brčko District. The whole country is absolutely fascinating from an inter alia historical and cultural point of view.
I wonder how many people MGW thought amongst the breadth of the HfP audience, would recognise that easily.
I wonder how many people MGW thought amongst the breadth of the HfP audience, would recognise that easily.
These things become automatic after a while, but we were talking about the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, so it was not a massive stretch to work it out. And at least one other person knew.
Anyone know if there is any recourse for sending money abroad through Wise?
Some tour companies in Malaysia seem to only accept Wise for advanced bookings.
Will be around £500 – £600 or so for the first one.
There may be other bookings to follow.I did one booking a couple of years ago for a much smaller amount and it was fine, but I wasn’t (and still am not) sure what can be done if scammed.
No, you have zero recourse. My experience is that better operators (which doesn’t need to mean more expensive ones) will offer more flexible payment arrangements.
Apologies, not an IATA Code. BiH is the abbreviation used for Bosnia and Herzegovina (the ‘i’ stands for the equivalent of ‘and’ when the local version of Serbo-Croat is written in Roman script. FBH is the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and RS Republika Srpska, the two main entities that make up BiH, along with the much smaller Brčko District. The whole country is absolutely fascinating from an inter alia historical and cultural point of view.
Not to mention a quite unbelievable and unique political structure where the presidency rotates every 8 months between the 3 elected heads over a four year term.
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