Chat thread – Tuesday 21st November

[Super Secret Stuff]

Michael C wrote:

Is the Gatwick North Premium Security Lane @GBP 5 pp worth it for
a December Saturday 0700h?! Just realised haven’t used LGW for several years…

Most likely yes, and if a priority pass holder for £6 you can reserve your space in a lounge and get fast track security thrown in (afaik)

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

JDB wrote:

davedent wrote:

Morning – some advice please.
I booked a basic room at the Kimpton Paris and successfully used a confirmable suite upgrade voucher to upgrade to a king suite with balcony. I received an email confirming the upgrade and the upgrade showed online. The room has now been downgraded to a basic room by the hotel. Despite having contacted IHG and the hotel they both seem to be unwilling/ unable to sort the situation. This is clearly a breach of contract but what do I do ? Grateful for any help.

While it may be a breach of contract, the difficulty is enforcing it, so as a practical matter it comes down to negotiation and a bit of guile. I don’t know the terms or ins and outs of the upgrade voucher, but probably you will need to escalate at IHG (write to the CEO’s office) on the basis that they can’t allow hotels within the IHG system to go rogue, thereby damaging the whole premise of their loyalty scheme.

I agree with this, albeit I’d suggest using the Ambassador email address if you have Ambassador status. I’ve seen a marked difference in how IHG treated a friend with the same issue as me versus my legalistic request to them to sort out or confirm they are not sorting so I can progress legal channels.

[LiamG]

Guessing this may be the embargo in 10 minutes post, but just had an email from AMEX with a promotion to earn up to 200 BA Tier Points with my BAPP card. Every day spending until May counts.

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

I was caught in Euston Station mayhem yesterday at 15.00 with announcements that no trains would run north, so Manchester passengers ought go to Kings Cross and travel LNER to somewhere nearby (Leeds?!?).

I checked BA and the 19.05 LHR-MAN was £132 HBO. So I refunded the train ticket and off I went to Heathrow. A relaxing time in the new furniture of the F Lounge (I’m going to start calling it the Gold card lounge and see if I start a trend) was far preferable to engaging with packed trains.

Anyhow I mention because the train fare EUS-MAN was £189. At least I’ll know in future that for same-day travel I might as well just head straight to the airport.

[MD]

LiamG wrote:

Guessing this may be the embargo in 10 minutes post, but just had an email from AMEX with a promotion to earn up to 200 BA Tier Points with my BAPP card. Every day spending until May counts.

Just had that too. Interesting. Pretty steep rate though, 25k spend for just 200 tier points?

[gw57]

Just received my companion voucher and now thinking of cancelling all my Amex cards to start the 2 year clock. I have a supplementary Amex via my wife and was just wondering if this strategy works ie by keeping the supplementary Amex card I will still be able to use the companion voucher ?

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

The new / upgraded Gatwick Station fully opens today.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-67473995

[memesweeper]

gw57 wrote:

Just received my companion voucher and now thinking of cancelling all my Amex cards to start the 2 year clock. I have a supplementary Amex via my wife and was just wondering if this strategy works ie by keeping the supplementary Amex card I will still be able to use the companion voucher ?

Under current interpretation/enforcement of the rules, yes, any Amex will do.

[gw57]

thanks

[Andrew.]

BA Flyer IHG Stayer wrote:

MBNA has a 5% rebate on all IHG hotels in UK and Europe,

Minimum spend is £ 50.

One use only with maximum payout or £30.

IHG is pretty much a permanent one for me on my Halifax (10%), BoS (10%) and MBNA (5%) cards. I do miss the 10pts/£1 on Nectar connect, although it always needed a prompt.

Have had 10% at Argos recently, TUI is on there too at the moment between 2-5%, as is Aldi with 3%-10%.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

@Andrew for me as well but it has variances.

This is just an “any” ihg hotel but a couple of months ago they had three offers targeted at the 3 different levels which I managed to get cash back from 2.

[davedent]

JDB wrote:

davedent wrote:

Morning – some advice please.
I booked a basic room at the Kimpton Paris and successfully used a confirmable suite upgrade voucher to upgrade to a king suite with balcony. I received an email confirming the upgrade and the upgrade showed online. The room has now been downgraded to a basic room by the hotel. Despite having contacted IHG and the hotel they both seem to be unwilling/ unable to sort the situation. This is clearly a breach of contract but what do I do ? Grateful for any help.

While it may be a breach of contract, the difficulty is enforcing it, so as a practical matter it comes down to negotiation and a bit of guile. I don’t know the terms or ins and outs of the upgrade voucher, but probably you will need to escalate at IHG (write to the CEO’s office) on the basis that they can’t allow hotels within the IHG system to go rogue, thereby damaging the whole premise of their loyalty scheme.

Just updated the tier point run thread 🙂

[davedent]

Thanks for all your help on the IHG situation – going to email lots of people!

[Guernsey Globetrotter]

elguiri wrote:

For those interested it’s single ply and the hangars are stealable.

Thanks for the update @elguiri – although I think, if it was ever to be defined for the HfP glossary, the coat hangar term you are looking for is ‘portable’ 😉

[aq.1988]

kempc23 wrote:

Thanks so much everyone for the suggestions. I signed up for a free trial to SeatSpy. Its great! There are plenty of places we could go in First, mainly cold places in the US (not necessarily an issue).

If we go Business, there are endless places to go.

One more question, if we flew into say Tampa, and out of say Miami, can we use the companion voucher for that? Or does it need to be in and out of the same place?

Yes, that’s fine. Its known as an open-jaw booking. As long as the distance between the land sectors are shorter than the flown distances, its fine.

Not sure if its on your radar, but usually Mexico and Bahrain have a lot of F availability.

[Mikeact]

And yet more ‘exciting ‘ news today.
Ebay offering 5 x Nectar points against 1 x £10+ item !

[Whatsthepoint]

aq.1988 wrote:

kempc23 wrote:

Thanks so much everyone for the suggestions. I signed up for a free trial to SeatSpy. Its great! There are plenty of places we could go in First, mainly cold places in the US (not necessarily an issue).

If we go Business, there are endless places to go.

One more question, if we flew into say Tampa, and out of say Miami, can we use the companion voucher for that? Or does it need to be in and out of the same place?

Yes, that’s fine. Its known as an open-jaw booking. As long as the distance between the land sectors are shorter than the flown distances, its fine.

Not sure if its on your radar, but usually Mexico and Bahrain have a lot of F availability.

Not sure Tampa has 1st? Just bear in mind the aircraft you’re going on, especially going from Gatwick, as it’s all the old CW seat, which is fine but not quite as good as the new one. Also, the A380 to Miami from LHR is old seat too, most others from LHR is the new seat. The old first seat isn’t much better than the new club suite either and watch out if mixing classes on the new companion voucher as it’s very expensive.

[Michael C]

Super Secret Stuff wrote:

Michael C wrote:

Is the Gatwick North Premium Security Lane @GBP 5 pp worth it for
a December Saturday 0700h?! Just realised haven’t used LGW for several years…

Most likely yes, and if a priority pass holder for £6 you can reserve your space in a lounge and get fast track security thrown in (afaik)

Thanks, @SSS – should just be time for a dried-out bacon roll!

[NorthernLass]

@ BWS – my PRE-EDI-PRE trip this weekend was astonishingly smooth and straightforward! What was going on at EUS? I’ve got a London trip planned in January and definitely got LHR-MAN flights as a mental Plan B in case the trains go rogue. In fact I’m still waiting for the return rail journey to be released, 8 weeks out now!

[NorthernLass]

memesweeper wrote:

gw57 wrote:

Just received my companion voucher and now thinking of cancelling all my Amex cards to start the 2 year clock. I have a supplementary Amex via my wife and was just wondering if this strategy works ie by keeping the supplementary Amex card I will still be able to use the companion voucher ?

Under current interpretation/enforcement of the rules, yes, any Amex will do.

Did we ever find out what happened with the handful of people who posted that their 241’s disappeared from their accounts when they closed their BAPP’s?!

[executiveclubber]

Mikeact wrote:

And yet more ‘exciting ‘ news today.
Ebay offering 5 x Nectar points against 1 x £10+ item !

So 50 points rather than 10 if you spent a tenner? I’ll pass 😄

[Aston100]

elguiri wrote:

For those interested it’s single ply and the hangars are stealable.

Thanks for this important data point!

[Aston100]

How do Amex verify that a hotel you’ve booked / stayed at is within the participating list?
Example, the current Melia offer on some Amex cards. The participation list is very small but includes a few countries, but not every Melia property within those few countries.

[JDB]

Aston100 wrote:

How do Amex verify that a hotel you’ve booked / stayed at is within the participating list?
Example, the current Melia offer on some Amex cards. The participation list is very small but includes a few countries, but not every Melia property within those few countries.

From the merchant ID of the specific hotel.

[Super Secret Stuff]

Aston100 wrote:

How do Amex verify that a hotel you’ve booked / stayed at is within the participating list?
Example, the current Melia offer on some Amex cards. The participation list is very small but includes a few countries, but not every Melia property within those few countries.

It’s to do with which the merchant that shows up on your statement. I.e the company that owns the hotel and is operating it takes the payment (chains don’t usually own the properties).

So it’s not verification per say, just basic logic if it shows up as X Y & Z Ltd, means they stayed at either X Y or Z