[Misty]

ed_fly wrote:

Jill Kinkell wrote:

simonbarker wrote:

Finally had a conversation about if we can justify 2 x BAPPs with the increased spend. We can’t, so decided to cancel one of them. Check app and realised it renewed 3 days ago 😳 jumped on Amex app chat and had it cancelled with in 5 minutes – phew. Should have run the numbers when the changes were announced, especially now pro rata refund have been removed.

I imagine they will have had a lot of 2 card BAPP households cancelling. We’d comfortably hit 20K a year … but 30K? Maaaaaybe, but I’d rather put that spend on another card just incase we don’t, beyond the voucher it’s not like the card has all the much benefit to it.

OH instructed to cancel his BAPP. Just triggered 241 ( we have 3 between us !) we’ll sit out the 24 months and he can re-apply again. I’m never giving up my BAPP. Had it for 15+ years, . No issues with spend and paying off, but my personal income is now just shy of the new thresholds so might not get again if I give it up.

We could trigger two 2-4-1 vouchers per year. But can’t see how we’d generate sufficient Avios to make use of two vouchers per year. How are others managing it? Avios subscription/ boosting??

We never got to the point of holding 2 x BAPP, prior to the change to £15000 spend it seemed doable, but I don’t want to spend for the sake of it to get a 2nd voucher that we may not be able to use.

I do use boost and have a small Avios subscription but I don’t think we would earn enough miles for it to be worthwhile.

[Misty]

It’s beyond me how people can hack a password om the BAEC site as I have just spent 15 mins trying to log into my own account. Had to enter stuff four or five times, and all I wanted to do was order some candles. It really is a woeful piece of IT !!!

[Misty]

Thank you so much Guernsey Globetrotter, very much still at the planning stage 🙂

[Misty]

JDB wrote:

@Misty – re your post “I think having reached the age I am I would be a bit apprehensive in doing a citizens arrest, although when I was still in London, I did dash into the police station to tell them that a couple of youths were going along a particular road trying all the car door handles.”

You can now reminisce about your act of public service by reading here of the modern equivalent – people reporting trying all the credit card doors for MS opportunities. Plus lots of wets asking others to try the doors for them.

Yes there is something uplifting about trying to stop others from suffering grief, even if it is only their car being nicked.

Didn’t feel I could do much else as I am 5ft tall on a good day and they were both over six feet. Not sure but they didn’t look like the sorts (if there is a sort) that would be trying to open credit card doors, but probably best not to speculate.

You will be pleased to know that they were both wearing tracksuits with the hoods up.

[Misty]

HertsSam wrote:

Gordon wrote:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy80q83pxedo

I’m surprised they got away with this spree for so long, whenever I visit a duty free shop, which is rare now, you are approached by a member of staff, asking if you require any assistance, and there always seems to be a fair amount of staff on duty, and obviously cctv! I’m guessing they frequented the shops at busier times, safety in numbers!

I obviously condemn their criminal behaviour but am I the only one thinking how many airmiles they got out of this? Did they get any free flights as well? Perhaps they increased their points and flight haul by using Avios earning cards for the flights and perhaps redeemed some vouchers.

Just me? Oh well.

@HHertsSam ROFL I did wonder if they had been on here asking for points advice in view of the amount of flights they took, although they may have been using the Irish scratch card vendors planes of course.

@NothernLass. I think having reached the age I am I would be a bit apprehensive in doing a citizens arrest, although when I was still in London, I did dash into the police station to tell them that a couple of youths were going along a particular road trying all the car door handles.

[Misty]

As an aside the Tesco’s I used to use some years ago always used to put up an enormous Christmas tree, but it used to puzzle me that year after year it was never decorated, apart from a star at the very top. One year I asked a member of staff why and their reply was there was no point as they always got nicked.

[Misty]

executiveclubber wrote:

Gordon wrote:

I’m surprised they got away with this spree for so long

I’ve always thought duty free is a shoplifter’s paradise, it’s such a busy thoroughfare with lax staff and little security.

40k in 10 months between the two of them, not even accounting for the cost of flights and transport to the airport? Imagine if they’d put the same effort into getting a job… 🤨

Probably no need for them to worry about getting a job, as their source of income has now dried up. I’m sure the new government will find a way for them to claim benefits’ and probably find a way of helping them further if they claim the incident has caused them PTSD.

Edit: just read article again and see they are in prison.

[Misty]

Awful to read these cases empathy from me too, I check my account probably every other day, to make sure it’s still there. Then I started to wonder if I kept logging in, would that me at any further risks.

I’m still 99.999% convinced that when my clubcard account was hacked years ago and approx. £350 of vouchers spent it was an inside job.

Good luck to all of those who have had their Avios taken, fingers crossed that you have a good resolution shortly.

[Misty]

NorthernLass wrote:

How did you put down an income though? IIRC, there’s no field for “other” as there is with Amex applications.

Apologies short term memory has gone walkabout. I think I remember putting down two separate figures. One for general income maybe and one for investment income, but I am not 100% sure. (That may have been for my Amex Gold). Unfortunately it all seems to blur into one. I would have filled it in in-line with what they asked for though and what my income is as I know they can check things out on National Hunter etc. If there is only ne field I would have lumped them together I guess.

[Misty]

Iainm wrote:

My wife was just about to apply for a Curve Metal to use in conjunction with the Barclaycard she has as an additional card on my account.

Does anyone think there would be an issue with her using it for fronted transactions?

She’d apply for the free Barclaycard in her name if she could, but as a “house person” she failed the qualification checker.

Opinions welcome.

That’s odd as when I applied I had a choice of retired and homemaker, and as there has been so much on here about how retired people sometimes get bumped for deals, I put homemaker and was agree straight away with a five figure credit limit. I don’t know how accurate the checker is.

[Misty]

Gordon wrote:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy80q83pxedo

I’m surprised they got away with this spree for so long, whenever I visit a duty free shop, which is rare now, you are approached by a member of staff, asking if you require any assistance, and there always seems to be a fair amount of staff on duty, and obviously cctv! I’m guessing they frequented the shops at busier times, safety in numbers!

I suppose if you amble about and look confident it’s pretty easy to nick a few bottles of expensive perfume as they are so small, you could shove them up your sleeves. They spent some of the proceeds on plastic surgery. Gosh!

I’ve got a friend who undertakes surveys in the duty free at Stansted, which involves standing in there for 8 hours at a time some days and she says it’s organised chaos.

[Misty]

I am, I’m working on the assumption that no news is good news. Hope I’m right.

[Misty]

@Gordon I agree with you, it’s hard to do right for wrong on the daily chat thread.

Yesterday there was a post on chat that said something like ‘Wow first to post today at 0925!’ which seemed to imply that the forum was lacking in some way.

I think I was also called out for asking something about transferring Avios for free or at cost. The reason I did it in here was I though it would be a one post answer, if I had known it was going to cause a debate, then I would have put it somewhere more appropriate.

If Rob is happy with how things are going then that’s fine by me. People can always ride on if they don’t like it.

[Misty]

@yorkshireRich Glad you have made some progress since yesterday, I know it’s a dreadful worry when you are abroad with a little one.

We were away with some friends in June who had their one year old grandchild with them and he came out in spots on his face and legs on day 2, it turned out to be bedbugs, the villa representative came out to their villa and took the cot mattress away and brought a new one, as it was put down to bedbugs. Hope the company concerned burnt the mattress.

Fingers crossed for you and yours and good luck.

[Misty]

Kuestrian wrote:

JDB wrote:

More broadly, I really wouldn’t expect to need s75 cover for a TV and I’m of a cautious disposition. While appreciating that price is going to be a key driver of choosing a supplier, with or without s75 I would be looking to buy the TV from a retailer that will respect your/your son’s consumer rights and ultimately, you do have rights vs the manufacturer if necessary so I wouldn’t be concerned about the credit card protections. John Lewis is supposed to be reverting to its ‘never knowingly undersold’ policy!

Samsung mis-sold their 2016 TVs by not delivering on the promise of providing a SmartHub when they came out later in the year. Currys and JL were flat-out refusing to accept returns on that basis and many customers had to revert to S75 protections to get them to do so. Amex were particularly good in that regard, MBNA less so (as I think we’d all expect).

Worthy note to Richer Sounds who did adhere to consumer protections and accept the returns. Samsung and Currys should be avoided at all costs.

Apologies I missed your post. I think it is a Samsung that he is after so will check it out.

[Misty]

JDB wrote:

@MichaelC the world has gone mad! Queuing for three hours to see the Tutankhamen exhibition or to see Her Late Majesty lying in state, maybe, but queuing for the privilege of accessing some warm pinot grigio and some manky food, no thanks. Many of these lounges are so second rate that I’m not sure why anyone bothers unless it’s about swanning past the proletariat and/or why the dog licks its bits syndrome and stymied when PP imposes a queue/puts a lampshade on the dog. People will now have to arrive five hours early to flaunt their highfalutin status.

Anyway, in the brave new world of Sir Freebie and his two lovely acolytes, all this world of privileged premium travel will probably be levelled down and/or taxed more. Only those on benefits will be allowed in the lounges (and exempt from lounge tax) as others can afford to buy their own drinks and food etc.

Ha, Ha well I appreciate your sense of humour

I thought of you the other Saturday morning when in the lounge, at the adjacent table were four young men (I think they were men) wearing rather fetching tracksuits, complete with hoods. Three of whom had their hoods up, even though it really wasn’t cold or draughty in the lounge. To accompany this fine spectacle the lady at the next table had a screaming babe in arms, and didn’t seem to know what to do to silence the poor fellow, then she had a lightbulb moment adjusted her top clothing and proceeded to nurse him at the table, which in fairness did calm the little fellow down, so I guess all’s well that ends well.

[Misty]

Rob Burgess wrote:

As many of you noticed, the ‘Quote’ button has not been working properly on mobile devices since a recent software upgrade by the vendor.

We have now fixed this by removing the installed Quote button on the dropdown menu and adding a standalone quote button under each reply.

If you click on this it will automatically add the quote to the reply box.

(You might find the colour / size / position of ‘Quote’ changing as we play with different layout ideas, but the button will remain.)

Thanks for your patience with this.

Brilliant

[Misty]

NorthernLass wrote:

@Misty, I’m still using some of the Denby sets we got as wedding presents nearly 30 years ago! The cat gets her food in the chipped bowls 😂

*Once you post, the edit button seems to reappear.

Phew ! It’s not just me then. Although we aren’t as frugal as someone I overheard in the pub once (this was a few years back) saying that had only had 2 telly’s since the war.

[Misty]

@NorthernLass I’m pretty certain we bought ours in 2010, trouble is there is nothing really wrong with it and my parents drilled into me that you only buy new when anything old actually breaks, I know that is now a wildly old-fashioned view.

@AndrewT, I don’t think my son will be buying in the 5K price bracket, but I am happy to take a small pot of Avios as opposed to nothing. I was really asking as I don’t want to negate any guarantees etc.

Has the edit button disappeared?

[Misty]

JDB wrote:

Curry’s would be fine as well (and they are on the BA eStore), just not Terry on eBay with a cheap telly.

A friend has an OLED TV that cost £5k but I can’t really tell the difference from a £600 one. He claims it makes watching F1 a different experience…

The Terry on eBay made me laugh. I’m of the same opinion as yourself regarding the difference in quality of the cheaper to the more expensive, however my TV is virtually gas powered so I don’t think my son is going to take much notice of me. He does watch F1 so maybe that’s the difference.

[Misty]

AFKAE wrote:

I’ve had a couple of goes at posting my trip report for Madagascar, but it keeps getting blocked. Not sure if anyone has any tips for overcoming this?

If it’s quite long it may have been selected for moderation, so should probably turn up later.

[Misty]

Thank you so much for your swift reply JDB. I thought that might be the case if I purchased on my card and anything went wrong I wouldn’t be able to open a claim due to the mismatch in addresses. The TV is probably going to come from Curry’s rather than John Lewis, but I will have a quick look and see if JL do the same model at a competitive price, £230 of the costs are for delivery, a bracket and wall mounting, which I assume wouldn’t be covered anyway, I will still probably put it on my card, as you say he will have all the normal consumer rights anyway. It’s OLED whatever that might be. Thanks again.

[Misty]

TooPoorToBeHere wrote:

JDB wrote:

Unfortunately those responsible for long term planning fifty plus years ago failed us and attempting to retrofit motorways or railways now is nigh on impossible

This isn’t really the problem. It would be nice to have better infrastructure, I agree.

The problem is that the operation of what we already have is highly ineffective.

Short-formed trains, close the entire railway for hours when a trespasser is reported, strikes & cancellations. Hours-long road closures after accidents, everyone happily standing around in hi-vis on overtime; roadworks that last for months with no signs of activity; tens of miles of empty motorway at night with camera-enforced 50 limits “due to traffic”.

If you can’t (and we absolutely can’t) fix the causes of this, there’s no point adding more infrastructure because it will also be cancelled/on strike/closed.

TPTBH, that is rather spooky as my husband could have written your post almost word for word, particularly the third paragraph.

[Misty]

I think the general consensus of opinion on here is that it is a bit of a waste using a 2 4 1 on a short haul economy flight. Most seem to go for long haul in business class, however it is very much a personal choice, especially if you are getting toward the expiry date of your 2 4 1, as you would be getting something as opposed to nothing if you let it expire.

[Misty]

Just had a clawback from QVC, no idea why as QVC is a discount site in the first case so it can’t be for receiving a discounted price.