[Scott]

I think this has been debated on HfP before, but “macaroons” or “macarons”? I firmly believe these are two completely different sweet treats, and I suspect the hotel gave you the latter?

[Scott]

I wish someone else would join this post and quote that huge bloody screenshot in their reply just in case I missed it the other 99 times that it’s been quoted. Jeez.

[Scott]

Statement credit would be the obvious route.

Although for such a measly amount of points why are you even bothered? The time it’s taken me to read this question and type a reply has cost me more than those points are worth.

[Scott]

Swiss Jim wrote:

Sprout wrote:

When you say “income that rolls up on investments ” does that mean interest and other returns on investments that might not be withdrawn but added to the underlying asset/pot?

Yes. Accumulation units reinvest money that would otherwise be added to income – but that doesn’t prevent it from being income. It’s no different to interest on savings that gets added to your savings – it’s still interest. If you have £500k say in ISAs even a 4% return is £20k..

Thinking of a fringe example, let’s say you’re applying for the Amex with £35k income requirement. Last year the accumulation funds in your ISA had a ‘dividend’ worth £20k, and you sell units worth £15k.

Under your logic you’d claim to meet the income threshold. Do you think Amex would accept this, or would it look like double counting (i.e. as you’ll be aware, you can’t sell only the growth part of your units, so you must have sold some of the accumulated dividend element too.)

[Scott]

Swiss Jim wrote:

Scott wrote:

You could be sitting on a pot of £1m+ but only if you can actually show that you’re drawing £35k of income from it P.A. (including, of course, your other pensions, other income, etc.) would you meet the income threshold.

Why so? I’ve always included rolled up investment income including within ISA & never been challenged.

I saw this discussion on the other thread, and I don’t agree.

But that’s only my opinion. The rules aren’t written down in black and white (at least not publicly available) so it comes down to, *IF* a financial institution such as Amex asked to examine your proof of income, would they be satisfied with showing them that you have a £1m pot and those funds/stocks had a published dividend of x% last year?
I suspect they wouldn’t accept this, however, if you could show you had £y flowing into your bank account every month, you’d have a far greater chance of it being accepted.

[Scott]

You could be sitting on a pot of £1m+ but only if you can actually show that you’re drawing £35k of income from it P.A. (including, of course, your other pensions, other income, etc.) would you meet the income threshold.

[Scott]

Ihar wrote:

Scott wrote:

Got to laugh at lhar’s misunderstanding – the idea you could buy a product from a third party at a lower cost than from the main provider, and then get the main provider to award you the difference in cost on top. We’d all be quids in!

still in the dark so please enlighten me. Why are 3rd parties selling flights (marginally) below the provider???

My point was not about that – but if you book with a a 3rd party you take on their T&Cs, as well as probably inherit the airline’s. And, for the record, I didn’t suggest what you are saying.

I didn’t mean to come across like I was picking on you, I actually thought it funny what your post implied.

The OP has booked a flight with BA, you gave advice about booking with a 3rd party, so to my mind you had misunderstood the situation? If that’s not the case, and you just felt like giving advice about an unrelated topic, then I’m the one who misunderstood.

[Scott]

Got to laugh at lhar’s misunderstanding – the idea you could buy a product from a third party at a lower cost than from the main provider, and then get the main provider to award you the difference in cost on top. We’d all be quids in!

[Scott]

If reward availability exists then, yes, the connection can be added by paying the additional Avios and fee.

If you booked the inbound yourself online then you could have done this at the same time, therefore if you call to change it now you may be expected to pay the change fee.

An alternative would be to book the extra leg online now as a standalone flight, the cost should be the same but without the change fee. The downside of doing it as two separate bookings is not being able to check luggage right through and no protection in event of first flight being delayed.

[Scott]

meta wrote:

This must be a wind-up.

Whatever makes you say that? 🙂

[Scott]

I like the sound of “Duped in Retirement” – the hottest new movie this winter, starring Harrison Ford & Danny Glover.

Firstly, fees must be paid with an Amex card, this has always been the case, it’s in the T&Cs and most folk who work towards these vouchers are aware of this. Previously the T&C’s stated that it had to be the card on which the voucher was earned, although in the past year or two that changed to state simply “an” Amex must be used – this is what Aston’s reply above is alluding to.

Re “the consequences of losing my companion vouchers was in no way explained to me during the cancellation phone call with them” – can you say this with 100% certainty? If Amex examined the call recording, you’re sure they wouldn’t find this being mentioned?
I ask this as I’ve cancelled numerous Amex cards over the years and the implications of cancelling have always been spelled out.

[Scott]

moodytractor wrote:

Can I ask what the probability of cancellation is? I want to pay off a £3k AMEX bill with my paid Barclaycard World Elite+ via Curve Fronted. Will I immediately have my account closed or is that unlikely? If anyone can share the probability of success, I would be ever so grateful!

To calculate probability of success, the more data points the better. So if you try it, and let us know the outcome, that will help others in the future.

[Scott]

@davefl I’m puzzled by how this can work. I’ve followed a booking right through to payment page and everything is done on avios.com so how would Amex know that I’d made a purchase with Avis in order to apply the offer statement credit?

[Scott]

@davefl then I stand corrected. I assumed for the Amex offer to credit there would need to be a purchase made through e.g. avis.co.uk

[Scott]

Man of Kent wrote:

… you book through the Avios site.

Meaning it won’t qualify for the Amex Gold offer of 20% back on online bookings at Avis: https://www.avis.co.uk/car-hire-offers/uk-offers/amex-loyalty-offer

[Scott]

It’s one of the key terms of the Barclaycard voucher that it can only be used on flights departing UK.

From this article: https://www.headforpoints.com/2025/01/03/how-do-barclaycard-avios-mastercard-upgrade-vouchers-work-4/

“All flights must depart from the UK – you cannot upgrade a one-way flight TO the UK”

I’m not fully clear from your rambling post, but I think you’re saying you didn’t know this? It’s always sensible to read the T&Cs.

[Scott]

Why “obviously one way”? – you do know the voucher halves the Avios required for both legs of a return?

[Scott]

If you can tear yourself away from the chains with their status benefits, I’ve stayed in this very nice ’boutique’ hotel: https://www.7islashotel.com/es/

Central location tucked just off Gran Via, pleasant lobby/bar area, and really nice breakfasts in a country where breakfast isn’t a big thing.

[Scott]

NorthernLass wrote:

…

In 3 weeks I’ll most likely do the same with the inbound then request 50% avios back at my leisure 😉

But this is another concession provided by BA, not within the voucher terms. If they removed this and you had to book both legs of the return over yesterday’s breakfast, would you have been satisfied with the availability?

[Scott]

Thought experiment, BA completely stops the phonecall nonsense for 241s (assuming they first fix the IT to permit online open jaw!) and insist on the voucher term that out + inbound must be booked at same time.

So no voucher holder books when seats become available at T-355. Folk making Avios-only bookings get rich pickings (or even voucher holders who only want a one-way) as they can book their in + out separately online.

Voucher holders then get to book from whatever suitable pairs of out + in flights remain.

Sound fair? This is essentially how the voucher is advertised, if strictly applying the T&C.

[Scott]

Highonyourownsupply wrote:

Highonyourownsupply wrote:

Hello – I was looking for some simple advice, I have silver status, a companion voucher and ~150,000 avios. Could someone bullet point the best way to try and secure a flight for a family of 4 to Japan, next Easter. There seems to be so many factors, it’s confuses the hell out of me. I understand calling the US line or Japanese line gives you a sporting chance for booking, but is that all really necessary. It all seems like a monster ball ache to trying and use these damn things. Any advice gratefully received.

Friendly bunch on here, first post gets flagged as inappropriate content… My sincere apologies, if my question, was inappropriate. Thanks @northenlass for the direction.

Off topic, reported as inappropriate.

[Scott]

Re: “The tray is purely functional and serves no other purpose”

I’m trying to think what type of purposes a tray could have other than functional, e.g. decorative? “At BA we do like to set a tray over a seat to satisfy the Feng Shui principles…”

[Scott]

memesweeper wrote:

I wonder if a deliberate policy which had the effect of disadvantaging some nationalities but not others would square off against UK equality legislation.

Yep, I believe there’s already quite a queue of these cases piling up at the door of the European Court of Human Rights – “but I wasn’t able to book my first class flights because the US agent told me to phone back at 8am…sniff.”

[Scott]

The different vouchers can’t be combined in the same booking.

This advice is too late for your current trip, but if you’re spending enough on Barclaycard to earn the voucher, you’d be better replacing the free BA Amex with the fee-based version that gets you a 241 voucher valid for premium cabins.

[Scott]

Before xmas I added the Decathlon offer to both BAPP (supp) and BA blue, so if it is new thing doesn’t seem to have been going on as long as a few months.

Perhaps they’ve targeted you specifically.