[SteveJ]

Virgin credit card, transfer points to IHG seems like the best option currently for IHG points.

[SteveJ]

You can use the basic card, pay a 1.5% fee. For a £1,700 tax bill the metal fees / min commitment wouldn’t be worth it?

[SteveJ]

WaynedP wrote:

In related tip, Worker at Heathrow told me you can also get picked up at the drop off zone. Everyone does it.

Yesterday, Instead of usual rendezvous at Costa Coffee following ejection from LHR T5 Customs into Arrivals Hall, our regular local mini-cab company driver told me to call him, whereupon he directed us to lifts and top floor.

I only realised on emerging at Departures that he was proving the practice of picking up in the £5 drop-off zone does indeed appear to be becoming more widespread.

By his cavalier attitude to speeding and lane-changing without indicating on the M25 ride home, I doubt he was concerned by the signs prohibiting passenger pick-up in the LHR drop-off zone.

It’s a £1 difference Vs using the short stay car park, presumably they’re doing multiple pick ups in any given day to make the total saving worthwhile, but seems a lot of hassle instead of just adding £1 to the fare.

[SteveJ]

JDB wrote:

SteveJ wrote:

memesweeper wrote:

I wonder if the £5 charge has led to a major reduction in the volume of people getting dropped off at the airport by car?

I’d be surprised if it had any impact at all except on very local people. Driving in/around the M25/London is such a PITA a fiver is neither here nor there. And if it only impacts local journeys it won’t be doing anything much about emissions either.

It was always a cash grab by LHR post COVID, never about reducing congestion or emissions.

I’m not sure how you can characterise it as a “cash grab” when the cash raised goes directly to reducing the passenger service charge, unlike the drop off charge at non price regulated airports.

Being forced by the regulator to reduce passenger service charges does not equal ‘must introduce drop off charges’.

[SteveJ]

Tried logging in via mobile phone browser? Working fine for me on Chrome (on Android)

[SteveJ]

NorthernLass wrote:

*I couldn’t cancel in app either, so in desperation I logged in to ba.com on my phone and was able to cancel for 50p. Honestly, BA … !

I do wonder if a lot of the BA IT woes mentioned don’t exist in their mobile site, that was evidently more recently built. Anecdotally I’ve never experienced nearly any if the issues mentioned on the BA IT bashing thread and I exclusively use BA.com on mobile.

[SteveJ]

Jonathans wrote:

It is possible to to book for a family of 4, using 1 new style BA 241 voucher online? It keeps telling me for enhanced availability i need to use another voucher (which i dont have) although there is standard availability still available for the route i am searching?

You need two separate bookings, one with 241, one without.

[SteveJ]

Just a suggestion, a more meaningful thread title might’ve got more people to bother looking at the thread.

[SteveJ]

memesweeper wrote:

I wonder if the £5 charge has led to a major reduction in the volume of people getting dropped off at the airport by car?

I’d be surprised if it had any impact at all except on very local people. Driving in/around the M25/London is such a PITA a fiver is neither here nor there. And if it only impacts local journeys it won’t be doing anything much about emissions either.

It was always a cash grab by LHR post COVID, never about reducing congestion or emissions.

[SteveJ]

NorthernLass wrote:

Thank you! It’s so annoying that you can’t even make changes online as I will undoubtedly need another LHR-MAN at some point.

In MMB you can amend the time and date of a flight online (if reward availability exists and your doing like for like in terms of peak and off peak dates). £35pp change fee applies.

[SteveJ]

SamG wrote:

The only thing is at the moment you can’t use 2 x vouchers online, it doesn’t let you select them.

A lot of people keep saying this, not my experience at all, have happily managed to use two vouchers, both in my name, on a return journey for a couple, upgrading both legs, all done online (using a mobile phone browser if that makes a difference with BA’s IT).

[SteveJ]

Beauty products that you would be buying (probably cheaper elsewhere) anyway

[SteveJ]

zapato1060 wrote:

To be safe just pay the £5. In related tip, Worker at Heathrow told me you can also get picked up at the drop off zone. Everyone does it. Obvs pay the £5

Definitely do not pick up in the drop off area! First you’d need to time it immaculately as you can’t wait there, second your likely to be caught out by the patrols and as @JDB says definitely by the cameras. Thirdly it’s only £1 more and far less stressful to use the short stay car park for pick ups (£6 for 0-29 minutes in the short stay).

[SteveJ]

@JDB TBH Barclays and Barclaycard had some pretty daft SUBS only this year. Everyone else mentioned credit cards is just part of a wider portfolio, Amex are unique in that credit cards are the only game they are in, hence new customer generation and churn protection are crucial metrics.

[SteveJ]

JDB wrote:

SteveJ wrote:

JDB wrote:

That’s a huge cost that is effectively borne by Amex cardholders, not the company.

It’s a bit of a leap to presume that should the SUBs not be as generous/lenient that existing customers would get more.

I actually said the money saved “could be better reinvested” rather than presuming it would be, but I think the issue is that there is currently an imbalance between the benefits offered to churners or players vs long term cardholders and I believe they would do more if they weren’t squandering money on these ludicrous acquisition/retention costs.

Amex will always look to protect its margins so there is effectively a finite pot out of which people want it all – tip top systems and customer service, retentions, huge SUBs with short breaks, very generous cardholder offers that suit them, low annual fees, more benefits etc.etc. Well, that’s not all going to happen, but if they looked after existing customers better, some of the rest might not be necessary. I think the situation with Platinum really says it all – they pay you to take out the card in the first place and then pay you again in year 2. It’s totally ridiculous – why not fix the product so that enough people are happy to pay the appropriate price. I would be very happy to pay £575 if the card had any sort of USP, but it doesn’t and the benefits it does offer only appeal to an incredibly narrow range of people, hence the huge inducements required.

Be careful what you wish for. I actually feel what we’re finding out today is that the churners and chancers still earn Amex enough in card transaction fees and annual fees for them to be a worthwhile addition to the customer (read revenue and margins) base for Amex. If all the fly by night Amex holders dropped theirs cards due to more stringent SUBS or retentions I personally feel other customers will suffer as overall those less loyal customers are still profitable for Amex, as they incur significant sunk costs which increasingly rely upon the volume game that Amex UK has become to spread those as thinly as possible.

[SteveJ]

JDB wrote:

That’s a huge cost that is effectively borne by Amex cardholders, not the company.

It’s a bit of a leap to presume that should the SUBs not be as generous/lenient that existing customers would get more.

[SteveJ]

sayling wrote:

NorthernLass wrote:

It would be interesting know whether @tanvir and @simonjones are still missing their vouchers.

Agreed!

Any ideas how to see whether @tanvir or @simonjones have seen the updates to this thread since they posted?

The OP created this thread, dropped a bombshell then ran, so I’m suspicious to say the least. @simonjones seems a more regular poster, but hasn’t returned to post since their contribution on this thread. I’m sensing flakey BA IT is the cause of this, red herring no doubt.

[SteveJ]

Spaghetti Town wrote:

It’s been a couple of years since i was in the points world – i am just going to use my 241 voucher. It only wants to charge me 160,000 avios and £700 in taxes to go to new york in club world. I thought I would have had to pay two sets of £700 in taxes as the 241 only covered the avios portion.

Am i having a moment?

We now have reward flight saver pricing on long haul too
https://www.headforpoints.com/2022/12/07/reward-flight-saver-to-club-world/

[SteveJ]

JDB wrote:

I’m fully aware of that! I’m just surprised that anyone can be quite so fussy about milk and tea yet be praising or at best totally indifferent to eating shite food – low quality, highly over processed ingredients, stuffed full of preservatives and other chemicals. It’s not only easy to buy and prepare real food, it’s also cheaper. Personally, I would rather not eat food just because it’s there or ‘free’ – it needs to be of a decent standard.

And yet many on here rave about first class on BA being worth it for a better food experience as if it’s some culinary delight. It’s not, it may be slightly better than club but it’s nothing to write home about.

Different people value different things, shocking, I know.

[SteveJ]

JDB wrote:

dougzz99 wrote:

JDB wrote:

I can’t quite square the fussiness about milk/tea vs the praise heaped on powdered egg breakfasts and hotel/airport lounge food which is almost invariably poor ‘cold cuts’ or supermarket ready meal standard, not something one might eat at home or pay for in a restaurant. The power of supposedly ‘free’ is indeed great.

You must realise tens of thousands of supermarket ready meals are consumed daily. Your home may not be representative.

I’m fully aware of that! I’m just surprised that anyone can be quite so fussy about milk and tea yet be praising or at best totally indifferent to eating shite food – low quality, highly over processed ingredients, stuffed full of preservatives and other chemicals. It’s not only easy to buy and prepare real food, it’s also cheaper. Personally, I would rather not eat food just because it’s there or ‘free’ – it needs to be of a decent standard.

And yet many on here rave about first class on BA being worth it for a better food experience as if it’s some culinary delight. It’s not, it may be better than club but it’s nothing to write home about.

Different people value different things, shocking, I know.

[SteveJ]

Probably a bit dramatic but reading this thread it’s a bit of a scandal that BA activily advertise this as a benefit for Silver and Gold yet seemingly make it so difficult to obtain.

[SteveJ]

phantomchickenz wrote:

What’s the best way of searching HfP articles? I’m looking for one from late Dec last year, about the recommended credit card strategy for newbies. Reeeeally don’t want to have to scroll through 9 months of articles.

See post stickied to the top of the recent posts tab
https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/forum-search-not-working-click-to-read-more/

[SteveJ]

can2 wrote:

No I don’t. That’s why I said: “ Or you sit down and reach an agreement.”

That was the sentence right underneath the one you highlighted.

I advocate a fair bilateral diplomacy for the border crossing procedures.

The reality is we clearly haven’t reached a bilateral agreement, so we either tit for tat in the hope this brings others to the table for a sit down agreement, or we continue to allow EU (and other) passport holders to use the egates and make our own life easier.

[SteveJ]

can2 wrote:

BA Flyer IHG Stayer wrote:

can2 wrote:

I am so pissed that when I travel to the continent I can’t use the eGates with a UK passport, but when I am pack to LHR, all eGate lines are filled with “europeans”…

Thank you Brexit, thank you again

Who would have thunk that “taking back control” applied to EU countries as well as us!

Their border their rules. Our border our rules.

Incorrect. It should be bilateral.

If they push your citizens to passport queues, you do the same. If they push digital visa on your citizens, you do the same.

Or you sit down and reach an agreement.

It appears you’re advocating a race to the bottom.

[SteveJ]

Rules are outlined here:
https://www.headforpoints.com/2023/01/03/maximise-american-express-signup-bonuses/

The key to this is that the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card and The Platinum Card have different bonus rules from the other cards. You are only blocked from a bonus if you have held another card in the same ‘reward family’ over the previous two years.

The rules you describe above only apply to Platinum (not Gold) and to the BAPP (not BA Free).

Your plan works but make sure you are very clear on exactly which date your accounts were closed. Get it wrong by even one day and you’ve messed the whole plan.

Don’t forget additional points for adding a supplementary, don’t add at application stage, add later from this link
https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/benefits/supplementary-cards/