[Rob]

tazzy wrote:

I am currently in Dubai and due to fly home on Tuesday morning with BA. Not expecting the flight to go. I am guessing airlines nor insurance (Amex business platinum) will cover accommodation costs. Any suggestions where (safest area) we should maybe book and how long for come Tuesday ? We are currently on the palm

A suggestion I saw is to move nearer the airport, because you are further away from the US base (out towards the new airport) which is an obvious target.

[Rob]

Just realised that I didn’t get any points for a £700 tax payment last Saturday (except for 500 bonus points triggered via a separate promo for making 3 x £50 purchases).

Not sure if PayPal has stopped HMRC or if, as per examples above, it is just IT weirdness. Will have a PAYE bill next week so can try that.

[Rob]

Weird stuff happening here.

On the Gold and Black benefits page, it now says that your monthly £10/£20 bonus is triggered via a £10 spend on the LAST Friday of the month.

However, the main benefits page still says it is the FIRST Friday.

FWIW, I did a £10 purchase today (the last Friday of the month) and the bonus did not immediately trigger. That said, I got the bonus on the first Friday of February so perhaps I don’t get it twice. Or perhaps its still First Friday after all? I will try again next Friday and see.

[Rob]

You can get around the BA 2FA easily – a reader sent me a link to a YouTube short he posted showing how to do it. Forgotten exactly how but I think some log-in links on some pages of the website don’t trigger it. Don’t put any value on that.

[Rob]

As you’ve seen from the sign-up deals recently, Nationwide is showing more interest in kicking some life back into the Virgin Atlantic cards than Virgin Money did in recent years.

That said, recent discussions with Virgin gave me the impression that they wouldn’t necessarily say no to launching an Amex or a debit card to sit alongside the Virgin Money cards. They also have the Virgin Red brand which could be used to launch something whilst getting around any non-compete rules for using the Atlantic brand.

The United Currensea card – which was known about in the industry before the public announcement, as was the IHG/Revolut deal – seems to have raised interest from airlines in a way which the Hilton and Marriott debit launches did not. Of course, a lot of it is executives covering their backs so they have a response when their CEO says ‘what about all these new airline debit cards then?’.

[Rob]

Interesting. Whilst EK redemptions are increasingly poor value to the mileage needed and the taxes added, I can see that some very high spenders (who may be less bothered about the miles needed) will find it a useful addition.

You can’t fully trust CoT to set a good conversion ratio because they don’t have anyone on the staff who is as clued up as a long term HfP reader – look at their Radisson conversion rate – so let’s hope they can agree a good deal. It would give them an advantage over Amex Business if it was 1:1.

[Rob]

https://hfp2026mar.kinsta.cloud/2026/01/13/radisson-blu-bristol-and-cardiff-close/

[Rob]

Who cares what Amex chat says?

Do the stay, it will post. If it doesn’t, contact Hyatt and they will adjust when you tell them its FHR.

[Rob]

Didn’t know there was a business version!

[Rob]

Go into the Avios app and create a referral link from there.

[Rob]

The Amex deal is long-term. It has been offered on Business Platinum for at least 5 years now and I can’t see why both cards won’t keep it for another 5 years, unless The Times stops selling subs in bulk.

You’re right that you can’t share it with others BUT your Platinum Supplementary cardholders gets their own Times sub, so you do effectively have one free one to give away.

[Rob]

I had lunch with Anthony and Juha on the Friday before it launched on the Monday and they were genuinely unsure how it would go, but I think the waiver on having had a match before was smart. I will probably get (another) one for myself before Monday.

[Rob]

The average Barclays current account customer is 50+.

Avios brings a chunk of wealthy 35-45 year olds who in theory can be cross-sold into Premier and then hopefully into pensions etc.

[Rob]

Closed due to other thread.

[Rob]

The Savage Squirrel wrote:

To be honest my main hope for this series of niche Currensea cards is that they will be free or very low cost. The maths means they can’t be all that generous so their USP could well be if you happen to acquire a reasonable balance in a reward scheme you only use occasionally then picking up the relevant debit card could remove expiry concerns.

Not happening, at least for this one.

WHat’s interesting is what United is doing with free cards in the US. They will NOT qualify for any of the benefits we’ve talked about until the cardholder spends $10,000 in a year.

It’s not just being done to drive card sales. It’s being done to drive fee-paying card sales.

[Rob]

Jim Utd wrote:

If it’s on those lines @john then it’s a poor offering.

What you need to remember (and I know what’s coming) is that Barclays and Virgin distort the market in the UK because they run airline cards which are not primarily aimed at making money, for different reasons. You will NEVER see those sort of earn rates matched.

The Currensea model is moving towards ‘hard core’ cards as you saw from Marriott if you compare to Hilton. United is hard core too and I suspect the bulk of cardholders will be US expats with status.

[Rob]

phantomchickenz wrote:

I didn’t realise there was a £40 referral offer, and applied from the link found on google. 10k Avios arrived a couple of weeks later.

It wasn’t a £40 referral offer. £40 is what JPM pays us, and you were emailed by JPM to tell you this (as per the rules) if you used our link.

What we’re saying is that, if you don’t get your Avios by Day 55 AND you have the £40 ‘affiliate partner payment’ email, we will sort it out for you because you’re our customer. And if you don’t have that email, we can’t fix it because JPM won’t speak to us about you, for obvious reasons.

[Rob]

We’re happy to look into it after 55 days BUT we will need to see the £40 email first because JPM won’t talk to us otherwise. You need to be ‘our’ customer.

[Rob]

John wrote:

I thought Amex doesn’t support DCC.

It doesn’t.

[Rob]

Look at our reviews. It is a genuinely unique design but most people really like it when they’ve tried it.

I am in Tokyo now and we came down on Miles & More miles (out Swiss, back Lufty) in business, wiping out the stash I built up from the old M&M UK debit card! Was able to get prime Sat-Sat half term dates only booking a few months in advance because, of course, it’s not actually school hols in DACH. This is a key benefit of holding miles in non-UK programmes – the school holiday seats generally stick around.

[Rob]

Last one was 2010 I believe.

[Rob]

It was always said that the extra 10k would be added separately after the six months is up, wasn’t it?

We already know the call centre can’t see you are part of the promo.

[Rob]

TJ wrote:

This is a newly opened hotel I believe, so hopefully things will improve in the coming months.

Wasn’t meant to be a Moxy though, this was quite a late shift by the owners.

[Rob]

Needs award availability BUT under Hyatt rules if there is a standard room for cash, it will be available for points.

[Rob]

Lot of bad feedback about this hotel so far, unfortunately.