[robkeane]

is there a curve subscription that is £190, which they have refunded for some reason?

[robkeane]

I’d advise people to check the cooling off period for any finance they are taking out simply to get the finance deposit contribution.

If you cancel during the cooling off period just be sure that the finance company does not conclude that the finance never happened at all, in which case you’ll be chased for the finance deposit contribution.

And as someone upthread correctly said, the dealer tells you to wait X months simply because they don’t get the full kick-back from the finance company if you pay it off within X months.

[robkeane]

fluffymitten wrote:

Interesting. I was on the IHG website with no obvious sign that a different website was processing the order.

I presume that means someone has my money and I will get nothing while points com and IHG blame each other for the error.

On looking at the pending card transaction, I see it is from “IHG BY POINTS”. Literacy also not a strong point of these scammers either then

The narrative was telling you that the IHG points purchase was by points.com (it was not a mispelt “buy”)

[robkeane]

I’m guessing the £1K fronted will get you maybe £10 of benefits from the underlying card. If you think £10 is worth it, I guess go for it. Personally, I like to sort out HMRC and be able to forget about it.

[robkeane]

I got the same offer, however unlike the first poster, when I go to points.com I am see 120K for $800 (OP stated 115K points for $980, 115K points for me is $785). Specifically mentions that this purchase will count towards diamond elite status.

Are they varying the points cost to see who bites at what cost ?

If you value a point @ 0.4p, that means for me buying 120K points for diamond, the diamond element is costing £150 ?

[robkeane]

I did all my booking via email, and it was very easy to be honest.

Also, other than the max spend, none of the restrictions in the T and Cs were enforced. I was able to book during the dates that were listed as blackout (twice), and able to book to Dalaman, even though it was specifically excluded in the T and Cs. Also was able to upspend cheaper flights to add carry on and row 1 seats etc, provided it did not cross the £600.

Got a good return for my outlay. somewhat over £1K for the £695 payment.

[robkeane]

1) You’ll need to find a points earning card that will give you a decent credit limit. Unfortunately many don’t reveal the credit limit until the application is successful.
2) Once you’ve done your spend, you’ll need to find a 0%fee/0%interest balance transfer card. I’ve seen offers in the past that cards will provide such a BT within X days of application. But you need to find one that will give you a decent credit limit that will cover the balance that you generated on the first card.

So although it is doable, the uncertain credit limits might be a spanner in the works.

[robkeane]

JDB wrote:

There’s a difference between saying something has monetary value and it not having value, but in any event, your assumption that the HH terms say reward points have no value is incorrect so the argument rather falls apart.

Ah, if they don’t specifically state a point has no monetary value, that does negate the argument.

The term ‘blue rinse’ used to refer to something totally different, but now with the new blue HH debit card, complaints about the bizarre unwillingness of the issuer to play MS is truly bringing out the blue rinse brigade.

Which part of the transaction of purchasing points do you consider to be manufactured spend ? It’s real spend, it was simply the non-payment of points for the spend that was being queried.

[robkeane]

I assume hilton, like avios, is at pains to point out in the T&C that Hhonor points have no monetary value.

I’d be interested to hear the justification and argument that the card issue put up in defending a categorisation of “payment in relation to financial products” for a purchase from the sole reseller authorised by the card co-brander, of a commodity soley issued by the card co-brander, and declared by the card co-brander as having no monetary value.

It’s at the very least a rather awkward position.

[robkeane]

If a room is advertised as sleeping 3 (not 2 plus a child), then it has to have sleeping facilities for 3 people. That could be a bed plus a sofa bed. But no reasonable person would expect a booking for 3 adults to result in the 3 people sleepibg in one bed in a Hilton.

It’s a contract, assuming the confirmation states 3 people, they have to provide it. It’s likely that with the concert they are now short of extra beds, but that is what they contracted.

[robkeane]

Be careful using Revolut for a transfer to Oz, if the reference is important. The reference that you type in is NOT sent to the receiving end for OZ transfers, as I found out when sending money that required a unique reference to be used to indentify what the payment was for. They use a transiting bank for Oz transfers and whoever it is they use, applies their own reference, and you lost whatever you type in.

[robkeane]

£440 sunglasses for £140 net cost….I see what you did there 🙂

[robkeane]

anyone had contact made yet ?

[robkeane]

Just check the details of the finance and how long the cooling off period is. It’s possible it you pay it off within the cooling off period that the finance company will consider that finance never happened, in which case it means they may consider that you are not eligible for the finance contribution dealer incentive.

[robkeane]

OP has indicated that this was an avios booking. As his phone call was 6 days before, how come the BA exec didn’t just express sympathy and advise the best course of action was to cancel, refund everything less £35 per person admin fee. The only thing that would have been in question then is the remaining time on the 2-4-1. No letter needed, no reason required for the cancellation.

Seems You were badly informed by the phone exec, and are now in a detrimental position as a result. I’d suggest you raise it higher, explain what happened and that, assuming the call was recorded, to suggest they listen back to the call, where you weren’t offered the cancellation/avios/cash refund, and were told you needed to provide medical evidence. Perhaps note the date of the intended flight and the date of the contact, pointing out the 6 days.

What is the actual status at the moment. Is there some note somewhere on file at BA that says you are entitled to book in the next 6 months…seems like a strange resolution.

[robkeane]

That hotel used to be a days hotel before IHG took it on.

[robkeane]

Nabbed a 16 month 0%interest 0%transfer fee card from HSBC start of July with a good credit limit. Its no longer available.

£10K been in a cash ISA since then @ circa 5%, and just doing the min payment each month off the card.

Should end up with £500-ish taxfree at the end of the 12 months, and then 3 months or so interest elsewhere, before paying off the balance.

[robkeane]

My Prior experience is that if you went over the fronted limit, using GBIT did not reverse the fees, is that still the case ?

[robkeane]

Wonder have they screwed up the wording, saying £3000 per calendar month”, no mention of rolling 30 days.

[robkeane]

You aren’t wrong but is potential 0.04 more worth going thru an extra stage ?

£500 of TOPcashback gets 52500 avios

£500 of boost gets an extra 2000 avios at most.

…but the 52500 generated from TCB would be eligible for a x3 boost.

[robkeane]

NorthernLass wrote:

It depends – will those new transactions post before the final date to hit the SUB spend?

For certain, first statement was generated 3rd oct. only got the 2nd statement last week.

[robkeane]

I hit the target, the SUB transferred to my avios account. I’ve had to do a refund that takes me around £300 below the SUB target, I note that when the refund hit my amex account it now says my avios total is -60K. I have a couple of transactions pending that’ll put my spend above the SUB target again, wondering will the -60K disappear ?

The refunded transaction was not the one that initially put me over the SUB target.

[robkeane]

IHG have been saying coming soon for a good 8 months now. You can earn, but still not redeem.

IHG put out a promo email for the iberstar all-inclusives just last week, and still saying redemptions coming soon.

[robkeane]

So on the way out, instead of getting up at 3am and flying direct from EDI, you paid for 8 flights instead of 4, paid £300+ for two rooms, £75 for dinner, lost a day, and got up at 6:30am the following day.

Sounds reasonable 🙂

[robkeane]

Never tested the pre existing condition language on insurance documents but my understanding is they try to avoid you getting treatment for an illness you are well aware of

For instance, I may know I have high colesterol or something that could cause cardiovascular conditions. That doesn’t mean any issue that could arise from this (or not) would not be covered.

If I was travelling and had a heart attack while trekking the insurance would cover the emergency treatment required.

You are stating it as fact, whilst in the same post conceding you have never tested the language.

I would strongly advise that you go more than “your understanding” when it comes to ensure you have the desired cover.

Ever policy that I have ever applied for, does consider high cholesterol as a reportable pre-existing condition, in fact the wording of the related question is something along the lines of “have you ever been told you have high cholesterol”.

Given travel insurance policies quotations recognise it as reportable, I would be very concerned that an issue that arose that might be related to having high cholesterol would be excluded from any “free” travel insurance that does not include pre-existing conditions. Same applies to blood pressure etc.

Insurance is one of those things you buy that you hope you never need, but you should ensure that it’s valid for the vital situations that you might need it. Frankly I don’t overly worry about luggage lose or travel delay, I do make totally sure as best I can, that medically I’m covered.

I learned last year that if you have a condition waiting diagnosis, a lot of insurers will not offer cover at all, even for other stuff that has been previously declared. Should you travel whilst waiting for a diagnosis for a condition (who these days isn’t waiting months and months for a consultant appointment) on a multi-trip policy that you took out 9 months ago when you didn’t have this undiagnosed condition, you might well be travelling on zero health insurance coverage, as you did not declare the presence of an undiagnosed condition to your insurer.