[runnerbean]

+1 for the breakfast naans

[runnerbean]

Matt wrote:

Given that Headforpoints is FCA regulated and promoting (and paid to promote) these credit cards, does that change anything about whether we can rely on what is written here?

(I know in practice it doesn’t, read the T+C you’re agreeing to etc etc, just wondering what the rules say in theory)

Wow.

[runnerbean]

yorkshireRich wrote:

I may be old before my time but can someone please help me out here.
I’m currently at the Ic in Phuket and there are 3 women by the poolside. I think it’s a mum and 2 daughters and the mum has just posed and posed and posed. I’m sure they are Russian (I know that’s not that relevant), but they have been milling around the pool area for almost 2 hours. I am not exaggerxating when I say they must have taken thousands of photos of the older lady posing in various outfits. I’ve had to endure them coming over to my cabana, and I got to the point I tried to put them off. Although there is so much more going on in life I just don’t understand the need for it. Surely even the most instagrammable people only need one photo in a few different places.

I don’t think you need to be older to find this irritating. It’s public vanity, uncouth, bad behaviour.

[runnerbean]

More importantly @Rosie12879 doing it on chat means you and Amex both have a record of it

[runnerbean]

Dragonlady wrote:

@strickers – my travels start on Friday ( off to Amritsar ). I’m currently sat overlooking the park in Haus Khas following a death defying tuk tuk ride that was slightly less dangerous than the driver who collected me from the airport this morning!

We didn’t find that rides within other cities were any less scary than Delhi. And despite their extremely skillfull driving OH had his foot run over by a rickshaw in Varanasi. The tyre tread marks on his trainers were impressive.

Amritsar was where I was required to wear pink fleecy child’s jimjams in the Golden Temple, the message seeming to be that there is no long frock which is long enough for modesty (the jimjams were shorter than said frock).

[runnerbean]

@Julienewbie we’re doing CMB next Feb too and have decided on BA CV LHR to MAA, returning from BLR. Our preference is to book a couple of nights in Chennai and the same in Bengaluru. I wouldn’t do this if we were short of holiday time – we get to see a bit of both cities and it will tempt us to go back for longer, or not!

[runnerbean]

JDB wrote:

runnerbean wrote:

I still can’t see the practical benefit to this – am I missing the point?

For a merchant that doesn’t accept Apple or Google Pay or paying over the telephone, it means you can pay with your Amex card without the merchant receiving any underlying card details as you use the one off digital card.

Now I get it, thanks @JDB I have no one to blame but myself 😳

[runnerbean]

I still can’t see the practical benefit to this – am I missing the point?

[runnerbean]

@strickers Good timing! We really didn’t think we’d be back in India, but here we are again.

[runnerbean]

strickers wrote:

Had enough now, this weather can do one! Checked my solar generations stats, Jan this year was 54kWh, 30% less than any of the previous 5 years. Feb is well on track to be the worst on record too, down 15% already with more rain to come. I cheered myself up a tiny bit by saving €50 on a hotel for June. 36 days until we are on our way to Sri Lanka, happy travelling everyone, enjoy the sunshine and try to bring some home please.

@strickers I may be back with a few Sri Lanka questions in due course. Just booked outbound to MAA for next Jan en route to Sri Lanka. Plenty of time yet but I like to get a route planned and hotels etc booked early on.

OH groaning at the thought of the visa applications for India.

[runnerbean]

Gordon wrote:

john wrote:

Anyone tried a credit card chargeback for council tax due to the state of the roads and how many potholes there are?!

Unfortunately not, Council tax is a mandatory tax, not a service charge, although it’s tedious, I submit a claim to the local authority if I incur damage caused by lack of maintenance on the highway.

I’m with @Gordon on this one.

We had irreparable damage to one wheel and two tyres on the Shropshire road near here. We did get full payment but it took 2-3 years of dogged persistence, FOIs on process etc etc

[runnerbean]

@JDB on the other hand, we got a quote from NFU (we’re in a rural area) and it was higher than our existing John Lewis insurance and had lower levels of cover.

[runnerbean]

Well I had exactly the same set up and same problem a couple of days ago. It was bizzare.

[runnerbean]

LD27 wrote:

Nico wrote:

runnerbean wrote:

I’m hovering over reward seats for QR from BHX to CMB via DOH, (booked on BA website).

It’s allowing me to book outbound with arrival time 23.50 and Dep time for CMB 01.30. Is that nuts, risky, and what will QR do in practice in case of delayed inbound?

Plenty of time on same PNR

I’m flying from Dublin in just over a week and I have 55 minutes to change planes in Doha.

Ok, I’ll stop fretting! Many thanks

[runnerbean]

I’m hovering over reward seats for QR from BHX to CMB via DOH, (booked on BA website).

It’s allowing me to book outbound with arrival time 23.50 and Dep time for CMB 01.30. Is that nuts, risky, and what will QR do in practice in case of delayed inbound?

[runnerbean]

And don’t forget to ask about paying by Amex for those infrequent high value spends. Ours have included used cars from dealerships and estate agents fees.

[runnerbean]

When I was doing my Masters at Aston I was approached to do a one-off closed door ‘maths for people who couldn’t do maths’ session.

I’ve always loved numbers and found it largely intuitive, and it was a real eye-opener. At the end of it most could understand and calculate a percentage – which was major progress.

It still suprises me e.g. my sis and her OH just have no concept of basic maths. And then there’s the mortgage adviser who giggled and told me she was never any good at it when challenged about figures offered to me that were clearly nonsense.

However, my OH still delights in correcting my grammar.

[runnerbean]

@JDB I’m really not getting excited about it.

There are indeed many talented inventive people and regimes who are deeply unpleasant or much, much worse.

And where I have a choice I choose not to give them money.

[runnerbean]

JDB wrote:

pbcold wrote:

…and here`s another. I am sure that these people sit and ignore the fantastic opportunities that Starlink now provides and feel that their political statement has been effective.

Indeed, whatever his beliefs, the man is a visionary and a doer with extraordinary drive rather than a grumpy armchair commentator. He has single-handedly and rapidly brought the internet to millions worldwide who didn’t have it before including onto the battlefields of Ukraine. Similarly, he has revolutionised the car industry and his Boring company is quite interesting as well. One also shouldn’t forget PayPal or SpaceX.

He will rightly go down in history for his remarkable achievements rather than his political views.

What’s so funny about people with these negative slants is that their view and knowledge is often very limited, so they reflexively slag off countries with regimes they don’t like but happily travel to others ignorant of the worse regimes there. It reminds me of a thread a while back by someone taking a stand by avoiding an ME airline because of that country’s position on gay rights so they decided to go on Malaysian instead!

Then there’s all the help he’s kindly provided to the current US leader.

If I can avoid putting money in the hands of people like this I will.

[runnerbean]

@anth_85, you’ll find the glossary by googling or whatever’s your preferred search engine headforpoints glossary.

And using the same tactic for searching for all sorts of interesting things on HfP generally works v well.

[runnerbean]

OH has a 50k SUB offer on his BA account for the BAPP but it doesn’t make sense for us to both hold it. If he cancels after he’s banked the SUB there a pro-rata refund of annual fee? I can’t see any reference to it in the BA Ts&Cs for the card.

[runnerbean]

AndrewT wrote:

Breaking news – the final CW 787-8 arrived in Cardiff earlier today to start its refit, so 100% of the operational fleet of that type now have CS.

Of course swaps with unconverted 787-9s are possible so sadly there are still no guarantees. The 17 remaining 787-9s are not going to be completed until well in to 2027.

No updates that I’m aware of regarding the A380 refit program.

So is that done in the big Boeing building that we see from the M4?

[runnerbean]

Wow!
My only suggestion is to strongly consider upgrading to the BAPP or referring OH for a BAPP so that 14 hours in economy becomes a bad dream😀.

(And yes I know I split an infinitive)

[runnerbean]

16.5k Avios for £3k in six months. Accepted.

[runnerbean]

And when you enrol for similar offers it’s always best to do a screenshot of your sign up so you know when you did it and can provide evidence in case of any dispute re dates