[Scott]

Also been having this problem since July, numerous wasted phonecalls, etc. Eventually was advised by a techy type person that it was a fault in their systems, and to lodge a formal complaint as it’s the only way it would be fixed.
Not had a response yet, but interested to hear some folk are being told it’s now resolved.

[Scott]

If USA interests you, a couple can fly from UK (Gla via LON) in business class off-peak for roughly 150k Avios plus £1700 surcharges.

If flying ex EU instead you could knock £1k off the surcharges, with an increase in the Avios to cover the leg to LON (e.g. +30k ex Dublin)

So multiply this by two for a family of four, and the small matter of earning 2 x 241 vouchers, and then all you need to do is find availability!

Some popular destinations at popular times of year sell out of reward seats very quickly, whereas others have plenty availability – how about Colorado in May?

[Scott]

The OP didn’t actually mention the “two booking and Avios refund approach”.

What they described is what many, me included, have done in the past. BA happy were happy to add the return leg over the phone and they adjusted the cash surcharges to reflect as if it had been booked as a return initially.

Whether they are still happy to do this, and how easy it will be to get through on the phone, I cannot say. These may be factors in why people are choosing to make two separate bookings, then later request a refund of the additional Avios?

• This reply was modified 56 years, 4 months ago by .

[Scott]

Miami/Florida Keys/Gulf Coast side, e.g. Venice – warm enough to sit on the beach in winter, but may be too long a flight for just five days. Also, US not cheap at the moment (but where is?)

Las Canarias – warm all year round, won’t break the bank, popular with Brits(!), but if you stay away from the main ‘resort’ towns there are plenty of nice bits.

[Scott]

dst87 wrote:

Scott wrote:

Another one here who bought a YouChoose ‘All Access’ giftcard from the Paypal website.

Got the confirmation email from Amex straight away, and the cashback credited a few days later.

Activated the giftcard with no problems and used it to purchase a Sainsburys E-giftcard, which I have since redeemed online.

I missed that Sainsburys was an option for that. Were both cards digital, and can you simply add the gift card to your Sainsburys account to be used automatically for future shops?

Both cards were digital.

The Sainsbury’s one seems to reside in the voucher company’s site, rather than my Sainsburys account, e.g. if I click now on the link I was sent, it shows a remaining value of £30 (from the original £70 voucher I spent £40 in an online shop). This is the same portal as Sainsbury’s E-giftcards I purchase via another channel.

[Scott]

Agree with the statement credit option – buy something cheap, and use the remaining points to settle the balance.

[Scott]

Another one here who bought a YouChoose ‘All Access’ giftcard from the Paypal website.

Got the confirmation email from Amex straight away, and the cashback credited a few days later.

Activated the giftcard with no problems and used it to purchase a Sainsburys E-giftcard, which I have since redeemed online.

[Scott]

modonnell@hotmail.co.uk wrote:

Found it on another forum from 2 years ago…

Link here…

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1837890-ba-american-express-2-4-1-voucher-discussion.html

Here is the answer people like me need i believe..

You book the outbound but yes you have to phone to add the return leg

This seems ridiculous especially having to get up at midnight and phone a number to BA/exec club that no one ever answers

Very frustrating

You don’t have to get up at midnight, you don’t have to phone to book the return. It can all be done online in a single transaction at your leisure.
The reason for the phoning at midnight shenanigans is when you opt to book the outward leg as soon as availability is released for that leg, and you then must have the return leg for a specific date, so phoning at midnight enables you to nab the limited reward seats before anyone else.

If you’re flexible about your destination and dates then the process is much more straightforward.

[Scott]

In case anyone is having the same issue, I’m not really any further forward, but the person I referred contacted live chat, who didn’t know what the issue was so advised phoning the new applications team.

An initial agent there stated simply that a gold card was already held, hence the rejection. This isn’t the case, so was passed to a second agent who spent some time looking into it, but still couldn’t advise of the reason.

They have now passed it to a back office team, with a response due within 3-5 working days. Unfortunately this takes us past the enhanced sign-up period, so I can foresee a battle to get the points if the referral ends up being successful.

[Scott]

I think Amex would struggle to enforce this condition from a customer fairness perspective, based on how it is promoted. No reasonable person reading their ads would expect to pay £250 to earn the voucher in the first place, plus another £250/£500 in order for it to remain valid for use.

A reasonable position may be for Amex to say the voucher is forfeited if the card is cancelled during the year in which it is earned (or, more simply, to award the voucher only at the end of the card year), but insisting that you also have to pay for years 2+3 wouldn’t wash.

[Scott]

@JDB muchas gracias por el consejo.

[Scott]

JDB wrote:

dougzz99 wrote:

Four Seasons, Park Hyatt I assume.

Correct; I wasn’t trying to be cryptic, I was simply using the shorthand used in the post to which I responded.

Thanks for clarifying. Interested as planning to spend a few days there next year,

You’ve clearly spent a lot of time in BA, would you be able to write a few lines about the blue dollar, e.g. finding out where to buy, ease of transaction, not getting ripped off(!), likelihood of large hotels accepting, etc.? I’ve read a few online resources, but interested in a personal experience.

On holiday, as at home, I’m pretty much all card spend these days, so will be strange to revert to cash.

[Scott]

What are all the abbreviations?

[Scott]

Someone on here (can’t remember the username) posted a couple of times recently that this idea of credit applications affecting mortgage applications is a non-issue nowadays, so if you’re happy to take his/her word for it, go for it.

[Scott]

Just in case you’re not aware, you can use your 241 to fly from your local airport to connect in LON (assuming it operates flights to LON) and then onto your final destination.
Domestic connections are ‘free’ for international Avios flights (no extra Avios reqd, but there is an additional cash surcharge.)

[Scott]

If the departure point is changed from London to Belfast then there should be no additional Avios cost (domestic connections are ‘free’ for international flights) but an additional per person cash surcharge. However, this fee is small – not £500. Some folk say that it’s the equivalent of the ‘traditional’ cash element of a Reward Flight Saver (RFS), e.g. £50 in business, but I’ve found the domestic surcharge to be a bit more variable than that.

However, if the agent has created a separate booking for Belfast to London, then there would be both an Avios and cash cost. If this was booked as a RFS (assuming you are eligible for RFS) then the cash element still shouldn’t be anywhere near £500 for 2 + infant.

[Scott]

JDB wrote:

Scott wrote:

Not exactly the same thing, but I recently had a random credit to one of my accounts of a small 3 figure sum.

This is a card I don’t use much, and in the intervening period had spent only a couple of £ on it. After maybe 6-8 weeks the outstanding credit balance was zeroed (in their words, ‘refunded’).

Just checked the bank account my DD payment is taken from, and there it is. Who’s going to turn down free money?!

It isn’t “free money” as you describe it. It is an offence of dishonestly retaining wrongful credit under the Theft Act 1968 as you knew the money was incorrectly applied. The Act requires you:- “to take such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to secure that the credit is cancelled”.

Thanks for the advice @JDB. I’ve just contacted via live chat to query, and the agent confirmed the credit was rightfully made, and even stated they would add a note to my account confirming our discussion “to make it easier and convenient” for me!

Sometimes honesty is the best policy.

[Scott]

Not exactly the same thing, but I recently had a random credit to one of my accounts of a small 3 figure sum.

This is a card I don’t use much, and in the intervening period had spent only a couple of £ on it. After maybe 6-8 weeks the outstanding credit balance was zeroed (in their words, ‘refunded’).

Just checked the bank account my DD payment is taken from, and there it is. Who’s going to turn down free money?!

[Scott]

No need to wait any particular period of time unless you intend, e.g. applying for a mortgage in the next few months where too many credit applications could be considered a negative.

On your second question, personal is just that – personal, rather than household.

[Scott]

Can’t comment on the hotel itself, but the area around the station is a bit grim, particularly at weekends, with folk who don’t know when they’ve had enough to drink trying to kill each other, as well as addicts, homeless, etc. Not very pleasant having to walk through them to get into your hotel.

[Scott]

Think the original article said the 5k bonus would post 60 days after the offer close date.

[Scott]

Tom2 wrote:

If you honestly believe that Barclaycard want people to sign up receive £300 worth of Avios + however much you value the upgrade voucher at, in return for a few monthly payments of £20 then I don’t know what to say.

Most likely Rob insisted on adding it to the articles as he would have highlighted the strategy for any Amex card.

If people don’t like the card and can’t downgrade then just close the account down.

No, of course they don’t “want” people to do that, but like most businesses I imagine they know the small minority taking this course of action will be far outweighed by those who don’t want to/can’t be bothered, so they accept it.

The point is the card was promoted with the ability to easily downgrade as a feature, so many readers of this site will have taken out the card with that expectation. If I can’t downgrade once I hit the spend target then the card will be getting cancelled. It’s makes no sense to continue paying £20 per month when there is no further benefit.

[Scott]

masaccio wrote:

Aston100 wrote:

You able to spend £3k really quickly in order to get the SUB and then cancel (or downgrade to the free card)? Thus minimising the monthly fee (It is charged monthly, not all up front).

So 30k Avios for 60 quid (ish) is the big pull if I am happy enough with the Virgin card instead. That is certainly a decent rate even for putting up with Barclays. I’ve no intention to switch current account to them. I tried the current account for a couple of months and discovered that for me it’s too painful for the handful of Avios.

To correct your arithmetic – you’re not getting 30k Avios for £60, as you could get 10k Avios with the free card. The £60 gets you the difference between the paid card and the free card, i.e. 20k Avios.

[Scott]

Caba21 wrote:

@scott I found that the nhs recovery certificate is valid in the EU . Where does it say it’s not valid for Spain ? My son is 13, had one jab ando covid in December . (
We have Italian passport)

@Caba21 From the site I linked to in my earlier post, it states:

“29/12/2021 –…Tourists who are British nationals or legal residents in the United Kingdom are only able to travel to Spain from the UK with a vaccination certificate (a certificate of recovery or a certificate of a diagnostic test for active COVID-19 infection with a negative result are not valid).”

At the bottom of that text, you can follow to link to ‘More Information’ (albeit en Español)

[Scott]

Just to confuse things, I’ve tried a third destination, SFO.

The total charges when flying with a GLA connection are the same as for PHX, with the YQ element of £475.

This time when I remove the domestic connection to fly direct from LHR, YQ actually increases to £500.

So in this example the domestic connection reduces the overall cost, which surely rules out a relation with RFS fees.

• This reply was modified 56 years, 4 months ago by .