Chat thread – Tuesday 8th April
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This is today’s chat thread.
If you have specific questions about Avios, hotels or credit cards, please ask them in the appropriate forum and not here. This thread is a good place to post interesting deals you have spotted or your general thoughts on travel and all things miles and points. Thank you for contributing.
@aston100 If you are still in Osaka, Sakuranomiya Park well worth a visit while the 🌸 is still in full bloom.
Good morning from residence inn Didot Paris.
So far after just one night, I would say avoid this hotel.
As a solo traveler, and the deadbolts in your room not working, and front desk handing out keys to other guests to your room and then coming in during the night as you sleep, then front desk not actually caring, it’s very worrying that safety issue not of interest to them.@tw33ty I’ve had that a couple of times over the years. Always hang the DND sign, it hopefully makes the other person stop and think before trying to enter.
Good morning from glorious La Digue! I’m currently lazing by the side of the pool at Domaine de l’Orangeraie (on a day pass) , wondering whether it’s too early for a cocktail.
Last night I watched the sunset from Belle Vue restaurant. Tomorrow I think I’ll do some snorkelling, and do the trek to my favourite beach. This is the life!
@Cat, sounds amazing! Who did you fly with?
@tw33ty Not good at, including the attitude when you complained. It reminds me of a day a female colleague was woken in the night to find a member of staff in her room, chasing rats was the excuse. Sufficed to say we didn’t use that hotel again.
@tw33ty How awful! And to not take it seriously once alerted is dreadful behaviour
We shouldn’t need to do this, but as an aside to my fellow solo travellers – I travel with a rubber doorstop and pop that in front of my door at night, so if anyone opens the door in the night it will jam up against the stopper
Though I do have to remember to pick it up each day as one time housekeeping took it away as they thought it was one of theirs. The receptionist looked at me like I had two heads when I was explaining but I got it back eventually!
@NorthernLass Kenya Airways in cattle class (not enough Avios to aLways fly in the manner I’ve become accustomed since reading HfP!).it wasn’t great, but it was considerably cheaper than the next flight up, even when you take into account the money I spent on a private safari in Nairobi NP, during the stopover. I did manage to talk the nice lady who checked me in into a bulkhead seat, and the safari was spectacular!
@Cat – I’d love a review if you have time once you get back to school (don’t think about that for now, though!) Another safari is definitely on my list, our first and only having been on our honeymoon 29 years ago.
@tw33ty, yikes, did the doors have chains or similar inside? We always put those in place at night because you never know who has a key for the room, certainly staff who may or may not be trustworthy!Heathrow Rewards question – I bought some perfume on 19/3 and the transaction is showing as active on my activity list and the points have added to my total but the date of expiry has not changed – still showing as expiring 3 yrs from a transaction I did last April. Previous transactions show as processed but this one says active. The only phone number I can find is 0344 335 1801 doesn’t seem to ring the the only contact form I can find is about missing points. Has anyone else had an issue lately and how can I contact them? Thanks
Apologies if this news was shared in a previous daily chat thread!
“You’re welcome. Have a nice day.” It’s a familiar, cheery, if not at times cheesy, courtesy traditionally issued by Americans to foreign visitors.
But in the much less civil era of today’s politically fractious America, such niceties are ringing increasingly hollow, particularly for unsuspecting travellers landing at the nation’s borders.
Across the globe foreign visitors and their governments are now asking just how welcome travellers really are in the States these days. The land of the free could be morphing into a home for only the braver tourist.
Indeed, in an outbreak of border insecurity, there’s a growing number of reports of ordinary visitors to the US being detained for hours on arrival at US airports, or worse, 19 days (in the instance of one young British woman sent to an immigration detention centre).
The catalyst? The Trump administration’s order, in a classic case of euphemistic American-speak, to subject more foreign visitors to the process of “enhanced vetting” of travellers at its borders.
Such a procedure involves additional levels of questioning and searches by immigration officials, chiefly at airports, who even before these latest incidents have never been known for their customary American civility. The US government denies the increased scrutiny is designed to target anti-Trump sentiment.
One Traveller reader has vowed never to return to the US after he was detained last month for eight hours at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport, while his laptop and smartphone were examined by US border guards. He was finally deported back to Australia.
His “crime”? Taking a more circuitous route to the US to save on his airfare, though he stresses he was not accused of any actual “wrongdoing”.
“I feel like returning to the US under the current administration would be the equivalent of going back for your hat after escaping a devastating house fire,” says the reader, an Australian citizen who asked not to be named. “I have no wish to be burnt again.”
He arrived in the US following a 24-hour flight from Sydney to New York via Hong Kong, with Florida his planned final destination. From there he intended to board a cruise and says he is now $15,000 out of pocket due to the cruise line’s refusal to refund his fare.
The reason he believes he was detained and then deported was not due to any visa irregularities but for what he considers a perverse justification.
Loading“Eight hours later, after three interview teams and extensive examination of my laptop and iPhone, [the decision of US immigration] was that I had come to the US on a very unusual route from Australia via Asia (I flew premium economy and Cathay Pacific had the cheapest airfare).”
Although the governments of several Western nations, including the UK, Germany and Canada, have updated their travel advice for the US in the past few weeks, Australia’s equivalent, Smart Traveller, last did so on February 3, weeks before reports of travellers being detained or deported began to surface. (Though the site does warn that “US authorities have broad powers to decide if you’re eligible to enter and may determine that you are inadmissible for any reason under US law”.)
For the US economy, much is at stake, with the inbound travel market a major revenue-earner worth $155 billion in overseas visitor expenditure, and with millions of Americans employed in the tourism industry.
LoadingIn 2024, before the Trump administration took office and introduced its extreme version of enhanced vetting, more than 710,000 Australians visited the US, a nearly 17 per cent increase on the previous year.
Now the giant French hotel multinational Accor has warned that bookings from Europe to the US for this northern summer’s high season are down 25 per cent. Airlines such as the UK-based Virgin Atlantic are also sounding the alarm to investors.
That comes amid tense relations between the US and European countries and increased travel warnings regarding stringent border treatment of its citizens when arriving in the States.
Extraordinarily, in the past week, experts, via the pages of The New York Times and The Washington Post, have been recommending that foreign travellers at least delete “anything you wouldn’t want someone to read or see from your device before visiting the US”.
LoadingOne pundit even advised visitors to the US to leave their laptops and other devices, including tablets, at home entirely and opt to take a “burner phone” (a cheap, prepaid model) to the US rather than your possibly incriminating personal phone.
Suddenly, with the goodwill that has traditionally driven tourism evaporating in the US – for decades among the most cherished holiday destinations for many Australians – has become much less welcoming with the experience for some travellers far from, well, nice.
All in all, if overseas travellers to the US continue to endure such treatment, the US could face an unwelcome tourism downturn to rival that provoked by September 11, 2001; a day and time when the States really did, for once, need its foreign friends.
There were no chains or manual locks on the door, just the ability to lock it, then turn the lock a couple of more complete circles, which should have deadlocked it.
Heathrow Rewards question – I bought some perfume on 19/3 and the transaction is showing as active on my activity list and the points have added to my total but the date of expiry has not changed – still showing as expiring 3 yrs from a transaction I did last April. Previous transactions show as processed but this one says active. The only phone number I can find is 0344 335 1801 doesn’t seem to ring the the only contact form I can find is about missing points. Has anyone else had an issue lately and how can I contact them? Thanks
I have the same issue – I suspect it’s related to the merging of Heathrow rewards into the main Heathrow site. There is a chat function on the desktop site and once you get past the bot you get a human. They just told me that it can take 5-6 working days for the expiry to update after the transaction posts. I had a couple of manual additions this week so will wait and see. If your points posted on 19/3 it should have updated though. The agent did initially tell me that expiry is 30 months and then changed their mind to 36 so I’m not convinced they know what’s going on.
I think the website update hasn’t carried everything over either as I had a parking booking last month that hadn’t registered so when I exited the machine was showing I owed over £1,100!! – rectified through the intercom but pity the people who chose to get behind me in the queue!
Good morning from residence inn Didot Paris.
So far after just one night, I would say avoid this hotel.
As a solo traveler, and the deadbolts in your room not working, and front desk handing out keys to other guests to your room and then coming in during the night as you sleep, then front desk not actually caring, it’s very worrying that safety issue not of interest to them.Had something similar at Peckforton Castle. No deadlocks at all on the door and had a male staff member unlock the door and walk in without knocking with our bags.
He was as shocked as us, but that wasn’t the point. I barely slept that night as I kept imagining someone was walking in.
This is the only hotel I have left early on a pre-booked rate.Heathrow Rewards question – I bought some perfume on 19/3 and the transaction is showing as active on my activity list and the points have added to my total but the date of expiry has not changed – still showing as expiring 3 yrs from a transaction I did last April. Previous transactions show as processed but this one says active. The only phone number I can find is 0344 335 1801 doesn’t seem to ring the the only contact form I can find is about missing points. Has anyone else had an issue lately and how can I contact them? Thanks
Have the same situation on Mrs TedL’s account with transactions on 26th Feb, expiry date moved to 28/08/25. Got hold of someone on 02073601250, its the number you call if out of UK, option 4. Even though Mrs TedL wasnt at home to give permission he did agree that there was something wrong and it needed to be passed to the Reward Management Team, if Mrs TedL calls to authorise. Hope this number works for you.
NL saw your post on FT, and meant to ask. You going to be at the Ic next weekend. I looked at booking it, but think I’m sticking to the Kimpton on points.
BTW Nectar have launched a Taste the Difference points challenge.
NL saw your post on FT, and meant to ask. You going to be at the Ic next weekend. I looked at booking it, but think I’m sticking to the Kimpton on points.
No, early May bank holiday. 3 for 2 via Emyr, including lounge access, the offer is still on. Lounge offering is supposed to be one of the best in London, decided it was worth it now we don’t get diamond breakfast.
You can get a price on the Virtuoso website and it still credits to Emyr if you book.
*Kimpton is a much more attractive building, but the standard rooms are very small – we’re getting a double upgrade courtesy of Emyr and Ambassador at the IC.
@tw33ty and @davefl as a solo female traveller, the fact that this happens *at all* horrifies me.
Please leave reviews everywhere!
The first time was the Hotel Victoria, opposite Central Station in Amsterdam back in the 1990s. I’d just got to my room, dumped the bag and then the next guest was assigned the same room as me and just walked in.
Second was the reverse, I walked in on someone who was resting on the bed, I’d been assigned their room. Can’t rember where it was.
Third was the Best Western in Chelmsford in the late 2000s. Was a nightmare getting checked in at near midnight (I was working at the Uni and travelling on Sundays when trains/replacement buses necessitated an 8 hour journey every week) The door lock wouldn’t work, replacement batteries were required and I was told to sit in the bar and was given a large glass of wine while I waited.
Next morning I was in the shower and someone walked in to the room. I called out and they left, I chased and saw someone disappear into the stairwell. Challenged reception and they denied anyone would have come in without knocking, and it certainly wan’t housekeeping, so I never stayed there again.
I read this an hour ago @davefl, and I’m still shuddering now.
@NorthernLass – were you just after a review of the safari part of the trip?
@Jasdev, and anyone else who has any experience of travelling to the US right now. I’m flying to Central America via the US this summer, I’m just changing planes, not actually leaving the airport. Do I need to be worried? Will I need to sanitise my social media? I have been quite gobby on a number of issues over the years…@Cat, any and all of it! SEZ definitely on the list as well, though will need a bit more planning now there’s no direct flight from the U.K.
I think I’ve seen previous posts on Seychelles from you so that probably piqued my interest as well.
@Cat It’s more common than you think. Based on my stint at a Hilton during uni, I guess a few times weekly. Receptionist fumbled during check-in or check/out, room is still set to vacant/ready or vacant/dirty. Guest calls for a faulty kettle and housekeeping isn’t picking up the phone: you walk into a room set to empty in the system to swipe the kettle there: someone inside.
Once an intern walked in on a man on all fours who had wrapped the remote control in a ziploc or something and was busy inserting it in places it did not belong. Poor girl ran back down through the fire escape stairs and spent a good part of her shift crying.
During my hotel stays now: doorstop does the trick.
I had given notice but was asked to stay on till the end of the month. That’s when the shenanigans really started. I made Samurai armour, a helmet and a shield from breakfast doorhangers, invoice paper and various other Hilton branded paraphernalia, taped together by Hilton luggage tags. At the end of my shifts I’d wait in the lobby and ‘surprise’ some guest with my umbrella sword, then running back to the Front Of House screaming “Defend the honor of the hilton honor!” in the most asian voice possible.
On one of my last days, kitchen was closed for renovations and restaurant only open for a limited breakfast spread, some upset Diamond member could not stop complaining and decided to “work in the lobby”, looking at the employees every 30 seconds. I looked the guy up, was staying on points that were clearly not earned by stays and had enough of it. Went to the restaurant, asked them to prep a room service trolley with a grand mockup of silverware, adding a bottle of champagne in a cooler for good measure. Carted the thing passed the man who completely lost it. “Why are you doing room service if you people told me the kitchen is closed?”. Sorry Sir, we only do this for paying guests. God did I enjoy the rage on that guys’ face whilst trolleying into the elevator.
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