Forum Headforpoints

Good morning. My inner nerd was awakened this morning and decided to track my last 15 Hilton stays – comparing spend and points earned. My strategy has been leveraging cheap Middle East stays as I’ve been there often during and since the expensive firework show that Iran blessed us with. 15 stays – 13 in QA and 2 in GB. Average spend per night in QA was ~$36! Low vacancy meant almost every stay was upgraded to a bigger room or suite of some kind. One or two nighters means the MyWay benefits really push up points per $. Also, some lovely promotions meant one of my stays was $43 and earned me 10,770 points! In QA, average earnings is 121 points per $1 (!!!!). GB number is significantly lower at 19 points per $1. Best stay is the one mentioned above, just shy of 250 points per $1. To be fair, my worst earning in QA got me 44 points per $. A lot of math early in the morning. Thank you for listening to my TedTalk

I’ve been to Portugal 3 times this year, and I’ve had my photo and fingerprints taken 11 times. Sure, they are entitled to do it, but what’s the point? Why, after taking my photo and prints at the kiosk, does an officer at a staffed booth then take them again? What’s the point? First time I left Portugal this year, the kiosk sent me to an automated gate. Great! Except my exit was then not logged. And the “Travel to Europe” app doesn’t work. It’s a waste of time trying to use it. The system is not fit for purpose. I have to visit Portugal regularly, but I would not choose to visit any other Schengen country for tourism. ETA – and on my most recent visit, the Immigration Officer could not tell me how many days I had left. He said he could not see that information!

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.

Fingers crossed for you, @Sturgeon . Of course if they do refuse you again we shall be interested in the details of what tasty scheme you were operating 🙂

JDB wrote: it would be up to a court or adjudicator to decide what might constitute being “unsatisfied” in this context and the facts of the case. Exactly. And since we can be pretty sure most judges have no idea about why someone might select a particular seat in Club, and no idea about Club Suite either, we can be pretty sure that if Kuestrian says he selected seats 1A and 1K and got 2A and 2C on whatever aircraft, the judge will say @Kuestrian did not get the seat he deliberately chose and paid for. But I think BA will refund Kuestrian anyway.

stevec4747 wrote: Hi. Previously contacted BA using X to request refund of Avios due to bookings made prior to the return being available. They have said they will do it but don’t deal with Avios via X any more. Did someone mention on here BA could be contacted on WhatsApp, otherwise which number is best to call them on for this, is it the exec club number? Thanks It was me. I called up the BA number to try and get the 50% Avios refund but they sent me a WhatsApp link. Then I completed my T-355 Avios 50% refund via WhatsApp, super simple. I would call up and try asking for the WhatsApp Avios

I’ve fired off an email to Oman Air about a UK261 claim, as the link in their Conditions of Carriage for claiming EU261 takes you to a 404…. Will see what they say, but I suspect not quickly! Qantas flight from Singapore to Brisbane was fine, but a bit quicker than I’d really have liked for an overnight – was under 7 hours in the air. Seat was pretty good, came with a mattress topper and duvet, plus pyjamas! Fairly small business cabin (6 rows?), but only one toilet, so rather a long queue to get changed back when they switched the lights on 40 minutes before landing. Only good thing about a 6am arrival was no queue for immigration, and no queue for customs. My bags were some of the first off, so I was out within 14 minutes of the scheduled arrival time. The Oman Air 787 business seat wasn’t bad, but didn’t have that much storage as like the old BA seat your feet aren’t in a cubbyhole. Unlike BA you do have direct aisle access from every seat. I preferred the Qantas A330 seat though.

Wow, Hertz Malta! Emailed to ask if they offer out of hours drop off at a location, reply within 15 minutes confirming they do.

Garethgerry wrote: But no one has any evidence of BA disputing someone’s claim. Read @Tristoph posts on this thread – he was thrice denied, as in the case of Peter and Jesus, save @Tristoph doesn’t mention the rooster crowing, and his is hardly the first experience reported on HfP.

Avant wrote: If they want to take your fingerprints and picture every time you enter or exit, they are entitled to do that. That’s the whole point. Agree, however a friend just arrived in AMS and got told off by the border officer because they “shouldn’t have registered 8 times” [on their 8 entries to Schengen since EES started]. No questions were asked and they were allowed in after several minutes of typing on the computer.

@dundj – you have hit the nail on the head! Also, it would be more meaningful to see what happens at a hotel which has the scope to give a meaningful upgrade. At Hilton London Tower Bridge an Executive Room is 2m2 larger than a Standard and lounge access comes with just Diamond. The DoubleTree seems to have offered even less. The treatment referenced seems beyond unremarkable – what would a non elite HH member/HH member reasonably expect?

This is how careful Revolut is with personal data https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/revolut-confirms-sensitive-customer-data-breach-falling-fake-government-requests-2026-09-12/ It looks like only people who used Revolut to trade crypto were targeted this time. When you sign up or reverify ID with Revolut, you are asked to take photos of your ID and your face. It appears that Revolut stores the actual photos (maybe I am stupid but I thought the selfie was only used to compare to the photo on the ID, and did not need to be retained). Affected users’ photos were sent to the fraudsters, and if Revolut had asked for KYC information that was also sent. So potentially the attackers might be able to open accounts elsewhere.