News in brief:

Get 1,200 Avios with a £25 NOW TV box

Tesco Direct is giving away 500 Clubcard points (1,200 Avios or 1,250 Virgin miles) with a £25 NOW TV box.  NOW TV is very similar to Google Chromecast or Amazon Fire Stick, connecting to your broadband and streaming content to your TV.

There are three versions, each of which comes with a different free gift:

• 2 months Sky Movies Pass (click for the Tesco Direct product page)
• 3 months Sky Entertainment Pass (click for Tesco Direct product page)
• 4 months Kids Pass (click for the Tesco Direct product page)

Full details are in this Shopper Points article.  The offer ends 24th May.

30% bonus when you buy Hyatt points

Until 23rd May, Hyatt is offering a 30% bonus when you buy World of Hyatt points.

This is obviously worth a look if you need to top up your account.  It may also be worthwhile if considering a stay in a top tier Park Hyatt such as the ones in Paris or Sydney, where buying the points may be cheaper than paying cash.

The new Park Hyatt resort in Mallorca is another location where buying points may make sense.   Prices for cash are still a little scary – rooms from Euro 545 in August, or Euro 680 if you want a cancellable one – despite being about 25% lower than they were in 2016.  A redemption at 20,000 points per night ($360) would be a good deal.

The Hyatt ‘buy points’ site is here.

Welcome to our monthly round-up of the best hotel promotions currently running.  All of the information in this article can also be found on our ‘Hotel Promos’ page which contains details of all of the current offers, together with links to our major articles on each hotel scheme.  However, a positive response from readers means I will also now be running this monthly article as a handy summary of what is going on.

Where should you credit your stays this month?

You are, to be honest, spoilt for choice at the moment.  I run through the options below.  Remember that the Marriott and Starwood offers don’t kick off for another 10 days.

If you aren’t staying with a major brand, don’t forget the new Avios promotion from Kaligo.com.  You will receive 5,000 Avios with £500 of cumulative spend or 10,000 Avios with £1,000 of cumulative spend before 11th July (stays can be later). Details are in this article.

Here are the current deals on offer:

IHG (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental, Indigo, Staybridge Suites etc):

The Summer version of IHG’s ‘Accelerate’ is probably the best choice for most people with lighter schedules.  As targets are personalised it is totally dependent on what you were offered but you should be able to rack up a significant number of bonus points with just a few nights.

‘Accelerate’ runs until 31st August.  This is my main article on the offer.

Everyone has individual targets, but they are generally fairly easy.  You can earn 30,000+ bonus points with the points starting to flow from your first stay.

I have this for 48,900 points:

• 5,000 points for a stay before 30th June
• 2,500 points on my next stay
• 10,000 points for staying five nights
• 5,600 points for staying two weekends (Fri / Sat or Sat / Sun)
• 11,200 points for staying in IHG hotels in two different countries outside the UK
• 3,600 points for booking a Bonus Points Package
• 11,000 points for completing four of the five targets above, excluding the June bonus

Even with my modest number of planned IHG stays (two!) I should be able to hit most of these targets and I should be able to slot in another night if necessary to ensure that I earn the full amount.

You need to register for ‘Accelerate’ – the link is here, where you will also find your personalised targets.  The IHG home page is here.

Hilton (Hampton, Conrad, Waldorf-Astoria etc):

The Hilton offer looks good and is very straightforward.  You will receive double base points on every stay until 31st August.  Diamond members will receive triple points.

I wrote about this offer here.  If you have top tier status with another hotel programme, Hilton will match you to Diamond for 90 days which will allow you to receive triple points – I explain how to do it in this article.

The Hilton home page is here.  You MUST register for double points by visiting this page of hilton.com.

Club Carlson (Radisson Blu, Park Inn, Park Plaza, Radisson Red):

Club Carlson has an even more generous offer, especially if your stay involves a Sunday or a Monday night.

The headline details are:

triple points on all stays before 30th June (register here)

5000 extra bonus points if your stay includes a Sunday or Monday (and 10000 points if it includes both!)

3000 extra bonus points for your first app booking (details here)

This has the potential to be very generous indeed if you stay the right combination of nights – it is possibly you could back 50% of the cost of your stay in points!  My article on the promotion is here.

Le Club AccorHotels:

Le Club AccorHotels is still offering a generous ‘triple Avios’ promotion until 30th June.

This is good for stays at Novotel, Sofitel, Pullman, Mercure, Ibis, M Gallery etc.

You will earn at least 7.5 Avios per €1 you spend, except at Ibis where the rate is lower.  If you have Accor status you will earn even more.  A £500 Novotel stay would earn you 4,500 Avios points which is certainly not to be sniffed at.

The promo is a little fiddly and you need to send the Avios to Iberia Plus, not BA, before moving them across to BA via ‘Combine My Avios’.  Full details are in this article.  The Accor home page is here.

Confusingly, Accor is running a second promotion alongside this one for stays of 2+ nights.

Until 3rd September, you will receive 500 bonus points on your first 2+ night stay, 2500 bonus points on your 2nd 2+ night stay and 3000 bonus points on your third 2+ night stay.  The snag is that all rooms must be booked by 23rd May.  My article on this offer is here.

Rember that 1 Accor point = 1 Avios point, if converted via Iberia, or 2 Eurocents off a future booking.  3 x 2-night bookings would earn you a maximum of €120 of credit or 6,000 Avios.

There is also a third Accor offer running which I will cover later this week.  Register at this page and you will receive 500 bonus Accor points on your next UK / Ireland Accor stay (worth 500 Avios or €10) and 1,000 points on your 2nd UK / Ireland stay (worth 1,000 Avios or €20).  Stays must be completed by 31st December and booked by 19th July.

World of Hyatt:

Hyatt has its own double points offer.  Called ‘Double Points for Being You’ (?!), it is a simple offer.  You will receive double World of Hyatt base points on all stays between 1st April and 30th June, starting with your second stay.

Full details can be found in this article.  Remember that you won’t receive any bonus on your first stay during the offer period.

Starwood (St Regis, Westin, Sheraton, Element, W, Luxury Collection etc)

I wrote about the new Starwood promotion in another article today.  It is a simple one but comes with a small catch – it requires a stay of 2 nights or more.

2+ night stays between 27th May and 4th September will earn double points.  If your stay includes a Friday or Saturday night, the entire stay will earn triple points.

Registration is required via this page of the Starwood Preferred Guest website.  Check that your chosen hotel is on the list of those taking part.

I recommend this offer if you have a high value, multi-night trip planned, especially if it takes in a Friday or Saturday night.

Marriott (Renaissance, Ritz-Carlton etc):

The new Marriott Rewards offer, ‘Infinite Points’, covers the same dates as the Starwood offer – 27th May to 4th September.

You must register in advance via this website.

You earn no bonus for your first stay between 27th May and 4th September.  After that, you receive 2,000 bonus Marriott Rewards points for your 2nd and subsequent stays.

You also receive 2,000 additional Marriott Rewards bonus points for your 2nd and subsequent brands, so there is the potential to receive 4,000 bonus points per stay if you can brand-hop.

Because there is no minimum stay needed and because the bonus is a fixed amount, this offer works best for someone doing shorter and cheaper stays.  Don’t forget to register here.

Conclusion

The current offers are looking attractive.

Having a choice of:

at least 7.5 Avios per €1 from Accor (Novotel, Sofitel, Mercure etc)

or

triple points from Club Carlson plus 5000 points for Sunday and Monday nights plus 3000 points for an app booking

or

double or triple Hilton or Starwood bonus points 

or

a potential 30,000+ fairly easy points via IHG’s Accelerate offer

is not a bad choice to have!

And, if you aren’t planning a stay at a major brand, read this article to see how you can earn 5,000 or 10,000 bonus Avios by booking hotels via third party booking site Kaligo.com before 11th July.

PS.  If you booking a luxury hotel, remember that we can offer you exclusive additional benefits at Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula and similar hotels.  Click here for details of our luxury hotel booking service in association with Bon Vivant / Virtuoso.  Feedback from readers who have used this service so far has been excellent.

Two readers have emailed me recently about IHG’s new Accelerate promotion.  (If you are looking at where to book hotel stays over the Summer, Accelerate is the most generous offer for most people.)

Both wanted to know if it was possible to book multiple rooms at the same property on the same night and have them all count as qualifying nights for Accelerate.

I thought it was worth running through the policies of the major chains when you book multiple rooms.  Note that, in all cases:

All rooms must be booked in your name, and

You must occupy one of the rooms

IHG Rewards Club (Holiday Inn, HI Express, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental etc)

Let’s start with IHG Rewards Club, as that was what started this discussion in the first place.

Can you ‘qualifying nights’ credit for multiple rooms per night?  No

Can you earn points for multiple rooms per night?  ‘Yes’ in the US and Canada (maximum 9 rooms per night), ‘No’ elsewhere

The terms and conditions of IHG Rewards Club are here if you want to check the wording.  See clause 9.

When it comes to Accelerate, it is usually better to credit each room to a different IHG account anyway.  Accelerate usually offers a generous bonus for your first stay during each promotional period, so if you have multiple rooms you should credit each to a different IHG account.  You can be creative here – if you have one room for you and your partner and another for your kids, book a room each under your name and that of your partner.  The hotel won’t know who is sleeping in each room and your partner gets the credit for the 2nd room.

Starwood Preferred Guest (Sheraton, Westin, St Regis, W, Aloft, Luxury Collection etc)

Starwood has the most generous multiple nights policy if you are looking for stay credit.

Can you ‘qualifying nights’ credit for multiple rooms per night?  Yes, up to three rooms per night

Can you earn points for multiple rooms per night?  Yes, up to three rooms per night

The SPG terms and conditions are here.  See clause 2.1.

This can be a very easy of earning elite status with Starwood, which you can now match into Marriott Rewards status.  It is also an easy way of picking up nights if you are struggling to requalify – book yourself three rooms for a weekend at one of Sheraton hotels at Heathrow (often as low as £45 per room per night) and you’re sorted.

Hilton Honors (Hilton, Conrad, Hampton, Doubletree, Waldorf-Astoria etc)

Hilton Honors has a decent policy but you need to be aware of the small print:

Can you ‘qualifying nights’ credit for multiple rooms per night?  No

Can you earn points for multiple rooms per night?  Yes, up to two rooms per night, but ONLY if the bills for the two rooms are merged into one bill at check-out.  This only applies if you earn points from your stay – if you earn airline miles instead, you can only earn these on one room.

The Hilton Honors terms and conditions are here.  See clause 5 under ‘Accrual of Points’.

I came a cropper here a couple of years ago at an Embassy Suites, because the hotel had already prepared the bills the night before and I forgot to merge them.  Whilst my name was on both rooms I only received points for one of them.  Luckily the Hilton contact centre took pity on me and credited the additional points, but you shouldn’t rely on this.

Marriott Rewards  (Marriott, Moxy, Renaissance, Delta, The Ritz-Carlton etc)

This is what Marriott Rewards offers:

Can you ‘qualifying nights’ credit for multiple rooms per night?  No

Can you earn points for multiple rooms per night?  Yes, up to three rooms per night

The Marriott Rewards terms and conditions are here.  Click on ‘Earn Points’ to bring up the relevant section – it is in Clause 1.

Club Carlson  (Radisson, Park Inn, Park Plaza)

Club Carlson has an indentical policy to Marriott Rewards:

Can you ‘qualifying nights’ credit for multiple rooms per night?  No

Can you earn points for multiple rooms per night?  Yes, up to three rooms per night.  Note that the rules say “credit for multiple rooms must be requested at or before the time of check-in”.

You can clarify this in the Club Carlson terms and conditions here under Clause 3 / a / i.

World of Hyatt (Andaz, Hyatt branded chains)

World of Hyatt also has the same rules:

Can you ‘qualifying nights’ credit for multiple rooms per night?  No

Can you earn points for multiple rooms per night?  Yes, up to three rooms per night

The World of Hyatt terms and conditions are here.  See clause 1.8.

Conclusion

Starwood Preferred Guest is the only programme where you can earn status more quickly via qualifying nights, or trigger night-based bonuses, by booking multiple rooms.

Of course, for programmes where you can also earn status via earning base points, you would still get nearer the next tier by merging multiple rooms into one bill.

All of the major hotel points currencies allow you to transfer your points into airline miles.  You will often find the airlines encouraging it – every 9-10 months, British Airways offers a 35% transfer bonus when you move hotel points into Avios.  This offer last ran in February so I wouldn’t expect it to return until the end of the year.

Today, I wanted to consider if it ever makes sense to transfer hotel points to airlines.

In general, hotel points are best redeemed for hotel stays.

Let’s look at the points needed for a top category redemption valued at, say, £250 a night:

Club Carlson – 70,000 points = 7,000 Avios if converted

Hilton Honors – 80,000-90,000 points = 8,000-9,000 Avios

IHG Rewards Club – 50,000-60,000 points = 10,000-12,000 Avios

Le Club AccorHotels – 15,000 points (for €300 voucher) = 7,500 Avios into BA or 15,000 Avios into Iberia Plus (always convert your Accor points to Iberia!)

Marriott Rewards – 45,000 points = 12,000 Avios

Melia Rewards – 28,000 points and up = 8,400 Avios

Starwood Preferred Guest – 30,000 points = 35,000 Avios

World of Hyatt – 30,000 points = 12,000 Avios

Apart from Starwood, who have a very good conversion ratio, you are generally better leaving large stashes of hotel points where they are. Assuming you value Avios points at 1p each, you are lucky to get 50% of the value of the equivalent hotel room and often a lot worse.

Of course, personal choice also plays a part.  You generally get the best value from hotel points in expensive big cities like London or New York.  If your travels take you more to Lyon or Newcastle then your hotel points may be worth less to you.  If you also find yourself just a few Avios short of an award, transferring from a hotel programme may be a better deal than buying Avios from BA at 1.6p.

If you only have a small amount of hotel points, it is a different game. Apart from IHG Rewards Club, which runs regular sales of rooms at 5,000 points per night and Hilton Honors, where you can now use as few as 5,000 points for a cash discount on your next booking, small balances can be of little use.

A couple of years ago I tidied up some of my small hotel balances by converting a lot to Avios, often topping up first from American Express Membership Rewards, and didn’t regret it.  That said, since I did that I have ended up earning additional points in most of those schemes.  If you will never earn enough for a free room, you might as well convert.

Expiry dates can also be an issue and can prompt a transfer. My old series of articles on expiry dates covered the current rules for each hotel scheme – see our ‘Hotel Promos’ page for links.  Starting tomorrow, I will be updating these articles.

The other thing to remember is that the hotel chains convert to many airlines, often over 20.  Perhaps you will get more value converting to another scheme?  I have converted SPG points to Lufthansa Miles & More in the past, because I love the Lufthansa First Class service but their miles are hard to earn in the UK.  Starwood is often the only UK partner for a lot of niche airline programmes and the Starwood Amex the only way to earn their miles via daily spend as a UK resident.

Final thought. You can transfer IHG Rewards Club points to someone else for $5 per 1000, Hilton Honors points for free via the new Points Pooling option and SPG points for FREE if you share an address.  Perhaps a transfer to someone who can use a larger total to reach the target they need for a hotel room is a better deal than a handful of Avios for yourself.

Welcome to our monthly round-up of the best hotel promotions currently running.  All of the information in this article can also be found on our ‘Hotel Promos’ page which contains details of all of the current offers, together with links to our major articles on each hotel scheme.  However, a positive response from readers means I will also now be running this monthly article as a handy summary of what is going on.

Where should you credit your stays this month?

You are, to be honest, spoilt for choice at the moment.  I run through the options below.

If you aren’t staying with a major brand, don’t forget the Avios promotion from Kaligo.com.  You will receive 5,000 Avios with £500 of cumulative spend or 10,000 Avios with £1,000 of cumulative spend before 11th July (stays can be later). Details are in this article.

Here are the current deals on offer:

IHG (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental, Indigo, Staybridge Suites etc):

The Summer version of IHG’s ‘Accelerate’ is probably the best choice for most people with lighter schedules.  As targets are personalised it is totally dependent on what you were offered but you should be able to rack up a significant number of bonus points with just a few nights.

‘Accelerate’ runs until 31st August.  This is my main article on the offer.

Everyone has individual targets, but they are generally fairly easy.  You can earn 30,000+ bonus points with the points starting to flow from your first stay.

I have this for 48,900 points:

• 5,000 points for a stay before 30th June
• 2,500 points on my next stay
• 10,000 points for staying five nights
• 5,600 points for staying two weekends (Fri / Sat or Sat / Sun)
• 11,200 points for staying in IHG hotels in two different countries outside the UK
• 3,600 points for booking a Bonus Points Package
• 11,000 points for completing four of the five targets above, excluding the June bonus

Even with my modest number of planned IHG stays (two!) I should be able to hit most of these targets and I should be able to slot in another night if necessary to ensure that I earn the full amount.

You need to register for ‘Accelerate’ – the link is here, where you will also find your personalised targets.  The IHG home page is here.

Hilton (Hampton, Conrad, Waldorf-Astoria etc):

The Hilton offer looks good and is very straightforward.  You will receive double base points on every stay until 31st August.  Diamond members will receive triple points.

I wrote about this offer here.  If you have top tier status with another hotel programme, Hilton will match you to Diamond for 90 days which will allow you to receive triple points – I explain how to do it in this article.

You MUST register for double points by visiting this page of hilton.com.

Hilton is also running a separate offer which gives 2,000 Avios on your next five stays before 31st August.  This requires you to switch your earning preference to ‘points and miles’ instead of ‘points and points’ but it should be worth it unless you are doing a very expensive stay.  Full details, and the link to register for 2,000 bonus Avios, are in this article.

Club Carlson (Radisson Blu, Park Inn, Park Plaza, Radisson Red):

Club Carlson has its own generous offer, especially if your stay involves a Sunday or a Monday night.

The headline details are:

triple points on all stays before 30th June (register here)

5000 extra bonus points if your stay includes a Sunday or Monday (and 10000 points if it includes both!)

3000 extra bonus points for your first app booking (details here)

This has the potential to be very generous indeed if you stay the right combination of nights – it is possibly you could get back 50% of the cost of your stay in points!  My article on the promotion is here.

Le Club AccorHotels:

Le Club AccorHotels is still offering a generous ‘triple Avios’ promotion until 30th June.

This is good for stays at Novotel, Sofitel, Pullman, Mercure, Ibis, M Gallery etc.

You will earn at least 7.5 Avios per €1 you spend, except at Ibis where the rate is lower.  If you have Accor status you will earn even more.  A £500 Novotel stay would earn you 4,500 Avios points which is certainly not to be sniffed at.

The promo is a little fiddly and you need to send the Avios to Iberia Plus, not BA, before moving them across to BA via ‘Combine My Avios’.  Full details are in this article.  The Accor home page is here.

There is also a second Accor offer running which I covered here.  Register at this page and you will receive 500 bonus Accor points on your next UK / Ireland Accor stay (worth 500 Avios or €10) and 1,000 points on your 2nd UK / Ireland stay (worth 1,000 Avios or €20).  Stays must be completed by 31st December and booked by 19th July.

World of Hyatt:

Hyatt has its own double points offer.  Called ‘Double Points for Being You’ (?!), it is a simple offer.  You will receive double World of Hyatt base points on all stays between 1st April and 30th June, starting with your second stay.

Full details can be found in this article.  Remember that you won’t receive any bonus on your first stay during the offer period.

Starwood (St Regis, Westin, Sheraton, Element, W, Luxury Collection etc)

I wrote about the new Starwood promotion here.  It is a simple one but comes with a small catch – it requires a stay of 2 nights or more.  This was a bit frustrating for me as I was in the Sheraton Dusseldorf Airport on Friday night, and only Friday night.

2+ night stays between 27th May and 4th September will earn double points.  If your stay includes a Friday or Saturday night, the entire stay will earn triple points.

Registration is required via this page of the Starwood Preferred Guest website.  Check that your chosen hotel is on the list of those taking part.

I recommend this offer if you have a high value, multi-night trip planned, especially if it takes in a Friday or Saturday night.

Marriott (Renaissance, Ritz-Carlton etc):

The new Marriott Rewards offer, ‘Infinite Points’, covers the same dates as the Starwood offer – 27th May to 4th September.

You must register in advance via this website.

You earn no bonus for your first stay between 27th May and 4th September.  After that, you receive 2,000 bonus Marriott Rewards points for your 2nd and subsequent stays.

You also receive 2,000 additional Marriott Rewards bonus points for your 2nd and subsequent brands, so there is the potential to receive 4,000 bonus points per stay if you can brand-hop.

Because there is no minimum stay needed and because the bonus is a fixed amount, this offer works best for someone doing shorter and cheaper stays.  Don’t forget to register here.

Conclusion

The current offers are looking attractive.

Having a choice of:

at least 7.5 Avios per €1 from Accor (Novotel, Sofitel, Mercure etc) plus extra bonus points for your next two UK and Ireland stays

or

triple points from Club Carlson plus 5,000 points for Sunday and Monday nights plus 3,000 points for an app booking

or

double or triple Hilton points plus 2,000 bonus Avios

or

double Starwood bonus points (for 2+ night stays)

or

2,000 – 4,000 bonus Marriott points (from your 2nd stay)

or

a potential 30,000+ fairly easy points via IHG‘s Accelerate offer

is not a bad choice to have!

And, if you aren’t planning a stay at a major brand, read this article to see how you can earn 5,000 or 10,000 bonus Avios by booking hotels via third party booking site Kaligo.com before 11th July.

PS.  If you booking a luxury hotel, remember that we can offer you exclusive additional benefits at Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula and similar hotels.  Click here for details of our luxury hotel booking service in association with Bon Vivant / Virtuoso.  Feedback from readers who have used this service so far has been excellent.

I receive regular emails from readers asking ‘How can I stop my World of Hyatt points from expiring?’ or ‘When do my World of Hyatt points expire?’.  This new series, of which this is the final article, looks at the major hotel loyalty programmes and shows you how to keep valuable points intact.

World of Hyatt, previously Hyatt Gold Passport, is the loyalty scheme for Andaz, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt, Hyatt House, Hyatt Place, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt Zilara, Hyatt Ziva and Park Hyatt.

If you need to refer to this article in the future, there is a link to it on our ‘Hotel Promos’ page in the World of Hyatt section.  This also includes details of current Hyatt promotions.

When do World of Hyatt points expire?

According to the World of Hyatt terms and conditions here:

Starting July 1, 2017, if a Member’s account is inactive for twenty-four (24) consecutive months, all points in that Member’s account will be forfeited at that time, but the Member’s account will remain open (with the ability to earn new points thereafter) unless the Member’s account is otherwise terminated in accordance with these Terms. Under no circumstances will forfeited points be reinstated. Active Members can remain active in the Program by (i) receiving points via authorized means, (ii) receiving credits with a partner in the Program for a stay at a Hyatt hotel or resort, (iii) redeeming points (and, if applicable, completing any reservation for which such points were redeemed), (iv) transferring a Program award (in accordance with these Terms), (v) converting points to Partner Loyalty Points, (vi) purchasing or combining points, or (vii) having a valid Hyatt co-branded credit card (“Hyatt Credit Card”) in the Member’s name. If a Member redeems points for an Award Reservation (as defined in Appendix B) and either cancels that Award Reservation or does not actually check-in on the appointed date (i.e., no-shows), that Award Reservation will not count as a redemption of points pursuant to subsection (iii) of the preceding sentence and will not toll the measurement of that Member’s Program inactivity.

Historically Hyatt has been very lax on imposing its expiry rules.  Under the new rules above, it is clear that you will lose your points if there has been no activity in the previous 24 months.

What do they mean by ‘active’?

The key point is that YOU DO NOT NEED TO STAY AT A HOTEL TO KEEP YOUR POINTS ALIVE.  You simply need to have some activity go through your account.  It is assumed that clause i) “receiving points via authorized means” covers any method of earning points.

This is more difficult to achieve with Hyatt than with other chains because it has a limited number of partners.  You cannot transfer points from American Express and there is also no Hyatt branded credit card in the UK.

Here are your options if you are UK based and do not have a Hyatt stay, or a Las Vegas casino stay at an MGM Resort property, coming up:

Earning points:

Buy World of Hyatt points

Eat at a participating Hyatt hotel restaurant or visit a Hyatt hotel spa (when not staying at the hotel)

Credit an Avis car rental to Hyatt

Transfer Award Wallet refer a friend points to Hyatt

That’s it!

What you cannot do to save your points is transfer your points into someone else’s account (or vice versa).  Whilst Hyatt DOES let you do this – for free – both accounts must have had some activity in the last 12 months.  If you had some activity on your account in the last 12 months, your points would not be about to expire in the first place!

Spending points:

The rules I quoted above make it clear than booking and immediately cancelling a reward night does not count as activity.  You can normally get away with doing this in other programmes!

Here are your options:

Transfer points into an airline loyalty scheme.  The minimum transfer is 5,000 points which gets you 2,000 airline miles, and the transfer will keep the remainder of your points active for another 24 months.

Use 2,000 points for a $10 dining or spa credit at a Hyatt hotel – you do not need to be a guest to do this

Use 6,000 points for a one-day Avis car hire redemption

Keeping a small amount of Hyatt points alive is not as simple as it could be.  There are options, though, so there is no excuse for seeing your account closed down.  For an easy life, I would just buy a handful of points and be done with it.

If you want to track the expiry dates of all of your miles and points, I recommend signing up to AwardWallet for free.  It keeps all of your points balances, including non-travel loyalty schemes, in one place and updates them automatically.  If you pay for the premium version it also tracks your expiry dates and emails you when points are about to expire.

One of the key benefits of the American Express Platinum charge card – apart from the 30,000 points (=30,000 Avios) you get for signing up! – is the Fine Hotels & Resorts programme.

As I booked a stay via this programme last week, I thought it was worth running over the key benefits again.  I will also explain how you can get similar benefits without a Platinum card via our hotel booking partner, Bon Vivant.

FHR, as it is known, is a collection of 600 luxury hotels worldwide which commit to offering special benefits to American Express Platinum cardholders when you book via Amex Travel.  FHR bookings can be made online via the Amex Travel website (you must be logged in as a Platinum cardholder to see pricing) or by calling.  Bon Vivant can also book them for you – this is a little unnecessary, admittedly, as you can do it yourself online but you could always ask Bon Vivant if they have any better deals via Virtuoso or a ‘preferred partner’ agreement and if not to book FHR for you anyway.

The 2017 directory of FHR properties is here. This site is aimed at US Amex customers but the deals are the same globally.

The special FHR benefits are:

Noon check-in when available (I value this at nothing!  I want it guaranteed or it is useless.)

Room upgrade on arrival when available (can be very good but not guaranteed)

Free breakfast for two people (very valuable at expensive hotels)

GUARANTEED 4pm check-out (very valuable on some trips)

Free in-room wi-fi (can be valuable, some luxury hotels still like to charge)

An additional benefit, usual $100 of food and beverage credit per stay

Where FHR really works for me is the guaranteed 4pm check-out.  If you are on a short break with an evening flight home, you really don’t want to be checking out of your hotel at 11am or noon.  Yes, the hotel will store your bag for you, but it isn’t the same as having full access to your room.

On my trip last week, my flight out of Hamburg was 17.10.  Being able to keep the room and work until 3pm was a real benefit.

The big downside of Fine Hotels & Resorts is pricing.  Rates seem to be fixed in advance for the year so it is possible that, if the hotel starts discounting, the FHR rate may be higher than the highest flexible rate on the hotel website.  That said, on a shorter stay the $100 food and drink credit usually offsets that and you still have the benefit of free breakfast, late check-out and potential upgrade.  As it turned out, pricing was identical on my stay last week.

It is worth noting that Fine Hotels & Resorts rates DO quality for points and status credit if you stay at a chain hotel.

Park Hyatt Hamburg

I used Fine Hotels & Resorts to book a room at the Park Hyatt in Hamburg last Thursday.  This has been my ‘go to’ hotel in Hamburg for years, partly because it is 1 minute from the railway station and partly because it is very well run and maintained.   I even remembered my swimming trunks this time!

The Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts rate was €245 – the same as the flexible rate on the Hyatt website.

The first time I stayed on an FHR package I was given a huge junior suite.  This time, like last year, I was upgraded to the executive floor, which meant I got access to the club lounge for free.  If I’m honest, this doesn’t add much because the other FHR food and drink benefits are so good.

For one night stays, the rebate you get on a Fine Hotels & Resorts booking is substantial.  I got:

free breakfast (I could have had it in the lounge as I was upgraded but I went to the restaurant as this was part of the FHR deal – and the Park Hyatt does a great breakfast.  This would have been valid for two people if my wife had come too.)

€85 of food and beverage credit, which I used in the casual dining area – it would also have been valid for the main restaurant, but not via room service.  This is equivalent to 30% of what I paid for my room.

additional evening snacks and drinks from the club lounge, due to my executive floor upgrade

check-out to 3pm (I could have had 4pm) for my 5pm flight

I also got a half-bottle of wine in my room (which I had to leave behind as I was only on hand baggage) and a bag of chocolates.  I don’t know if this was due to FHR, my previous stays at the hotel or my World of Hyatt membership – albeit I have no Hyatt status.

Based on previous experience, the stay will post to my World Of Hyatt account in the next couple of days.  FHR bookings do earn points, unlike most third party website bookings.

No Amex Platinum?  No problem!

If you don’t have an American Express Platinum card, you can access similar benefits at luxury hotels via Emyr Thomas at Bon Vivant, who is the HFP hotel booking partner.   Emyr is an affiliate of SmartFlyer, a Virtuoso agency, which means that booking through him can get you access to similar benefits including upgrades, free breakfast, early check-in / late check-out and $100 hotel credits (or similar) at every Virtuoso member hotel.

To be fair, Park Hyatt Hamburg is not in Virtuoso, so it wouldn’t have helped here.  The Fairmont Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten and soon-to-open The Fontenay Hamburg (built on the site on the now-demolished InterContinental Hamburg) are, however.

You can read more about our hotel booking service here, and more about Amex Platinum in my card review here.

News in brief:

British Airways to make remaining US ground staff redundant

According to reports from BA sources on Flyertalk, it was announced internally on Friday that remaining British Airways ground staff in the US are to lose their jobs.  A private contractor will be taking over the handling of British Airways flights.  It is likely that the current staff will be given the chance to transfer, although I don’t know if there are similar rules to the UK on protecting existing pay and conditions.

This follows the recent decision to transfer the Manchester and Newcastle call centre staff to Capita.

Even New York JFK is included in this move.  You would have expected British Airways to want to keep direct control of its staff at such a key gateway, but it seems not.  The airports affected are San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Miami, Washington, Philadelphia, New York Newark, New York JFK and Boston.  All of the other BA US bases are already outsourced, I understand.

In case you’re wondering, this is not the normal way that long-haul airlines operate.  Most of the major foreign long haul carriers at Heathrow use their own dedicated staff and it is generally seen as a better way of keeping control of the situation on the ground when things go wrong – which, in the airline business, they often do.

United Airlines drops three UK and Irish routes to New York

United has announced that it is ending services between New York and three UK and Irish destinations:

Birmingham to Newark will close on 5th October

Glasgow to Newark will move from year-round to Summer-only, with no flights between 28th October and 4th May 2018

Shannon to Newark will move from year-round to a 75% service, with no flights between 25th November and 9th March 2018

Aer Lingus will continue to fly from Shannon to New York, and Norwegian is likely to pick up the slack elsewhere over time.

Up to 40% bonus when you buy World of Hyatt points

Until 9th August, Hyatt is offering a 30% – 40% bonus when you buy World of Hyatt points.

You get a 30% bonus when you buy 5,000 to 9,000 points and 40% on any larger purchase.  This is a better deal than those we have seen recently from Hyatt which have tended to cap out at 30%.

This is obviously worth a look if you need to top up your account.  It may also be worthwhile if considering a stay in a top tier Park Hyatt such as the ones in Paris or Sydney, where buying the points may be cheaper than paying cash.

The new Park Hyatt resort in Mallorca is another location where buying points may make sense.   Prices for cash are still a little scary – rooms from Euro 545 in August, or Euro 680 if you want a cancellable one – despite being about 25% lower than they were in 2016.  A redemption at 20,000 points per night ($336 / £256) would be a good deal.

The Hyatt ‘buy points’ site is here.

Welcome to our monthly round-up of the best hotel promotions currently running.  All of the information in this article can also be found on our ‘Hotel Promos’ page which contains details of all of the current offers, together with links to our major articles on each hotel scheme.  However, a positive response from readers – especially our 10,000 email subscribers – means I am now running this monthly article as a handy summary of what is going on.

Where should you credit your stays this month?

You are, to be honest, spoilt for choice at the moment.  I run through the options below.

IHG (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental, Indigo, Staybridge Suites etc):

The Summer version of IHG’s ‘Accelerate’ is probably the best choice for most people with lighter schedules.  As targets are personalised it is totally dependent on what you were offered but you should be able to rack up a significant number of bonus points with just a few nights.

‘Accelerate’ runs until 31st August.  This is my main article on the offer.

Everyone has individual targets, but they are generally fairly easy.  You can earn 30,000+ bonus points with the points starting to flow from your first stay.

I have this for 48,900 points:

• 5,000 points for a stay before 30th June
• 2,500 points on my next stay
• 10,000 points for staying five nights
• 5,600 points for staying two weekends (Fri / Sat or Sat / Sun)
• 11,200 points for staying in IHG hotels in two different countries outside the UK
• 3,600 points for booking a Bonus Points Package
• 11,000 points for completing four of the five targets above, excluding the June bonus

Even with my modest number of planned IHG stays (two!) I should be able to hit most of these targets and I should be able to slot in another night if necessary to ensure that I earn the full amount.

You need to register for ‘Accelerate’ – the link is here, where you will also find your personalised targets.  The IHG home page is here.

Hilton (Hampton, Conrad, Waldorf-Astoria etc):

The Hilton offer looks good and is very straightforward.  You will receive double base points on every stay until 31st August.  Diamond members will receive triple points.

I wrote about this offer here.  If you have top tier status with another hotel programme, Hilton will match you to Diamond for 90 days which will allow you to receive triple points – I explain how to do it in this article.

You MUST register for double points by visiting this page of hilton.com.

Hilton is also running a separate offer which gives 2,000 Avios on your next five stays before 31st August.  This requires you to switch your earning preference to ‘points and miles’ instead of ‘points and points’ but it should be worth it unless you are doing a very expensive stay.  Full details, and the link to register for 2,000 bonus Avios, are in this article.

Club Carlson (Radisson Blu, Park Inn, Park Plaza, Radisson Red):

Club Carlson has its own generous offer which could – if the specifics make sense to you – be very lucrative.

Called ‘Free Fridays’, you will receive one free Friday night (valid at any hotel, to be used from October) for every two stays you do.

Alternatively, you can choose to receive 10,000 bonus Club Carlson points for every two stays.

The deal runs until 30th September and you’ll find full details in my article here.

Totally separately, this link gives you an exclusive 10% discount on many Radisson Blu hotels in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Le Club AccorHotels:

Totally separately, see this article for how to earn 500 bonus Avios on your next Novotel or Mercure stay before 30th September.

World of Hyatt:

Hyatt has no global promotion at present.

Starwood (St Regis, Westin, Sheraton, Element, W, Luxury Collection etc)

I wrote about the new Starwood promotion here.  It is a simple one but comes with a small catch – it requires a stay of 2 nights or more.

2+ night stays between 27th May and 4th September will earn double points.  If your stay includes a Friday or Saturday night, the entire stay will earn triple points.

Registration is required via this page of the Starwood Preferred Guest website.  Check that your chosen hotel is on the list of those taking part.

I recommend this offer if you have a high value, multi-night trip planned, especially if it takes in a Friday or Saturday night.

Marriott (Renaissance, Ritz-Carlton etc):

The new Marriott Rewards offer, ‘Infinite Points’, covers the same dates as the Starwood offer – 27th May to 4th September.

You must register in advance via this website.

You earn no bonus for your first stay between 27th May and 4th September.  After that, you receive 2,000 bonus Marriott Rewards points for your 2nd and subsequent stays.

You also receive 2,000 additional Marriott Rewards bonus points for your 2nd and subsequent brands, so there is the potential to receive 4,000 bonus points per stay if you can brand-hop.

Because there is no minimum stay needed and because the bonus is a fixed amount, this offer works best for someone doing shorter and cheaper stays.  Don’t forget to register here.

Conclusion

The current offers are looking attractive, even without anything from Accor and Hyatt.

Having a choice of:

a ‘Free Friday’ or 10,000 bonus points from Club Carlson

or

double or triple Hilton points plus 2,000 bonus Avios

or

double Starwood bonus points (for 2+ night stays)

or

2,000 – 4,000 bonus Marriott points (from your 2nd stay)

or

a potential 30,000+ fairly easy points via IHG‘s Accelerate offer

is not a bad choice to have!

PS.  If you booking a luxury hotel, remember that we can offer you exclusive additional benefits at Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula and similar hotels.  Click here for details of our luxury hotel booking service in association with Bon Vivant / Virtuoso.  Feedback from readers who have used this service so far has been excellent and we have booked over £500,000 of rooms so far.

I thought it was about time to revise and update the lists I first published in 2012 about the best way to use up small amounts of miles and points.

What I want to explore is ‘What is the smallest or most optimum small reward, and how can you ‘top-off’ an account?’.  Please join in the discussion with your ideas in the Comments section.  

Today I will look at some hotel loyalty schemes, and Part 2 later this week will focus on some airline and shopping schemes.  Click on the links to read relevant historic Head for Points posts on the topic mentioned.

In all cases below except Accor, there is a formal ‘buy points’ option you can use to get to the level you need for a redemption.  This page (click) has links to the ‘buy points’ pages of the major airline and hotel schemes.  However, I try to find more creative ideas that don’t involve spending money.

How to spend small amounts of points or top up a small balance to something worthwhile:

Club Carlson

• EXPIRY RULES – You can check the Club Carlson expiry rules in this article
• SPEND – Airline transfers are available from just 2,000 points (200 miles)
• SPEND – ‘Points and Cash’ redemptions are often available at 5,000, 10,000 or 15,000 points although the saving offered over the cash rate is often not huge
• SPEND – Club Carlson has a number of charity partners on their website who accept donations of points.  The minimum donation is only 1,000 points.
• SPEND – Other cash-outs (eg redeeming for a pre-paid MasterCard) are poor value but do at least exist as a last resort – and to be fair, the MasterCard gift cards (30,000 points for £25) are no worse value than converting to airline miles
• SPEND – many hotels offer ‘in property’ rewards such as redeeming for meal credit, although if you are doing stays then you are unlikely to be looking to empty your account
• SPEND – You can transfer your Club Carlson points – FOR FREE – to another person
• TOP-UP – You can top-off an account with American Express Membership Rewards points at 1:3, with no minimum transfer.  The 20,000 Amex points offered with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold would get you 60,000 Carlson points.
• TOP-UP – You can credit car rentals from most firms to earn a few points

Hilton Honors

• EXPIRY RULES – you can check the expiry rules of Hilton Honors points in this article
• SPEND – Remember that ‘cash and points’ bookings can be booked from as few as 5,000 points, so you can use up a small number of points to save money on your next stay
• SPEND – Transfers to airline miles are available from 10,000 Hilton points
• SPEND – There are some decent properties available for just 5,000 points per night and for just 10,000 points per night (these articles are two years old now and not 100% accurate)
• SPEND – You can transfer points to another person for free, using the new points pooling option introduced in 2017
• SPEND – You can donate points to charity via The Hilton Honors Giving Back Program although the minimum transfer is a steep 10,000 points.
• TOP-UP – Remember you can top-up from American Express Membership Rewards (1:2) and Virgin Flying Club (2:3) transfers, credit a car rental, or get the Hilton credit card and spend just enough to earn the points you need
• TOP-UP – You can top-off an account by turning Starwood Preferred Guest points into Hilton by transferring via Virgin Flying Club
• TOP-UP – You can top-off an account by turning Tesco Clubcard points into Hilton Honors points by transferring via Virgin Flying Club
• TOP-UP – You can earn a small number of points by registering with Travelling Connect and using your mobile abroad

World of Hyatt

My prefererred small Hyatt reward is the 6,000 point suite upgrade, although this is only now valid for one night instead of four.  Hyatt has ‘cash and points’ awards, so you may have enough for a reward after all.  You can also buy Hyatt points.  Airline transfers are from 5,000 points.

You can also use 2,000 points for a $10 dining or spa credit at a Hyatt hotel – you do not need to be a guest to do this.  Another option is to use 6,000 points for a one-day Avis car hire redemption

Accounts can be topped up by eating at a participating Hyatt hotel restaurant or crediting an Avis car rental to Hyatt.  That’s it!

You can merge your Hyatt points with those of your partner, but I think you need to redeem them at the same time.

Hyatt is not an American Express Membership Rewards partner.

The World of Hyatt expiry rules are summarised here.

IHG Rewards Club

• EXPIRY RULES – you can check the expiry rules for IHG Rewards Club points in this article
• SPEND – ‘Cash and Points’ means that you only need 5,000 points for a 15,000 point award night – you can buy the remaining 10,000 points for just $70
• SPEND – ‘PointBreaks’ nights are only 5,000 points!  Here is the latest list.
• SPEND – Airline mile redemptions are available from 10,000 points
• SPEND – Plenty of UK High Street retailer gift cards are on offer from £5 per 4,000 points
• SPEND –  The IHG Digital Rewards catalogue has songs for under 500 points
• SPEND – You can pay $5 per 1,000 to transfer orphan PC points to a third party – this is not a bad deal compared to the cost of buying points outright
• SPEND – You can use points.com to turn IHG points into various airline schemes, although the rate is poor
• TOP-UP – You can also use points.com to transfer various airline miles into IHG Rewards Club points, although the rate is poor.  I did this to empty my Virgin America account.
• TOP-UP – You can top-up with Virgin Flying Club miles (10,000 minimum, 1:1)
• TOP-UP – You can top-up with Finnair miles (20,000 minimum, 2:1)
• TOP-UP – Transfer points from Hertz Gold Plus Rewards into IHG
• TOP-UP – You can get either of the IHG Rewards Club credit cards and cancel it once you have earned the points you need to cash out
• TOP-UP – You can earn a small number of points by registering with Travelling Connect and using your mobile abroad

Le Club AccorHotels

• EXPIRY RULES – you can check the Accor expiry rules here
• SPEND – you require 2,000 points before you can redeem Accor points for credit towards a future booking.  2,000 points get you a €40 saving.  Transfers to airline miles require a minimum of 3,000 points (Iberia) or 4,000 points (most other schemes).
• TOP-UP – you can transfer points from the eRewards market research scheme (but this is ‘invite only’ membership)
• TOP-UP – you can transfer Finnair frequent flyer miles into Accor
• TOP-UP – you can transfer Qatar Airways frequent flyer miles into Accor
• TOP-UP – you can credit a Europcar car rental to Accor

Marriott Rewards

• EXPIRY RULES – you can check the expiry rules for Marriott Rewards in this article
• SPEND – You can convert Marriott Rewards points into Starwood Preferred Guest points at a rate of 3:1, minimum 3000
• SPEND – There are some interesting properties for 7,500 and 10,000 points per night (this article is now four years out of date)
• SPEND – In addition, many of the newly acquired Protea Hotels in Africa have been priced at 7,500 and 10,000 points per night and represent excellent value
• SPEND – PointSaver awards and ‘cash and points’ awards mean that you may need fewer than you think for a redemption – although there are very few of these on offer
• SPEND – You can redeem points for a cash credit when staying at a Marriott hotel
• TOP-UP – Marriott is also a Travelling Connect partner, if you are using your mobile abroad
• TOP-UP – You can convert Starwood Preferred Guest points into Marriott Rewards at 1:3
• TOP-UP – Marriott is NOT an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner.  However, you can convert Amex points to Starwood Preferred Guest and transfer to Marriott Rewards at 1:3.
• TOP-UP – You can credit a Hertz car rental to Marriott
• TOP-UP – United Airlines Silver card holders can transfer their United miles to Marriott at 1:1
• TOP-UP – As Starwood members can double-dip by earning points when flying with Emirates and with Delta, this is a backdoor way of topping up Marriott Rewards points with those airlines

Starwood Preferred Guest

• EXPIRY RULES – you can check the SPG expiry rules in this article
• SPEND – SPG Moments lets you redeem small amounts (often just 5,000 points) for tickets to cultural and sporting events
• SPEND – ‘Cash and Points’ rates are available at many properties, allowing you to book a redemption with a cash top up for a lower level of points
• SPEND – Some hotels offer cheap ‘instant awards’ (eg a bottle of wine), these are explained at check-in
• SPEND – You can transfer SPG points for FREE to another person living at your address and also convert them to your own Marriott Rewards account (minimum 1,000)
• SPEND – You can redeem 1,000 points for an SPG50 award.  Whilst few hotels accept these, and you need to ring to find which do, they offer a fantastic 50% saving on the ‘best available rate’ for a cash booking.  SPG50 availability can only be checked by telephone, unfortunately.
• SPEND – You can get SPG to book a cash flight ticket for you via SPG Flights
• SPEND – You can transfer SPG points to Hilton Honors by routing via Virgin Flying Club
• SPEND – You can donate points to the American Red Cross, Clean The World or Unicef – the minimum is just 500 points
• SPEND – Platinum members can transfer any amount from 1 point to airlines, although Gold’s have a 1,500 minimum and Plat’s 2,500. The list of airline partners is here.
• TOP-UP – You can transfer Amex Membership Rewards points or get the SPG American Express credit card to top-off your balance to the amount you need for an account emptying redemption.  The current SPG Amex sign-up bonus is 10,000 points.
• TOP-UP – You can credit an Avis, Budget or Sixt car rental to earn a handful of points
• TOP-UP – You can move your Marriott Rewards points to Starwood at a 3:1 ratio, minimum 3,000
• TOP-UP – You can link your SPG and Uber accounts and earn 1 point for every $1 spend with Uber
• TOP-UP – SPG Gold and Platinum members earn 1 SPG point for every $1 spent on Delta flights.  There is a similar deal with Emirates.

In Part 2 of this article later this week, I will look at some airline and shopping programmes.

The last few months have seen a number of, in some cases, underhand moves to change – for the worse – the cancellation policies for flexible hotel bookings.

These moves have generally been restricted to North America which is why I haven’t covered them.  However, IHG – owner of Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental, Staybridge Suites, Hotel Indigo and other brands – has launched this in Europe as well.  Hilton also made a change from 1st August.

As of two weeks ago, Best Flexible Rate bookings at IHG properties in Europe and the Americas need to be cancelled THE DAY BEFORE arrival.  Not at midnight, but usually by around 4pm.

Here are a few random examples I tried:

Holiday Inn Mayfair, London – cancel by 4pm the day before

InterContinental Paris Le Grand – cancel by 4pm the day before

Crowne Plaza Porto – cancel by 4pm the day before

IHG hotels in Asia, the Middle East and Africa still retain the current ‘cancel the same day’ policy but will reportedly be switching during September.

Whether this new policy is a problem to you or not depends on your travel pattern.  We book cancellable rates most of the time – you tend to do that when travelling with little kids who may fall ill – but we know by the day before whether we are going or not.

The real hit is to the business traveller who books a room just in case a meeting overruns.  You can’t do that any longer.  You may be better off not pre-booking at all and, if you do find yourself needing something at short notice, booking it via a mobile app on your phone (and, of course, facing the wrath of your corporate travel department for breaching policy when you return).

What makes this worse, of course, is that IHG hasn’t notified IHG Rewards Club members of this change.  If you are not totally on the ball when booking you could easily have failed to notice it.

And it’s not just IHG ….

IHG is simply following the lead of other chains.

Outside North America, Hilton and Marriott / Starwood already had a ‘one day before arrival’ policy which actually means by midnight the day before.  IHG is now worse than this, requiring 4pm cancellation the day before.

In North America:

Hilton moved to a 48 hour cancellation policy on 1st August, with some hotels asking for 72 hours

Marriott / Starwood moved to a 48 hour cancellation policy (72 hours at some hotels) earlier in 2017

This means that IHG remains more generous that these three chains in North America, even with the new ‘4pm the day before’ policy.  This is still no use to the business traveller who wants to hold a room in case a meeting runs late.

The bottom line is that you should vote with your wallet.  At least in Europe, Radisson Blu is still offering cancellation on the day of arrival, as are the Accor brands (Novotel, Sofitel, Ibis, Pullman etc).  For now.

Welcome to our monthly round-up of the best hotel promotions currently running.  All of the information in this article can also be found on our ‘Hotel Promos’ page which contains details of all of the current offers, together with links to our major articles on each hotel scheme.  However, a positive response from readers – especially our 10,000 email subscribers – means I am now running this monthly article as a handy summary of what is going on.

Where should you credit your stays this month?

You have some pretty decent options at the moment.  I run through the options below.

IHG (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental, Indigo, Staybridge Suites etc):

The Autumn version of IHG’s ‘Accelerate’ is probably the best choice for most people with lighter schedules.  As targets are personalised it is totally dependent on what you were offered but you should be able to rack up a significant number of bonus points with just a few nights.

The latest round of ‘Accelerate’ runs until 31st December.  This is my article on the offer.

Everyone has individual targets, but they are generally fairly easy.  You can earn 30,000+ bonus points with the points starting to flow from your first stay.

I had this for 48,100 points:

• 5,000 points for a stay in September
• 2,000 points on my next stay
• 10,000 points for staying five nights
• 4,000 points for booking a two-night weekend stay
• 2,500 points for two stays booked via my corporate rate (the company I haven’t worked for in 6 years!)
• 6,600 points for booking a Bonus Points Package
• 2,000 points for getting the IHG credit card
• 5,000 points for renewing my Ambassador membership
• 11,000 points for completing six of the seven targets above, excluding the September bonus

You need to register for ‘Accelerate’ – the link is here where you will also find your personalised targets.  The IHG home page is here.

Hilton (Hampton, Conrad, Waldorf-Astoria etc):

The Hilton offer looks ok and is very straightforward.  You will receive double base points on every stay until 31st December.  There is no minimum stay required and every Hilton hotel is participating.

I wrote about this offer here.  

Hilton is still status matching too.  If you have status with another hotel programme, Hilton will match you to Gold or Diamond for 90 days – I explain how to do it in this article.

You MUST register for double points by visiting this page of hilton.com.

Club Carlson (Radisson Blu, Park Inn, Park Plaza, Radisson Red):

Whilst you only have three weeks left to take part, Club Carlson has its own generous offer which could – if the specifics make sense to you – be very lucrative.

Called ‘Free Fridays’, you will receive one free Friday night (valid at any hotel, to be used from October) for every two stays you do.

Alternatively, you can choose to receive 10,000 bonus Club Carlson points for every two stays.

The deal runs until 30th September and you’ll find full details in my article here.

Totally separately, this link gives you an exclusive 10% discount on many Radisson Blu hotels in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Le Club AccorHotels:

World of Hyatt:

Hyatt has no global promotion at present.

Starwood (St Regis, Westin, Sheraton, Element, W, Luxury Collection etc)

The Starwood offer is pretty weak, to be honest, because it is restricted to only some of their hotels.

Until 15th January, you will earn either 500 or 1,000 bonus SPG points per stay, based on brand, but only if your chosen hotel is participating.

If your chosen hotel is taking part then you are not getting a bad deal on a cheap stay, given that I value 500 Starwood points at £7.50 and 1,000 points at £15.  Here is the list of 1,000 point hotels and here is the list of 500 point hotels.

Registration is required via this page of the Starwood website.  Registration closes on 30th November, which is six weeks before the promotion ends.

Marriott (Renaissance, Ritz-Carlton etc):

The new Marriott Rewards offer, a free night for just two stays, covers the same dates as the Starwood offer, expiring on 15th January.

You must register in advance of your stay via this website.

After two stays, you will receive a voucher for a free night at a Category 1-5 Marriott Rewards hotel.  This would usually cost between 7,500 and 25,000 Marriott Rewards points.  You are limited to one free night per account.

The voucher is valid for six months and can be used whenever there is standard reward availability showing.  The only snag is the limited number of Category 1-5 hotels in major cities in Europe and North America.  

My full article on this offer is here.  Don’t forget to register before 30th November, which is six weeks before the offer ends.

Conclusion

The current offers are looking attractive, even without anything from Accor and Hyatt.

Having a choice of:

a ‘Free Friday’ or 10,000 bonus points from Club Carlson (albeit to 30th September only)

or

double Hilton points

or

a free night after just two Marriott stays

or

a potential 40,000+ fairly easy points via IHG‘s Accelerate offer

is not a bad choice to have!

PS.  If you booking a luxury hotel, remember that we can offer you exclusive additional benefits at Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula and similar hotels.  Click here for details of our luxury hotel booking service in association with Bon Vivant / Virtuoso.  Feedback from readers who have used this service so far has been excellent and we have booked over £500,000 of rooms so far.

It was due a return and now it is back.  I’m talking about the ‘bonus when you transfer your hotel loyalty points to British Airways Avios‘ promotion.

The ba.com page for the offer can be found here.

As with the last two versions of this offer, which runs every 7-9 months, when you transfer hotel loyalty points to British Airways, you get a 35% bonus.

There are a few simple rules you must follow:

Rule 1: You must convert your hotel points to Avios (at ba.com, not avios.com) before 31st October.  31st October is the date by which the points must leave your hotel account, not arrive at ba.com

Rule 2: Only transfers from the following hotel programmes count:

• Club Carlson
• Hilton Honors
• IHG Rewards Club
• Marriott Rewards
• Shangri-La Golden Circle
• World of Hyatt

Le Club AccorHotels is NOT included but that is normally the case.

Starwood Preferred Guest is not included but you can transfer your points to Marriott Rewards at 1:3 and move them from there.  I look at this later.

Rule 3: There are minimum transfer requirements in theory, but these are the same as the lowest possible transfer out of that programme.  Nothing has changed compared to the normal transfer rules.

Rule 4: Only lump sum transfers of existing points get the bonus. Points earned directly from stays (ie 500 Avios for a stay at a Hilton property) do not attract the bonus as they would fall under the minimum transfer threshold.

Rule 5: You can make multiple transfers from multiple programmes and, based on past experience, all will attract the bonus.

So, is this a good deal or not?

I am normally a bit sceptical about this offer when it runs at 25%.  In general, a 25% bonus is not enough – for any promotion – to make a bad deal a great deal.  At 35% we should look more closely.

In general, hotel points are best redeemed for hotel stays. Let’s look at the points needed for a high category room redemption, which I am assuming is worth £250 a night.  The Avios conversion does not include the 35 per cent bonus.

Club Carlson – 70,000 points = 7,000 Avios or a £250 room

Hilton Honors – 80,000 to 90,000 points = 8,000 to 9,000 Avios or a £250 room

IHG Rewards Club – 50,000 to 60,000 points = 10,000 to 12,000 Avios or a £250 room

Marriott Rewards – 45,000 points = 12,000 Avios or a £250 room

Shangri-La Golden Circle – 9,500 points (Shard, Paris, Maldives cost double) = 9,500 Avios or a £250 room

World of Hyatt – 25,000 to 30,000 points = 10,000 Avios to 12,500 Avios or a £250 room

Looking at these numbers, you are probably better leaving large stashes of hotel points where they are.

With the Hyatt, Marriott and IHG examples, you are trading a £250 hotel room for (12,000 * 1.35) 16,200 Avios points.  That still isn’t a great deal.

Be careful with Starwood v Marriott

You CAN use your Starwood points with this offer if you send them to Marriott Rewards first.  You can now convert SPG points to Marriott at 1:3, or vice versa.

Remember that – 365 days per year – Starwood gives you a 25% bonus when you transfer 20,000 points into Avios.  20,000 SPG points become 25,000 Avios.  Because the Marriott to Avios transfer ratio changes depending on how many you convert, you need to do the maths for your own position to see what works best.  You might still be better leaving them with Starwood and converting from their at your leisure.

Note that if you redeem for one of the very good value Marriott Travel Package rewards, you will get a 35% bonus on the Avios element of the package!

For a small amount of points it is a different game

A couple of years ago I tidied up some of my small hotel balances by converting to Avios, often topping up first from American Express Membership Rewards, and didn’t regret it. If you will never earn enough for a free room, you might as well convert and a 35 per cent bonus is a good excuse.

The other thing to remember is that the hotel chains convert to many airline programmes, often over 20.  You may get a 35 per cent bonus via Avios, but perhaps topping off another account may be more useful?  If you had a huge volume of hotel points, you may be able to get enough points from scratch in, say, the American Airlines programme for a tax-free UK to US redemption.  Avios are not always the answer.

Here is my final thought:

You can transfer IHG Rewards Club points to someone else for $5 per 1000, Hilton points for FREE with the new pooling feature and SPG and Carlson points for free if you share an address.  Hyatt points can be pooled if you ring and redeem them immediately.  Marriott transfers are reportedly now free although the website still quotes $10.

Perhaps a transfer to a friend who can use a larger total for a hotel room is a better deal than Avios, even with the bonus?

This offer runs until 31st October so you have plenty of time to decide.

News in brief:

(Note: parts of this article appeared on the site by accident on Friday for a few hours which is why it may sound familiar!)

100% bonus when you buy IHG Rewards Club points

IHG Rewards Club – the InterContinental, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza etc scheme – has brought back its ‘100% buy points bonus’ promotion.  It is as generous an offer as you will ever see for IHG points.

The page to buy points is here.  The deal runs until 3rd November.

The offer is targetted but very widely targetted, so it is very likely you will see it on your account.

Here are the standard purchase rates which do NOT include the bonus:

• 1,000 – 10,000 points for $13.50 per 1,000 points
• 11,000 – 25,000 points for $12.50 per 1,000 points
• 26,000 – 60,000 points for $11.50 per 1,000 points

I receive a 100% bonus with any order of 5,000 points or more.  Some people seem to have a higher minimum, as high as 25,000. Some people also seem to have been offered a cash discount on top of double points for buying the full 60,000 points, although I did not receive that.

With a 100% bonus, you would be able to buy 120,000 IHG points for (at current exchange rates for $690) £525.  This assumes your credit card has 0% FX fees.

Here are a few examples of how this deal may work.

At the top end of the IHG Rewards Club portfolio, you have InterContinental properties which top out at 50,000 – 60,000 points per night. That’s what you would pay for InterContinental Le Grand in Paris or the InterContinental Amstel in Amsterdam.

With a 100% bonus, IHG is effectively selling you a night at a 50,000 point property for £219 all-in.  A 60,000 point hotel would be £262.  At the bottom end, the points for a 5,000 point PointBreaks night would cost just £22.

You should look at this if you have a ‘buy points’ target for your Accelerate promotion – although it makes more sense to buy 5,000 and get the bonus than buy 1,000 for no bonus.  If you are topping off your account, it is also a good deal irrespective of the exact cents per point cost.  The maximum number of points you can buy per year is 120,000 (ie 60,000 plus the 60,000 bonus).

You can buy via this link.

30% bonus on Marriott Rewards transfers to American Airlines

Until 5th December, American Airlines is offering a 30% bonus if you transfer your Marriott Rewards points into AAdvantage miles.

Full details can be found on the American Airlines site here.

This is NOT necessarily a good deal.  There are two reasons why:

Miles transferred to American as part of a Marriott Rewards Travel Package do not qualify for the bonus.  As a Travel Package is probably the best use of Marriott Rewards points, this is clearly an issue.  You can learn more about Travel Packages in my article here.

As you can now move Marriott Rewards points to Starwood Preferred Guest at 3:1, and since 20,000 Starwood points convert into 25,000 American Airlines miles on a permanent basis, you may find little extra benefit from this offer.

That said, if you’ve got a few orphan Marriott Rewards points and have an American Airlines miles balance, this is a decent chance to use them up.

Interesting Hyatt redemption deal in New York

If you have a small number of World of Hyatt points, you might be interested in a new Hyatt Place hotel which has opened in Long Island City.  Located on the western edge of Queens, this is VERY close to Manhattan, just one subway stop away.

The hotel website is here.

The key benefit is that you can book a free night here for just 8,000 World of Hyatt points.  I tend to value a Hyatt point at 1p and this property clearly exceeds that by a long way given that midweek dates are $230 including tax.  You even get free breakfast.   Hat-tip to US blog Will Run For Miles.

News in brief:

Double Avios on Kaligo.com hotel bookings

Hotel booking site Kaligo.com has been fairly quiet on the promotional front recently.

They now have a new offer available:

You will receive double Avios – up to 40 per £1 but usually less – on all bookings made by 31st December 2017

The stay must be completed by 30th March 2018

If you live outside the UK, you will get a further 25% Avios bonus if you pay with a BA non-UK credit card from Royal Bank of Canada, Russian Standard Bank, ABSA Bank, First Carribean Bank, Butterfield, Dah Sing Bank, Commercial Bank of Kuwait, EnterCard, CornerCard

Full details can be found here.  This is a special booking page for the deal.

Like similar sites such as PointsHound and Rocketmiles, hotel bookings via Kaligo.com are treated as non-qualifying stays.  This means that you won’t receive any points in Hilton Honors, IHG Rewards Club etc or, most of the time, receive any status benefits due to you.  Marriott is the only major chain to give status benefits – but not points – on indirect bookings.

Assuming there is no price difference, this offer is best used when staying at a hotel outside one of the major chains.

New World of Hyatt double points promotion

World of Hyatt has launched a new promotion covering the six week period until the end of the year.

You will earn double base points for every stay completed between 15th November and 31st December, although registration will end on 30th November.

Note the strict eligibility rules.  Only stays booked online at hyatt.com or via the Hyatt app will count.  Stays booked by other channels, even if they are direct (ie ringing the hotel or a Hyatt call centre) will not count.

Full details and registration can be found here.

Last day for 50% ‘buy Avios’ bonus

A reminder that the 50% ‘buy Avios’ bonus which has been running this week ends at midnight.

The ba.com page to buy if you are interested is here.

The pros and cons of purchasing were discussed in my article earlier in the week.

News in brief:

10am check-in (guaranteed?) now a Spire Elite benefit

IHG Rewards Club sent out an email to Spire Elite members over the weekend.  It said:

“We know that when you’re busy travelling, every second of down time is precious. That’s why we’re making check-in times as early as 10am for Spire Elite members like you.  Just update your stay preference to early arrival when you book a room.”

It has also been added to the list of benefits by tier on this page of ihg.com.

The small print on that page says:

“Subject to availability.  Spire Elite members may check in as early as 10 a.m. Please select early arrival as a stay preference in your reservation confirmation.”

Regular readers will know how I value hotel elite status benefits:

Valued at £nothing – anything with the words ‘subject to availability’ next to it

Valued at £something – anything with the word ‘guaranteed’ next to it

Making an early check-in ‘subject to availability’ is particularly rubbish.   If I turn up at 10am expecting a room, I want a room.  If I have chosen an IHG hotel just because my flight landed at 8am and I want somewhere to freshen up, I don’t want to be turned away at check in.

We need to see, in reality, how this benefit works out.  If it turns out to be ‘subject to availability but you will get it unless we physically don’t have a room available, of any sort, and we will make sure these rooms get prioritised by housekeeping‘ then it should be OK.  If it turns out to be ‘we’ll give you a room if we feel like, but to be honest it won’t be happening‘, then not so good ….

Up to 40% bonus when you buy Hyatt points

Until 15th December, Hyatt is offering a 40% bonus when you buy World of Hyatt points.

This may well be the biggest bonus that Hyatt has ever offered.  It comes after a turbulent time for the programme, with its CEO leaving amid much criticism of the new benefits package and ludicrously high (given Hyatt’s small footprint) qualification requirements.

The deal is obviously worth a look if you need to top up your account.  It may also be worthwhile if considering a stay in a top tier Park Hyatt such as the ones in Paris or Sydney, where buying the points may be cheaper than paying cash.

The bonus is staggered:

20% bonus on purchases of 5,000 to 9,000 points

30% bonus on purchases of 10,000 to 29,000 points

40% bonus on purchases of 30,000+ points (the annual cap is 55,000 points pre bonus)

At the top end, you are paying $1,320 for 77,000 points (55,000 plus a 22,000 bonus).  That works out at 1.71c – or 1.29p – per point.

The new Park Hyatt resort in Mallorca pictured below is a location where buying points may make sense.   Prices for cash are still a little scary – rooms from Euro 495 (£441) in August 2018, or Euro 550 (£490) if you want a cancellable one.  A redemption at 20,000 points per night (£258) would be a good deal.

The Hyatt ‘buy points’ site is here.

50% buy Avios bonus still running on Iberia Plus

If you regret missing out on the 50% ‘buy Avios’ bonus on ba.com last week, the offer is still running for an extra week over at the Iberia website.

(I don’t necessarily think you should be worried about missing out, as even with a 50% bonus I do not think the price is low enough to buy speculatively, but if you have a definite plan for using them …..)

The Iberia Plus ‘buy Avios’ page is here.  You will need to pay in Euro so factor in any FX fees on your credit card.

Note that you must be logged in to see the 50% bonus.  Remember that your Iberia account must be 90 days old before you will be allowed to use ‘Combine My Avios’ to move the points out of Iberia Plus and into avios.com or British Airways Executive Club.

Welcome to our regular round-up of the best hotel promotions currently running.  All of the information in this article can also be found on our ‘Hotel Promos’ page which contains details of all of the current offers, together with links to our major articles on each hotel scheme.  However, a positive response from readers – especially our 10,000 email subscribers – means I am now running this monthly article as a handy summary of what is going on.

It is important to note that registration closes today for the Hyatt, Marriott and Starwood promotions.  You MUST sign up today if you think there is a chance you may end up staying with any of these chains over the next few weeks.

Where should you credit your stays?

You have some pretty decent options at the moment.  I run through the options below.

IHG (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental, Indigo, Staybridge Suites etc):

The Autumn version of IHG’s ‘Accelerate’ is probably the best choice for most people with lighter schedules.  As targets are personalised it is totally dependent on what you were offered but you should be able to rack up a significant number of bonus points with just a few nights.

The latest round of ‘Accelerate’ runs until 31st December.  This is my article on the offer.

Everyone has individual targets, but they are generally fairly easy.  You can earn 30,000+ bonus points with the points starting to flow from your first stay.

I had this for 48,100 points:

• 5,000 points for a stay in September
• 2,000 points on my next stay
• 10,000 points for staying five nights
• 4,000 points for booking a two-night weekend stay
• 2,500 points for two stays booked via my corporate rate (the company I haven’t worked for in 6 years!)
• 6,600 points for booking a Bonus Points Package
• 2,000 points for getting the IHG credit card
• 5,000 points for renewing my Ambassador membership
• 11,000 points for completing six of the seven targets above, excluding the September bonus

You need to register for ‘Accelerate’ – the link is here where you will also find your personalised targets.  The IHG home page is here.

Hilton (Hampton, Conrad, Waldorf-Astoria etc):

The Hilton offer looks ok and is very straightforward.  You will receive double base points on every stay until 31st December.  There is no minimum stay required and every Hilton hotel is participating.

I wrote about this offer here.

Hilton is still status matching too.  If you have status with another hotel programme, Hilton will match you to Gold or Diamond for 90 days – I explain how to do it in this article.

You MUST register for double points by visiting this page of hilton.com.

If you collect Avios, you should also consider this Triple Avios offer (click for details) alongside Double Points.

Club Carlson (Radisson Blu, Park Inn, Park Plaza, Radisson Red):

There is no global Club Carlson promotion at the moment although some members were emailed individual bonus offers.

Remember that the Radisson Blu and Park Inn ‘Dream Deals’ sale is still running for a few days.  More information is in this article.

Le Club AccorHotels:

Best Western Rewards:

Best Western Rewards rarely runs major promotions.  However, for December and January, you will receive a £10 Best Western gift voucher after every stay.

Best Western is also an Avios partner now (see this article) so you will earn 500 Avios on every stay too if you choose miles instead of points.  You can also choose to receive Virgin Flying Club miles.

Full details and the link to register for the £10 gift card promotion are in this article.

(PS.  Early versions of my article on the £10 gift card promotion on Tuesday said that Avios was not a Best Western partner.  I totally forgot that they had just joined.  The online article is now correct but the emails had already been sent. Sorry for any confusion.)

World of Hyatt:

Hyatt is currently running a ‘double points’ promotion.  You will receive double base points in World of Hyatt on all stays before the end of 2017.

REGISTRATION ENDS TODAY, 30th November.  Make sure you sign up if there is a chance you will have a Hyatt stay in the next month.  Full details and the registration link are in this article.

Starwood (St Regis, Westin, Sheraton, Element, W, Luxury Collection etc)

The Starwood offer is pretty weak, to be honest, because it is restricted to only some of their hotels.

Until 15th January, you will earn either 500 or 1,000 bonus SPG points per stay, based on brand, but only if your chosen hotel is participating.

If your chosen hotel is taking part then you are not getting a bad deal on a cheap stay, given that I value 500 Starwood points at £7.50 and 1,000 points at £15.  Here is the list of 1,000 point hotels and here is the list of 500 point hotels.

Registration is required via this page of the Starwood website.  REGISTRATION ENDS TODAY (30th November) which is six weeks before the promotion ends, so please sign up today if there is any chance you may end up with a stay.

Marriott (Renaissance, Ritz-Carlton etc):

The new Marriott Rewards offer, a free night for just two stays, covers the same dates as the Starwood offer, expiring on 15th January.

You must register in advance of your stay via this website.

After two stays, you will receive a voucher for a free night at a Category 1-5 Marriott Rewards hotel.  This would usually cost between 7,500 and 25,000 Marriott Rewards points.  You are limited to one free night per account.

The voucher is valid for six months and can be used whenever there is standard reward availability showing.  The only snag is the limited number of Category 1-5 hotels in major cities in Europe and North America.  

My full article on this offer is here.  Don’t forget to register TODAY (30th November) which is six weeks before the offer ends.

And don’t forget double Avios with Kaligo.com ….

Hotel booking site Kaligo.com has been fairly quiet on the promotional front recently.  They now have a new offer available:

You will receive double Avios – up to 40 per £1 but usually less – on all bookings made by 31st December 2017

The stay must be completed by 30th March 2018

If you live outside the UK, you will get a further 25% Avios bonus if you pay with a BA non-UK credit card from Royal Bank of Canada, Russian Standard Bank, ABSA Bank, First Carribean Bank, Butterfield, Dah Sing Bank, Commercial Bank of Kuwait, EnterCard, CornerCard

Full details can be found here.  This is a special booking page for the deal.

Like similar sites such as PointsHound and Rocketmiles, hotel bookings via Kaligo.com are treated as non-qualifying stays.  This means that you won’t receive any points in Hilton Honors, IHG Rewards Club etc or, most of the time, receive any status benefits due to you.  Marriott is the only major chain to give status benefits – but not points – on indirect bookings.

Assuming there is no price difference, this offer is best used when staying at a hotel outside one of the major chains.

Conclusion

The current offers are looking attractive, even without anything from Accor or Carlson.

Having a choice of:

double Hilton or Hyatt points

or

a free night after just two Marriott stays

or

a potential 40,000+ fairly easy points via IHG‘s Accelerate offer

or

a £10 gift card from Best Western 

is not a bad choice to have!

PS.  If you booking a luxury hotel, remember that we can offer you exclusive additional benefits at Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula and similar hotels.  Click here for details of our luxury hotel booking service in association with Bon Vivant / Virtuoso.  Feedback from readers who have used this service so far has been excellent and we have booked over £600,000 of rooms so far.

News in brief:

Amex / Park Hyatt ‘free night’ offer

Park Hyatt is, in my view, the most luxurious hotel brand which is part of major chain and which allows you to earn and redeem loyalty points.  (Sorry, The Ritz-Carlton.  But I know you are trying harder, such as in Kyoto.)

American Express is currently running a ‘buy two or three, get one free’ offer at Park Hyatt for cardmembers.  You can book this offer online which makes it easy to compare pricing with other Hyatt offers.

‘Stay 3, pay for 2’ is running at Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi, Busan, Changbaishan, Chicago, Hamburg, Hyderabad, New York, Siam Reap and Vienna.  23 other Park Hyatt hotels are doing ‘stay 4, pay for 3’.  The new New York hotel is not taking part.

You need to book by 28th February for stays between 1st January and 31st March.  Blackout dates may apply at certain properties.  Book at hyatt.com using promo code DPUK.

This offer was sent to Platinum and Centurion cardmembers via ‘Departures’ magazine but there is no restriction in the rules that you need to hold one of these cards in order to book.

No 1 Lounges / Avios promo over

No 1 Lounges has ended its long-running deal with Avios.  This was a very generous deal, as you could earn 750 Avios with every booking for a No 1 Lounges site – and you got a cash discount on the usual price too!

Existing bookings will be honoured and will still receive their Avios.

The Virgin Flying Club offer with No 1 Lounges is still going.  Take a look here for details and to book.

There is a tiered earning structure, per booking:

• 400 miles at Clubrooms
• 350 miles at No 1 Lounges
• 200 miles at My Lounge

The special Virgin Flying Club pricing is:

• £25 – No 1 Lounges
• £12 – My Lounge
• £35 – Clubrooms

As this is per booking, a couple should make two separate bookings and earn two lots of miles on both.

‘How To Land A Plane’ competition winners

Last Monday we ran a competition with Quercus Books following my review of Mark Vanhoenacker’s new book ‘How To Land A Plane’ a few weeks ago.

We had five copies of the book to give away, and the five winners are:

• Alan R.
• Caleb W.
• Martin G.
• Rupert P.
• Zoltan I.

Hope you enjoy the book.

If you were not lucky enough to win one of the five copies, Amazon is still selling the book (which is hardback) for £3.99 which is even less than the Kindle version. The RRP is £9.99 for the hard copy version so you are getting a 60% discount.

News in brief:

Opodo and ebookers launch new discount codes

Opodo and ebookers have new discount codes for anyone booking a flight or a ‘flight and hotel’ package in the next few days.

Via this link (click here), Opodo is offering £35 off a £500 flight or £100 of an £1100 ‘flight and hotel’ package.  You need to book by 11th January.  You can travel at any time but must depart from a UK airport.

Via this special link (click here), ebookers is offering £60 off a £500 spend.  You must book a flight and hotel package to qualify.  Book before 8th January for travel by 31st October.

Virgin Atlantic releases list of airberlin aircraft switches

We have covered the saga of Virgin Atlantic’s ‘out of service’ Boeing 787 fleet in recent weeks.

To get around the medium term loss of a number of aircraft which require new engines, Virgin Atlantic has leased a number of ex-airberlin A330 aircraft.  These are currently having a light refurbishment to give them the Virgin Atlantic look and feel, albeit with the existing airberlin seating.

(Our last review of airberlin Business Class is here.  It is a decent seat and actually more suitable for families and couples than Virgin’s Upper Class product in my view.)

The Virgin Atlantic website – click here – has now published a list of services from Manchester and Gatwick which will be flown with ex-airberlin aircraft (click to enlarge):

If you have been booked to fly Premium Economy on these services you should already have been contacted, as no Premium Economy seating will be available.  If you are booked in Economy you may want to look at your seat reservation as the seating is now 2-4-2.  In Upper Class, you may also want to rethink where you sit as you are effectively getting a staggered 1-2-1 configuration.

World of Hyatt changes announced

The transition of Hyatt Gold Passport into World of Hyatt last year was a bit of a mess and led to the departure of the head of the programme.

Before Marriott acquired Starwood, Starwood Preferred Guest and Hyatt Gold Passport would slug it out to be the most innovative hotel loyalty scheme.  As small chains, they knew they had to punch above their weight to get noticed.

With Starwood now effectively gone, Hyatt has decided that it is better to quietly co-exist with the big boys rather than fight aggressively.  World of Hyatt introduced a number of painful changes including a requirement to complete 60 nights per year – very difficult for a chain with few hotels, especially if you are in Europe – to gain top tier status.

The two changes which took place on 1st January are an improvement but don’t go far enough:

reward nights will count towards the nights required to earn status (something most other hotel schemes have adopted in recent years)

the free night vouchers you get for hitting 30 and 60 qualifying nights in a year will now expire after 180 days and not 120 days (this had led to people moving stays away from Hyatt to avoid triggering the voucher at a time of year where they couldn’t use it within 120 days)

There is still no move back to being able to earn status by number of stays rather than just nights, but hopefully the new programme head will take another look in the year to come.  Hyatt continues to run some excellent hotels – I think Park Hyatt is the most luxurious brand owned by a major chain – and hopefully will soon once again have a worthwhile loyalty scheme alongside them.

(Want to earn more Virgin Flying Club miles?  Click here to see our recent articles on Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club and click here for our home page with the latest news on earning and spending other airline and hotel points.)

News in brief:

Hotels where you can redeem for suites

The extremehoteldeals site has been running a series of well-researched articles on hotels which let you redeem for suites or high end rooms at standard rates.  In some cases this may be an error, whilst in other cases it is simply the hotel trying to encourage more points bookings.

Here is their Hilton list.  The key one for the UK (apart from Conrad Maldives offering water villas for the usual price of land villas) is Hilton London Tower Bridge which is offering family rooms for the standard price of 70,000 points.  These sleep four people.

Here is their Hyatt list.

Here is their IHG list.

The IHG list has two hotels of interest to UK residents:

Crowne Plaza Liverpool John Lennon Airport (photo below) – suite, with lounge access, for 20,000 points per night

Crowne Plaza Harrogate – suite for 20,000 points per night

It is worth checking the lists for any interesting offers in places you are planning to visit this year.

30% bonus when you buy Hyatt points

Until 23rd February Hyatt is offering a 30% bonus when you buy World of Hyatt points.  The minimum purchase for the bonus is 5,000 points.

This is obviously worth a look if you need to top up your account.  It may also be worthwhile if considering a stay in a top tier Park Hyatt such as the ones in Paris or Sydney, where buying the points may be cheaper than paying cash.

The new Park Hyatt resort in Mallorca is another location where buying points may make sense.   Prices for cash are still a little scary – rooms from Euro 495 in August, or Euro 550 if you want a cancellable one.  A redemption at 20,000 points per night ($360) would be a good deal.

The Hyatt ‘buy points’ site is here.

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Promos’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)