Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

£125 of free meal or drinks in The Shard for everyone, via Shangri-La Golden Circle

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

How do you fancy a free meal or drinks worth £125 in The Shard?!

Shangri-La Golden Circle is not one of the main hotel programmes I cover on Head for Points. Whilst the group is huge in Asia, via the Shangri-La and Traders chains, their presence in Europe is limited to a few ‘trophy’ hotels. A Paris property opened relatively recently, and they will be running the hotel in The Shard in London from early next year.

However, a great deal is a great deal, and I would strongly recommend taking a look at this one.

Shangri-La Golden Circle is three years old.  To celebrate, it is running a six-week competition online.

Each week, you play a quick game on their website.  (This week it isn’t even a game, all you do is click on a circle!)  This will earn you 100 Golden Circle points.

When you finish the game, you will also be given a code.  Enter this code in the Shangri-La iOS or Android app (or at http://www.goldencircle-3rd-anniversary.com/mobile/en/Bonus), and you’ll receive another 100 points.

Repeat this weekly for six weeks, and you’ll have 1,200 points. (Actually, you only need 1,000 points for a decent reward.)

If you already have a Golden Circle account, this can top off your account nicely.

If you don’t, there are two main uses of 1,000 points.

The first is to claim a US$100 (£62) food and drink voucher, valid at almost all Shangri-La restaurants and bars.  The obvious use of these would be in The Shard hotel once it opens.  (See here for details of their reward levels for food and beverage vouchers.)

The second is to claim a free night at selected Shangri-La or Traders hotels.  1,000 points isn’t enough for their best hotels, but it will get you a free night at a few properties in China, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan.  (You can see the list by going here and clicking Room Award Redemption Chart.)

Unless you are heading to the location of any of the 1,000 point hotels anytime soon, the US$100 food and drink voucher is the best option.

There are two interesting things to note:

You do not need to be resident in the hotel to use these vouchers (the rules actually forbid you from using them if the bill is charged to a room)

You can use up to $200 of vouchers per meal / bar bill, which means its worth signing up your partner

For a couple of minutes effort a week for 5 weeks, you and your partner could therefore end up with $200 (£125) of vouchers between you.  This should, once it is open, get you a free meal – or a lot of free drinks – in the Shangri-La in The Shard come the Spring.

Firstly, you should go here and sign up for Shangri-La Golden Circle.  (After you have played the game for the first time, you will also be given the chance to sign-up for Golden Circle if you are not already a member. However, I tried this and I never received the membership application email.  Play it safe, and sign up first.)

Then …. Click here to go to the special website for this promotion.  The first week is VERY easy – all you need to do is click on the circle to earn your first 100 points!  You then receive a special code which you need to input into the Shangri-La iOS or Android app to earn your second lot of 100 points.

Then …. download the app and enter the code via the prompt on the home page.  In reality, you do not need to use the app, as it simply directs you to this website instead – http://www.goldencircle-3rd-anniversary.com/mobile/en/Bonus

All sorted.  Note that you do not receive the points immediately, so don’t rush off to check.  The email you receive when signing up as a new member says: “The bonus Golden Circle Award Points will be credited to your account within three to four weeks after the end of the 3rd Anniversary campaign”.

Repeat this process for 5 weeks out of the 6 weeks the game runs and you and your partner will each have your 1,000 points each, which is $100 of food and beverage vouchers.

Three entrants each week will also win a 3-night stay in a suite at ANY Shangri-La property of your choice.  Given that the Paris property has had exceptional feedback, you wouldn’t need to travel to Asia to claim your prize if you win.


Hotel offers update – April 2024:

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

Want to buy hotel points?

  • Hilton Honors is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 14th May 2024. Click here.

Comments (103)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Hayden says:

    Raffles, this is great! Will you be posting a reminder every week? Or should I not be lazy and put it in my calendar?

  • whitenoise says:

    Many thanks for this Joe, very useful for people like myself who don’t have a smartphone.

  • darrenf says:

    3 years old? But the example card says 07/09 – and I’m sure I signed up in 2006!

  • daniel says:

    hi,
    will you be able to give us a weekly reminder?

    thanks

  • oliuk says:

    Did anyone’s 100 points actually post? Mine did not..

    • David L says:

      I believe it doesn’t post automatically (just noticed it says that in the blog post)! I’m also assuming the mobile code is uniquely tied back to your individual Golden Circle account – I was originally looking for the box to enter my (new) Golden Circle account number for the mobile bonus!

      • Tony says:

        That’s right – I did mine and got one code, then repeated for my wife’s account and got another. Do bear in mind you’ll whistle through $200 of spend in most Shangri-La’s at a cracking pace. Used a bunch of these points to have a couple of meals in the SL HK Island earlier this year – we did $200 in the Cantonese and $150 at the pool bar restaurant between the two of us no problem…

  • Carsten says:

    Will we all get together in the Shard to burn our vouchers on a giant bottle of champagne?

  • Adam W says:

    Great find, Raffles!!!!!

  • Mark says:

    Thanks raffles

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.