Bits: Uber scraps fixed London airport fares, 80% ‘buy Hilton points’ bonus

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• Anon says:

  2 Feb2 February 05:42

  Decided I was a buyer of HHonors with 80%.

  80000 + 640000 = 144000 pts for £561.

  Topping off a/c for another Maldives trip.

  Its just shy of 2 nights at the Conrad Rangali with awesome free breakfast and evening happy hour, no 23.2% taxes either, so avoids the new so called “green” tax at $6pp/day

  • Liz says:

    2 Feb2 February 07:15

    Is it worth holding out for a 100% later in the year ? I know they did 100% once last year but I was not collecting HH then so didn’t buy. What have they normally done in the past?

    • Jason says:

      2 Feb2 February 10:08

      I bought 160k with 100% bonus, last year, to use at Rangali this April. Rest of the booking is 2 cc vouchers( 1 still to do) and tesco cc conversion. Booked 11 nights so far and have just received my Hilton CC this morning and just spent £750 on it!
      If I had have been declined I would have bought 60k to top off the account to pay for 1 night.
      I will hopefully have enough Tesco vouchers for another 10 nights available but need to work out if the Hilton bonus is cheaper( and easier) than buying nospendits without discount or coupons.
      There were 2 promotions last year, 100% bonus and 50% reduction in purchasing, amounting to the same cost per point.

      • Anon says:

        2 Feb2 February 17:18

        Jason,

        Sure you’ll love it, hope you’ve seen my review on here…

        Cheers

    • James67 says:

      2 Feb2 February 10:23

      You might want to factor in the value of the US$ which surely must imrpove in current rates against £.

      • pr99 says:

        2 Feb2 February 12:36

        Improve? – Do you mean appreciate or depreciate?

        • James67 says:

          2 Feb2 February 17:36

          Depends what side of the pond you are from, but Liz knows what I mean with respect to her.

        • Liz says:

          2 Feb2 February 19:57

          Thanks – as I don’t need the points at the moment I will hold out for a better offer hopefully later in the year.

• Mr Cinnamon says:

  2 Feb2 February 06:41

  Buying the minimum points is a convenient way to keep your current HHonours points “alive” for another year, Ideal if you have a decent points stash but do not wish to redeem them yet.

  Just topped up mine for $10, taking me over the £750 spend on my new HHonours Visa card, so a free Hilton night to boot.

  And with new Diamond status to boot I am warming more to the idea of future Hilton stays.

  What would be the best Hilton brand NYC hotel to book for my free weekend night? The Conrad?

  • Anon says:

    2 Feb2 February 06:46

    Used mine at the Waldorf Astoria, v nice if not a little tired, faded grandeur, etc. Good to have ticked it off the list.

    Millennium is good, Raffles likes the Conrad NYC, not stayed there myself.

  • D says:

    2 Feb2 February 09:56

    The Conrad is a fantastic hotel albeit a little out the way. The subway and WTC is only a 5 minute walk away.

• Liz says:

  2 Feb2 February 07:27

  OT I have been trying to refer my husband for the BAPP card before the 10/2 deadline. I get the email confirming the referral but he doesn’t get the email with the link. Tried it several times and also phoned Amex who tried it and it still doesn’t come through. Anyone else having problems? Alternately it says save the link to my Facebook timeline – do you just click through from there?

  • CDB says:

    2 Feb2 February 07:38

    Just use the link on your email for your husband to apply, did this the other day and included the referral bonus details etc. Maybe your husband is opted out of Amex marketing.

    • Liz says:

      2 Feb2 February 08:15

      He had the blue card before and has the Gold card at the moment – I checked his marketing options yesterday and they were all ticked.

      • CDB says:

        2 Feb2 February 08:34

        On the the email you get confirming referral click ‘share this link’ – this takes you straight to a page where your husband can apply with referral bonuses. When I applied for my BAPP card about a year ago with referral from friend couldn’t get system to work and Amex added points at both ends manually, good customer service.

  • Grimz says:

    2 Feb2 February 08:59

    i have had loads of problems with this and called amex about it – try sending an email to your own address and if you receive it send it onto your husband. The guy at amex said as long as you click thru the link it doesent need to go to the receipiants email address it can go to any email address.

  • John says:

    2 Feb2 February 09:19

    Or just make a new email address for him and change it later…

• Nick M says:

  2 Feb2 February 07:27

  Speaking of the Hiltons in Sheffield, has anyone stayed at the Double Tree? Booked a night there yday for 10k points and have the option to potentially upgrade to a 1 bed suite for £24… it’s just a short stopover but with an 18month old it could be useful! Alternatively, will ask for a spacious room with a cheeky smile when we check in!

  • alan says:

    2 Feb2 February 08:55

    Do you have gold/diamond status?

    • Nick M says:

      2 Feb2 February 09:36

      Just silver at the moment… should get Gold from CC spend but won’t be until after the stay

      • DW201 says:

        2 Feb2 February 11:25

        Ive stayed there a few times (and got my car broken into in the car park….) – its a pretty bog standard hotel in a skanky part of toen. Room upgrades arent really worth it in my opinion (and I get them free as diamond). Just give them a smile and a cheeky ask at check in…

        • Nick M says:

          2 Feb2 February 13:33

          Thanks, yes that was my impression of the hotel… just looking for an inexpensive stopover not too far off the motorway between Kent and Durham. Thought 10k points would probably be a decent deal, as nothing was standing out as a bargain further north

        • DW201 says:

          2 Feb2 February 22:58

          for 10 k is great

  • Johnnycl says:

    2 Feb2 February 12:28

    Stayed there for one night last year and thought it was a bit tired. Staff weren’t particlarly on the ball either….had to prompt for a glass to go with a drink at the bar. It didnt seem busy when I was there, I imagine they are rarely fully occupied.

• alan says:

  2 Feb2 February 07:38

  We don’t have uber in Southampton yet and when I’m in London its normally paid for by the business who like a nice receipt!

  However the wife and I both set up an account and used on a recent trip to Edinburgh, pretty much paid for our airport return journey. Cheers Rob!

• John says:

  2 Feb2 February 09:22

  Why would you pay £100 to stay in the Sheffield Hampton?

  • Rob says:

    2 Feb2 February 10:24

    If that is the price you have to assume people pay it!

• Neil says:

  2 Feb2 February 10:14

  £10 Kabbee code for new customers – using my code MVJ767.

• David says:

  2 Feb2 February 10:16

  I’m all up for getting the maximum value from travel/hotels etc, but after reading that Uber take 20% of taxi revenue and it then does what any multi-national does – works this to some offshore account paying little if no tax. I don’t think I could use the service. Am I being a little zealous here, do airlines/hotel chains do the same but have not been put under the same spotlight as the internet multi-nationals?

  (I assume that most typical taxi revenue feeds back into the system, but taking 20% out ultimately hurts the economy)

  http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/20/uber-pays-low-uk-corporation-tax

  • Rob says:

    2 Feb2 February 10:22

    Gett, Hailo will have a similar structure though I am sure.

    You miss a point though. Uber lost $1.7bn last year. There is no tax to pay.

    • DW201 says:

      2 Feb2 February 11:28

      “lost” internationally or actually lost?

      Are they doing an amazon and shifting profit overseas or doing an amazon and forcing everyone else out of business by running at a loss?

      • Rob says:

        2 Feb2 February 14:13

        Running huge losses – $1.7bn loss on revenue of $1.2bn IIRC

        • David says:

          3 Feb3 February 10:37

          Not picking a fight Raffles, but that is worldwide results. UK pre-tax was approx £900k with £22k corporation tax paid

          http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/uber/11937354/Uber-reports-rapid-UK-growth.html

          …but that’s not the point, I’m sure group profits will be in the $BNs as the operating model matures. The point is 20% of revenue is being sucked out of the UK economy. If it’s fair to assume that most taxi firms are SMEs then they are paying their fair share of corporation tax. Is the Uber model sustainable?

          Or do I not realise that most hotels/airlines have been playing the same game for years? Problem is, the more revenue multi-nationals generate, the higher the tax burden on individuals/SMEs.

  • Jason says:

    2 Feb2 February 10:24

    Having been ripped off by a black cab on Saturday night, I used Uber for the 1st time Sunday morning, with HFP Code of course, could not have been more impressed. In fact I wished I’d used it for every journey over the weekend including tube journeys.

    • Ian says:

      2 Feb2 February 13:21

      Jason, personally I don’t use taxis in London but they do have a well-deserved reputation for reliability and honesty. Without trying to teach you to suck eggs, have you raised a formal complaint? London taxis are quite rigorously regulated and the authorities don’t like rogue drivers who rip off their passengers.

    • London Steve says:

      15 Feb15 February 20:20

      Every time I’ve taken a black cab from the centre of London to the suburb where I live, the drivers have only had a vague notion of where it is and which way to go. I’ve found in each case I know the route better than them and end up giving them instructions. On the occasions I’ve left it up to the driver, we’ve taken inefficient and traffic clogged routes by following road signs and main roads, thus making an expensive ride even more expensive. My record was £60, instead of the £22 routinely charged by minicab firms. The least they could do is (like Uber) standardise by using Google Maps as the base routing software outside of the city centre. Fact is, Google Maps (and others, like Waze) know the traffic ahead, that no amount of Knowledge is going to bestow upon them. I’ve also found Ubers to be quick, efficient and affordable in a way that black cabs never are. The Hackney licence restricts black cabs to certain vehicles, which are not just expensive for drivers to buy, invariably they are never as comfortable as a modern passenger car of the type used by Uber drivers. Without serious reform, I cannot see black cabs remaining a relevance for anything other than hailing them on the street for short hops around the town centre. At times like that, the waiting time for an Uber can be disproportionate compared to the journey time.

      • harry says:

        15 Feb15 February 20:24

        Black cabs deserve to die – too expensive & surly crew.

        Sooner they die, the better – I certainly won’t miss their rudeness & exaggerated fares.

        • Rob says:

          15 Feb15 February 21:37

          I have given our nanny control of the Uber account recently for the kids and gone back to black cabs for myself, as I have some Gett referral credit to burn. It has been a pleasant change, to be honest, in terms of journey speed – due to use of bus lanes – and of course ‘banter’. It was a less pleasant change in terms of passenger comfort, however, compared to an E-Class Merc.

        • harry says:

          15 Feb15 February 22:09

          Black cab drivers do indeed prove that most kids should go to grammar schools – ie there’s intelligence in them thar kids.

          Whereas the comps just allow them to dumb down.

  • Andy says:

    2 Feb2 February 20:24

    They take 25% from drivers that sign up after January

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