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Bits: redeem Avios from Humberside, win 60000 Avios with Melia, £129 Park Plaza London rooms

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News in brief:

Redeem your Avios points from Humberside Airport

Great news for anyone living near Hull, Grimsby or Scunthorpe.  From next Friday 15th April, British Airways is launching flights from Humberside Airport.

OK, it isn’t quite as exciting as that.  It isn’t British Airways directly, it is BA franchise SUN-AIR of Denmark – although the plane will be painted in BA colours and the flights will earn Avios and tier points.

Secondly, you can only fly to Denmark – to Aalborg (see below) and Billund (home of Legoland).  The service is being underwritten by Siemens who need to be able to move staff between their wind power operations in the UK and Denmark.

Flights will only operate on Fridays and Sundays, using a single-cabin Fairchild 328 jet with 32 seats.

Out of the UK to Billund, there is 16.55 on Fridays and an 18.45 on Sundays.  The Sunday flight goes via Aalborg.

Flights to Humberside leave Billund at 15.10 on Friday and pick up in Aalborg at 16.00.  There is also a direct Billund service inbound on Sundays.  A weekend break in Billund is therefore possible but not to Aalborg.

Flights are bookable, for cash or Avios, at ba.com.

Win 60,000 Avios in a Melia Hotels competition

To celebrate the opening of their first hotel in New York, the INNSiDE New York NoMad, Melia Rewards is giving away 60,000 Avios and two nights at the hotel in a Facebook competition.

You don’t need to be on Facebook to enter.  Simply visit their page – the answer is Berlin – and submit your details.  The closing date is the end of April.

The INNSiDE in New York has just opened, details here, and is worth pricing up if you are heading out there.  Rates will be very competitive for the first few months and obviously you will be getting a brand new room.

If you recently gained Melia Rewards Gold status via your Amex Platinum card, this will also be a chance to put your new status to work.

Park Plaza County Hall

Park Plaza Country Hall – just £129, today only

Until midnight tonight (Saturday), Park Plaza hotels is selling the Park Plaza County Hall in London for just £129.

This rate is valid for stays until 6th June.  The rate appears to be available every day so if you are locked into a high rate for a London stay over the next few weeks it might be worth taking a look at this.  You can add breakfast for an extra £10.

You can only book this rate by going to the Park Plaza website and using the promotional code PARK.  Rates will be substantially higher – over £100 higher on some nights I checked – if you do not use the PARK code.

Park Plaza is part of Club Carlson.  You will earn Club Carlson points from your stay and, if you have Club Carlson Gold status via Amex Platinum, you will also receive your benefits.

How to earn Radisson Rewards points and status from UK credit cards

How to earn Radisson Rewards points and status from UK credit cards (April 2024)

Radisson Rewards does not have a dedicated UK credit card. However, you can earn Radisson Rewards points by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

These cards earn Membership Rewards points:

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:3 into Radisson Rewards points which is a very attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 3 Radisson Rewards points.

Even better, holders of The Platinum Card receive free Radisson Rewards Premium status for as long as they hold the card.  It also comes with Hilton Honors Gold, Marriott Bonvoy Gold and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail 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 Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Category

British Airways and Avios, MeliaRewards, Radisson Rewards

Comments (37)

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

  • Ian says:
    9 Apr9 April 05:48

    Stayed in the Innside in New York earlier this week. Lovely hotel (although a couple of things not quite finished) secured for a decent rate. However, no room upgrade with status – occupancy was 100% when I was there.

  • Genghis says:
    9 Apr9 April 06:57

    OT – re Starwood and Marriott merger – received email saying SHs have approved deal and that “Soon we will begin the long journey to integrate the very best of SPG and Marriott Rewards”. Supposedly feedback will be sought and nothing new will be launched until 2018.

  • Ed says:
    9 Apr9 April 07:13

    Worth noting that you need to be a member of both Iberia and Melia to be eligible to win the competition. Which means I’ll be signing up to Melia later 🙂

  • Pol says:
    9 Apr9 April 08:10

    OT managed to get 4 CW to JNB next March on 2x 241, phoned up to book the return last week on release and managed 4 back. However they still haven’t taken the money or resent the e-ticket (avois have been taken and flight showing online). Is this normal, should I be worried?

    • Andrew says:
      9 Apr9 April 08:37

      Similar experience: updated online but points and cash slow to go.

    • Louie says:
      9 Apr9 April 09:49

      In my experience, it can take up to a month or more.

    • Mark says:
      10 Apr10 April 15:11

      Recently did the same to Dubai and it took over a month before money taken and e-ticket available (however, Avios were taken immediately!)

  • John says:
    9 Apr9 April 08:39

    So if you live in Denmark you can spend a weekend in Grimsby, or if you live in Grimsby you can spend a week in Denmark.

  • mark says:
    9 Apr9 April 09:11

    We use the Sunair flights from MAN to BLL as my step father’s family live in BLL – he loves the service, only pay for the flights via Avios as they price up over £200 normally at late notice.

  • James67 says:
    9 Apr9 April 09:22

    I thought this Park Plaza deal would be perfect for our next London break but ironically it s available every ingle day except that which we need. Is something going on in London weekend if 20th May?

    • Gavin says:
      9 Apr9 April 10:24

      FA cup final?

      • Rob says:
        9 Apr9 April 10:32

        Tickets gone – they are on the EK site but Emirates emailed certain people in advance and they took them all. Same for semis.

        • James67 says:
          9 Apr9 April 12:18

          Rob, what’s your current valuation of an IHG point please? On the redemption I mention in my reply to Gavin I am only getting 0.42p of value. My gut feeling is that this is poor and I should save the 140k points for another day, e.g. midweek stays at major airports

          • Brian says:
            9 Apr9 April 13:03

            James, I’d say 0.42p per point is very good. Remember that you can buy points for about that if you get a hotel that offers the extra points and cash option. Unless you would genuinely pay the cash rates for IC hotels in Paris or London (and you’d be mad to), then the 0.5p value Rob used to have is unrealistic – and I think even he has reduced his valuation since the extra points-and-cash option was introduced. I rarely get more than 0.3p per point, but I’m happy with that because of the cancellation flexibility (in case a better deal crops up with other hotels) or if the hotel in question is in the perfect location. You might like to keep an eye on Happy Mondays for that weekend, however…

          • James67 says:
            9 Apr9 April 13:22

            Thanks Brian, Happy Mondays and the likes of Hotel Tonight was exactly what I had in mind but with the HI Oxford Circus now locked in I will review daily what I can get for cash

          • Rob says:
            9 Apr9 April 14:37

            You can always buy them via cash and points for 0.5p and the recent trials on C&P pricing made that 0.4p. If you can buy them for that, they are not worth more.

          • James67 says:
            9 Apr9 April 18:11

            Thanks Rob, 40k + 25k bonus of these 140k points were virgin to IHG for spire. Gambled on spire being worth something and virgin devaluation or pulling HKG before I could use the miles for UC redemption. Clearly I was wrong on both counts and I’m far from being a novice at this game. Just goes to show that trying to be too clever doesn’t always pay off. The UC redemption would easily have yielded much greater value. On a brighter note 111k avios and just under £1100 snagged my partner a return CW seat on dates BA wanted a whopping £6k for a fully flexible revenue fare. One directiin was UUA so some miles to earn too.

      • James67 says:
        9 Apr9 April 11:57

        Ah, so that’s it, thanks. I just redeemed 140k PC points at HI Oxford Circus. Not at all happy with that but if all else fails between now and then it will have to do. It might work out ok if there is some decent spire recognition.

    • Alex says:
      9 Apr9 April 16:51

      I just booked it for that weekend at promo price

      • James67 says:
        9 Apr9 April 19:29

        Thanks Alex, just tried again, best rate I can find is £190. When checking the promotion rate calendar 20-25/5 inclusive are still blocked out for me.

        • Alex says:
          9 Apr9 April 19:49

          I got a family room for 2+2 @£179 per night 20th to 23rd with breakfast and free upgrade to executive suite.

          • James67uk says:
            9 Apr9 April 22:13

            That’s a super deal Alex. I’ve been searching around and ended up booking the Doubletree Westminster for 4 nights for £482-50amex offer-31TC-20ecodiscount making it £95.25/night and should get my diamond freebies and hopefully a decent promo for bonus points comes up in May. Not bad at all for central London. Still not as good as your hotel, room, location and rate pp but still good nonetheless. Frees up my 140k IHG points for new year in the city, and it’s flexible if something better comes along.

      • James67 says:
        9 Apr9 April 19:49

        Figured out the problem Alex, I was inputing a 4 night stay and and the last night is unavailable on the promotion so it blocked out all of them.

  • Bigglesgirl says:
    9 Apr9 April 09:45

    So anyone know the answer to the question – Which one of the following Meliá hotels is located about 6,000 km from New York?

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