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Bits: Luxury Travel Diary auctions, 20% off 5 Uber trips, Waldorf London’s Hilton @Play deal

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News in brief:

More Luxury Travel Diary auctions launched

The Luxury Travel Diary site dropped me a line about another wave of its luxury auctions closing this week.  These are often worth a look as there are often deals to be had.

Deals closing in the next 48 hours include stays in Tuscany, Kos, Koh Samui and Athens.  On Tuesday they have this two bedroom suite sleeping up to four in Barcelona and a stay in Istanbul.  As usual, it is worth having a look to see if anything takes your fancy.

Get 20% off your next five Uber trips

Uber has launched a new UK voucher code offering a 20% discount on your next five trips.  It doesn’t seem to be targetted but you’ll never know until you try.

You need to go into the ‘Promotions’ section of the Uber app and enter the code MASTERCARD205.  You then need to switch your payment method to a MasterCard.

You will save 20% off your next five rides as long as the rides are taken by midnight on Friday 1st July.   UberTAXI in London is excluded.

If you still haven’t signed up for Uber, you get your first UK ride for free – up to the value of £15 – by downloading the app and entering the code HEADFORPOINTS.  To avoid any risk of losing your free ride, don’t enter the MasterCard code until after you’ve used up your free ride.

Interesting Hilton @Play auction

Finally, this Hilton @Play auction looks interesting and has no bids to date.

On Sunday 21st August, you can have Afternoon Tea for two, including a glass of champagne on arrival, at the Waldorf Hilton in London which is just off the Strand.  You can also take part in the Sunday tea dance if you want!

After that, you will get a free dinner for two people and one night in the Astor Suite in the hotel, with executive lounge access and breakfast.

The minimum bid is 75,000 Hilton HHonors points and it may well go for that.  It would be pretty good value if you did.  Bidding closes on 24th June.

PS.  Before anyone asks, because this question always comes up – the Waldorf in London is not run as part of Hilton’s Waldorf Astoria chain.  It is very smart but lower level hotel and therefore branded as the Waldorf Hilton.  The Palm Court where the tea dances and afternoon tea take place is particularly impressive.  You can find out more about the hotel here.


How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards

How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards (April 2024)

There are various ways of earning Hilton Honors points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Marriott Bonvoy Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Did you know that the Virgin Atlantic credit cards are a great way of earning Hilton Honors points? Two Virgin Points can be converted into three Hilton Honors points. The Virgin Atlantic cards are the only Visa or Mastercard products in the UK which can indirectly earn Hilton Honors points. You can apply here.

You can also earn Hilton Honors points indirectly with:

and for small business owners:

The conversion rate from American Express to Hilton points is 1:2.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Hilton Honors points

(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.)

Comments (20)

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

  • Dan says:

    Thanks Harry.

    I assumed that too, but the application process asked me a few questions about what I thought the best features of curve were, and my contact details etc.

    You’re probably right though, as I much have spent around £1k on the card in the last few weeks.

    • Rach says:

      At Curve we’ve got an exciting challenge on our hands. We’ve set out on a journey to build a new future of everything money – a single platform for you to access your unique financial world – giving you the tools to save time, money and get much more value out of every purchase.

      Our mission is to completely reshape the relationship you have with your money and we’re starting by creating a simpler and smarter way to pay. We believe that more heads are better than one – this is your chance to be directly involved in building our future.

      Our club will get the exclusive opportunity to work directly with our dev and product teams to help input, build and test product features before we release them to the wider Curve community.

      Excited? We’d love you to join us! We’re launching with a limited number of places – sign-up closes this Friday at noon. We’ll be in touch next week with more details – any questions, please let us know.

      Thanks,

      Team Curve

      • harry says:

        Maybe Raffles & David could add something?…weren’t you both in on the beta beta?…anybody else?

  • Livia says:

    Hi Raffles,

    I’m not sure what everyone else thinks about Luxury Travel Auctions, but my husband and I both gave it a go a couple of times… We were quite disappointed to see that on different occasions we were the winners as the auctions closed, only to find ourselves as losers once the page refreshed.

    I’m not going to give it another try as to be honest the way their bidding system works is different to eBay, so we had to make sure we were online when the auctions were closing (you can not put a reserve and the system bets for you etc). So in the end it isn’t worth the hassle for us…

    Just wondering if anyone else has a more positive experience with them, I haven’t seen anything online on other forums etc.

    All the best,
    Livia

    • Matthew says:

      I’ve had success twice and got some incredible bargains. You are right though, it’s not a maxbid system like eBay and you run the risk of being outbid at the very last second. You may have to up your final bid a bit more than what you are currently doing. As someone will bid with just a few seconds. Your bid amount is the actual amount you will pay rather than ensuring the lowest winning bid up to your max like eBay. I’ve also missed out a few times but done alright overall out of them.

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

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