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Bits: Luxury Travel Diary, Emirates / Arsenal tickets, Premier Inn Scarborough reviewed

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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 auctions closing soon.

Here is three nights for six at a beach house in New Zealand which ends next week, or perhaps five nights for 12 people in Koh Samui?  The UK hotel offers are here.  Not everything will work for you, either in terms of location, length or dates, but you’ll probably find something of interest if you poke around.

Arsenal Emirates

More Arsenal football tickets released for Skywards members

Emirates Skywards has released a further batch of Arsenal football tickets for the current season.  All of the ‘lesser tier’ games seem to have been made available although there is no sign (yet?) of tickets for the big names.

Pricing varies between 12,500 and 17,500 miles for standard seats and 20,000 to 25,000 miles for the Emirates Superbox.  They now call this Box 75 but it is still the Superbox.

This is a great use of Emirates Skywards miles or indeed transfers from American Express Membership Rewards.  There appear to at least 4 Superbox seats per game available although you can only book 2 per Skywards account.

Here is a review of a visit with my father-in-law.  Details of the games available can be found here.

You need to remember that the dates shown are tentative.  The TV companies only decide a few weeks in advance whether they want a game moved to Friday, Sunday or Monday.  Emirates will not refund you if the game is moved and you can no longer attend.

pi

Premier Inn Scarborough reviewed

Once a year I join a group of friends for a golfing weekend on the Yorkshire coast.  Due to the dire quality of accommodation in the area, we always end up at the Premier Inn in Scarborough.

It is always a good reality check.  Whilst certainly ‘no frills’, the hotel is a new build and the quality of the bed, bedding, towels and furnishings is good.  There is a good desk with lots of sockets and a decent chair.  Most rooms have a sofa bed so you can sleep a family of four.

That said, this hotel is not exactly budget.  We paid £90 per night.

There is a picture of my room above, which was certainly fine.  I was a little annoyed this year by the total lack of frills though:

I had forgotten my toothbrush but reception could not supply a free one – I was directed to a vending machine which wanted £2.50

There were no tissues in the room, so when a cold that had been developing for a couple of days finally erupted I was forced to stuff my pockets with toilet paper

You do get a kettle, teabags and UHT milk.  I would happily stay here again and I can’t imagine why Holiday Inn Express and others have not opened up.  The competition in Scarborough is not exactly tough.

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.
Category

Emirates and Emirates Skywards

Comments (58)

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

  • Liz says:
    3 Oct3 October 09:08

    OT is there a minimum number of SPG pts you can transfer to your partner – I’ve miscalculated my pts and now have an odd 41 pts left in my hubbys account and I want to cancel it. Duh! Had the wrong card set as default when doing the Payqwiq transactions at Tesco at the weekend!

    • Brian says:
      3 Oct3 October 09:14

      1,000, I believe.

    • Brian says:
      3 Oct3 October 09:15

      But there is no need to cancel the actual SPG account, if you think you might earn more in future. Cancelling the credit card will not affect the account.

      • Liz says:
        3 Oct3 October 09:18

        Ah that is true – I am thinking I would lose them like MR pts – I can go ahead and cancel the credit card and leave the pts in the SPG account! Thanks!

  • Barry cutters says:
    3 Oct3 October 09:37

    I remember 10 years ago as a frequent visitor to the Newcastle, Manchester, liverpool and leeds for nights out.
    As group of guys would book in advance and get a cheap B&B or a discount deal on a hotel.
    However we would all share a room. Maybe 4 or 5 of us would all be sharing the floor of the travellodge.
    Every once in a while this posed a problem when one manged to get lucky and ‘pull’. Generally the girl would not be too happy to walk 4 miles to the out of town £25 travelodge and play hide the sausage all night in a room with 4 other guys. (i say generally, due to a couple of exceptions, mainly in Liverpool).
    Therefore as semi skint young guys what did we do?? we took full advantage of the Premier inns good night sleep guarantee. -Basically wake up, tell the classy bird next you it was time to go, make your way to reception and kick up a bit of a fuss about how you didn’t get a wink of sleep.
    With a minute or so you would have a full refund, and normally a bonus breakfast as an apology.
    Finally make your way to the train station to tell all the lads of your ‘conquest’ all the the way home.
    those were the days…….

    A common trick between friends was

  • Leo says:
    3 Oct3 October 09:45

    I paid £120 per night at the Worthing Premier Inn this summer – two week nights. I was horrified but had no choice due to work and the various Southern strikes. This rate did not include breakfast – “Everything is premier but the price”….I imagine the pricing was opportunism.

  • ahop says:
    3 Oct3 October 10:45

    OT: Has anyone received their bonus for Registering for Heinemann & Me through Etihad?

  • mark2 says:
    3 Oct3 October 10:51

    When we went to Durham earlier this year my wife insisted in staying in a Premier Inn rather than the Hilton group where we could have stayed with points. It was pretty dire – three floors but no lift. I had paid in advance for the weekday nights so we stayed there. I cancelled the Saturday which I had not paid since it was £100 and booked us into the few weeks old Hilton Garden Inn in Sunderland which was superb and much cheaper.

  • Andy says:
    3 Oct3 October 11:30

    Is it a coincidence that the cost of a share is about the same as what you’d expect to spend to stay at a Premier Inn on a Sunday night? Yes, obviously,.

  • Gavin says:
    3 Oct3 October 12:52

    Anywhere I would stay with the lads on a night out is an instant no-no for a stay with the Mrs!!’

  • James67 says:
    3 Oct3 October 13:22

    OT Tesco payquik: how are folks getting their points posted please? I’ve done 6 or 7 transactions already but got one chunk of 200 cc points, not 500. I would like to uninstall the app and start again with my partners clubcard but think I may need to put some furthef transactions through mine first.

    • Liz says:
      3 Oct3 October 18:44

      Hi James, we did 2 x5 transactions at the weekend when we were in Edinburgh – just waiting for the pts to post now – hopefully successfully !

      • James67 says:
        3 Oct3 October 19:05

        I was expecting one 500 point credit but doesn’t seem to be working like that but hopefully I’ll get another 300. Good luck on yours.

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