News in brief:
Shorthaul changes at Gatwick airport announced
British Airways has announced changes to their shorthaul flights from Gatwick airport for the Summer 2017 season:
- The twice a week service to Bodrum (BJV) has been suspended and will not return next Summer
- A Monday flight to Tirana (TIA) has been added from 29th May
- The Summer service of three flights per week to Larnaca (LCA) has been extended and will now operate from 29th April until 28th October 2017
The Bodrum flight was only added to the BA schedule in Summer 2015, but with the current political situation it seems that it could not be sustained. This is a disappointment, especially with Mandarin Oriental and Jumeirah now operating well regarded luxury hotels in the area.
Safe 25% and get two free drinks at Ibis
Ibis hotels and Morrisons supermarkets have teamed up for a promotion giving you 20% off your hotel booking when booking via this page of the Ibis website.
Once you’ve confirmed your hotel, select the ‘20% off Autumn offer’. You will get an additional 5% off when entering your Le Club AccorHotels loyalty number.
If you present a Morrisons More card to the reception staff when checking in, you will get 2 free drinks.
You can join Morrisons More via their website here and there is an app you can download which shows your card details, so it is possible you can take advantage of this without having to set foot in a Morrisons store!
Bookings have to be made before 30th November 2016 for stays before 3rd December 2016.
Remember that you can use this offer in conjunction with the current Accor ‘triple Avios’ promo or the current ‘10,000 Avios for 4 x 2-night stays’ promo.
Last day for the Hilton Flash Sale
Finally, remember that today is the last day to book in Hilton’s seven day ‘flash sale’.
It is offering special deals at 300 hotels across Europe (including the UK), Middle East and Africa, but only at weekends. Many rooms are discounted by 30% (if you are a Hilton HHonors member) except for Hampton by Hilton hotels where the maximum discount is 15%.
The rates are valid for weekend stays until 29th January. You will also find that some hotels have loaded these rates for weekday stays.
As usual with Hilton sales, you need to take the ‘30% discount’ with a pinch of salt. This is based on the discount from ‘Best Available Rate’ for the same day. However, these sale rates require pre-payment and are non-refundable. A ‘Best Available Rate’ room is cancellable without charge.
If you have any weekends away planned between now and 29th January, you should take a look at these offers to see if there is anything of interest. The ‘flash sale’ website is here.
(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for the latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios from current offers and promotions.)
About Head for Points
Good news about the Larnaca flights which are nearly always full
Hilton sale. Don’t forget the Amex £50 off £250 spend at Hilton to go with the sale (if you’ve the offer available of course)
Perhaps of more interest, there is a general Accor sale on (so not just Ibis) with free breakfast – for stays from 1 December.
Bodrum was this not a sponsored Mark Warner flight/ charter?
I can’t see this 20% off Autumn Offer rate anywhere; anyone got any example dates? Is it limited to specific brands/hotels?
And… does it stack with the Happy Mondays rates?
OT/ Just tried to book an Accor Happy Mondays, and they didn’t take AMEX? is that standard? anyway around that?
Varies on the hotel, unfortunately.
Try calling their main booking line, they accept Amex and its worked for me a couple of times, if that’s not just coincidence.
Has anyone noticed any changes in the number of points required for some IHG properties recently?
HI Regents Park was 35k when we stayed towards the end of August (booked about ten days before) and it now appears to be 40k.
Any other changes appeared?
Yes I have noticed some going up and down, including ICs but I can’t remember exactly which.
Yes, HIE Inverness up from 25k to 30k. I book this for longhaul flights exINV to save on APD but usually cancel when a cheap Jurys or Premier Inn rate comes up.
James I looked at doing this too but the times and frequency of the flights are not great – only one flight per day I think so if there is a problem you are stuck!
Works for us if we are travelling together Liz because we always use BKK or HKG to keep prices down to zone 7. The connection time is good and we save £300 minus £50 max for hotel. Not a hassle as we enjoy Inverness so in reality can write off the travel and hotel. Always book one way so we return to EDI. If just one of us is travelling though we just depart exEDI.
Good idea booking one-way – do you just get the train up there?
The bus
It’s not much longer and passes close to our place so that in itself gobbles up the difference as we don’t need to get into bus or train station.
Result!
I cannot comment on IHG but some Hilton hotels vary enormously through the year e.g. from 30 to 70 thousand.
Yes, Hilton have seasonal reward pricing. The cash and points at Hilton can often be great value though.
Yep – hhonorspointssearchtool.com lets you see at a glance the difference. Lots of overlap between categories!
TWO whole free drinks? Wow, that is generous for Accor. My wife and I only got 1 between us at our last stay, even though we are both Platinum members.
Thanks Alan I’ll have a look at the avios store.
Take solace in the fact that most people will have made their Hilton bookings already and also missed it!
The link is https://shopping.avios.com/travel/hilton