Important dates for your diary – offers about to close which you shouldn’t miss (Feb 2017)

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• Save East Coast Rewards says:

  19 Feb19 February 05:30

  As mentioned above the double Heathrow Rewards points on food expires on the 28th. Worth noting that this also applies to M&S landside so if you need something to eat on the way home don’t forget to swipe your card (or use the barcode in the mobile app or passbook).

  Just thought I’d mention this as I was surprised that this counted for double points when I was there last weekend.

  • ian says:

    19 Feb19 February 08:19

    if part-paying with a heathrow rewards £5 reward voucher, then do we earn heathrow rewards points on all, part or none of the transaction amount?

    ian. 🙂

    • Rob says:

      19 Feb19 February 08:38

      Should be ‘all’. If you use a £5 World Duty Free coupon you get points on the full spend.

    • Alan says:

      19 Feb19 February 09:23

      Should be everything as the HR points payment is just treated as a form of payment, like when using part payment with Avios on a cash ticket with BA.

• MuslimtravelGirl says:

  19 Feb19 February 06:41

  Sadly, I think the offer on Amex travel was pulled? I was looking for it yesterday and it has disappeared from my offers.

  Do you think it will still go through?

  • Rashad says:

    19 Feb19 February 07:20

    Hi, I’ve still got it under saved offers …

  • Roger says:

    19 Feb19 February 07:23

    Still shows on my offers. Thinking of making a booking in next week anyway.

    If you do not receive offer redeeemed email just contact Amex CS and hopefully they can appply the credit manually.

  • Alan says:

    19 Feb19 February 09:24

    Had you saved it as an offer? It should be fine if so, but if you didn’t save it the maximum number of registrations may have been met.

    • MuslimtravelGirl says:

      19 Feb19 February 14:34

      Yes, I did have it saved so I might try and book and if it doesn’t go through will contact them to do it manually. I already redeemed one of them but it was not showing on my husband’s account. Thanks

      • Alan says:

        19 Feb19 February 15:16

        Hmm – perhaps worth checking again, I did find the Amex website was glitching a bit last week, not displaying things properly. I must say for this offer I received an email advertising it, with the last 5 digits of my card number on it, so there shouldn’t be an issue retroclaiming if it doesn’t post automatically.

        • Stu_N says:

          19 Feb19 February 15:37

          The offer is cumulative as well, I used it for 2 separate bookings that totalled just over £200 and the credit posted to my account no problem.

        • Alan says:

          19 Feb19 February 15:42

          Nice – I’m hoping the Hilton one might be cumulative too!

        • Mike says:

          19 Feb19 February 16:44

          Yes, it was glitching last week. Some of my balances not being displayed properly, in particular the gold rewards card 3 month spend target

• Rob says:

  19 Feb19 February 08:40

  Agreed. As bookings can be cancelled it is a no brainer to book any ‘points and money’ now just in case.

  • Ian says:

    19 Feb19 February 13:03

    Does this not cause a delay – ie do the points refund in real time, or is there a delay? esp if performing transactions online?

    • Alan says:

      19 Feb19 February 13:19

      Points should return near-instantly – Hilton’s IT normally takes 30-60 min to update in points transaction history but the actual balance changes real-time.

• Anon says:

  19 Feb19 February 09:12

  Posting up an example that I’ve recommended to a friend for a decent redemption.

  Its at the lower end so differences are smallish, but you get the idea

  Sat 3rd June
  Hampton London Docklands (nr LCY)
  Flex Rate £179
  HH Advance purchase £149 (not refundable)
  Points&Money £39 + 12,000
  Points 30,000

  Given the new slider option where all options are to have the same value per point I can’t see how this sweet spot of £39+12,000 will exist under the new scheme.

  Booking from March, I expect it to he more like £59+12,000pts

  So yes only a small difference at this level, but if scaled up…

  Another sweet spot I was aware of was Hilton Reykjavik, £59+16k pts for a £260 room, doubt that’ll be available to book at that rate after the next week.

  Conrad St James, London maybe another, think its P&M could previously be had for £99 + 32k HH pts

  Rob – feel free to pick apart any of the above, I’m only highlighting on what your article below already analysed
  https://headforpoints.com/2017/02/01/major-changes-to-hilton-honors/

  Cheers! 🙂

  • Alan says:

    19 Feb19 February 09:22

    Looks sound to me. Basically cheap rooms will go down in redemption price but the more expensive outsize value ones will go up 🙁

  • James67 says:

    19 Feb19 February 10:13

    IIRC from Rob’s original post there was another aspect to the forthcoming changes: some properties would see a decrease in the number of points required for full points redemptions outside peak times? If so, does this not mean we will be seeing some more attractive deals on some hotels than we see now? Also, the points and money sliding scale must presumably be based on full points redemption and cash price at time of booking? Therefore, if booking at offpeak times some points and money deals may actually be better than they are at the moment? I’ve no idea, I cannot get my head around this with the information available at the moment but I’m wondering if it might be a bit more complex than your analysis suggests unless I’m missing something? Still, I agree with your assertion that it’s best to lock in any known bookings now and I have one so.

    • Alan says:

      19 Feb19 February 10:17

      Off peak some will get a bit cheaper, but sadly the disproportionate value for days when room rates are very high will go (or at least lessen)

    • Rob says:

      19 Feb19 February 10:25

      Yes, it is complex. The ‘all points’ price will be something like the lower of the current rate OR (guess) 0.33p per point.

      A £100 room at a hotel currently selling for 20,000 points would still be 20,000. A £50 room at a hotel which is now 20,000 points would drop to 15,000 points.

      Points and Money will be a sliding scale between the cash rate and the max points rate.

    • James67 says:

      19 Feb19 February 10:40

      Thanks guys, the one thing that I do think is certain is that overall this will be stacked in Hiltons favour. As always it’ll be a case of absorbing the bad and fullh exploiting the good which I’m in no doubt HFP will help us to do.

    • John says:

      19 Feb19 February 11:06

      From the example posted on OMAAT, it appears that points are just going to be worth 0.5 US cents. I think this is based on the non-HH flexible rate – so actually less than that. I believe this is the existing situation with Premium Room Rewards.

      For the off-peak thing mentioned by James67, the current situation is that properties have varying Standard Room Rewards rates, for example Cat 4 is 20K ($100) or 30K ($150). Under the new system, the points required will be rounded to nearest 1000 and capped at the current maximum.

      So points will be capped at 30K even if rooms are $200 (no change until next devaluation). Currently at off peak times, rooms are released at 20K points. If paid rates are $120, then this will no longer happen and you will only get rooms for 24K points (devaluation), but if paid rates are $80, then they may now be available for 16K points (genuine enhancement).

      So Hilton is 1) removing situations where it wouldn’t have made sense to use points anyway, 2) allowing points to be used at a fixed rate at all times, and 3) maintaining the possibility of getting an expensive room for not that many points, until the next devaluation.

      However, if points have a standard cash value then the points&money slider will just take this into account and it won’t make any difference whether you use points at one property or another.

      Basically:
      The current points&money is like redeeming on a BA where you don’t have enough Avios – you buy the additional avios at a cheaper price, but it’s still a redemption.
      The new points&money is like using Avios for a discount on a BA paid flight – you sell your Avios back to BA for money off, and you earn TPs and avios

      • Rob says:

        19 Feb19 February 12:17

        The issue for Hilton (and Nectar etc) is that purely revenue based schemes get no traction. They offer you 2000 bonus points, you know that is worth exactly £6, you go ‘meh’.

        When you believe that 2,000 points is – say – 3% of a suite at Conrad New York (which it is off peak) then you get more excited.

        The Avios CEO and I have bounced this idea about a few times and I am convinced he ‘gets it’, luckily for us.

        • Alan says:

          19 Feb19 February 12:28

          Totally agree – that sums up my interest in Accor, shame Hilton are starting to go down the same route (although at least you get free breakfast with Gold and higher!)

      • James67 says:

        19 Feb19 February 13:24

        @Alan, but accor was beautiful, two years ago they were giving out 10000-12000 points for 3 or 4 x1 night stays. We were popping out our BKk condo to the nearby ibis at £14 a night or going down to Novatel Rayong at £19 a night for the weekend and generating free cash. Just about to spend it along with IHG points on our spring tour in Europe 🙂

        • Alan says:

          19 Feb19 February 13:28

          Ohh haha yes for those sort of earning promos very nice indeed, just the burning is always less exciting!

      • Leo says:

        19 Feb19 February 14:01

        Totally get the “meh” thing.

  • Rob says:

    19 Feb19 February 10:27

    Agree completely.

    • Peter K says:

      19 Feb19 February 13:14

      +1 with Accor. I don’t get excited about their hotels and their scheme doesn’t get me wanting to go to them to gain a cheap stay at a better one like IHG can sometimes do.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      19 Feb19 February 13:34

      Sort of what was posted above but completely agree the value in points is arbitrage, knowing there is a fixed value doesn’t excite me in the slightest.

      I know Cash can be saved if I know where and what I want to do in 6-12 months time but if I fancy a weekend away anywhere in 2-3 weeks time knowing I could turn my points into a few nights at an aspirational property using avios for last min flights is the real value.

• Amo says:

  19 Feb19 February 09:13

  If I’ve used half of my annual ISA allowance in a stocks and shares isa with another provider, can I open another isa in the same year for the remaining allowance, to take advantage of the Nutmeg offer?

  • Jonathan says:

    19 Feb19 February 10:08

    No. Only one per tax year.

    • the real harry1 says:

      19 Feb19 February 10:49

      confirm: no you can’t, as J says

  • Alex W says:

    19 Feb19 February 14:34

    I didn’t realise this rule so I opened 2 of them. I’ve since closed one. I don’t know if there will be any repercussions.

    • the real harry1 says:

      19 Feb19 February 14:57

      loads of people will be in a similar position

      probably best to either:

      i) keep stumm: as long as you obtained no tax advantage from the second one, HMRC probably won’t care even if they do find out

      ii) tell HMRC about your unwitting mistake, tell them you cancelled the second one straight away and ask their advice

      take your pick

      • the real harry1 says:

        19 Feb19 February 21:31

        having said all that…

        we got a tax shock earlier on this year – they sent us a tax demand for something like £60,000!!!

        it turned out they (HMRC) had scanned in my wife’s (Virgin) ISA details but also mistakenly scanned in some other guy’s tax documents ie scanned in (say) 10 documents in a pile instead of maybe 2

        I sorted it out for her but it does actually mean that when your ISA co report your investment, HMRC scans it in to your a/c

        so they would likely recognise that you got 2 when you should only be allowed one Stocks & Shares ISA

• Kathy says:

  19 Feb19 February 12:27

  OT: and probably a stupid question! Can the Avios call centre see reward flights you have booked through BA.com? I’m struggling to book a flight using Avios.com because it takes half an hour longer for the new flights to show up there than BA.com, and they’re being snapped up in that half hour. But I will need to apply a Lloyd’s voucher to the booking, so I need the booking to be accessible by Avios.

• Clive says:

  19 Feb19 February 17:08

  Is anyone using Supercard with the Hilton visa?

  • Peter K says:

    19 Feb19 February 19:27

    I have done for purchasing Iberia via groupon.es last year. Why?

    • Clive says:

      19 Feb19 February 21:20

      When I tried registering my Barclaycard it rejected it so was curios

      • Peter K says:

        19 Feb19 February 22:25

        Worked fine for me. Not sure why wouldn’t for you. Maybe try a different card first then try Barclaycard again.

  • Talay says:

    19 Feb19 February 22:25

    Yes, for some Iberia Avios purchases the other month.

    Worked ok with one glitch.

• Peter K says:

  19 Feb19 February 19:28

  *Iberia Avios

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