BOOK THIS AFTERNOON: 100 new IHG PointBreaks hotels at just 5,000 points

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• John says:

  24 Apr24 April 06:02

  Anyone tried Vilnius? Suggestions for getting there from London? I need to earn some star alliance miles for retaining aegean gold

  • rick says:

    24 Apr24 April 07:06

    Not sure about Vilnius, but if you want to spend TK Miles, it is only 10000 TK miles from LHR-IST-TLL

  • Gavin says:

    24 Apr24 April 07:25

    SAS an option?

  • Pangolin says:

    24 Apr24 April 09:33

    The only cheap flights are via Ryanair (STN) and Wizz Air (LTN) so that’s no use for you.

    For Star Alliance the cheapest option (just over £100) is going to be LOT (via WAW). The trouble is that Economy flights earn next to nothing on Miles and More – it’s 125 miles per segment!

    So you’d need to think about business class but with the LH group airlines either the times are bad (arriving after midnight) or you have a long layover. The LH group that runs M & M are very stingy with mileage/awards in general and it tends to be used by those of us who have to do a lot of flying out of Central Europe where there is little competition to the LH behemoth.

    Like Rick says above, there are much better options for a *A/A3 mileage run than VNO. TLL is almost certainly the best option in terms of the Baltic region.

  • MrHandBaggageOnly says:

    24 Apr24 April 09:34

    I liked Vilnius a lot, friendly locals, plenty to see and do for a couple of days. We went in December, with snow and it was cold. I’d like to go back in the summer! We flew there with Ryanair from BHX, but met up with a friend who came from Paris with SAS (via OSL) on a ticket that only cost him around €100.

    • Sandgrounder says:

      24 Apr24 April 10:46

      Vilnius is great in the summer. There is a really good atmosphere in the old town, plenty of people eating and drinking outside enjoying the light evenings.

    • Mr Dee says:

      24 Apr24 April 17:43

      Well now that is a game changer for people thinking about going there!

    • Mr Dee says:

      24 Apr24 April 18:07

      Rebooked now as flights to Vilnius don’t exist after the 14th unless you want to travel to Kaunas 1.5 hours away

• rick says:

  24 Apr24 April 07:05

  OT – IHG White Card Signup

  Just checking if anyone received 20K signup bonus on applying white IHG card.
  I already hold IHG black card and applied for and spent required amount but I have only received 10K bonus.
  I know someone posted previously that remaining should be credited to account within 90 days.
  Anyone got lucky and received full sign up bonus already?

  • Alan says:

    24 Apr24 April 08:07

    At least 3 of us have queried it and all been told full 20k within 90 days if eligible (I kept screenshot of in-app offer just in case!). Statement not yet generated so not even had the first 10k yet, although are showing up in online Creation account.

    • Genghis says:

      24 Apr24 April 08:47

      I had the 10k come in overnight

      • Gavin says:

        24 Apr24 April 09:11

        Likewise mine came in today. £200.04 spent on the card, back in the drawer it goes

      • Roger says:

        24 Apr24 April 10:14

        Mine as well. Hope the other 10K IHG points turn up without much chasing

      • Alan says:

        24 Apr24 April 21:47

        Ditto – the day before statement issued too, can’t complain about that – now here’s hoping the 2nd 10k post as promised 🙂

  • @mkcol says:

    24 Apr24 April 08:37

    I did not know that you could also have the free card & earn the sign-up bonus.

    I shall investigate.

• Robbie says:

  24 Apr24 April 07:23

  Is there any way of getting ihg points quickly? I.e Virgin/avios/amex transfer?

  • Genghis says:

    24 Apr24 April 07:34

    Amex/Tesco -> Virgin -> IHG.
    But you’ll most likely lose value

    • Rob says:

      24 Apr24 April 10:53

      Virgin to IHG takes a week though.

  • Mark e says:

    24 Apr24 April 12:03

    There used to be a way f you want to ‘buy’ them and already have 5,000 points. I am sure that the regulars on here can confirm if this is still valid: You can use the 5,000 to do a points and ‘cash’ booking with a credit card for a room that you don’t need to use and then cancel the booking. The refunded amount will be all points with no money refunded to yout card.

    • Rob says:

      24 Apr24 April 12:04

      Yes, that still works OK if you have 5,000 to start with (which you could buy direct, albeit for a higher price).

• Dave says:

  24 Apr24 April 09:45

  Interestingly a hotel I was looking at for one night is on this list on HFP but NOT showing on the IHG page.

  • Rob says:

    24 Apr24 April 10:54

    The list here is a cut and paste, albeit with pretty formatting by myself, from the ‘preview’ list that IHG published on Friday. That list has been known to change over the 72 hours before the hotels are put up for booking.

    • Chris says:

      24 Apr24 April 14:10

      Well that and you added Austin N (Round Rock) into TN as well as TX – or perhaps IHG did, it’s the property so good they built it twice

• Nick says:

  24 Apr24 April 10:58

  I remember when some good ones used to appear like the Staybridge in Abu Dhabi!

• Mark says:

  24 Apr24 April 12:04

  O/T but hotel related, I’ve just booked the Hilton Gatwick prior to our flight on July, i’m a gold HH member (thanks to this site) and have booked a deluxe room, will i most likely get an upgrade to executive? and also will this allow lounge access? or is lounge access only if you pay for the exec room?

  • Steve says:

    24 Apr24 April 18:15

    I have stayed at the Gatwick Hilton many times as a good member and have always been upgraded to the Executive Wing and given access to the Lounge.

    • Mark says:

      25 Apr25 April 13:47

      thanks!

• Guy says:

  24 Apr24 April 12:13

  Slighty OT and hoping Rob could help.

  Am looking at potentially booking a stay with Melia Group, was trying to decipher the what was on the relevant pages but the majority seems to date back to 2013, eg 2-4-1 Nights, 15% discount codes. Is there anyway I could find what promotions/activities are still active in case I could get some value with the booking I might be making?

  Thanks

  Guy

  • Rob says:

    24 Apr24 April 12:24

    The birthday bonus thing is still going, I think, although I haven’t had one for a while (albeit my account is not active). You’d get a 20% discount voucher if you were Amex Plat and got Melia Gold status through that, the voucher is a benefit of the status.

    Nothing else comes to mind off the top of my head.

    • Guy says:

      24 Apr24 April 12:41

      Thanks Rob. Annoyingly I cant apply for Plat until after I’ve made this booking so unlikely I’ll be able to utilise this benefit in time (also the room is on discount so maybe would not be able to use in conjunction anyway). Tried the birthday trick so will see how that plays out.

  • Lady London says:

    24 Apr24 April 20:59

    I don’t have time to check but I thought Iberia’s frequent flyer program had something going with Melia last time I looked.

    • Rob says:

      24 Apr24 April 21:50

      It does, you can convert Melia points into Iberia Avios.

• Mark says:

  24 Apr24 April 13:42

  I’m currently in the Crowne Plaza in Bratislava from the last round of point breaks. Booked Friday to Wednesday. They upgraded me to club lounge floor, then gave me a suite on that floor and to my suprised when they offered the usual points or free drink at the bar the receptionist said that it’s recently changed so I could chose lounge access instead of the points or drink!

  So for 25,000 I received club floor, suite and lounge access so free breakfast and drinks!

  • Pangolin says:

    24 Apr24 April 15:39

    That’s weird. Are you a Spire? In which case you should be guaranteed lounge access anyway under the new T&Cs, so offering you that instead of the points/drink wouldn’t make sense. If you’re a Plat or less though I certainly wouldn’t complain!

    I haven’t heard from any other source that lounge access is ever a possible option as a welcome amenity, so maybe the FD staff weren’t quite on the money here.

    • Mark says:

      24 Apr24 April 15:55

      Yeah spire ambassador. I though it was strange too.

      I wasn’t aware of the new t&c’s either so was doubly suprised!

    • mark E says:

      24 Apr24 April 15:56

      Are Spires definitely Guaranteed lounge access now?

      • Pangolin says:

        24 Apr24 April 16:12

        There’s been debates about this over on FT, a good lawyer could probably spot a loophole in the updated T&Cs, but the consensus is that Spires are now supposed to get lounge access if the property has it.

        The downside is that places where a Plat was virtually guaranteed to get lounge access before, e.g. a CP in Asia, are now doing things like giving upgrades to Club rooms but denying access. It’s still the hotel that can decide but it seems that some properties are cracking down on lounge access for those below Spire.

        If this carries on then it’s not so great for me (currently Plat) but it means that the Spire tier actually means something, which has hardly been the case up until now,

        • mark E says:

          24 Apr24 April 16:22

          Thank you, I was’t aware of this. I am Spire so this is good to know. Since i have been Spire I have been given Lounge Access in Crowne Plazas at Birmingham, Glasgow, Nottingham and Lyon but not at Gatwick. I might give Gatwick a try again and see what they give me.

        • Rob says:

          24 Apr24 April 16:58

          A few properties are trialling it but it is not, by any stretch, official policy. I would certainly be booking a CP in anticipation of lounge access.

        • Mr Dee says:

          24 Apr24 April 17:51

          This would be excellent news if it becomes the normal for CP properties and would encourage me to stay at more CP properties over Hilton.

  • Mr Dee says:

    24 Apr24 April 17:48

    Very nice, I was planning to visit there last weekend but had to cancel last minute, will probably try there one day though.

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