Bits: IHG 5000 points PointBreaks preview – with a London-ish hotel, HfP on Rip-Off Britain

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• Andy S says:

  28 Jul28 July 16:29

  that one doens’t work now!

• Jonny says:

  28 Jul28 July 16:34

  Question on Heathrow parking: Can I easily park in the Premier Inn T5 car park, and then cross the road to take a “pod” to the terminal?

  Looks feasible on google maps but not sure if actually possible or not…

  • Genghis says:

    28 Jul28 July 17:06

    You’d have to pay at the Thistle for access or walk the long way round via Longford.

    • Jonny says:

      28 Jul28 July 17:38

      But would I even get in via the Thistle if i’m not staying/parking there?

      • Genghis says:

        28 Jul28 July 18:08

        Just cross the road into the Thistle

      • Simon Schus says:

        28 Jul28 July 21:39

        Yes, you have to go to their reception and pay them the fee (can’t remember how much, it was possible around £5). Saying that, I managed to bag a parking-only package at the Thistle so it made sense to pay the extra £5 given that it was already significantly cheaper than other options (I think I had booked it around 24 hours before departure too, as it was an unanticipated trip).

• Fenny says:

  28 Jul28 July 18:05

  Talking of Rip off Britain, I’ve just had my first statement for my IHG White card. I checked it to see how much I’d spend – a few tickets for the Edinburgh Fringe and my entry for the new Telegraph Fantasy Football season. Seems that Creation class online fantasy games as cash transactions, so my £9.99 entry fee attracted a £5 cash transaction fee and I’m paying interest on it. There isn’t really another way to pay it, but TFF have cleverly stated in their T&C that “some banks and building societies may make an additional charge for playing fantasy games online. Entrants should check with their bank or building society prior to entry.”

  When I rang up to query, the CS person said it’s in their T&C, as it’s classed as online gambling and lottery. I’m utterly gobsmacked. I was going to keep this card for ongoing spending, but I’m not sure I want to now. If I keep it at all, it will only be for the IHG status, which isn’t really that much to write home about, and not really worth a £5 fee!

  If that’s not a rip off, I’m not sure what is!

  • Alex W says:

    28 Jul28 July 19:33

    Not sure what your beef is there. Sounds like a form of gambling to me, so a cash advance fee sounds reasonable!

    • Aeronaut says:

      28 Jul28 July 22:36

      Though setting the fee at £5 seems rather less reasonable.

    • Fenny says:

      29 Jul29 July 10:28

      Having played TFF for the last 5 years, this is the first time I’ve been charged a CC fee. If I’d had any idea, I would have paid by debit card. But I don’t normally spend anything on my debit card.

      I’ve never seen the actual FF game as gambling and don’t indulge in any of the additional betting that is pushed as a sideline to the game.

      Sadly, I am now older and wiser.

  • John says:

    29 Jul29 July 02:54

    Debit card??

  • Andy says:

    29 Jul29 July 10:08

    I used £1000 from my Black card to fund some a share account. Made a few bob and a week later withdrew to the black card. Withdrawal went through as a purchase and deposit went threw as a refund on a different item. Hit the £300 spend in one go and collected 40k points bonus.

• nocnoc says:

  28 Jul28 July 18:13

  I have an Accelerate target of ‘pay with cash and points’, anyone know if a 5,000 points break would count towards that target? If so, it’s off to Croydon for me but don’t fancy doing a trip unneccessarily

  • xcalx says:

    28 Jul28 July 18:22

    No. Points and cash means instead of paying say 30,000 points IHG offers pay 25,000 + $ 40 or 20,000 + $70 for example.

  • Fenny says:

    28 Jul28 July 18:30

    Be careful. If you do, the stay does not count as a qualifying night for any of the other accelerate targets, eg stay 3 nights. It will ONLY count for the target and you end up losing points – if you pay, say £40 and 20000 points, you will get the 3000 or so for hitting the target, but you’re 17000 points down on the deal for a stay that wouldn’t have cost much more than £40 anyway. If you can hit your bonus without, I wouldn’t do this particular target.

  • Rob says:

    28 Jul28 July 19:19

    No, you can’t do ‘cash and points’ on PB.

• Rom says:

  28 Jul28 July 18:58

  Just seen full list of pointsbreak. What a poor show!!

• Paul says:

  29 Jul29 July 15:47

  Well that’s a pain, the only IC seems to Bandung and I am due to stay there next week!! Hey ho it was only £60 a night for club earlier in the year and I have been upgraded to a villa already. Would probably have spent as much on breakfast each day with a pure points stay.

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