Shangri-La blocking Golden Circle accounts from last years promotion

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• RP says:

  5 Oct5 October 07:19

  I unlocked our accounts last week. It took about 12 hours from emailing the passports.

• Seville says:

  5 Oct5 October 07:40

  Mine and wife’s account are blocked but I’ve already redeemed but not used our vouchers.

  My question is how easy is it to exchange them in the business centre? Any advice post-fraud era….

  • Sideysid says:

    5 Oct5 October 09:15

    I would like to know this also, as I have a table booked for next week. I have got the redemption emails, would I need to unblock our accounts before going?

• Jamie says:

  5 Oct5 October 07:47

  Interesting – managed to book a table for mid October only to see that mine and my wife’s account have been blocked.

  Mine’s been re-opened after sending my driving licence, hopefully her’s will be the same.

  Following the post above it would be good to get clarity on how you exchange the vouchers ? Is there a business centre or is it done at reception ? Do the staff have any idea what you are talking about ?

  • Stuart says:

    5 Oct5 October 07:58

    I redeemed online for a non-room award and took the printed voucher with me. From what I can tell there is no business centre at the Shard hotel.

    I emailed the restaurant ahead of my lunch to ask the process to get my voucher verified. They said just show it to hotel reception on the 35th floor on arrival.

    In fact, all we did was hand our voucher to one of the restaurant staff who took it off to get verified.

    • Micky says:

      5 Oct5 October 22:26

      Yes they didn’t even ask for ID – albeit the staff serving me was new to the job. Got a £55 voucher in return (was expecting a bit more to be honest!)
      The menu is slightly different to ones I’ve seen online (have uploaded a picture of it if anyone is interested in dining there: https://comewithmeto.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/img_0827.jpg a snapshot of the lounge menu https://comewithmeto.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/img_0844.jpg

      • Andy says:

        6 Oct6 October 12:35

        I’m heading to Ting on Saturday for lunch with my voucher, those pics have upped the anticipation for me a bit.

• Stuart says:

  5 Oct5 October 07:49

  Mine took less than a day to be unlocked.

  Had a fantastic 3 course lunch at Ting last week. The food was surprisingly good. Heads up that most of the restaurant tables overlook south to East London. We had a nice view of Tower Bridge and Canary Wharf though.

  If you want a nice view of north and west of the city, take some photos by the hotel reception. Or visit the toilets in the restaurant!

  • Trickster says:

    5 Oct5 October 08:22

    The restaurant goes all the way round, you can see this when you go to the toilets. I asked the receptionist who said it was all Ting.

    We ate in the Ting lounge which, if you get a window table, has a great view of the city and Tower of London.

    How do you know if you are blocked? My account just says unsuccessful at logging in? If blocked do you get a different message?

    • Rob says:

      5 Oct5 October 11:43

      You are blocked.

• Sam Wardill says:

  5 Oct5 October 08:00

  What a shambles! This turns this promo from something that left a lot of new Golden Circle members feeling very positive about Shangri La to the opposite.

  • Brian says:

    5 Oct5 October 09:07

    Does it? I don’t feel negative about Shangri-La because they’re attempting (albeit slightly late, as Raffles points out) to combat fraud and people taking the piss. After all, they have essentially given new GC members 100 dollars of free food and drink. Seems that emailing a copy of a passport or driving licence is a small price to pay for that – especially since most of these new GC members are never going to stay in a Shangri-La hotel.

    I would have thought that the only people who will be feeling peeved are those with multiple accounts…

    • Sam wardill says:

      5 Oct5 October 10:44

      I’m peeved and I have only one account

      • Nick says:

        5 Oct5 October 11:00

        Do you regularly collect Golden Circle points then? It seems that what they are doing is entirely reasonable. If you had multiple accounts you could easily abuse what was a very generous offer. If you had multiple accounts you would likely just enter the competition and leave your accounts alone after that. So if you just entered the competition and left it at that, then I think it makes total sense for them to notice and ask you to prove you’ve got just one account.

        • Sam wardill says:

          5 Oct5 October 11:11

          I am a person who stays in hotels a fair bit. I was encouraged to join this scheme with a reward. Because the promo was ill thought out I have to jump through hoops. This experience has left me less likely to stay in shangri la hotels

      • Brian says:

        5 Oct5 October 11:46

        Right – so the only people who are feeling peeved are those with multiple accounts and those with one account who consider scanning in a passport and emailing it off is a poor return for a $100 meal at a sought-after location in London (or elsewhere).

        People need to realise that the miles and points game is all about taking full legitimate advantage of promotions like this, BUT we have no God-given right to freebies. The hotel chains/airlines etc are out to make money, not to give away things out of the goodness of their hearts. Therefore, we need to be prepared for a little give and take.

        I suggest you don’t bother sending off your passport copy, since it’s so much hassle. Leave your account locked – that will teach them

        • Nick says:

          6 Oct6 October 09:57

          Exactly. It is an entirely understandable minor inconvenience. To be honest if they were closing the accounts of those of us that just joined the scheme to take advantage of this promotion I think I’d understand why, but they aren’t even doing that: they are just asking for proof of ID. It’s still a very generous giveaway. I really would save my indignation for situations that warrant it (Hilton devaluations etc).

        • Thywillbedone says:

          6 Oct6 October 11:59

          Indeed. Most of us who travel regularly will have a PDF of our passports to hand which can be emailed immediately – a 2 minutes task at most. Do it at work if you are that worried about the time lost!

• Clive J says:

  5 Oct5 October 08:29

  Thanks for the heads up. I noticed yesterday that Award Wallet wasn’t able to access my account so assume the same must have happened to me.

• David C says:

  5 Oct5 October 08:47

  Managed to redeem my vouchers at the end of Sept and used them last week. I printed out the email confirmation and exchanged at reception for a voucher which I gave to the waitress when requesting my bill. It all worked well, great dinner, used 2x vouchers on some excellent wine. We had a great window table (requested) with views toward the eye and Westminster. Pre dinner drinks on the 53rd floor (you have to pre book a table) before coming down to the 34th and Ting Restaurant. Great result for a minimum of effort on the promo….many thanks Robert B.

• Rich says:

  5 Oct5 October 08:49

  I think “shambles” is a little strong.
  Its not unusual for some accounts like this to be locked when dormant- I guess we have only noticed because of the volume of us trying to use them at the same time.

  I went on Friday and had a great experience – unlocking the accounts was a bit of hassle but not the end of the world.

  You order the voucher online, receive and email with an attachment that you take to reception and exchange for a voucher in GBP. MAKE SURE YOU TAKE PHOTO ID FOR THIS PART.

  You then simply eat and pay using the voucher.

  Even if you are paying with your own cash there are worse places to spend £30 on a 3 course lunch given that I think the “Shard Experience” costs £30 or so for entrance only.

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