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Bits: Hilton sale ends today, new Danish BA credit card, Viceroy joins Global Hotel Alliance

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News in brief:

Hilton ‘weekend breaks’ flash sale ends today

Midnight tonight, Sunday, is the end of the seven day ‘flash sale’ which Hilton has been running this week,

It is offering special deals at 250 hotels across Europe (including the UK), Middle East and Africa, but only at weekends.  (In theory.  In practice, some hotels have loaded sale rates for midweek dates.)  Many rooms are discounted by 33%.  The rates are valid for stays until July 17th.

More details and some example rates can be found in this article from last week.

British Airways launching a credit card in Denmark

For the handful of Danish readers out there, you might like to know that British Airways is due to launch an Avios-earning Mastercard next week.

The issuer will be Resurs Bank.  If you apply before June 30th you will receive a sign-up bonus of 2,000 Avios and a further 7,000 Avios if you spend DKK 30,000 within three months.

The card will earn 10 Avios points per DKK 100 spent, with double Avios for purchases at ba.com.

Yas Abu Dhabi

Viceroy to join Global Hotel Alliance

Viceroy Hotels is the latest group to join Global Hotel Alliance.  This is a loose branding of smaller hotel brands who offer one combined loyalty scheme.

GHA brands include Alila, Anantara, Art Series, Atura, Avani, Corinthia, Doyle Collection, First, Glo, Individual Collection, Kempinski, Leela, Lungarno Collection, Marco Polo, Meritage Collection, Meydan, Mokara, Omni, Pan Pacific, ParkRoyal, Per Aquum, QT, Rydges, Rixos, Shaza, Tangram, Thon and Tivoli.

The addition of Viceroy, probably best known for their Abu Dhabi property which literally straddles the Grand Prix circuit, take GHA to 550 hotels across 76 countries.  With their loyalty scheme now having 5.4 million members, I will dedicate a full article to it in the coming weeks.

Comments (18)

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

  • Adam W says:

    Cheers for the heads-up on the Hilton sale. However, from checking for a stay I require, it seems that the ‘flash sale’ is not limited to weekend stays.

    • Adam W says:

      Sorry – got too excited running off to the hilton website and didn’t read down to the “in theory. In practice” part!

  • Phillip says:

    One of my favourite Viceroy peoperties is St Lucia’s Sugar Beach – previously Jalousie Plantation (why they would change it to Sugar Beach is beyond me). The recent renovations have added some incredible room options. Highly recommend the beach suites!

  • jakobv84 says:

    Danish reader checking in! That’d be great news for (perhaps?) the most immature credit card market in Europe. Do you have any source on it? Google search didn’t reveal anything

    • Rob says:

      HFP world exclusive, although I didn’t make a song and dance about it since you’re probably the only person who cares 🙂

      Tuesday is launch day.

      • Jens says:

        Hi Rob, do you have any info about a possibilty of German issued credit cards being able to add to your UK miles? E.g. I am aware of AMEX having a MR programme and a for the first year free Gold Card as well. However I am not aware of a possibility to combine MR points of the German programme with the UK one. Also a different a (higher) amount of miles seems to be needed for e.g. a BA redemption from a German airport to the UK with much higher fees, making it not worthwile in my view. However I wonder if you have a different view or ideas?

        • Rob says:

          Amex MR point transfers are not country sensitive. A German Amex Gold can transfer into a UK-issued BA account with no problems.

          Only BA branded cards are ‘nationalistic’ – the Danish BA card won’t allow transfer to a UK BA account.

          • Jens says:

            I had a closer look again, you are right. transfers to a number of frequent flyer schemes, hotels etc are possible, not as widespread as in the UK, but some very useful are involved. Currently the German sign up bonus is 15000 MR points for a 1000 Euro spent (just little over 700 GBP at present) on the AMEX PRG card, that is not bad, even better than as in the UK actually. 15000 MR would get you 12000 Avios according the transfer rate. I wonder if it would work to get the bonus in GER too, whilst holding a UK PRG gold card as well.

      • Henrik says:

        Not the only one 😉

        Looking forward to the launch and are ready to apply for the MasterCard 🙂

        Br,
        Henrik

        • Rob says:

          HFP is the place to be for all the top Danish frequent flyer news Henrik 🙂

      • Morten says:

        Do you have to physically be in Denmark to see this offer? I still can’t seem to find anything on their website.

        • Rob says:

          No idea. Launch was scheduled for yesterday.

          • Morten says:

            I have been in contact with Resurs Bank costumer service. They say they will not be launching a Danish Avios-earning credit card.
            Great shame.

          • Rob says:

            Morten – see your inbox!

            Customer Service is not going to tell you about something which is meant to be secret.

  • JoeMc says:

    As a Dane living in London.

    Hitting 30.000DKK is not that easy in Denmark, Amex is not that widespread as it is here in London/UK. That being said, the bonus isn’t fantastic 7000 Avios for 30.000DKK spend which is roughly 3000 GBP. Will there be a 2 for 1 voucher as well?

    • Rob says:

      It’s a MasterCard, not an Amex.

    • jakobv84 says:

      There are 1 or 2 MS opportunities available in Denmark so you at least can get the minimum spend done without too much of a headache. None scale indefinitely (that I’m aware of), but enough to knock out minimum spends…

  • Morten says:

    As a Dane moving back to Denmark from London in two weeks, this is great news. Having only gotten into the points game in the last couple of years, I must say the Danish credit card market was a disappointing prospect. Hopefully this will be a small step on the way to a better Danish market for points enthusiasts.

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