Bits: £30 4* and 5* London hotels, double Avios at London City, got a Tesco Bank account?

News in brief:

£29.99 London hotels deals with lastminute.com

lastminute.com is running a promotion called ‘The Big Pink Sale’.  Part of this is selling a number of hotels for just £29.99.

Some of the hotels have been identified:

• ‘Award-winning boutique hotel in The City’ is Threadneedles, a five star
• ‘Great option for a relaxed getaway in London’ is Park Plaza Westminster Bridge (has a pool)
• ‘Four star hotel close to historic Westminster’ is Park Plaza Riverbank
• ‘Modern four star hotel close to London Victoria station’ is Park Plaza Victoria

These are all very nice places, especially Theadneedles.  The £29 rate seems to be available on selected Fridays, Sundays and Mondays between now and the end of October, although the website is broken and won’t display anything after the end of June.  For later dates you need to plug in dates via the box at the top, one at a time.  You really can’t go wrong at this price – the Park Plaza properties come with free internet for everyone, I think, and if you have Club Carlson status you may even get upgraded.

You need to book via this page by 10am on April 7th.

Double Avios on British Airways flights from London City Airport

British Airways is offering double Avios points on flights to Edinburgh, Dublin and the Isle of Man from London City Airport.  Discount economy tickets are NOT included – applicable booking classes are J, C, D R and I for Club Europe, Y and B for Euro Traveller and J, C, D, R, I, B and Y for domestic flights.

You can earn until May 31st but you MUST register by April 27th.  Full details and the registration page are here.

Did you open a Tesco Bank current account?

I wrote about the Tesco Bank current account last July when it launched.  It seemed underwhelming – you earn 1 Clubcard point for every £8 spent on the DEBIT card, but payments to ‘bank and financial institutions’ do not count, according to the rules.  This means that you can’t settle your credit card bill with it.

Following an interesting email from a reader, I’d be interested to know if anyone else has any experience of this rule in practice.  Thanks.