Bits: 20000 IHG points bargain in SanFran, Thistle Heathrow brings back free pod trips, SAA sale

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• Mark says:

  9 Jan9 January 10:17

  We stayed at the Thistle Heathrow last year when there was an Amex deal and free pods offer running.

  It is badly in need of refurbishment, to the extent that we’d be reluctant to go back at present. My wife complained the towels smelt of curry.

  That said it is convenient for T5 (second only to the SOFITEL in that respect) and if you like watching planes take off has an excellently located bar and restaurant where we took advantage of the free Sunday meal offer that they were running for new joiners to their loyalty scheme.

• Ziggy says:

  9 Jan9 January 10:34

  HIX are renovating/remodelling a lot of their properties at the moment. They’ve introduced a “next Generation” room and the first four properties to get that treatment are in the UK (Ealing, Park Royal, Grimsby and Portsmouth North) – hopefully that makes them a little more tolerable….although I’m not too sure about a few things in the new design, I’m reserving judgement till I try one out.

• harry says:

  9 Jan9 January 11:10

  O/T Iberia – Groupon – ***URGENT***

  If you have not received your Groupon points ie credited into your Iberia account, you need to do something about it or you risk losing your money. The points should definitely have arrived by now. The deadline is 10th January ISTR with your unclaimed Groupon vouchers expiring after that (I think).

  You probably didn’t validate them correctly / or didn’t send them to your IB a/c correctly.

  All is not lost. You should go back to your Groupon a/c and go through the claiming process again without delay.

  • Andrew H says:

    9 Jan9 January 12:03

    I’d just like my bonus miles from Iberia Plus store to be processed.

  • sedgie252 says:

    9 Jan9 January 14:48

    Thanks for the reminder Harry! Fingers crossed that I receive the points in my Iberia account.

  • Karl says:

    9 Jan9 January 16:39

    I’m starting to worry about these Groupon Avios now. I bought 5 x 8000 miles on 21 Dec. The first 8000 credited just after Christmas and a further 8000 credited a couple of days later. The Groupon website states that there have been technical issues and that points may not be credited until the second week of Jan. On Wednesday 4 of the 5 coupons were still showing as unclaimed so I submitted the codes again. Today it had the same status so I had another go. My Spanish isn’t great so I wouldn’t be able to phone Spanish Groupon to sort it out.

    Presumably if you’ve paid by credit card you’ll be refunded for not receiving the goods?

    • harry says:

      9 Jan9 January 16:46

      If I were you I’d relax, I wasn’t trying to scaremonger. Groupon rules might state you lose the points/ vouchers if not claimed by xyz but in reality they’ll sort you out. The fact that they have technical issues actually helps your position.

      Maybe you should screenshot that page though?

      • Karl says:

        9 Jan9 January 17:54

        Thanks for the advice Harry. I’m a bit obsessive about screenshotting things. On this one I even recorded myself inputting the codes etc!

        • harry says:

          9 Jan9 January 19:10

          Raffles – one for tomorrow, though. Groupons expiring. Have folks got the Avios or not? Should they be worried?

        • Rob says:

          9 Jan9 January 22:24

          I don’t know the answer though, so I’ve no idea what to say. What I do know is that Groupon will make you right via a refund even if the Avios do not appear.

• Eric says:

  9 Jan9 January 11:56

  We used the Thistle Heathrow hotel the night before we departed for Stockholm to start our ARL-AKL flights. The family room we booked was really nice. It was two rooms (not separate rooms interconnected). It seems as though it had recently been refurbished. The price was £75.00. We used the public bus to get to the hotel which took around 5 minute from T5. The bus is free in the Heathrow area. We tried the POD early the next morning, £20 (4*5)is a bit steep but the novelty value was there first time around. Overall I was I’mpressed with the hotel. It does look a bit grim from outside 🙂

  • Jeff says:

    9 Jan9 January 14:35

    very easy to avoid paying….just follow others out (and in, from the carpark)

    thereafter, if you didn’t want the ‘hassle’, you only had to pay for one person to use the pod (with all others following behind like ducklings)

• Frank says:

  9 Jan9 January 12:09

  Stayed at Thistle Heathrow with my girlfriend last summer and was not asked to pay after being buzzed through the gate on arrival. I guess it’s a bit difficult for them to keep track of who’s been using the gate and who hasn’t. When we left I did not mention that I wanted to use the pods until after I had checked out, and only had to pay for one person. So £5 instead of £20

• Mark says:

  9 Jan9 January 13:31

  Grabbed myself a bargain couple of nights in San Fran for an upcoming trip in May 🙂

• MrHandBaggaeOnly says:

  9 Jan9 January 13:46

  If anyone from Thistle is reading this thread they should note that I have just decided not to stay at the their hotel despite finding a decent priced room, a refurbished one apparently, because of the charge for access to the gate to the Pods. If the access to/from the Pod parking was made free then Thistle would move right up my list of hotels to consider for Heathrow trips and I would happily pay for the extra parking charges to leave my car there for a few days as well.

  As it is I have decided to take a cheaper hotel further out and pay more for Short Stay parking, which in total is a slightly lower price and less hassle (especially for MrsHBO has done the Pods once, doesn’t need to do them again and is just happier walking straight to the car).

  • Fenny says:

    9 Jan9 January 22:45

    Completely agree. I picked a different hotel last summer over the Thistle and caught the free TfL bus into LHR. If the pods were free, I’d much rather stay at the Thistle.

  • Aeronaut says:

    10 Jan10 January 23:37

    Signage at the access gate states that the whole £5 charge for the pods goes to Heathrow and that the hotel doesn’t see any of it. I don’t know how accurate that is, but if so, then room rates at the Thistle would presumably have to rise to cover the pod access cost.

• Radiata says:

  10 Jan10 January 22:57

  Booked several SAA domestic flights to and from JNB in the last fortnight whilst visiting but the sale proviso – certainly for domestic flights – was for bookings to be made at least 28 days in advance.

  Somewhat OT, one of my DUR-JNB bookings made on SAA website included a single letter typo. Call centre remarkably difficult hence booked a second ticket (at double the price). CS at the airport refunded the higher fare (less ZAR 285 admin fee) and apologised, saying that single letter typos, where not introducing doubt as to identity of passenger, are overlooked.

  Also, do check both the SA and UK versions of site for prices. Rand volatile at present and it can pay to book in ZAR notwithstanding 3% fee many UK cards will add for foreign transactions.

  • harry says:

    10 Jan10 January 23:04

    It’s quite a good point. We still need to book my wife’s last flight for the summer. On UK version of BAEC it is £180, but in local currency it is £130.

    On Amex Travel it is £145 – which is why I am still looking for a way to combine flight + £6 experience to get above £150 (=£50 off, ie £100 net) – but it seems this cannot be done in one transaction.

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