News in brief:
Four Seasons walks away from Canary Wharf
Four Seasons announced yesterday that it is dropping management of its hotel at Canary Wharf in London. This is presumably linked to the opening of its new Tower of London project in a couple of years.
Canary Wharf was certainly a second tier Four Seasons property, nowhere near the standards of Park Lane, but it was pleasant enough. It will be interesting to see which operator takes it over – it may well be a redemption opportunity at that point. Hyatt, for one, would love to get a presence in the area I’m sure. Starwood is also under-represented.
The last day under Four Seasons management will be 30th April.
New American Express cashback offers launched
Amex officially launched three new cashback deals yesterday, albeit they have been showing online for Amex-issued Amex cards for a while.
The deals are:
Monsoon & Accessorize: spend £50 get £10 back
Holiday Extras: Get 15% back
Gordon Ramsay Restaurants: Spend £100 or more and get £20 back
You can register an Amex-issued Amex card under the ‘Offers’ section of your online statement or via cardmemberoffers.co.uk. Closing dates and restrictions vary.
MBNA, Lloyds, TSB and Barclays Amex cardholders can register via Amex Network.
480 Avios and £10 off with a £15 NOW TV box
Finally, I wanted to mention this Tesco Direct offer again. I ran it last week but you still have three days to buy one. If you don’t have a ‘smart TV’ it is a very good deal indeed for a modest £15 outlay. The 480 Avios you receive on top are an extra bonus.
Sky’s NOW TV box turns your TV into a smart TV. It lets you watch Sky channels without a contract and also streams catch up TV straight to your TV. The only downside is that it won’t let you watch Netflix (get a Google Chromecast) or Amazon Prime (get an Amazon Fire Stick).
Tesco Direct is offering three special packs at £10 off. More importantly, you will receive 100 Clubcard points with your order. Even better, at present the Tesco website is ‘glitchy’ and is adding 200 Clubcard points (480 Avios) per box!
There are three packs to choose from depending on whether you prefer sports, entertainment or movies. These passes offer excellent value for money even if you ignore the value of the NOW TV box – £15 is not a bad price to pay to get access to Sky Movies for two months, for example.
Click the link below to be taken to the appropriate Tesco Direct page:
3 month pass for Sky Entertainment
The NOW TV offer runs until 17th January.
Love Clubcard, don’t collect Avios? You should be reading our sister site, Shopper Points (www.shopperpoints.co.uk), which covers the latest Clubcard and Nectar offers without any distracting frequent flyer talk! Why not check it out now?
About Head for Points
Definitely would love to see Starwood or Hyatt presence at Canary Wharf but redemption rates for London likely to be prohibitive (e.g., other uses of points are better than spending 16K a night).
What is more likely is to look for the low occupancy periods and cheaper rates.
Speaking of which, hotels in Singapore have special rates for the residents of the city who wish to spend a Christmas, Easter or weekend on staycation.
Are there similar offers, apart from Accor’s Mondays?
The link to enrol in the Gordon Ramsay offer just goes to a page that says “Sorry, The URL entered is invalid. Please try again with correct URL.”
Even though the offer excludes Petrus and Royal Hospital Road, which are easily his best restaurants, Maze and Maze Grill are well worth going to.
Gordon Ramsay Group has a good 2-4-1 set menu offer on at the moment. E.G. £20 for two people having two courses each at Maze Grill. Makes it trickier to hit £100 though!
https://www.gordonramsayrestaurants.com/whats-on/january-offer/
‘We’re bringing our distinct mix of sushi and grilled delights to you all through the month, and you and a friend can enjoy two sumptuous courses and a glass of wine each for just £20. We’ll start off your meal with an appetising Spicy Salmon Roll, and then it’s onto a tasty Beef Pie with mash and spring greens for your main course. You won’t be disappointed. Wash all these tasty treats down with a refreshing glass of wine that complements your meal perfectly’.
£20! – just visualising Gordon firing up his biggest frypan to place the marketing person’s backside on! 🙂 .
Note you can get Netflix via Amazon Fire TV (box anyway, presume stick too) – if you have Amazon Prime and Netflix accounts it’s a very handy device to have.
I can confirm you can on the Amazon Fire Stick too. At first thought it seems a bit absurd that Amazon allow this, but Netflix is hosted by Amazon Web Services so presumably they’re happy profiting out if it that way instead.
You can double dip with Holiday Extras. The MSE portal offers the sharpest prices – use this link http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-airport-parking
First, go through HEx link (Amex, in the HFP article) and choose what you want to buy. Hit ‘buy’ but stop there. Then open the MSE link for HEx, in the same browser. It should open on the same page with the same purchase choice but you’ll find the prices are cheaper. (In the case of my 5 airport car park reservations this week, a meet & greet service, 31% cheaper.) Go through to purchase with your Amex card & you’ll get both the cheap price and the 15% statement credit.
thanks Harry
seems to have worked for me at EDI
For some reason HFP has been set up to reject the MSE HEX link & delete the post! Why is that, Raffles? But you can double dip with Holiday Extras by going first through the Amex link to get 15% statement credit, choose what you want to buy and click buy then open up the MSE HEX link which will be a lot cheaper. 31% cheaper in the case of my 5x Meet & Greet carpark reservations this week. You’ll also get the statement credits (already applied to my Amex a/c).
31% off + another 15% off = 41.5% off in total.
Unless I am misunderstanding you don’t need to go via and “AMEX link” to get the statement credit so just save the offer to your AMEX card and then buy as normal via the MSE HEX link.
We must have a different offer then – mine is definitely a “save to card” offer
Anything with 2 links in it automatically gets blocked as suspected spam. Other comments get flagged as spam if the system feels like it!
Any reason I don’t seem to have the Holiday Extras 15% on my AMEX account? I cant seem to sign into the Amex connect either (my cards are all AMEX issued)?
As I said earlier, you don’t need to register, just use link http://www.holidayextras.co.uk/?agent=WK352
Sorry to be slow on this one…
So:
1)Open Amex link
2)Search for the parking you require
3)Click buy? (guess not second click to payment page?)
4)Open the MSE link? or copy/paste into the same window?
5)continue to buy as usual?
4) open MSE link, again click (say) Hotel car parks – and if it opens to the same page ie same days you input earlier (via Amex link) & need, time details – bingo the cookie has moved from one site to another and you’ll get the 15% on top of the MSE special prices.
Just booked 4 days meet & greet @ T2 for next week, got the Amex ‘success’ email before I got the car park confirmation from Holiday Extras 🙂
Will be £28 (£7/ day) after statement credit which is absolutely excellent for meet & greet service @ short notice
Still couldn’t get this to work! couldnt get the AMEX site price to lower, so just bought from the MSE page with AMEX. was only a £20 booking so no worries! thanks!
The Amex price won’t be lower, you get the 15% statement credit later.
1. Higher price Amex link to HEX site, get ready to book —> 2. MSE link to HEX site, buy —> 3. Amex success email —> 4. 15% statement credit
Worked this time, but had to register card via Robs link.
http://www.cardmemberoffers.co.uk/#travel
Register here instead: http://www.cardmemberoffers.co.uk/#travel
Diamond Club MBNA Amex here, one register link takes me to “invlaid URL”, the other takes me to the registration page which lets me fill in my details and then says “Unfortunately, the offer is not active at the moment. Please check the offer start and end dates.” Ahhh well, I’ll give it a go again tomorrow.
Harry I don’t think you need to go via the Amex link you can buy direct with thr MSE link. Amex aren’t gonna know which link you used, they’ll just see the transaction from HEX and give you the credit.
Curio by Hilton would get my vote for points stays.
Staying at the EX Four Seasons Philadelphia next month, looks impressive.
Shame it’s going. I had my wedding reception in their restaurant just shy of 10 years ago. Fantastic staff and a great alternative to some other venues. Liked their Sunday Buffet as well, but watching the waistline means foregoing all you can eat venues. Never feel like your getting value from them.
I hope it’s a decent chain that moves in and not something that lowers the tone of the neighbourhood. 😉
We went there for lunch on Christmas Day about 10 years ago!
Sky Movies ordered! 🙂 ……free for 2 x months AND 215 Points!
/I’ve got it and it’s not bad. Make sure you get your 14 days free first, then use the voucher. I have Sky TV but never paid for the movies. This seems an easier way to catch up on movies I’ve missed at the cinema. I’ve got a 55″ HD TV and was worried that the quality wouldn’t be good, but it’s fine once you select the right setting.
Question I have is can I buy more than 1 of these units with the 2 months movie pass? At £7.50pm that’s better than Sky’s and Now TV regular rate.
buy as many as you like, run them one after another
£3.50/ month http://www.thegamecollection.net/2-months-sky-movies-pass-for-now-tv.html?tduid=5bed596029f6ae1e08ef993f0eeabec5
Don’t know if anyone else has posted this but the link below is the new ‘Upgrade to Platinum’ offer. As a Gold card holder the offer appears to be 20k MR bonus points for spend £1k in 3 months (and pay £450 annual fee, assume like other amex fees would be refunded if you downgraded).
https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/content/upgrade-to-platinum/index.html
Plat fee would be refunded, but you’d need to pay the full gold rate.
I’m in my 2nd year of gold. I wonder if I upgrade, get the points, then go back to gold, would I still receive double travel points. I spend £2000 on diesel a week, so it’s quite a bit to lose!
Ben, are you still getting double points for fuel? I thought that stopped…
Yep! I don’t really want to give it up in case it is a glitch! Not sure if I would be better off keeping the gold, or churning them!
I’m in my 2nd year of gold and all petrol costs still grant me 2 MR / £ and it’s strangely classified as “travel bonus”. In my first year it used to give me 3MR/£. I’m not complaining though 🙂
It was discussed yesterday – it would appear to be a standard offer circulating at the moment, in particular with first year gold card holders probably thinking about cancelling their cards before the £140 fee kicks in. Obviously someone at Amex is on the ball and thinking of ways to retain gold card customers. I’ll pass on it, 20k reward points doesn’t swing it for me.
There is an issue over whether this is targetted or not. If anyone tries this who was not targetted and gets approved OK then I am happy to write it up. Bit risky otherwise.
bits noob Q
My wife is on a Germanwings /Eurowings flight with 750 Miles & More points EW – I can see Accorhotels is a partner – how can she credit the points to Accor? Does she have to open a M&M a/c or is there a more direct way to earn the points @ Accor?
You can’t earn Accor points on M&M flights – you can only earn M&M points on Accor stays. Just like you can earn Avios on hotel stays. The partnership doesn’t work both ways.
Oh right, thanks. Better find out which hotel my wife is staying in, then – she might get something out of it I guess, she doesn’t like these loyalty programs, unfortunately.
Slightly off topic, however hopefully it will help someone.
Interstate have a 72hr sale on for their branded hotels, mainly Holiday Inn. I have used these rates quite a few times over the last couple of years and they have always counted as qualifying rates. Rates are available from £39 at some properties so could be a good way of maximising your Accelerate offer.
http://www.hoteldeals.co.uk
Better yet try out a Roku stick instead, you get access to NowTV, Netflix and Amazon Prime plus all the free to air catch services like BBC IPlayer, All 4, ITV and 5oD etc
Tesco were doing them for about £30 around Christmas time from memory.
Funny you should mention Roku ….
http://www.shopperpoints.co.uk/2016/01/14/get-100-extra-clubcard-points-with-roku-2-media-streamer/
There are some good prices on hotel + parking included for the duration of your holiday – on the MSE link. Don’t forget you’ll get another 15% off these prices if you manage to double dip on Amex link above.
Eg 1 Double room (2 adults) on Thu, December 15, 2016 with parking until Mon, January 2, 2017 (17 days parking)
Mystery 4-star hotel with parking £123 (=£105) [Crown Plaza or Sheraton?]
easyHotel with parking at the hotel £104 (=£88)
Crowne Plaza with parking at the hotel £150 (=£128)
Bearing in mind parking is going to set you back £80-100 if you buy it separately, the rooms are cheap.
Shame the airport parking at heathrow is all third party. or it is on my 5 week booking request.
I would not leave my keys with purple parking for any discount!
Why not? can I innocently ask? I’ve used PP maybe 30-40 times, faultless, I’m impressed by their service & security systems.
Bad experience in the past?
I would rather keep my own car keys than risk a third party driving my car anywhere.
I drove past a group of cars the other day near gatwick that had clearly been parked by a company. These were all parked on a road nose to tail. Not how the average car owner would park. I bet these owners thought their cars were secure!
Would rather park in a hotel car park or long stay. At least I know where my car is!
Sadly none of these car parks are at Heathrow on the site referenced.
Purple Parking Business is a top notch secure executive car park just 5 mins from airport. We tend to use Purple Parking Long Stay + ‘Greet’ ie chauffeur returns car to Terminal carpark ready for when you clear Immigration. Their car parks are 100% secure, much more secure than leaving your car in one of the official Heathrow terminal car parks.
3rd party driving it? Well, they’re insured. I daresay many cars get driven by 3rd parties at MOTs or services.
I had the front wing of my car destroyed while parked at the Heathrow official long stay car park at T5 by one of their buses. Took months to get repaired too..
Pop into my local Tesco and they were selling NowTV with 3 months entertainment pass for £7 and 6 months for £15. It also states that you get additional 100 Tesco points. This is cheaper than what is currently showing on TescoDirect.
Two rather O/T comments however:
1) Don’t forget that Marriott points will start expiring, beginning soon. I have some points I need to somehow keep from expiring (with no plans to stay anytime soon); others may be similar.
2) Are Propeller still recommended by HfP for hotel bookings? I am aware of the recent Flyertalk thread, however the bookings link appears to have been removed from the top bar and you have not run an article for a while. Neither does there appear to be any mention on the “Hotel promos” page.
Yes, they can still do them – they a Virtuoso relationship now as well for increased choice. We have jointly agreed to hold back promotion until they can do BA tickets however. You can get a quote via their website and Daniel or Sofi will get back to you.
I extended my mums Marriott points just last week by buying 1,000 points. The charge hit my card at £8.85. I felt it was as easy just to buy a small amount that buying or redeeming. The points take 24hrs to appear in the account.
Rob, I note from this article https://www.headforpoints.com/2015/11/28/how-amex-membership-rewards-members-can-buy-miles-for-up-to-50-off/ that you can no longer buy points, is that still true?
Thanks
That was reported to me last week, yes.
Happy to hear otherwise but it wouldn’t surprise me as they pulled the blurb from the website a few years ago.
Blurb still there http://catalogue.membershiprewards.co.uk/aboutEarning.mtw
Yes, someone emailed me that this morning. I have changed the wording on the old article and await more evidence!
O/T Again.
Did the reviews of the T3 Lounges ever get posted? Interested in the OneWorld options!
Yes, all there! AA, BA, No 1 Traveller, Swissport (Cathay is now closed for refurb). Quick search will find them.
OT Spring Iberia flights from LAX-MAD have had a change of plane (at last). The old A340-200 has been replaced with the new A330-200 con fig, only 19 Business seats compared to 42~ Redemptions may be even harder to find now.
They’ve got 2 months Sky Movies for £6.95 here http://www.thegamecollection.net/2-months-sky-movies-pass-for-now-tv.html?tduid=5bed596029f6ae1e08ef993f0eeabec5
No NOWTV box but you can play NowTV Sky Movies on PC, tablet, streamed to smart TV etc with no need of the box. Expires at midnight.
Thanks! Just got a voucher with a few seconds to spare. Don’t have to redeem the voucher that came in my box just yet then! Didn’t realise you could keep adding vouchers.
Deal is still showing post midnight. Not sure for how long though!