News in brief:
Radisson launches its UK Summer Sale – with free breakfast
Radisson Blu and Radisson Edwardian have launched their Summer Sale. This covers all of their properties in the UK and Ireland, with savings of 10% to 25% off regular rates.
You need to book before 31st August for stays until 4th September (or 30th October for weekend stays).
If you book direct via the Radisson website here you will also receive free breakfast at all hotels except for Cardiff. Not sure what the problem is with Cardiff but there you are! This is probably a more valuable benefit than the cash discount you receive.
For those readers with children, remember that children under 16 stay free when sharing their parents room and children under 12 eat free when a parent buys a meal.
You can find full details of the Radisson sale here.
Remember that American Express Platinum cardholders can benefit from their Club Carlson Gold status when staying at Radisson properties. If you stay for 2+ nights before the end of July you can also earn bonus points with the Club Carlson spring promotion.
Another interesting IHG Rewards Club redemption in London
If you are looking at redeeming your IHG Rewards Club points for a room in London, here is an interesting option I spotted yesterday.
The Holiday Inn Camden Lock is offering its Penthouse Studio for redemption. As you can see from the picture above, this is a b-i-g room. It also has a balcony. At just 40,000 IHG points per night, this room offers excellent value compared to many other IHG options in London.
Note that the maximum capacity allowed is two people, presumably due to fire regulations, despite the room being huge. The balcony may also not be good for kids.
I have visited this hotel when family have stayed there and found it OK. It directly overlooks Camden Lock and the market. The general rooms are a little dated but the lobby has recently had an impressive makeover including a small takeaway cafe. Whatever you think of Camden Market, there is a lot to be said for being able to walk across the canal to the market in about 30 seconds and take advantage of the huge range of eating options, even if the range of goods on sale is not to your taste.
The Penthouse Studio may have been listed in error, so if you are interested in booking it I would jump in ASAP at ihg.com. You can always cancel your redemption without penalty at any point. The hotel website is here if you want to find out more.
Double Avios with Avis
Finally, you can earn double Avios (10 per £1 spent) when you book Avis car rentals via avios.com.
You need to book by 7th July and you must book at this page of avios.com.
You will NOT get the exclusive British Airways / Avis benefits, such as a free second driver, if you book this way. Those benefits are only available via the special BA / Avis website. You might want to get a price from both sites and weigh up the combinations of price, Avios and benefits from each.
About Head for Points
Here’s a tip for Avis Avios. Take and keep the paperwork from the car when you return the vehicle.
I booked via BAEC in the deal earlier this year and pre- paid. Picked up at LHR T5, returned it 5 days later , left the paperwork in the and when the clerk asked did I want to go to the office or get the email I said email, as I wanted to dive into the lounge.
Never got an email, 3 months later no Avios and although I have the BA booking ref, no idea what my Avis agreement number is, and they won’t let me claim without it.
OT but has anyone who got their new Supercard yesterday tested it to see if it still has the same uses at home as the old one did? Surely we have to get some good news this week 🙂
Got mine yesterday, haven’t ventured put with it yet. Website says you can use in the UK just the charges for ATM withdrawals are £1 + 1%.
There’s also supposedly a yearly limit of 500 ATM withdrawals on the card so it’s isn’t a bottomless pit for manufactured spend 🙁 but it’s a good start….
It also £1+1% for UK charges too – I suspect they’ll actually charge them this time too, unlike during the beta! The handy thing here though would be if it worked as a debit card – if so then for a lot of online stores (esp low cost airlines) you’d be cheaper paying the Supercard fees than using a credit card. Given the switch to underlying payment processor to Wirecard (same as Curve) I’m not too hopeful though…
MF on your ‘twin’ Visa/MC card? [No good for Amex cards so won’t work on 241s.] The only possible MF use I can see is for Lloyds/TSB upgrades/ companion tickets – even then, the MF will cost you money, but might be worth it to hit your spend target, I guess.
Even on the Lloyds upgrade voucher, it’s still an expensive process for manufactured spend.
On a £250 cash withdrawal, it costs £3.50 (1% @ £2.50 +£1) and this is only for 50 avios (costing 7ppa) and getting £250 closer to spend target. There are much cheaper ways to achieve such a manufactured spend.
Would only be reasonable value for MS to the true legacy 2.5 avios / £ on Diamond Club MC IMO
You’re right: £7000 = (28x£250) = £98 so a cheap companion ticket on occasion but why bother when there are other ways?
Even with my BMI Visa (£1=1) it means 10,000 Avios cost £140, so 1.4p, not worth it
I can confirm it is charging the £1 and 1% in the place your are referring to 🙁
is that at a website? So basically Supercard is applying all fees now unlike the trial. The only use for it is for foreign spend or for an ATM withdrawal if short of cash
Correct. All webspend in sterling is being charged the 1% + £1 fee
Got my Supercard today too, activated fine and linked to my bmi Mastercard fine
Trying to clarify re changing PIN – previously you could do it at an ATM but seems some question as to whether this is still possible?
Agree main use now is foreign purchases (if not using Lloyds/Halifax card) or withdrawals (but I’ll use my fee-free Number26 card for those)
No longer possible to change supercard PIN.
Yeah they finally confirmed this on Twitter. How totally stupid of them! 🙁
I can’t understand why they decided to make this change at full launch rather than trialling it during the pilot scheme, especially as it is such a change to industry norm.
It also goes against their T&Cs:
7.3 – If you suspect that someone else knows your Supercard PIN or your username and Supercard App password, you should tell us as soon as possible using one of the Contact Methods so that we can give you information on how to change these details.
)
BA benefits can also be used on the Avis website if you book with the correct AWDs, I’ve never used the BA website and always had the extra perks 🙂
BA Avis benefits also available if you book a flight+car hire direct through the BA site (or so it claims in the booking!)
The fact that the map on the IHG website for the camden Lock Holiday Inn, shows it located just North East of St Paul’s, is going to resut in a lot of people ending up in an entirely different area of London than they expected.
I didn’t spot that. It is very definitely on a side street to your left if you walk up from the tube station.
Yeah, their directions are correct, it’s just the map that up the left (locates it close to liverpool st station)
O/T from Telegraph (and I thought Cameron wanted this chance to have a pop at Boris!):
Heathrow decision to be made by next PM
David Cameron is today expected announce the decision on Heathrow expansion will have to be taken by his successor.
According to the The Times the decision has been delayed again and will be made by whoever is elected Tory leader on 9 September.
Downing Street have reportedly said there was not much point making the decision for it to be overturned by David Cameron’s successor.
OT (but IHG related)
I’m trying to renew my Ambassador membership but the website won’t let me input my county. Every time I enter the county name and hit submit the renewal page reappears with the box clear. Anybody got any ideas as to what I should enter to make the damn thing work?
I don’t think how one books affects the BAEC benefits.
Per http://www.avisba.com/termsandconditions they are available because one is a BAEC member:
“Executive Club members are eligible for one free additional driver on every qualifying rental worldwide
Simply make your reservation as normal. If you know you require an additional driver this can be requested at time of booking. Alternatively you can request an additional driver to be added when you collect your car.”
The last three times I have indeed just added my wife at collection by showing my BAEC (blue!) and her driving licence.
P.S. Members of ICAEW can add an additional driver for Hertz on a same basis
The other thing I now see at http://www.avisba.com/termsandconditions
is that the payment card should give Avios in additional to the ones from the rental.
I don’t think I have ever got this – time for a 12-month (8-rental) claim:
250 bonus Avios when you pay for your Avis rental using your co-brand finance card (participating cards only)
Qualifying rentals must either be pre-paid using a participating British Airways co-brand finance card (via ba.com, avisba.com, BA Call Centres or Avis Call Centres) or if a pay-later reservation has been made, the rental must be paid for at the rental location when the car is returned using a participating British Airways co-brand finance card..
Participating cards (list correct at January 2015):
British Airways American Express Card (UK) ….
I hope they do not interpret “the rental must be paid for at the rental location when the car is returned ” as excluding out-of-hours returns.
The Radisson links do not work, and the summer sale code does not work either. Is it not live yet?
Yes, it should work ok – it was fine last week.
No it does not work. Says promotional code is invalid for this city when you try clicking through the summer sale banner on the radisson page. Tried for multiple cities. Weird.