Bits: Hilton Americas Flash Sale, new Qatar business sale, IHG 100% ‘buy points’ bonus

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• mark says:

  6 Dec6 December 06:49

  Goa (GOI) is very rarely on offer, the last time i got an offer with QR was on the opening flight – I was on it… nothing special just a cake and a free t shirt. It’s a small aircraft as well, if you can get a good deal to Mumbai (BOM) – I would recommend taking this for a better aircraft and then taking a flight down to Goa (bus or train is also an option DOH I have found the deals from the UK not as good as they were :/ When they also devalued the FF program, QR has not been as attractive for Y passengers.

• Genghis says:

  6 Dec6 December 07:59

  OT. Amounts between 250 and 500 points posted to our HR accounts this morning. Not too sure what they’re for. “Member gets member – Existing member”

  • Alan says:

    6 Dec6 December 08:52

    I received 500 after referring a friend, although weirdly it showed up as coming from the shop they made their first purchase at!

  • Johnnycl says:

    6 Dec6 December 09:08

    I got 250 points this morning too…no idea what this is all about, I don’t have a record to say I was expecting any points!

    • Genghis says:

      6 Dec6 December 09:38

      I know. My records are normally pretty good (excel spreadsheet) so no idea what it was for. Not complaining though! Just need another 100% airline partner bonus to get some value from our HR points…

      • Gavin says:

        6 Dec6 December 11:29

        I had some today for a birthday bonus

• Alan says:

  6 Dec6 December 08:26

  Current Hilton double/triple points promo now extended by a month to end of Jan to match with 5k per stay Visa bonus promo.

  • Anon says:

    6 Dec6 December 13:27

    Top tip on the 5000 extra pts, you can earn them on a full redemption if you charge a pack of peanuts to the room and pay with visa and book via the app.

    I got 5250pts on a full 10k HH redemption at a Hampton in FL last week, bargain for a $114 king room with sofa

    Newcastle airport and the 10ks in Sheffield could be utilised for those in northern England.

    • Alan says:

      6 Dec6 December 14:07

      Indeed so. Sadly my last one was booked months ago on the website and no availability to rebook via app so just the 1000 Diamond points for me. Did get a decent upgrade though and room rate would have been $400+tax with a conference being on so don’t feel too cheated!

      • Lawro says:

        6 Dec6 December 14:56

        I wondered about this too. Booked pre-promo and can’t really re-book the awards at same rate. Alan did you try charging something to a Visa on the off chance the bonus would trigger?

        Thinking I’ll give that a go in a few weeks…

        • Alan says:

          6 Dec6 December 19:19

          I was going to but the minimum minibar price was about $15 incl all the fees/taxes they charged so I didn’t really fancy it for a punt!

• jamie says:

  6 Dec6 December 10:00

  looking forward to tonite everyone, any interest in kicking onto a local pub post 8pm?

  • Rob says:

    6 Dec6 December 10:35

    I am sure you will find a few takers to visit the nearest participating Amex ‘Shop Small’ pubs!

• Leafwarbler says:

  6 Dec6 December 10:03

  OT – Any advice for best OneWorld business class routing London to Auckland for Nov/Dec next year, please? Is there an optimum time to book to get a good price – am I being wildly optimistic to hope to achieve £4k pp return? Thanks

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    6 Dec6 December 11:45

    Qatar would be my choice: fairly direct routing and good product. Doha is also a good spot to break up the journey. Malaysian is the obvious alternative, but I’d be worried about the financial health of the airline booking that far out. Cathay is another alternative, but a bit more out of the way.

    • nick says:

      6 Dec6 December 12:58

      I happened to notice that Cathay Pacific and Emirates out of Paris were both just over £3k business class for about October time, maybe worth checking for your dates if you want/don’t mind connecting into Paris ?

      • nick says:

        6 Dec6 December 13:02

        Just checked CX’s website: 3750 euros consistently across dates in November/December….

        • nick says:

          6 Dec6 December 13:08

          Milan to Auckland 2650 euros !!! 777-300ER to HKG then new A350-900 to AKL, reverse herringbone on both….

    • John says:

      6 Dec6 December 16:53

      If anything it is DOH which is “out of the way”. For a 1-stop journey, the shortest great circle route is via NRT and HKG is close.

      Connecting at HKG divides the journey neatly into two 12-hour segments, rather than 7 + 18 hours via DOH.

      There seems to be a 50/50 split between people who prefer CX and those who prefer QR (in J/F ; in Y you would be mad to fly QR). That said you can’t beat QR pricing in a sale, and since I prefer CX, I will only choose QR when they have another of their regular ridiculously low J fares :p

  • Anon says:

    6 Dec6 December 13:29

    Sin – Syd is cheap with Avios, been pricing up how to get to Oz next Xmas…

    AKL via CX?

  • Scallder says:

    6 Dec6 December 13:35

    Can also go through LAX with AA

• Boi says:

  6 Dec6 December 11:07

  OT:

  Unfortunately had to cancel a hotel booking due to illness. It was booked on Amex platinum so I was hoping to claim back. Lady I talked to says the whole holiday needed to have been booked through the platinum card. I only wanted to claim the hotel costs.
  (the flights were reward flights and paid with virgin black so am not loosing much there).

  Anybody has any experience claiming for hotel only from amex platinum insurance or have I been caught out?

  • Genghis says:

    6 Dec6 December 11:28

    Sorry, should have confirmed another Amex issued Amex.

    • Boi says:

      6 Dec6 December 11:38

      Thanks.
      I paid for the hotel with Amex platinum. But the woman said the “holiday” wasnt paid with the platinum card (since the flight bit was paid with virgin black). So that got me worried.

      Would I be ok to submit the claim for the hotel only part via their online claim. I wasnt trying to claim for the flights anyway (that loss is minimal).

      • Genghis says:

        6 Dec6 December 11:43

        To quote another part of the terms:
        “1.2 CANCELLING, POSTPONING AND
        ABANDONING YOUR TRIP
        For the benefits under this section to apply transport and/or accommodation must have been Purchased in full using:
        I. the Card;
        II. American Express Membership Rewards® points; or
        III. Any travel rewards programmes provided the taxes
        and/or surcharges have been Purchased using the Card.

        The “and/or” means you can just claim for the accommodation. Seems perfectly valid to me.

      • Alan says:

        6 Dec6 December 12:02

        Definitely worth a shot but my understanding when they changed the rules was that both travel an accommodation had to be paid for with an Amex to be eligible to claim for either – I’ve still got Amex ICC USD card though which doesn’t have such limitations.

      • John says:

        6 Dec6 December 16:55

        Do you have to buy your car on Amex if you’re driving???

• Nick says:

  6 Dec6 December 11:21

  OT:

  I have about 20000 Hilton HHonours points. No activity at all in the last 11 months and none planned.

  I’ve read that I may lose these points if theres no activity on my account for 12 months – how can I avoid this?
  Will transferring 200 points from Amex MR keep my account “alive” for another 12 months?

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    6 Dec6 December 11:41

    Yes indeed.

  • Danksy says:

    6 Dec6 December 20:21

    or book a redemption room and cancel 😀

  • Keith says:

    7 Dec7 December 19:02

    OT reply to OT …

    Talking of keeping accounts alive, any suggestions for Flying Blue? I have 17k miles left (spent 200k last year). I used to fly KLM fairly often, but it’s not looking like I will before the expiry date. Not a huge balance, but I hate losing anything!

    • Alan says:

      8 Dec8 December 11:30

      Sadly Flying Blue has no option but taken a flight (with KL or another SkyTeam partner) to keep miles alive for another 18 months. I’ve been close to the wire before too as I don’t fly them that often, but have got 58k miles so don’t want to see them go – in their sales it would easily be enough for a biz class flight to North America!

• Sussex Bantam says:

  6 Dec6 December 12:08

  OT – todays IHG figure is 40500 and Iggy is just left of centre slightly up from the bottom of the picture.

  Has anyone actually received the 500 points for playing 5 days in a row ??

  • Gavin says:

    6 Dec6 December 12:19

    nope. Should hopefully be coming along soon though, perhaps it will be credited at the end of the month?

    • Ed says:

      6 Dec6 December 18:28

      Post in Jan I believe

  • Anon says:

    6 Dec6 December 15:11

    Ta for this.. Will see if I’m up late enough tonight to get in early and spam Rob first post tomorrow’s (GMT -5)

    • Rob says:

      6 Dec6 December 15:32

      I tried to get this game to work yesterday but no joy – on my phone, in Chrome and in IE it failed to do anything even when I found the snowman. Hence no article.

      • Charlie says:

        6 Dec6 December 21:32

        If works well on Safari on iPhone/iPad…

      • Anon says:

        6 Dec6 December 21:43

        Works on my Android phone, even easier with the hint…

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