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Bits: Travelex flash sale today, Hilton improves lifetime status, Starwood / Caesars

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News in brief:

Travelex holding a flash sale today

Travelex is having another of its occasional ‘flash sales’ today.  Between 11am and 1pm, it will be improving the spreads on currency purchases.

This may be a good chance to pre-order for collection at Heathrow if you are heading off for Christmas and the New Year later in the week.  Go here between 11am and 1pm today.

Travelex flash sale

Hilton makes it easier to hit Lifetime Diamond

In late October I ran this piece on how to earn lifetime status with your favourite hotel loyalty programme.

Hilton HHonors launched Lifetime Diamond (top tier) status last year.  You can find the – sparse – details on the Hilton website here.  You need to have been a Diamond member for 10 years, not necessarily consecutive, and to have knocked up a whopping 1,000 nights in Hilton properties!  Reward nights do not count towards lifetime status, unlike standard status qualification.

Someone at Hilton seems to have decided that this was too aggressive.  Effective immediately, Lifetime Diamond can now be achieved by:

10 years of Diamond status plus 1,000 nights (but reward nights DO now count) or

10 years of Diamond status plus 2 million base Hilton HHonors points

At 10 base points per US$, Lifetime Diamond now becomes easier if your average Hilton spend is greater than $200 per night.

You can compare this with Marriott, Starwood and Hyatt in my October article.  IHG does not offer lifetime status at this point.

Starwood Preferred Guest and Caesars ending their partnership

Finally, the joint venture between Starwood Preferred Guest and Las Vegas-based hotel group Caesars will end on 31st December.

My original 2014 article on the partnership is here.  This is either a side effect of the Starwood / Marriott merger or the financial problems at Caesars – it does not appear clear.

What IS clear is that you will no longer be able to earn or spend SPG points in 2017 when staying at:

  • Bally’s Atlantic City, NJ
  • Bally’s Las Vegas, NV
  • Caesars Atlantic City, NJ
  • Caesars Palace Las Vegas, NV
  • Flamingo Las Vegas, NV
  • Harrah’s Atlantic City, NJ
  • Harrah’s Lake Tahoe, NV
  • Harrah’s Las Vegas, NV
  • Harrah’s New Orleans, LA
  • Harrah’s Reno, NV
  • Harvey’s Lake Tahoe, NV
  • Nobu Hotel at Caesars Palace, NV
  • Paris Las Vegas, NV
  • Planet Hollywood Las Vegas, NV
  • The Quad Las Vegas, NV
  • Rio Las Vegas, NV
  • Showboat Atlantic City, NJ

Full details of what you can get until 31st December at these hotels can be found on spg.com.  The site has not yet been updated to reflect the end of the deal.  Stays booked before 31st December for 2017 using SPG points will be honoured.

How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards

How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards (April 2024)

There are various ways of earning Marriott Bonvoy points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

The official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card comes with 20,000 points for signing up, 2 points for every £1 you spend and 15 elite night credits per year.

You can apply here.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

20,000 points sign-up bonus and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points by converting American Express Membership Rewards points at the rate of 2:3.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Marriott Bonvoy Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Hilton Honors Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points indirectly:

and for small business owners:

The conversion rate from American Express to Marriott Bonvoy points is 2:3.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Marriott Bonvoy points. 

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Category

Hilton Honors

Comments (71)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Roger says:
    20 Dec20 December 04:23

    Has Travellex moved out of LGW?

    • Alan Hunt says:
      20 Dec20 December 09:51

      Yes, at Easter a couple of years ago – we returned from Athens to find that our “buy-back” reimbursement purchased before we left couldn’t be made as Travelex was gone and their replacement did not honour that deal…. Took some effort to get the compensation back from Travelex but they did eventually pay us the difference

  • JoshBosh says:
    20 Dec20 December 04:44

    The Quad (formally Imperial Palace) was renamed Linq back in 2014.

  • Charlie says:
    20 Dec20 December 07:12

    FIND IGGY

    bottom left

    168000 Points
    SAMSONITE 82V.08.003 LITE-CUBE DLX 68 CM SPINNER CASE ALUMINIUM

  • Pieter says:
    20 Dec20 December 07:51

    Can advance orders at Travelex be combined with collecting Heathrow Rewards points (and receiving the HR signup bonus)?

  • Anon says:
    20 Dec20 December 08:18

    OT – Game changer???
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38376747

    • the real harry says:
      20 Dec20 December 08:27

      Lloyds Banking Group is to buy credit card firm MBNA from Bank of America in a £1.9bn deal.

      yep – we discussed this a few weeks ago – you have to hope that customer service Lloyds end will improve because of the marriage though I somehow doubt it

      • RussellH says:
        20 Dec20 December 11:15

        “We will focus on providing its customers with excellent service and value,” said Lloyds chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio.

        Actually, the only time I have ever had to deal with Lloyds was over an insurance claim around 12 years ago (a falling tree went through the garage and summer house). Lloyds were responsible for contents.

        Not unreasonably they wanted evidence of value for the damaged items, but I was having difficulties. One Saturday afternoon they phoned up to ask if I had all the valuations yet. I was able to give them about 60% of them – the person then said “OK, would you accept £x00 in full and final settlement?”. Since x >> what I was expecting….

        • RussellH says:
          20 Dec20 December 14:20

          And the shares are currently up 2.86%, the biggest riser in the FTSE100 today.

          Which means, I suppose, that initially at least, it is seen as a positive.

    • Worzel says:
      20 Dec20 December 08:33

      ‘Lloyds said the MBNA deal would bring a “significant opportunity for cost synergies”. ‘ .

      “Froth” ?

      Lloyds=Shambles=Avoid 🙂 .

      • zsalya says:
        20 Dec20 December 08:44

        Are they buying the whole of MBNA (as article suggests) or just the UK business?

        • Arun T says:
          20 Dec20 December 14:18

          MBNA itself is pretty much all UK (and a small part in Ireland) now. The US brand has been absorbed into various BofA ML brands, and the Canadian bit sold off to TD.

          Not sure I understand the fit for Lloyds here – but am sure Raffles will feature an article on this soon – so will save my comments for the article itself!

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:
    20 Dec20 December 08:24

    What is the relevance of the $200 to the Hilton lifetime? Surely it is now easier if you average $300, $500 or $1,000? The greater your average the ‘easier’ the target.

    • Genghis says:
      20 Dec20 December 08:27

      2m base miles (new) or 1,000 stays (new and old). 2m/1k= 2k miles per stay or $200, threshold over which the 2m base miles route is easier.

  • James A says:
    20 Dec20 December 08:25

    OT – FlyBe announces flights from LHR to EDI & ABZ.

    Rumours confirmed by the company today. Good luck is all I can say!

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:
      20 Dec20 December 09:15

      Good luck to Flybe or those booking tickets? 😉

      • Zander says:
        20 Dec20 December 14:01

        Good luck to those flying FlyBe hoping to earn Avios as FlyBe are useless on that front.

        • Anon says:
          20 Dec20 December 22:51

          my flights the other week posted in day. But at 1 avios per £1 spent hardly worth cheering about.

  • Terence Semmence says:
    20 Dec20 December 11:56

    Happy hour eh…….other sites have better rates than this

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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