Earn up to 15,000 Avios booking hotels via Agoda PointsMAX

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• Hosup says:

  27 Jan27 January 05:44

  Rate in agoda is not quite that expensive especailly when they have recent promo code with 10% discount!

• Tony says:

  27 Jan27 January 06:17

  I’ve been keeping a close eye on PointsMAX for a few weeks now as I required to book a sixteen night stay in Thailand for late May 2017.

  Wasn’t impressed with the offer in the slightest. Regular price of the hotel was £760 or £940 to earn a total of 13,000 Avios, so I settled on the regular price. There are cheaper ways to earn 13,000 Avios.

  • Genghis says:

    27 Jan27 January 06:52

    Or for about the same price get a free Economist yearly sub

  • James67 says:

    27 Jan27 January 07:46

    If you are looking for Bangkok and ok with HI Silom you could get your 16 nights for 80,000 IHG points with pointsbreaks on Monday.

    • Liz says:

      27 Jan27 January 08:17

      James have you seen the list?

      • James67 says:

        27 Jan27 January 08:30

        Just a few mentioned on Ll. so far.

    • JamesW says:

      27 Jan27 January 13:50

      Isn’t there a limit to the nights you can book at any single hotel ?

      • Rob says:

        27 Jan27 January 14:08

        No. There is a limit of 2 bookings but each can be for unlimited nights.

• Genghis says:

  27 Jan27 January 06:55

  Dont forget the usual cash / points back sites

  • James67 says:

    27 Jan27 January 07:51

    Or calling hotels directly whereby even greater savings can be made and points and benefits still received if part of a chain.

    • Ro says:

      27 Jan27 January 08:12

      Never tried that… good tip

      • James67 says:

        27 Jan27 January 08:38

        In the past it never seemed to work but I’ve had 2 out of 3 successes in the past month. When I call I stress that I want in-house reservations or confereence and events office, just speaking to a harried receptionist is probably not a good idea.

        • Alan says:

          27 Jan27 January 13:41

          For long stays you can often negotiate a really good deal – I did with the Doubletree Dundee, good rate plus £15 daily dining credit that rolled over if unused 🙂

    • Alan says:

      27 Jan27 January 13:40

      Plus they’ll sometimes chuck in breakfast when you would otherwise have to pay 🙂

• Jovanna says:

  27 Jan27 January 10:07

  OT: Currently at the Barclay IC in New York. I have IHG Ambassador. I really don’t know if I was upgraded or not. I booked an Executive King. At reception I was told that I had been upgraded to ‘a much nicer room than an Executive’. The trouble is, my room looks like an Executive. It matches the description of an Executive King. It is on the corner of the building though, so I’ve a double aspect, with two windows.

  As Ambassador you should receive a guaranteed room upgrade: ‘enjoy an immediate upgrade to a superior room (one category higher than purchased).

  Is that the Hilton definition of superior? I’ve no idea what the next higher category is.

  • Charlie says:

    27 Jan27 January 10:21

    I think the category higher stipulation is open to abuse by hotels. It sounds like you were ‘upgraded’ to a corner room.

    • Jovanna says:

      27 Jan27 January 10:43

      That’s what I thought. Nothing wrong with the room – all quite pleasant and clean – but when something is guaranteed and you paid for it etc…

      • YL says:

        27 Jan27 January 13:08

        Are you on a paid stay or reward stay?
        Unfortunately, IC Barclay hasn’t got a good reputation of treating Elite members, I stayed 2 nights (paid) last year and it really was as bad as it was described on flyertalk. It does’t sounds like they have improved yet..
        If you search the site you can also find Rob’s review.

        • Jovanna says:

          27 Jan27 January 13:35

          I’m on a paid stay. I’ve looked on the Barclay IC website. My room seems to match the pictures for the Barclay Room but it’s all very relative.

          http://intercontinentalnybarclay.com/room/1-king-bed-executive-room/

          http://intercontinentalnybarclay.com/room/barclay-room/

        • BillyBoy says:

          27 Jan27 January 18:20

          I stayed there a few years ago (before the refurb) and it was dire.

          Room was perfectly fine but treatment as a PC Platinum was brand-damage bad.

          Even worse, I had just come from a stay at the IC at Hyde Park Corner where I had service fit for a king, so the Barclay was dreadful by comparison…

        • Rob says:

          27 Jan27 January 20:19

          Ambassador treatment was great though because the hotel had 4 suites per floor and very few people paying for them.

  • Genghis says:

    27 Jan27 January 10:45

    On IHG Ambassador, any expectations what I should receive as a Ambassador Spire Elite at Intercontinental Amstel (Amsterdam) on a reward stay?

    • Rob says:

      27 Jan27 January 14:12

      I’ve had decent upgrades on my last 2 stays but there were booked at short notice. I read that they tend to upgrade to ‘same side’ so you don’t get canal if you don’t book canal. I did a review once.

  • YL says:

    27 Jan27 January 14:19

    Did you get the standard toiletries? Or Casswell Massey?
    I believe Barclay room comes with the latter. By the way I hope you got your fruits & water without need to select them as amenity!

    • YL says:

      27 Jan27 January 14:22

      oops this reply meant for Jovanna..

    • Jovanna says:

      27 Jan27 January 14:37

      Toiletries are branded ‘Agrarja’ of San Francisco.

      At check in I was offered fruit or 1500 points or a $20 minibar credit. I opted for the fruit as I was a little under the weather. This arrived later with 2 bottles of water. Looks like I’ve dipped out of the welcome amenity.

• Anna says:

  27 Jan27 January 12:45

  The avios e-shopping site has hotels.com as a partner, and their prices are much better than, say, Kaligo, and no different from their non-avios prices. Plus you can pay on arrival and cancel up till near your travel date on most of the hotels. You also get a free night for every 10 that you book. For me it’s by far the best hotel booking site in terms of rewards, I’ve just booked 3 separate stays at 8 avios per £1 spent and nearly earned my free night!

  Note – as I recall, you can’t use Amex to reserve your stay, but just make sure you book a hotel that accepts Amex and pay with that when you get there.

• Anna says:

  27 Jan27 January 12:56

  I also used it at Tesco.com with a £650 furniture spend and have been credited with over 2,500 avios even though the advertised rate was 2 per £1. I hope they don’t take them away! Also £6.50 in Tesco vouchers plus nearly 1000 Amex avios and my drawers have nearly paid for themselves!

• JamesW says:

  27 Jan27 January 13:49

  Having had a look I can’t find any deals (not looked at them all by any stretch of the imagination) whereby the headline figure of Avios given during the search process is equalled once you select the hotel & look at the room choices.
  One example said earn 10,250 Avios (at ‘x’ hotel) after I’d searched Krakow for 2 nights. Once I selected that hotel and looked at the room rates & their corresponding Avios earning they were nowhere near 10,250 – even when looking at the priciest, highest category room.

  No doubt they are giving Avios but are being seriously misleading.

  • Anna says:

    27 Jan27 January 16:19

    Have you tried filtering by number of avios offered? You can then tell straight away whether it’s worth looking at the hotel.

• James67 says:

  27 Jan27 January 16:24

  OT but hotels: I’m tempted to book a couple of good value courtyard and moxxy stays with SPG points via marriott. I have no experience of either brand so would appreciatd any feedback on potential gold status benefits please? From marriott reward pages it appears that statys benefits only seem to aplply to the higher brands.

  • Kirill says:

    27 Jan27 January 17:14

    Search for “hotel name +flyertalk” to get a good idea of what to expect

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