Get a 35% discount when you buy Starwood Preferred Guest hotel points

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• a270 says:

  30 May30 May 09:26

  OT: I signed up to the new Amex Gold. Tried ordering a supplementary many times once the card had arrived and it kept giving an error. Chatted with them and they said it might not be eligible for a supplementary! Also said some cards don’t allow a supplementary unless the card is 1 month old. That’s so strange. Anyone else in the same boat? Also, any success with getting the MR3,000 if you request one via the phone?

  • Alex W says:

    30 May30 May 10:24

    I have had issues too. When I try to add a supp the application defaults to the SPG Card instead of the Gold credit card. I’m waiting to cancel the SPG card next week before trying again.

    • Leigh says:

      30 May30 May 21:05

      I had this issue before and phoned CS. I was told to remove the Gold (charge) card from my online account (this was done by the CS agent), then register it to a new account. I was then able to add a supplementary card.

      • Alex W says:

        30 May30 May 22:16

        Good tip, thanks.

  • Tony says:

    30 May30 May 11:48

    +1 re success stories with Gold CC supp card apps?

    • Robman says:

      30 May30 May 14:46

      My wife recently got a BA Amex premium card, but did not request me as a Supplementary card holder on the application. She is in the process of meeting the required spend to trigger her Avios reward.

      Will she be likely to receive an email offer to sign up a Supplementary Member to the card. Has anyone any experience of getting bonus Avios points on this card for adding a Supplementary card holder.

      • Mark2 says:

        30 May30 May 18:05

        I just ordered one and got 3,000 YMMV

• RIccatti says:

  30 May30 May 09:27

  On Topic: GBP dropped somewhat since April, making things less attractive (again).

  • Rob says:

    30 May30 May 09:57

    Indeed. I was surprised when I reran the £ numbers for the article.

• Graeme says:

  30 May30 May 09:46

  VERY OT – apologies. I need some help from you knowledgeable lot as I’m not sure where to go from here. hotels.com are being incredibly unhelpful. I booked an apartment in Tbilisi for two nights at the start of May.

  – Arrived at apartment at 8pm, as arranged, to find it was double-booked
  – Called hotels.com multiple times, cut off repeatedly, all staff promised to call back but never did – spent over two hours on the street with our luggage, calling and on hold
  – A car exploded nearby and there was a (verifiable) mini-riot – we were genuinely worried
  – Sometime after 9pm, we found the nearest hotel on hotels.com, suggested it to CS who went off to book it (and promised we’d have rooms as there was availability)
  – Got cut off, they didn’t call back – and the hotel wasn’t booked
  – Called back, but gave up at 22:30 after being cut off, so we booked the last two rooms at the hotel ourselves (through hotels.com)
  – Never heard back from them despite numerous promises and phone number checks
  – Hotel cost £642, calls cost £112 – I’d like this back. If they’d done their job, it wouldn’t have taken more than a few minutes and they’d have sorted us a room

  They now won’t help me at all. They’ve refunded my original booking (£82) and given me a £20 voucher. Their best suggestion for what I should have done is – without irony – to contact CS. They promised to get back to me after a week while trying to recover the cost from the apartment owner, but haven’t – it’s now 12 days. I’ve chased and basically been told to get lost. Don’t they have a duty of care to me that they’ve failed in completely? What does their “Guaranteed booking” tagline mean?

  Any suggestions? Sorry about the length…..

  • Alex W says:

    30 May30 May 10:27

    Would your travel insurance cover it? The insurance company might have more luck pursuing hotels.con (pun intended) for the losses.

    • Graeme says:

      30 May30 May 11:56

      I think/hope so, but I want hotels.com to do the right thing before I resort to that.

      • Anna says:

        30 May30 May 13:22

        Last year I had an issue with hotels.com where we were charged a hotel tax which wasn’t advertised. Initially they tried to wriggle out of refunding it by saying that they couldn’t be expected to know about every single tax a country levies, but this was a long standing tax requirement so I pointed out they were in breach of EU law and insisted on submitting a formal complaint. This then eventually got investigated by someone higher up and they offered to refund the tax in the form of a credit. It was only $40 so I accepted this and used it towards another booking. I also reported hotels.com to the ASA who were quite helpful and kept my case open until the “refund” was sorted. If I were you I would keep on at them until you get your money back.

      • Sam G says:

        30 May30 May 15:07

        Observation from my experiences as a customer and as a hotelier – booking.com are a lot better in these situations. A shame hotels.com offers a more lucrative reward program but worth bearing in mind if booking anything “iffy”

  • Doug M says:

    30 May30 May 15:33

    Complete counter to my only problem experience with hotels.com, albeit that was Florida and not very stressful at all. But they were excellent and offered to find an alternative that met the hotel specification they published, or if I wanted to stay where I was they’d credit the stay in full. I just stayed where I was, my memory if £350-£400 involved. The credit took maybe 5 days.

• Simon says:

  30 May30 May 11:49

  O/T (wildly! Sorry ????) Amex MR —> Nectar Loyalty: I keep getting an error message on the Amex site when inputting my Nectar card number. (Indeed, the same thing is happening when my mother and my partner try to do the same with their Nectar card numbers, too.) IS THERE A WORKAROUND, does anyone know, in the same way that adding 0000 in front of your SPG account number puts paid to that Amex error message? Many thanks!

  • Peter K says:

    30 May30 May 12:37

    You need to ring them. It usually happens when you have previously sent point to that Nectar account via a previous Amex card.

  • Liz says:

    30 May30 May 12:38

    No work around – you have to phone Amex. If your nectar card has been linked to a previous Amex card then they will need to remove it from that one first then relink it to the new card.

    • Simon says:

      30 May30 May 14:50

      Thanks, Liz / Brian. Much obliged! 😉

  • Alex W says:

    30 May30 May 20:50

    Interested to know what nectar redemption you’re going for, and why not transfer MR to an airline or hotel scheme?

    • the real harry1 says:

      30 May30 May 21:08

      probs just closing down an a/c and nobody likes losing the odds & sods points = Nectar

      • Simon says:

        30 May30 May 21:44

        That’s right – orphan points, just trying to do something with them.

      • Alex W says:

        30 May30 May 22:18

        Phew, the world’s not gone mad! I think I transferred my odds and sods to club Carlson or whatever it’s called this week.

• Ben says:

  30 May30 May 14:09

  OT.
  I am just booking a domestic flight on AA (cash) its being booked in the “Main Cabin”. As a BA Silver does that mean I get a free checked in bag? I cant get clarity on their website.
  Also someone did answer me before but just wanted to check…can I access the Lounge?
  Thanks

  • Genghis says:

    30 May30 May 14:28

    Yes and yes. I used Flagship lounge at T3 ORD a couple of weeks ago – very nice – but the Admirals at LGA and BOS were basic and non-existent.

    • Ben says:

      30 May30 May 15:54

      As always much appriciated Genghis!

• Simon B says:

  30 May30 May 14:32

  Slightly OT:
  I have the basic IHG Rewards Credit card but want to move to the Premium card. I have been told by Creation that an upgrade to the IHG Premium Credit card is not possible and I just have to apply separately for the Premium card and close the free one. Am I right in thinking that Creation are unlikely to pay out an introductory bonus for the Premium card while I hold the free card? The guy at Creation didn’t know the answer.

  • paulm says:

    30 May30 May 14:37

    They will give the bonus. The cards are treated seperately

  • Rob says:

    30 May30 May 15:30

    No reason why you shouldn’t get the bonus on the paid card.

  • Andy_H says:

    30 May30 May 15:35

    Can confirm that I did exactly that (open a Premium account while still holding the standard card) and got the bonus, a few months ago. Currently have them both, and other than needing 2 separate log-ins (as they don’t talk to each other so to speak) so far no issues.

    • Andy_H says:

      30 May30 May 15:37

      Sorry, Premium card, not Premium account.

• FlyingChris says:

  30 May30 May 15:48

  OT: Natwest Rewards –> BA Exec Club. From the post a couple of days ago about Natwest Rewards now (as part of a limited trial to certain people?) being able to be converted to Avios – I converted the minimum of £10 that night to 1300 Avios and this afternoon received the following email.

  “Great news! You’re one of the first 1500 customers to exchange your Rewards for Avios points. As promised, here are 500 extra points for being so speedy, courtesy of MyRewards to spend with British Airways Executive Club”

  YMMV, and had no idea that promo was running, or even know if the target of 1500 people have been hit, but a nice added bonus if was thinking of doing it anyway and you are eligible to transfer.

  • FlyingChris says:

    30 May30 May 15:55

    Should have mentioned wasn’t from the post but the O/T comments in the Bits a couple of days ago. Also just looking at the ‘Trade Up’ pages on the Natwest Rewards site, it mentions a 500 bonus for each of the ‘Trade Up’ options (£10/20/50), and the email mentions first 1500 customers. The wording is ambiguous, but looks like it could be first 500 customers in each of the buckets? More chance of getting it, if eligible, at the higher amounts potentially? Depends on what the average transfer is likely to be from a typical Natwest account holder.

  • Robman says:

    30 May30 May 17:00

    hi Chris, how long ago did you trade-up? I’ve just done one of each price bracket and was hoping that I’ve done it quick enough also to get the 500 bonus. how many days was it before you received the bonus email?

    • FlyingChris says:

      30 May30 May 17:55

      Heya – traded up very late in the evening of the 27th when I saw it mentioned in the comments of that days Bits, voucher arrived almost instantly, bonus email arrived this afternoon (30th). So 2-3 days later, though the T&C’s say could be up to 5. Nice surprise as I totally missed that there was a promo on. Good luck – to be honest there wasn’t an email/text/banner advert on Online Banking or anything, and it’s not like most people log into their rewards account regularly, so unless 1500 HFP’ers all jumped on it in the last couple of days – good chance of still getting the bonus perhaps?

      • Robnan says:

        30 May30 May 20:33

        Thanks a lot.

• VJ says:

  30 May30 May 16:08

  O/T – Any advice on best available Hotel Redemption in Hong Kong for 5/6 nights (I’ll be using my Amex MR points)

  • Rob says:

    30 May30 May 16:21

    In general (and this is not necessarily a HK recommendation) best value is anywhere that has a really good Marriott / JW Marriott. These are capped at 45k Marriott points which equals 15k Starwood points which needs 30k Amex.

    If you have Amex Plat you’ll also have SPG Gold which matches to Marriott Gold which, until August, means free lounge access and 4pm check out.

  • Roberto says:

    30 May30 May 16:23

    I would say that you wont really get the best value from MR.. I appteciate that if you are long then its “cost effective” but I gave never come across a great hotel deal unless I am using their own points .

    Cash is king with regards to hotels in my mind and in saying that i found great value with shangri la this year in a horizon club room in HKG durring the (black friday) sale..

    • Rob says:

      30 May30 May 19:32

      I assumed he meant converting MR into hotel points. Just using them via Amex Travel is crazy, I agree.

  • Alex W says:

    30 May30 May 20:58

    @VJ the best value is a Marriott hotel & air travel package. This gets you 7 nights plus up to 120,000 miles in your preferred scheme. I am aiming for 1.5p value per MR point this way. Even if you have to check out after the 6th night you should still achieve over 1p per Amex MR point.
    Ideally you need at least 180,000 MR points converted via SPG to 270,000 Marriott points.

    • grex9101 says:

      30 May30 May 21:22

      How likely is it that the Marriot travel packages will disappear come August?

      • Alex W says:

        30 May30 May 22:14

        It’s been announced that they are staying. However the prices have not been announced yet. I would not be surprised if they become more expensive either in August or January.

    • Genghis says:

      30 May30 May 21:41

      We’ve 7 nights at JWM in Oct booked this way.

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