Get 500 bonus Accor points and two cocktails with MGallery hotel stays

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• Tony says:

  11 Jul11 July 06:47

  Victory House, Leicester Square, London (opened late last year, I know nothing about it at all)

  Well I do.

  Avoid. The location is 10/10, but thats about it for this hotel.
  Noisy, hot and small cramped rooms ( ok thats most of London ), but they seem to have made an effort to achieve this here. Breakfast served in reception ( left luggage office ). Save your £300 and spend somewhere better.

• MDA says:

  11 Jul11 July 06:53

  O/T – my colleague has the BA amex (free version) and has done 15k spend. Can he upgrade to BAPP card and get issued the 241 voucher immediately??

  Im sure I had read that people have done so in the comments section

  • Anna says:

    11 Jul11 July 07:00

    I think so. Also does anyone know if you would get points for referring him to the BAPP to replace his free blue card? I tried this once, the points never posted but I didn’t chase them up as I needed to cancel the card I had referred from after a few weeks.

    • the real harry1 says:

      11 Jul11 July 07:30

      No referral if colleague didn’t follow a referral link. If he did (follow referral link), it’d be a new BAPP card with the old free card remaining in existence, so no points for your friend (no 6 months gap, same family). Referrer might get referral points, I guess.

      • Mike says:

        11 Jul11 July 07:39

        The latest terms and conditions for Amex referrals say that the referree must not have held a card earning the same points currency in the last 6 months for the referrer to get the bonus…

      • Anna says:

        11 Jul11 July 08:01

        I used the link from Platinum. OH got the blue card but the referral points never appeared. I had done 4 other referrals from the Platinum to non-BA Amex cards and the points all posted within a few days.

  • Genghis says:

    11 Jul11 July 07:47

    Yes. Voucher should then be issued with a two year validity but occasionally a one year one is delivered meaning liaising with CS

• ah says:

  11 Jul11 July 07:10

  I got £5 off £50 repeatable at BP fuel stations

• Sean says:

  11 Jul11 July 07:12

  There is also a Mcgallery in Milton Keynes (rebranded from Mercure last year), not the best hotel around as they seem to have weddings on most nights but can be a surprisingly cheap

  • Phil says:

    11 Jul11 July 09:01

    And it’s very convenient for a trip to Bletchley Park

• Rob says:

  11 Jul11 July 07:30

  Damn it. Have loads of spend going through Melia and am at the wrong hotel (There is one where I am staying that is participating but I didn’t book it) and for once I pre-paid for my Avis hire so will miss out on that one as well. Obviously not my lucky day.

  • Louise Allen says:

    11 Jul11 July 08:28

    What I have noticed with Amex is that you can blag an offer if you add it while the transaction is still pending on your account. I do that quite often as I tend to shop first, check later 🙂

    Probably a bit late now but worth remembering in the future.

• Matt says:

  11 Jul11 July 07:37

  Just received my Amex Plat for the first time. Is it silly that I’m disappointed that it’s not metal like the US version? Why don’t they do that in the UK?

  • Genghis says:

    11 Jul11 July 07:45

    Yes 🙂
    Without even looking at Amex’s financials, my guess is the US business is much more profitable.

    • Optimus Prime says:

      11 Jul11 July 07:52

      Yeah…

      In my opinion there are things more annoying than that. The US version also has a better earning rate when making purchases on travel sites – here just Gold does that.

      Every year they also get Uber credit, travel credit, etc.

      I don’t mention the signup bonus because they’re not churnable.

  • the real harry1 says:

    11 Jul11 July 07:58

    Cost. Maybe they also have some market research showing that the UK consumer is pretty indifferent about it – I certainly couldn’t give a hoot and can imagine that plastic is lighter to carry around so is a better option.

    Funny thing, brands and brand loyalty. Whilst I have a certain pride (in a quality-made vehicle) to be driving a Beemer and I know my wife loves her Audi (and we wouldn’t dream of buying a Merc!), other brands can leave me cold. I would never think shopping at Waitrose somehow makes me superior (and I know many people do!) as I’d be thinking I was just being un-savvy to buy an inferior product for more money than at (say) the European delis. What about loyalty to the AA or RAC, with people actually going so far as to put badges on the front of their cars. No brand pride there for me – I shopped around and went for AutoAid this year, a much better deal – but in years where I’m using RAC or AA (I change breakdown insurer every year), I guess I was happy to belong to a larger, reliable network in case of breakdowns. And high regard for the Big 6 gas/ elec suppliers? No way, they are all 6 big rip-off merchants so you’d have to be a bobo to stick with them year after year.

    Back to credit cards – do I feel more superior using my Amex Plat rather than my Halifax debit card? And expect a bit more deference at checkout or when waiter brings the bill? Do I heck, that’s such an illusory world of false importance that it could reliably be used to diagnose early onset senile dementia. Or just somebody with no real class but pretensions of grandeur? So a metal Amex card? Nothing in it for me though I can see how it would convey premium values for some people, which they’d probably end up paying extra for so not for me.

    • Lev441 says:

      11 Jul11 July 08:21

      Have you needed to use autoaid? Was about to get it but realised my lease had breakdown assistance included. Told my old man about autoaid but he’s old school and has been an AA member for 20+ years (he haggles at each renewal, but they send ridiculously high renewal premiums)… would you recommend?

      • Alan says:

        11 Jul11 July 08:30

        I’ve used them twice when I had them – was hassle-free.

      • the real harry1 says:

        11 Jul11 July 08:30

        For peace of mind the easiest way is to switch between AA/ RAC every year using site with no name to get c/b & introductory rates year after year. But I’m giving AutoAid a try as it’s so cheap in comparison and reviews well. Only had to use the breakdown insurance a couple of times for minor things in the past (can’t remember if it was AA or RAC) – 1. son had thrown away the after market immobiliser dongle on my set of car keys and I couldn’t work out why the 4×4 wouldn’t start! 2. Needed new alternator but hadn’t diagnosed that myself, they worked it out in a couple of mins. Oh yeah there was 3. breakdown outside Gatwick on way back from hols, they sorted that out as well, new car to get home & 4×4 on back of low-loader to home, so that saved a bob or two.

        Nature of these things is that you don’t actually ever want to have to use the insurance!

      • Nick M says:

        11 Jul11 July 11:37

        We’ve had AutoAid for a few years now. I think we’ve only needed to call them once, but completely hassle free and they went beyond expectations… was a home-start battery issue on a Sunday, the mechanic followed me to the next town so that I could buy a new battery just in case there were any issues if I needed to stop at lights/etc on the journey.

      • lev441 says:

        11 Jul11 July 12:40

        Sounds good, thanks all.

      • Sarah says:

        11 Jul11 July 18:58

        I’ve used AutoAid a few times with absolutely no hassle and would highly recommend them.

    • Andrew says:

      11 Jul11 July 08:31

      In the UK it’s rare that a card will leave your hand – whereas, in the USA, I often get the “love the card” for my Virgin Money fx free version with an image of tape cassette on it when I hand it to use on their heritage transaction equipment.

      It’s probably just a “customer engagement” thing that they’ve been trained to do though.

    • Lumma says:

      11 Jul11 July 12:33

      From someone who’s worked in the restaurant trade for many years, I do think that you may get better treatment at payment time with a premium AMEX over more mainstream cards. Tips are almost always higher overall on the AMEX payments than the other cards.

      Maybe it’s a good idea to ask the waiter if the restaurant accepts American Express when they first come to the table to ensure better service?

      • Lady London says:

        11 Jul11 July 15:01

        🙂

• Mark2 says:

  11 Jul11 July 07:45

  OT
  Has anyone else received an email from BAEC saying:

  ‘As a valued Avios Travel Rewards Programme Member, I’d like to extend you a warm welcome to the British Airways Executive Club.
  ……….
  Rest assured, your Avios balance is safe and we will be moving this to your new Club account before the current Avios Travel Rewards Programme closes later this summer.’

  I shall be moving any Avios from Rewards for Thoughts and Lloyds Bank myself to my longstanding BAEC account, but once the Avios account is closed they will presumably be forwarded to this new account and potentially stranded.
  This is no great surprise. Avios/BAEC do not retain a permanent link between our respective accounts like SPG/Marriott do or it would not be necessary to enter full details for every use of CMA.

  • Louise Allen says:

    11 Jul11 July 08:20

    No, but I did get an email saying “Welcome to BEAC, here’s your PIN” all branded in Blue, when I’ve been Silver for two years! I’m wondering if a second account has been created maybe as part of the Avios changes.

    • Rob says:

      11 Jul11 July 08:31

      Yes it has. They have failed to see your BA account when closing your avios.com account.

      • h2d says:

        11 Jul11 July 10:01

        If you ring the BA exec club customer service team they will merge the two accounts. Took about 24 hours for me.

  • Roger1 says:

    11 Jul11 July 08:48

    I’ve noticed that my Rewards for Thoughts points now go into my Aerclub account – and I have 15 pages of history (all ex-avios.com transactions)!

    In effect, my avios.com has been renamed Aerclub. 😀

    • 1nfrequent says:

      11 Jul11 July 11:33

      Yes – that’s happened to me too. I’m quite happy about that though – I usually do enough Rewards for Thoughts surveys to get a couple of European economy return tickets and there are loads of places in Ireland that I want to go to.

• Miyaichi says:

  11 Jul11 July 07:57

  I got an offer in my Amex App for 50% off MyTaxi for as many journeys as I want! That’s 50% off black cabs for the next few weeks — Uber who?!

  • Rob says:

    11 Jul11 July 08:38

    MyTaxi has a £10 minimum fare so for short hops it isn’t really 50% off. Our kids school is a£7 ride so this offer would only cut it to £5 for example.

    • Lumma says:

      11 Jul11 July 12:17

      £7 in a black cab in London? Would it not be better to walk the two streets instead? 😉

      • Rob says:

        11 Jul11 July 12:20

        Depends how quickly they get out of bed in the morning! You can get about a mile for £7, bit more than 2 streets ….

      • RussellH says:

        11 Jul11 July 17:45

        £7 a mile??!!?? No wonder I hate the thought of taxis! (except in Germany.)

        • Rob says:

          11 Jul11 July 20:03

          First mile – there is a chunky base charge these days. Mayfair to my house is 3x distance and £10-£11.

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