News in brief:
New list of IHG PointBreaks redemptions on Monday
IHG Rewards Club has released a teaser video on its Facebook page highlighting five hotels which will feature in the new PointBreaks list.
These hotels will be bookable from Monday afternoon UK time. It seems at the moment that we won’t see the full list until it is officially published.
The 100+ PointBreaks hotels on the list will be bookable for the period 1st August to, probably, 31st October. The cost will be reduced to between 5,000 and 15,000 points per night depending on hotel.
Here is the teaser list:
UK – Holiday Inn Brighton Seafront
Jordan – Holiday Inn Resort Dead Sea
Qatar – InterContinental Doha
US – Hotel Indigo San Antonio Riverwalk, Texas
US – Hotel Indigo Orange Beach, Alabama
Another 100+ hotels will be revealed on Monday.
The inclusion of Brighton is just weird. Why the hotel needs to reduce its redemption pricing for August is a mystery, although I have heard in the past that hotels don’t get much choice as to whether they go on this list or not.
I should also warn you that, despite a lobby refurbishment, the Brighton hotel is meant to be a mess. A friend of mine booked in recently and instantly walked out after seeing his room, checking into the adjacent Hilton instead on the grounds that the HI “makes the Hilton look like Four Seasons George V [in Paris]”. Just so you know ….
£100 off Virgin Holidays
Virgin Holidays is running a special offer until midnight on Monday 23rd.
Spend over £1500 and you will receive a £100 discount. Full details and the code you need are on the Virgin Atlantic ‘flight plus hotel’ website here.
You will also receive two Virgin Flying Club miles for every £1 you spend on your ‘flight plus hotel’ package.
Meanwhile, BA Holidays is running a Club World holidays promo until midnight on Tuesday. You can see the details here and I will go through the details tomorrow.
Interesting Hilton competition launched
Hilton has launched a free competition called ‘Pick Your Paradise’. It is quite low key at the moment so, unless a mass email goes out, your chances of winning may be OK.
Full details are here. The winner gets:
a six-night holiday for two people at their choice of Hilton Waikoloa Village Hawaii, Conrad Beijing or Hilton Lake Como
economy flights
£2,100 spending money
100 runners-up get a $100 Hilton gift card.
All you need to do is sign in to the entry form with your Hilton Honors account details. You can get extra entries by referring your friends to Hilton Honors but you can happily ignore that bit.
(Want to earn more hotel points? Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Promos’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)
About Head for Points
OT: what’s the best way of securing 241 reward flights? I can’t seem to find info online but say I book LON-SIN departure at midnight tonight and some random return (because my return date is more than 355 days so hasn’t been released yet) can I change it later for free? Or have things changed? And calling the BA office in the US is still the best option?
Thanks guys!
1) book online LON – SIN single at 1am BST
2) when return is released, call up to add return / I’d have enough avios buy single online and sort out the avios and taxes refund in the morning.
Thanks Genghis. Booking two singles would work for a 241 Amex voucher too?
Thanks again
Yes. Trues it up to a return on booking.
I’m probably a bit late today but hopefully I can get an opinion or two.
Would you rather do Virgin PE to Shanghai (with a day or two of sightseeing) then JAL business to Tokyo, or Virgin PE to Delhi, an 8 hour layover, and then JAL business to Tokyo? After Tokyo will be business on JAL to Hong Kong with both options.
Both would be redemptions, the Delhi option is £30 and 5000 points cheaper overall. I’ve never flown business so I feel like it would be nice to maximise my business flight time but is it really worth it when I’d spend most of a day in Delhi airport, even if it was mostly in a lounge?
Can you not squeeze a day or two of sightseeing in Delhi? There’s plenty to see!
I was trying to avoid getting a visa, but it looks like I might have to get a transit visa for a layover that long (with two separate tickets) anyway.
If you have a way of getting Alaska miles then Delhi to HK with a dtopovef in Tokyo on JAL business is a great deal.
We went to Shanghai a couple of years ago. Enjoyed the maglev ride, walking along the bins and the French connection area and stayed at the WA which was great. Good for a couple of days. But if it means taking time out of Japan, head straight to Japan. I’m going there in Sep after a long hiatus and can’t wait.
I did a week in Shanghai last year and really liked it, my favourite Chinese city so far, and this trip would see me going to Chongqing and Chengdu after Hong Kong, I was going to mention that but thought my comment was getting a bit long already.
The Japan part is just a for a tradeshow that I would like to go to (that it happens to mean I can put a few days in Japan on business expenses is entirely coincidental…). I last went 4 years ago and I’m sure there’s still plenty for me to discover in Tokyo.
I also wanted to take advantage of the Alaska mileage plan quirk of allowing long stopovers on “one way” trips in which they count Delhi-Tokyo-Hong Kong as a one-away redemption which would be 25k points and about £50 in fees.
Sorry Andy, added the comment abovd before reading on to this one.
No worries BJ, it’s something I’ve been looking at for a while and I can’t really believe they offer such great value! I’ve got 20k SPG points waiting to transfer over to Alaska so I can get the 5k bonus.
Would you not be better putting those SPG points into VFC along with other earnings if required to get your longhaul flights in business as opposed to PE? A huge number of decent cash or avios options for short flights in Asia. I don’t think I would endure the Dehli option just to try JAL business if I could get to do longhaul busines..
+1 Maglev, used it this week – for a fiver you get to zip along at over 400km/h. Made me cringe about paying £38 return on the Heathrow Express.
So much to see in Shanghai, if you’re a foodie, it’s an incredible city.
OT Can you still self refer on Amex platinum and get 18K?
Yes
Unlikely
How bad is JFK Terminal 7? I’m supposed to fly out from there tonight and have heard horror stories.
It’s not too bad. Don’t expect much in the CW dining lounge if that’s where you’re going.
pick your paradise with hilton
sorry, you are ineligible to enter
You must be a resident of Canada, Malaysia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom or the United States of America (including Guam and Puerto Rico) to be eligible to participate in this promotion. If you are a resident of one of these participating countries, please update your Hilton Honors member profile and then return to our site. It may take up to 48 hours to update your information.
I’m travelling and the widget won’t even load for me.
I shall have to get a move on and choose my VPN
If it isa fully flexible ticket then why would your poor dog have to get sick?
AVOID Holiday Inn Brighton Seafront… horrible hotel !
It’s not great. I stayed at it recently for a stag do and found it fine for a crash space and a bed.
If I actually cared about the quality of the hotel, not so much. But a bed for the night for 5k IHG seems like a bargain to me if all I care about is the bed.
I stayed in it just before Christmas last year. It was scruffy and dated but perfectly acceptable. Staff were nice enough. For 5k points it’d be a steal. I think I gave 20k points.
Strange. Are you sure its the seafront hotel? I just stayed there, two seafront view rooms for two nights, connecting doors. New rooms, balcony overlooking beach, ample parking deficated for HI at 10 pounds per 24 hours for Spire (but 20 per night for other members). Great newly renovated lobby, great service all round. 30,000 points x 4 versus 1100 pounds cash rate. One of the best HI i’ve stayed at for non business and i travel a lot.
We stayed at the HI Brighton Seafront for a weekend about six months ago. It was OK, but nothing special. As Spire we were given one of the seafront corner rooms, but it wasn’t especially clean and the aircon vent was caked in dust. Bed was fine. Balcony was filthy and covered in bird poo. The hotel has an American themed burger bar that is expensive, not that great, and best avoided.The Hilton is far better, but for a crash pad at 5K points go for it!
Does anyone know when the Points break will show. Article said Monday afternoon, still looking but no sign so far.
Around 4.30-5pm UK time
Looks like 5pm (noon Eastern US) but realistically they will be loaded earlier. If you look at the specific hotel page rather than the general PB page you’ll see it first.
Any info leaks yet?
Brighton is now bookable.
HIX Croydon is showing as 10k.
Crowne Plaza Heathrow is 15k.
If I click on the link and select Reward night it still shows as 30000 points rather than 15000 for Brighton.
Any suggestions.
Shows at 15k for me. Must stay before 30 September.
List is live now.
Best one I think is the Holiday Inn in Paris – very nice location for a weekend.
I agree Henry, although there is now nothing available for the period of the PointsBreak promotion.
Couldnt find any reward night availability for CP Heathrow
Was definitely some at 5pm as I saw it!