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The University Arms hotel in Cambridge joins Marriott’s Autograph Collection

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The University Arms hotel in Cambridge has joined Autograph Collection, Marriott’s successful brand for high quality independent hotels who still want the benefits of working with a major chain.

The hotel has recently had an £80m refurbishment overseen by interior designer Martin Brudnizki and represents an impressive option in a city where genuinely high end hotels are scarce.

As a redemption, the hotel currently costs 25,000 Marriott Rewards or SPG points per night.

This is excellent value given that, looking at a random weekday in September, cash rates are well above £250 per night.

The website is here if you want to learn more.


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

How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards (December 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 for signing up 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

Huge 80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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.)

Comments (69)

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

  • Dermot K says:

    Why has BA suspended Tehran flights? Just curious.

    • Roberto says:

      The currency out there has faded so much in recent times what with the US sanctions and its effected the loads to such a level that its no longer financially viable.

    • Lady London says:

      Such a pity. I personally believe world peace is safer if we work with countries that may be doing things we don’t like, than if we isolate those countries. Sorry for OT.

      • Will Avery says:

        Agreed.

      • pauldb says:

        In fairness, that rather misstates the Trump policy. As for North Korea, there are carrots available to Iran but the White House thinks they should be doing more to reverse its arms programme in order to receive them. The idea isn’t to isolate them, but time will tell whether they fold to this.

      • Callum says:

        So did Chamberlain, then we had WW2…

        It’s incredibly naive to believe engagement always wins over punishment. I completely agree that in this specific case it would, but even then the only way this was possible was because of the previous isolation of Iran forcing them to cooperate.

  • Nick says:

    OT: There appears to be zero availability for Cathay Pacific redemptions in any class on any route within Asia between 17th November 2018 and 16th January 2019. Up to 16 November and after 16 January there redemptions on most flights on a daily basis. Looks like a problem with the flights not loading onto the BAEC systemforc2month period. Spoken at length to BA on the Silver hotline and had it referred to a supposedly senior manage but to no avail. They just say the system works and no availability on those dates. Looks very strange.

    • Leo says:

      Accepting defeat regarding an avios redemption I’ve been looking on the Asia Miles site. Seems availability is only there within a 3 months window of the date of flight. Am I doing something wrong?

      • Nick says:

        On BAEC redemptions are wide open for Cathay up to 16 November and then from 17 January with zilch in between so I don’t think it is an up to 3 months issue but may be different on the Asia Miles portal. Will be interested to see if Rob Burgess has any insight into what is going on and whether it is a technical fault.

    • Lady London says:

      I thought I saw awhile back that British Airways has blocked all CX redemption bookability until about one week before the flight? I guess they got tired of too many people preferring to book a superior service.

      • Lady London says:

        Hum. If you can see that far ahead although not to the weeks you want then it looks like that old policy that was reported is not still the case. Could it be something to do with the times you want being peak time for travel those routes?

        • Nick says:

          I don’t think so. There is availability on flights within Asia on most days and most routes other than this two month period which appears to have no availability on any route on any day.

  • will says:

    Somewhere to use a new 7 day 1-4 travel package 🙂
    It highlights something quite interesting if not surprising, a week in september in that hotel is coming in at £1700. On airbnb you can get a very pleasant 4 bed townhouse for the same money.

  • Albert says:

    When I looked through the deals it appears that the fares do not accrue KrisFlyer miles. C’est vrai?

    • Rob says:

      Would be a bit odd given the competition for KF members!

    • Michael C says:

      When I used to do the BCN-SIN direct, that was certainly the case: lowest fares accrued zero miles.

    • Lady London says:

      I have seen that in the small print on an SQ promotion quite a while back. Maybe it’s something to look out for, with SQ promos. I like SQ a lot but agree with other posters that the promo prices are not really pulling me.

  • Lady London says:

    OT: if anyone qualifies for a German credit card apparently Amex is now running a 60,000 miles signup bonus

    • Pangolin says:

      That’s crazily generous for Amex in Europe but sadly I don’t qualify!

  • Alastair says:

    O/T – I have just finalised avios reward 241 bookings in First outbound to SJC and back from IAD next July/August. When I look at the BA app it shows no seats selected on the booking but offers me the ability to do it. When I look at manage my booking online on ba.com and choose the Seats option it tells me “Seat Choice Available” and “Reserve seats now for free” (both of which would indicate to me that no seats have yet been selected) but when I click through it seems to have already allocated 1E and 1F outbound and 4E and 4F return which are the centre partner seats. Those seats are fine, but since they are not showing earlier in the process or in the app I wonder if they really are allocated to us or not ? I cannot press “Confirm seats”, I can only “Cancel any changes” at that screen. I could try and change them to window seats to make sure but could I then change them back to centre partner seats to make sure (assuming no-one nabs them in the middle of the process which seems unlikely this far out) ? Any advice appreciated.

  • Amit says:

    O/T had an avios booking on hold with AA, which was cancelled as the hold expired.How long does it take to appear again to be able to book it?

  • Adam says:

    I was initially excited to read about the Singapore sale in business but after looking at the prices on the website, it was a bit of an anti-climax 🙁

    Cheapest business fares for London are from £2,055 to Bangkok – Rob is this a good deal? I suspect not otherwise you would have listed some of the fare deals.

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