Marriott West India Quay hotel in London refurbishes – a good value redemption

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• Tony says:

  30 Aug30 August 08:12

  Mine have yet to appear in my IHG Rewards account. Creation don’t seem to have the best It system as often takes me up to a week to be able to access the statement.

• Peter K says:

  30 Aug30 August 08:27

  “Neutral beige and taupe palette, contrasted by dark wood furniture”.
  Wow, was blah the effect they were aiming for as it sounds like they’ve achieved it!

• Rob MC says:

  30 Aug30 August 09:45

  OT

  Anyone know the best way redemptions or cash from LA to Queenstown, NZ.

  Have seen that United do redemptions, just wondered if there was a better way?

  • Scallder says:

    30 Aug30 August 10:54

    Qantas via Sydney for Avios or with Air NZ (can use a virgin miles)?

  • Scallder says:

    30 Aug30 August 11:22

    If you end up booking an internal with cash use the NZ page of Air New Zealand rather than the UK one -flew from Queenstown to Auckland last month and the number was the same on both but they’d just change the pound sign and the kiwi dollar sign…

    • John says:

      30 Aug30 August 12:18

      Something similar also happens with Norwegian. Check the price in all currencies and compare using the current exchange rate, can be up to 10% away

• Rob MC says:

  30 Aug30 August 09:52

  Anyone know the best way redemptions or cash from LA to Queenstown, NZ.

  Have seen that United do redemptions, just wondered if there was a better way?

  • guesswho2000 says:

    30 Aug30 August 10:09

    Without looking, probably via Australia and then a direct to ZQN, or a direct to AKL or CHC then a connection to ZQN.

    • Andrew S says:

      30 Aug30 August 10:17

      There are direct flights on air nz from lax to Auckland, then you would need to change to the domestic terminal at Auckland to fly to Queenstown.
      Redemptions via partners on air nz are few and far between.
      There are also direct flights to Queenstown from Australia. Not sure exactly where from, probably Melbourne.

      • guesswho2000 says:

        30 Aug30 August 11:39

        Directs from Australia to ZQN from MEL, SYD & BNE

      • Lyn says:

        30 Aug30 August 11:58

        Qantas flies from Sydney to Queenstown, and less frequently from Brisbane. Don’t think they fly from Melbourne. They seem to have Jetstar flights between Auckland and Queenstown.

        Using Avios for long-haul Qantas flights seem to be relatively expensive, but they can be very useful indeed for short-haul flights within Australia, so perhaps this would apply to Jetstar flights as well in New Zealand.

        Awards using United miles would probably use their own flights from LA to Sydney + Air NZ on to Christchurch for the same number of miles as just LA – SYD. Taxes are likely to be low. It is probably hard to use United miles on Air NZ long-haul partner flights.

  • guesswho2000 says:

    30 Aug30 August 11:44

    Virgin Australia fly direct LAX-SYD, MEL & BNE, then onward to ZQN from both BNE & SYD. Their flights from MEL currently connect in SYD, but they’re starting direct operations MEL-ZQN in October.

    The connection isn’t much of an issue, I flew back with VA and connected in SYD (MEL being mu home airport). VA can credit to various airlines if you’re not a Velocity member (which I assume you aren’t if you don’t live in AU/NZ), SQ probably being the best bet.

    • guesswho2000 says:

      30 Aug30 August 11:45

      As for redemptions, good luck getting a trans pacific in anything other than Y. The Aus-NZ should be simple enough though.

      • Lyn says:

        30 Aug30 August 12:12

        Exactly.

        You’d have to book a long-way out for business trans pacific on Qantas, for instance, although premium economy is sometimes available. Their premium economy is a sort of “business minus” rather than “economy plus” with good service.

        Alaska miles can be useful here – never had any luck with using them for Qantas business, but have seen Qantas premium economy availability sometimes. They also have low taxes.

        Correction to my earlier comments – it looks as if Qantas do fly from MEL to Christchurch.

• Anon says:

  30 Aug30 August 09:55

  “It is just a couple of minutes walk from the Jubilee Line, dropping you in the West End very quickly..”

  Untrue. Although you never defined quickly…

  • Rob says:

    30 Aug30 August 10:12

    17 minutes to Bond Street from Canary Wharf. That counts as pretty quick. For example, if you stayed at the Hilton Park Lane it would take you nearly 17 minutes to walk to Bond Street tube.

    • Anon says:

      30 Aug30 August 12:04

      It’s about an 8-10 minute walk from hotel to Canary Wharf station, then the tube to Bond Street as you say. I also don’t believe Bond Street is the West End in itself, it’s difficult to think about in a city as jumbled as London but you’re about 10 minutes walking from Bond Street to somewhere people think as ‘West End’, the sorts of bars, theatres, restaurants etc.)

      Hilton Park Lane is maybe 20 minutes walk to Piccadilly Circus (again, who knows if this is ‘West End’ or not but there’s enough things around there to qualify in my opinion).

      This is all pedantic, hotel is still very nice and I’m intrigued by the renovations.

      • Leo says:

        30 Aug30 August 12:49

        I would think of Bond Street and Green Park stations as both being in the West End and I’ve lived here all my life.

  • New Card says:

    30 Aug30 August 11:18

    Will be closer to Crossrail than the Jubilee Line from December, which will drop you in the West End even more quickly…

  • geoff says:

    30 Aug30 August 11:43

    Agreed! That sort of distance – 17mins into the West End is very quick.

• Jeki says:

  30 Aug30 August 10:49

  I’m doing the Marriott new members stay 2 nights get cat 1-5 one night free promotion. I registered it before the merger and expect to stay the 2nd night in Sep. Any idea if the cat 1-5 free night is still cat 1-5 post merge?

  • Rob says:

    30 Aug30 August 10:52

    More likely to be a Cat 1-4.

    • Jeki says:

      30 Aug30 August 11:08

      I’m happy with cat 1-4, I just hope their merged IT system will be good enough to automatically issue the free night voucher when I finish the 2nd stay.

  • Relaxo says:

    30 Aug30 August 14:57

    I had an outstanding 1-5 free night certtificate from the promo. It has been converted to Cat 1- 4 or max 25000 pts

• Nelson says:

  30 Aug30 August 11:28

  O/t But Hilton related. I’ve just done my Diamond status Match and have 4 nights in a Row planned in one Hilton property. If I book it as 4 separate nights and check in and out every night Will it count as four stays towards status?

  • Genghis says:

    30 Aug30 August 11:38

    No

  • Rob says:

    30 Aug30 August 12:51

    No. You would need to switch between two different Hilton hotels each night for it to work.

• Hsergio10 says:

  30 Aug30 August 11:34

  OT: Hiltons double/triple points offer+M&M offer +special Conrad Offer +Amex offers

  Quite a good combo of points:
  -Triple points offers on selected luxury barnds
  -2500 M&M
  -5000 per stay or 2000 per nights (up to 8000 per stay)
  -5000 Amex offer when you spend you send £250/£350
  -5000 Amex when you spend $500 at any US Hilton properties

  With a budget of $1000-$1500ish you can get additional points depending on how you splits your nights or stays.

  Being Diamond, i’m anticipating total points of min 60000 HH points (Excluding expenses at hilton hotels)+10K amex points

  My strategy:

  I booked (early March) few stays at Conrad London and New York for stays around mid October, mid November and end of December. I was able to get best flexible rate on average of $275 a night

  1)There is an additional 5000 points per for two nights stay using the code PBK5P1 at any participating Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts or Conrad Hotels & Resorts.

  2) You can also use PBK2P1 to earn 2,000 bonus points per night (max 8,000 bonus points per stay).

  Both Offer are valid for stays booked and completed between February 26, 2018 and December 31, 2018 (“Promotional Period”)

  Hope it helps

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