Hilton to open a hotel overlooking the Silverstone motor racing circuit

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• TGLoyalty says:

  15 Sep15 September 08:03

  Where does garden inn sit in the Hilton profile becuase you’d think you’d want a silverstone hotel to be up market especially as F1 weekends could be very lucrative if it was of the right standard.

  • Tilly says:

    15 Sep15 September 10:54

    If Silverstone keep F1.

    • Graham Walsh says:

      15 Sep15 September 11:13

      That’s very much the question. Guess it will stay now that Bernie is out of the way.

      • Tilly says:

        15 Sep15 September 18:03

        I very much hope that will be the case.

• Craig says:

  15 Sep15 September 08:11

  Slightly OT: Has anyone churned the HSBC WE card?

  • rams1981 says:

    15 Sep15 September 10:40

    Yes. 7 month or so gap

• John says:

  15 Sep15 September 08:21

  Also on Nationwide

• Simon Barlow says:

  15 Sep15 September 08:24

  OT – do airlines offer last minute cheap flights? If so, is there a web site that offers last minute deals?
  Currently working within spitting distance of Gatwick and would love a lucky dip of seeing what is available on a Friday afternoon for a last minute cheap weekend away!

  • Shoe string says:

    15 Sep15 September 09:25

    BA offers Avios availability at the last minute – sort of, ie last few days before flight. If the flight is full – no go, of course. But for non-peak times, there is surprisingly good availability even when the cash cost has gone astronomical. This works especially well with business availability – or so I’ve found on my route to our place in the sun. Patchy Economy availability, the flights look full.

    So in a way, that’s ‘last minute cheap’.

    Check it out. one way Business £650 for the next 10 days, 12500 Avios to you, sir.

    • Will says:

      15 Sep15 September 11:08

      I needed a flight to Frankfurt with 36 hours notice this week, £450 return in economy, checked avios and managed to get it as a reward flight saver. That’s the power of avios, opens up trips where you might not pay the cash price. As an extra bonus the Sheraton Frankfurt airport was EUR350 as there was a big event on. Checked on points and managed to use the SPG amex free night there. Absolute result, would have been a very expensive 12 hours there otherwise.

  • bsuije says:

    15 Sep15 September 10:01

    Would be interested to find out, as well. I always wondered whether you can turn up at the ticket desk at the airport and try your luck there…

    • John says:

      15 Sep15 September 13:39

      You can turn up at a ticket desk and buy a ticket a few hours before a flight, but it will be at the going prices and they won’t be very happy if you ask them to search every possible destination.

  • Anna says:

    15 Sep15 September 10:04

    Websites like Skyscanner should show flight availability – in the old days we used Teletext lol!

  • Rob says:

    15 Sep15 September 10:25

    Not these days. More chance with miles.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    15 Sep15 September 10:27

    Try google flights. You can set Gatwick as start and Europe as the destination. Make it direct flights only and It will show prices for everywhere on the dates you pick

    Ive only ever tried that on an actual pc though.

  • RussellH says:

    15 Sep15 September 11:50

    I recall an article in the Independent some years ago now, describing a difficult-to-find office in a remote part of Gatwick that did just what you are looking for.
    Apparently people in the know would turn up with a suitcase and a passport and just take what was on offer.
    So you would think that there would still be some sort of facility still today.

    • John says:

      15 Sep15 September 13:38

      Did they find you accommodation as well, because that’s what is expensive nowadays… unless HFPers are prepared to turn up to hostels without a booking

      • BJ says:

        15 Sep15 September 19:29

        When I visited the States often I used the bank of phones and hotel ads in arrivals halls with good results. I think given they knew you were there and standing in front of ads for many other hotels they probably felt they had little alternative except to offer a great rate if they wanted your custom. No longer visit the States much and cannot even recall if they still have those hotel ads in this mobile age.

• Jamie says:

  15 Sep15 September 08:34

  OT, apologies if this has been answered before. My gold charge card has just renewed (and I’ve received the 10k bonus points and been charged the annual fee). I’ve seen the link to upgrade to Platinum for 20k points. Firstly does this still work? And if I do that, will I get a pro rata refund for the gold fee and just be charged the fee for the new card? Thank you 🙂

  • Clo says:

    15 Sep15 September 09:07

    Hi,
    The link was working at least until 2 months ago because I used it.
    And yes I got the gold card fee refunded pro-rata, and got charged immediately for platinum fee

    • Jamie says:

      15 Sep15 September 09:18

      Thanks Clo! Link seems to still work for me

      https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/content/platinum-charge/upgrade/

      • Louie says:

        15 Sep15 September 11:34

        And if you are lucky, you won’t get a refund, nor will you get charged for the Plat 🙂

• Kevin says:

  15 Sep15 September 08:57

  OT: Platinum House.

  We went along last night. Was impressed.

  There are various rooms: A big bar, a disco/performance space, a whisky room with various varieties including Hibiki, a fashion shop, a chill out room with chewing gum and The Queen Is Dead on vinyl.

  Cocktails were excellent as was the finger food supplied I think by Hakkasan.

  We got a gift of a camera lens for your phone. There’s lots of opportunities to have your photo taken in front of an Amex logo in case you’re an influencer.

  There was a contemporary dance performance which looked great but was hard to see from the back of the room.

  Don’t think you can just turn up tonight as it is the end of fashion week party. Hard to tell what it would be like for the morning sessions but the map mentions brunch bowls.

  • Matt says:

    15 Sep15 September 10:10

    We went on the opening night, and was also impressed especially by the James Bay performance and how intimate it really was with very few people. The food and alcohol selection was good and everything was free! I was very surprised to see that most people seemed to be in their late 20s (I’m 26) which wasn’t at all what I was expecting for the Amex Plat membership base.

    • Roger says:

      15 Sep15 September 10:25

      Also on Android at least they have removed Support option as well.
      Tried Iphone App while the option is there, tried sending a support message via App and that did not go through.

      I have new front clear (no numbers/name) “commercial debit” card.

  • The Streets says:

    15 Sep15 September 13:02

    +1 had a great evening!

• Andrew says:

  15 Sep15 September 09:03

  Would that work for paypoint purchases at Co-op?

  • xcalx says:

    15 Sep15 September 11:19

    Yes.

• George says:

  15 Sep15 September 09:12

  Nobody really knows about HMRC yet but Rob made veiled reference to an annoucement coming next week so something is coming.

  I can’t see that credit card providers will code HMRC charges as cash advance when they come through Curve- they didn’t when it was direct payments. Easy to test though – pay a £50 contribution to VAT/SA/CT/PAYE and see how it goes. I’d do it but I’ve hit the usage limit on my Curve and they aren’t returning my emails!

  • Memesweeper says:

    15 Sep15 September 09:56

    +1 — by no stretch is HMRC a cash advance.

    I’ve only really used the cash at ATM feature abroad, but it will be a shame to see it go. What’s a Starling or Revolut top up going to be coded as? That’s my big concern.

    • Shoe string says:

      15 Sep15 September 14:28

      Not usually defined as cash advance but as financial services, so buying currency, paying HMRC, paying off credit card bill, anything like that.

      Having said that, I bought a couple £thou foreign currency with my Tesco Purchases credit card and that was seen as a real goods purchase (via HIFX if you want to give it a go).

    • swhostring says:

      15 Sep15 September 14:48

      Not usually defined as cash advance but as financial services, so buying currency, paying HMRC, paying off credit card bill, anything like that.
      Having said that, I bought a couple £thou foreign currency with my Tesco Purchases credit card and that was seen as a real goods purchase (via HIFX if you want to give it a go).
      And there’s still £21 c/b for your first HIFX transaction = easy Avios
      His ‘n hers a no brainer even if you don’t ever use them again

    • Optimus Prime says:

      15 Sep15 September 17:21

      Before the interchange fee cap HMRC did accept personal credit cards and people didn’t get charged an extra fee for paying taxes with Creation or MBNA cards, did they?

    • Genghis says:

      15 Sep15 September 17:32

      HMRC is not a financial institution.

    • Roger1* says:

      16 Sep16 September 17:42

      My SA payment to HMRC was classed as ‘Business Services’.

  • AT says:

    15 Sep15 September 17:30

    Zero notice given.

    I tried to pay my tax at HMRC yesterday. It failed several times, but one attempt went through. If that comes through as a cash advance and I get charged for it I’ll be livid.

    I tried again just now, and it was declined every time. That’s why I came here looking to see if anyone else is having trouble, and now I learn that Curve have changed it without warning.

    Bad enough to lose the option to gain points and miles while paying my VAT bill, but to do it like this without any notice, and in a way that may well cause people to get charged for cash advances is really bad.

    If only I’d paid my tax on Thursday…

    • Roger says:

      15 Sep15 September 18:09

      Same here, repeated attempt all declined without any proper message on App.
      Just says declined without any further explanation!

      Might hold off just in case (as wildly speculated now) Amex is a go again from next week!

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