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The HfP exclusive discount at Ski Solutions is extended

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Earlier this month Ski Solutions decided to partner with us and offered our readers a 5% discount on ski holidays. This offer was meant to expire on 16th September, but Ski Solutions has decided to extend it for a few weeks.

If you missed the first mention of this offer, Ski Solutions is a ski holiday company, run by a regular HfP reader, with 30 years’ experience in arranging tailor-made ski holidays across Europe and North America.

Ski Solutions works with all the leading chalet, apartment and hotel operators. Selling ski holidays is all they do and their team claims a combined 280 years of collective experience in the sector.

Until 31st October you can benefit from early bird booking discounts with an extra 5% discount if you quote ‘headforpoints’ when booking.

The Ski Solutions website is here.

Category

General

Comments (152)

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

  • Kinkell says:
    26 Sep26 September 11:35

    Bits: Does anyone know how to improve / get offers on Amex cards? I have no offers on my SPG card, 5 on my BAPP ( which I have had for years). And 30 on my Gold,now Plat card…..with no new offers for ages( and the ones there are never going to entice me to save to card)

    • the_real_a says:
      26 Sep26 September 12:19

      Spend on the card. Ive had a couple of the free cards in a drawer for years that get 1-2 offers – started to use them on regular spend and now get 40+

      • Kinkell says:
        26 Sep26 September 13:42

        I do spend on the cards, and it is so annoying when I hear of others getting offers I could be doing with. I’m feeling a bit hard done by!

    • Pangolin says:
      26 Sep26 September 14:43

      Same problem here. Been using the PRG for all regular and travel-related spend for the 3 months I’ve had it. Nothing but the same 3 useless offers that appeared virtually the day I got the card. I’ve called them three times over two weeks and still the only thing they can say to me is that they’ll look into it. The last guy I spoke to was very condescending – he said that not every offer appears on every card and there is thing called Membership Rewards which you can use to get some benefit from. No s***, Sherlock!

      My Amex Plat had 36 offers at the time I cancelled it, and I hardly ever put any spend on that once I’d hit the signup bonus. These offers included the Hilton one and almost certainly the recent £100 off on £400 spend at Microsoft would have appeared alongside this, so feeling a bit of a chump for cancelling the plat right now.

      • Nick says:
        26 Sep26 September 19:13

        No s*** yourself… these offers are provided by companies’ marketing departments, and they can be as targeted as the respective company wants. If you don’t meet the criteria, you don’t get it.

        When my company offered one, we said we wanted to target reasonably high spenders who had spent with our direct competitors but not ourselves. The aim being to bring them to us and we justified the spend as ‘acquisition’. There’s no way we were going to pay customers who were already likely to use us – we have far cheaper ways of doing that. When Amex agents started adding manually by phone, we kicked up a fuss and got credit for them… hence this doesn’t happen any more.

        It’s not rocket science. There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Someone is paying – either the merchant or Amex – and in each case you’ll do yourself a favour asking why.

  • BlueHorizonuk says:
    26 Sep26 September 11:55

    Rob, when you photobombed Marriott the other day did you ask them where the hell their new credit card is……lol

    • Rob says:
      26 Sep26 September 12:18

      No, I forgot. Marriott is helping us find a Christmas Party venue for this year so you may be able to ask them yourself ….

      • Alan says:
        26 Sep26 September 16:30

        As long as they’re not doing any of the organising, they’re not the best at that as demonstrated with their programme merger fiasco!

  • Tom W says:
    26 Sep26 September 11:59

    O/T: I’m planning a trip to Asia in U/C with Virgin to Hong Kong then onwards south in the spring to use up some miles. I haven’t been to that area before, if i wanted to take some internal flights would there be any preference in terms of safety/reliability from: Vietjet, Jetstar, Hahn Air Systems and Vietnam Airlines? Thanks.

    • the_real_a says:
      26 Sep26 September 12:23

      Apart from Indonesian register carriers which i tend to avoid, i wouldn’t hesitate to fly any of the major players in the region. Air Asia, Jetstar, Vietjet etc. Have a look at skyscanner.net for the best prices. Dont forget you can redeem Avios very cheaply on Cathay pacific, and delta points (via AMEX) on vietnam airlines.

      • Tom W says:
        26 Sep26 September 12:24

        Perfect thanks!

        • Stu N says:
          26 Sep26 September 14:20

          Regional Cathay redemptions are excellent value. For a straight redemption it’s c.£30 in taxes and airport fees plus 20k Avios per person in will get you most places in SE Asia in Business from HK. HK currently bans fuel surcharges so returns should be equally good value, though the law is changing at some point so this isn’t going to last forever.

          Also have a look at the part-Avios part-cash redemptions – we have paid c.£100 and 11k Avios (vs £30/20k Avios), so you are effectively paying £70-£75 to save 9k Avios which is excellent value in my book.

    • EdC says:
      26 Sep26 September 13:36

      Hahn provides GDS access to Vietjet (amongst other worldwide carriers) – so it’s just a way of booking Vietjet flights through Expedia or whatever.

      Be aware that all the carriers within Vietnam can be somewhat unreliable in terms of short-notice cancellations, and unpunctual later in the day. This in particular applies to the routes where they offer many services a day (generally flights between HCMC/Hanoi/Da Nang), where they cancel or reschedule underbooked flights at relatively short notice and rebook you on the next/previous one. They do at least tend to tell you, and it’ll be more than 24 hours in advance otherwise they have to compensate you (to the tune of a few quid). I don’t think I ever had a flight from HCMC-Hanoi that wasn’t either cancelled or rescheduled. So allow an extra few hours if you’re connecting to a different flight on a different ticket. Jetstar have the worst reputation, then Vietjet, then VNA.

      Many of Vietnam Airlines’ flights from HCMC-Hanoi are on widebodies, so if you’re paying extra for business class you may end up with a flatbed on an A350 or 787. Their A321s are nice enough 2+2 business class. VNA’s Business class and VJ’s SkyBoss get priority baggage handling that actually comes off first, and a separate bus to + from the plane.

  • Rob says:
    26 Sep26 September 12:16

    AeroMexico’s UK site currently selling business class tickets at economy prices. Honestly, I’ve checked. Some big mistake somewhere. Probably won’t be honoured but ….

    List courtesy of Jack’s Flight Club:

    Mexico City (MEX) – £592 (direct)
    Guadalajara (GDL) – £680
    Cancun (CUN) – £581
    Monterrey (MTY) – £593
    Puerto Vallarta (PVR) – £562
    San Jose del Cabo (SJD) – £565
    Havana (HAV) – £480
    Quito (UIO) – £534
    Lima (LIM) – £497
    Buenos Aires (EZE) – £661
    Sao Paulo (GRU) – £599
    Bogota (BOG) – £528
    San Jose, CR (SJO) – £512
    Guatemala (GUA) – £513

    • Nick M says:
      26 Sep26 September 12:53

      If the fare says it is “refundable”, do you know if they can apply a cancellation fee? – I can’t see anything obvious on the website

      • pablo says:
        26 Sep26 September 13:33

        They seem to be economy tickets, the seat selection is in economy, fare rules are highly restrictive and R fare bucket is economy.

    • Jon L says:
      26 Sep26 September 13:30

      I can’t get it to work.
      Choosing seats is required and only economy seats are available to choose.

    • @mkcol says:
      26 Sep26 September 16:41

      Very shortly afterwards Jacks Flight Club said it was an erroneous error, however Secret Flying have been clinging to the line that it’s just a normal error fare.

  • paulm says:
    26 Sep26 September 12:36

    OT. Just mentioning this as it may help anyone else staying there. Just stayed at the hotel indigo lower east side and surprise they now charge a destination fee and they did their best to not tell me about it. Was not in place when I booked, not mentioned at check inn and on check out said we will email a bill and verbally advised a total which just included my expected costs. Won’t make that mistake again!

    Will be taking this up with ihg and doing a chargeback. $20 a night for Internet, 24 hour front desk(!), tea/coffee and access to be hotels bar!

    • Kai says:
      26 Sep26 September 13:17

      So they are charging $20 for something that has always been included? The Americans are really laughable.

    • Lady London says:
      26 Sep26 September 14:20

      Sounds like the IHG Indigo hotel Lower East Side went out of their way to be sneaky then.
      They haven’t got a leg to stand on if you weren’t advised the charge would be applicable at time of booking. Sadly this is one case where I would reluctantly do a chargeback.

      Could it be worth your mentioning this is your intention to the hotel first, to give them a chance to refund? Merchants don’t seem to like it when they get chargebacks. So perhaps Indigo Hotel Lower East Side would decide to be fair, apologise to you and refund your unjustly taken money without you having to do a chargeback.

      • Talay says:
        26 Sep26 September 14:27

        Or offer the hotel a chance to settle for $xxx or you sue for breach of contract.

      • paulm says:
        26 Sep26 September 14:57

        Agree, I will give them a chance to sort first.

      • @mkcol says:
        26 Sep26 September 16:45

        I’m in a quandary with this: I generally like to be upfront & give places the chance to right their wrongs.
        However – they were sneaky in the first place, a chargeback for any retailer is a PITA & I’ve have the satisfaction of knowing I’d get my money back plus cause them a load of hassle. This route may be the way to get them to change their tactics.

    • Pangolin says:
      26 Sep26 September 14:34

      Any hotel that doesn’t at least offer to give you a printout of the bill, and only gives a verbal ‘estimate’ of it with a promise to send you an actual bill sometime later, is raising a huge red flag. Even though I often decline a printout from properties I know and trust, if I had one of the FD staff tell me something like that I would definitely insist on seeing a hardcopy of the bill there and then.

      With their approach to guests, likely they will not pay any attention unless or until you leave a highly negative view on TA – they will definitely pay attention to that so it might be the best way of obtaining redress (mention that you may be willing to edit the review if your grievances are properly addressed).

      • paulm says:
        26 Sep26 September 14:58

        Thinking back it should have raised a red flag but I have got used to staying at hiltons also where they just email the bill and never had an issue. Guess I should not be as trustworthy!

      • Genghis says:
        26 Sep26 September 15:03

        I left a fair review of a NY hotel on TA with lots of negative comments. I was then contacted by the GM and he offered to refund the 12 x $25/night destination fee. Then after I’d received the refund he asked if I’d amend my TA review. Sorry… no thanks.

        • ChrisC says:
          26 Sep26 September 18:02

          Whilst I wouldn’t have changed my review I would have edited it to say that you had a resolution to your issues

        • Genghis says:
          27 Sep27 September 06:21

          I disagree as there was little resolution to my issues at the time of my stay.

      • Russ says:
        26 Sep26 September 15:44

        Similar experience for us at Marriott CDG last weekend. Asked me to sign a receipt and said she couldn’t give me the bill until after I’d signed. Face like thunder when I said no itemized bill no signature.

    • Nicky says:
      26 Sep26 September 17:46

      I was in Boston last week at a Marriott. My room and food bill came to $264 but upon check out I requested a hard copy of the bill – they wanted to charge me $539 dollars. When questioned about this additional payment, apparently I had given a $200 plus tip – WTF – I don’t like anyone that much to give that kind of tip – in fact I resent tipping to start with. Once that got taken off the bill I went to me car, got in, started up the engine and my phone dinged from AMEX, the hotel had in the previous minute charged me $233 for ???, stormed back in, they denied all knowledge of it despite me having the evidence on my phone. Long story cut short – it was all sorted out and I only paid the required $264. I always ask for a hard copy to avoid having to sort out problems when I return to Blighty. Shame on you Marriott

  • Mark says:
    26 Sep26 September 13:20

    has amex cross refer gone again?

    • Scallder says:
      26 Sep26 September 13:27

      Still available for me

      • Bonglim says:
        26 Sep26 September 14:12

        Did mine a couple of days ago.
        Best option is a different browser?
        I got caught out by clicking choose another card at the top – rather than choose another card at the bottom of the page. Initially thought there was a problem, but seemed to work fine referring from platinum to SPG card.

        • Mark says:
          26 Sep26 September 14:18

          can’t seem to get it, one;y offering me plat, gold or green, can’t see a link at the bottom for other cards only the top. I’ve crossed referred lots of times so usually know what I’m looking for.

        • Mark says:
          26 Sep26 September 14:21

          different browser did the trick!

  • Scallder says:
    26 Sep26 September 13:25

    OT – IHG free nights from the credit cards – I’ve already used it for a booking but might now need to cancel. Well within the validity period still, so does this come back to me with the original expiry date? Thanks

  • Anna says:
    26 Sep26 September 14:13

    OT – apparently Tesco Wine by the Case is closing on October 8th. Another source of Clubcard points and avios gone. Might as well console myself with some clearance bargains ????.

    • Anna says:
      26 Sep26 September 14:31

      Though there aren’t even many offers!

      • Lady London says:
        26 Sep26 September 14:36

        Is Tesco ever going to actually admit the are deliberately killing off Clubcard?

        Or are all the good vendors choosing themselves to drop out of Tesco’s Clubcard programme? I’ve worked for two major businesses that had Tesco as a key customer, many years apart. In both cases our salesman used to return from meetings with Tesco saying “it’s a good day as we left the meeting with Tesco this time with out ****s intact”. Tesco is apparently known for screwing suppliers. Is Tesco making the suppliers give 3x the value for Clubcard bookings but then only paying the suppliers 2x? would match stories I’ve heard about Tesco…. Marks & Spencer eventually came to grief by pushing UK suppliers too much too.

        • the_real_a says:
          26 Sep26 September 17:53

          Speaking to a couple of directors last year, i was told that the 2x and 3x are all funded by the merchant. Tesco passes on around 1p per point depending on the deal. The math’s only work if people redeem partial rewards (which is how Tesco sell it) so it works as a discount on the total price or you have low marginal costs (e.g. pizza express)

          • Rob says:
            26 Sep26 September 17:56

            Sounds very likely or more high value merchants would have stayed in.

            Poor old Motorpoint never knew what hit them when people started turning up demanding a totally free car (not difficult in the days when Tesco was throwing points around like confetti) – they expected you to pitch up with £50-worth and get £150 off your £5000 vehicle.

      • Rob says:
        26 Sep26 September 14:47

        We had a bizarre meeting with Tesco when they cut us off from their partnership scheme about 18 months ago. You see, Tesco didn’t actually want anyone to take advantage of its special offers, because they lost loads of money on them. People like us who actually promoted these special offers were a massive problem because we sent them customers and they didn’t want customers. They just wanted the special offers to look impressive on their home page but not actually be purchased.

        As we’ve seen since, this was clearly systematic of far bigger problems at Direct and Wine. I need to ask Avios how much their income from Tesco has dropped over the last 18 months …

        • Lumma says:
          26 Sep26 September 16:35

          I struggle to get 150 points a quarter from Tesco these days

        • The Original Nick says:
          26 Sep26 September 18:48

          Since Aldi have excepted Amex I’ve not bothered with Tesco. Tesco stopped giving me extra clubcard points vouchers too just before I started shopping at Aldi so they lost me as a customer.

        • Andrew says:
          26 Sep26 September 19:52

          Similarly to others, my points at Tesco have dropped dramatically. Practically the only points to hit the account are from the monthly mortgage payment (lowest rate at the time, Clubcard points give a free day out each year).

          Otherwise I’d not bother…

        • BJ says:
          26 Sep26 September 22:38

          @Rob. Not sure if it has been mentioned before or if you are aware of it, the 1000 bonus on the purchases mastercard has been pulled since your September credit card review. Just checked other versions, no bonuses that I can see.

          • Rob says:
            27 Sep27 September 09:33

            Yes, it was pulled on 18th September. Those reviews will be updated before 1st October comes around.

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