Redeem your IHG Rewards Club points for a night at a West End theatre

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

• RichS says:

  8 Nov8 November 06:12

  Rob, well done on offering fair pay to interns – I hope more companies follow.

  • Sussex bantam says:

    8 Nov8 November 06:56

    +1

  • Tom C says:

    8 Nov8 November 08:21

    But where is the £50k Christmas bonus, trough of cocaine and unlimited holiday? My granddad didn’t fight for this kind of behaviour. Not in WW2, to be clear, just down the local pub every Friday night because.

    • Jay says:

      8 Nov8 November 10:26

      Hahaha. Brilliant @TomC

  • BJ says:

    8 Nov8 November 10:25

    +1, a good deal 🙂

  • Vistaro says:

    8 Nov8 November 12:31

    +1 on interns

  • Alan says:

    8 Nov8 November 13:20

    Ditto – sounds like an excellent short-term job opportunity.

• David says:

  8 Nov8 November 06:27

  O/T upgrading with avios. I’m looking to book a little trip for 2 to New York in early spring. I’m torn between either…

  Booking premium economy on AA outwards and CW on the return

  Booking WT+ both ways and upgrading both ways with avios

  Booking WT+ outwards and upgrading with avios, and booking CW cash return

  So questions are…

  What is the difference in cost of fees, taxes etc is between WT+ and CW (I’m addtion to extra avios) when I upgrade?

  Whether AA PE is a decent product and whether it beats WT+.

  If I book AA PE whether I can upgrade later.

  Any thoughts welcome!

  • Anna says:

    8 Nov8 November 07:01

    You need to do some dummy bookings to get an idea of prices. As I recall, only BA certain fares can be upgraded with avios so you can end up paying nearly as much for WT+ seats as for CW, so you would be effectively wasting your avios. The tax difference between WT+ and CW is minimal, however.

    You need to book any of these options as a return, though, as one way fares are extortionate.

    • Genghis says:

      8 Nov8 November 07:40

      All W fares are upgradeable

      • David says:

        8 Nov8 November 07:53

        That’s what I thought! Too many different ways of doing it, and I’m relatively cash poor for this trip but hoping not to completely deplete my avios pile either!

      • Genghis says:

        8 Nov8 November 07:59

        Too many factors as to which is “best” as depends on your circs. I suggest doing some dummy bookings and then comparing the numbers. Remember this, however: https://headforpoints.com/2017/09/14/upgrade-using-avios-club-world/

      • Amit says:

        8 Nov8 November 09:06

        Are WT+ booked through Amex travel upgradeable? Getting mixed messages, thanks

      • Anna says:

        8 Nov8 November 09:56

        I thought you got charged pretty much the flexible fare though? I once priced up a WT+ fare to the Caribbean using the “upgrade with avios facility” and was quoted £2200 return to the Caribbean, which was only a couple of hundred quid less than the CW fare! Not worth using 50,000 avios pp to upgrade.

      • Lady London says:

        8 Nov8 November 20:27

        The only Y fares which are upgradeable, are so expensive you’d likely not want to buy them in the first place. Currently ALL WT+ fares can be upgraded subject to availability of J award seat.

  • BJ says:

    8 Nov8 November 10:41

    I think you might be barking up the wrong tree here David because WT+/Pe are rarely sensible options if relatively cash-poor.. If there is no urgency to book it soon I think you would be better to hold off on a Black Friday or New Year flight/holidays sale deal. You might get a good offer to part pay witb avios too or may still have options to UUA.

    • David says:

      8 Nov8 November 16:08

      Hi BJ. I suppose I’m after a halfway house! I don’t want to pay full whack for CW (and WT+ looking reasonable for my dates) and don’t want to do full whack avios. Also, dates are well and truly fixed! I suspect I’ve backed myself into a corner and will have to make do with a decent if not spectacular value deal 🙂

      Thanks all for your thoughts!

      • Lady London says:

        8 Nov8 November 20:32

        If you can find a cash fare for WT+ that you;re happy with, especially if it has some flexibility at a cost you could live with, personally I’d look to nail one of those by about first week of December or so when the current cycle of offers is likely to end. Unless you want to hold out for the next cycle which might produce something amazing around Christmas/early January.

        For NY it’s so competitive most of the year price-wise especially ex-EU, I wouldn;t use avios.

        You might also want to start thinking about hotel if your dates are fixed – NYC can be very very expensive so you’ll want a deal too. This is where it makes sense to check BA Holidays – a different part of the site where you may find including a hotel doesn;t cost you much more than the flight if there are two of you..

  • Tom Cook says:

    8 Nov8 November 12:37

    Not sure if you have a companion voucher to use but we have just booked NYC, CW out, F back, using a voucher and 140k avios, and circa £600 in taxes per person.

    • David says:

      8 Nov8 November 16:09

      I could trigger a voucher now, but hoping to use it for something more worthwhile in 2020 (currently using a voucher for LHR-EZE-SCL-LHR in May/June 2019) 🙂

  • Lady London says:

    8 Nov8 November 20:23

    How avios-rich vs cash-rich are you? do you generally find any avios you spend, are easy for you to replace?

  • Lady London says:

    8 Nov8 November 20:25

    You should be paying cash for that if you’ve got dates you can fix. There are some stunning offers around for NY ATM. the ones I;m seeing require ex-EU positioning, which would be a good use of your avios. For the rest I’;d frankly pay cash with what I’m seeing.

    • David says:

      8 Nov8 November 22:12

      Thanks LadyLondon, you’re right and I’ve considered all of the above. It’s a tricky one as I’m changing jobs and don’t have the luxury of much leave. All a bit of a perfect storm really, but fortunately the current prices on WT+ are decent and have enough avios for upgrade so may well just do that. It’s a spontaneous trip which wasn’t in the avios or cash budget ????

      • Lady London says:

        9 Nov9 November 21:30

        Basically given overall competitiveness of NYC pricing (most completitive longhaul destination in the world for cash, I think) I would probably be willing to use Avios for ex-EU positioning. that is, if I couldn’t find a cheap cash flight to get to EU starting point.

        Yes David I agree. For NYC, I’d not be willing to use avios to pay for ticket in WT nor in WT+. Cash prices are competitive most of the year for NYC. All WT+ fares can be upgraded with avios. So check if J is available for avios at the time you book, pay cash for WT+ then scoot quickly and upgrade immediately with avios. If you can make the cash fare cancelable or changeable without huge charges, do that. Then you can take a better offer if it comes along.

        I hope you have something sorted for your hotel because the odds are that will cost a lot more than flights.

        The other destination where the same factors seem to come into play is SFO – very similar, very competitive market for airlines so same opportunities. In the past year LAS has shown signs of the same.

        If you were going anywhere by paying avios-only then I;m sure you;ve read Rob’s several articles about IB being lots less tax and sometimes less avios than BA for same route. If you stick to BA and AA flights you can cancel or change if you book via IB avios. Otherwise, no cancel no change. So be careful which airlines you pick if you via IB.

• Dan from London says:

  8 Nov8 November 06:30

  O/T Managed to secure some of avios tickets to Kos for next October half term (thanks HFP!). I can’t find hotels from any of the large hotel groups on the island to redeem some points, so looking for recommendations from anyone who has been. My children will be 6 and 3 by then.

  • Nick says:

    8 Nov8 November 06:32

    Check out the new IKOS there. Not on points but an amazing all inclusive hotel chain

• paulm says:

  8 Nov8 November 06:44

  Ot-offer on Amex plat, spend £1300 anywhere in the next month for 500 bonus mr points.

  • Andrew S says:

    8 Nov8 November 06:45

    I got spend £200 get 500 bonus MR

  • Tony says:

    8 Nov8 November 06:59

    Got spend £1600 for extra 2k

    • Roger says:

      8 Nov8 November 07:19

      I have £700 spend and 500 bonus MR points

      • SG says:

        8 Nov8 November 07:26

        Spend £500 for 1000 MR points!
        Where can you see on your account if you can request a Platinum companion credit card?
        Or has Amex stopped it now?

      • Graham Walsh says:

        8 Nov8 November 10:39

        I got the same, £700 for 500 points.

        OT – got 500 points in the Marriott game today

  • C F Frost says:

    8 Nov8 November 07:30

    4000 for spending £1700.

    • lev441 says:

      8 Nov8 November 08:08

      2000 MR for £1500 spend on mine.

      It’s good to see some great offers on the cards again after a long period of rubbish offers

  • J says:

    8 Nov8 November 07:32

    Mine is spend £3,700 get 4,000 points.

    • Andrew S says:

      8 Nov8 November 07:43

      Might be worth noting the terms state spend from 15/11 through to 15/12.

      • Polly says:

        9 Nov9 November 17:49

        Tnx for that, hadn’t quite got that part. Plenty of Tesco and John Lewis gift cards coming up then, plus as many utilities l can push…

    • Anthony says:

      8 Nov8 November 07:47

      Spend £3900 for 4000 points. I think I will pass!

      • Jon says:

        8 Nov8 November 15:15

        @ Andrew (too many nested comments to reply directly) I was going to use this link, but I checked the T&Cs before I paid- season tickets are excluded.

  • reddot says:

    8 Nov8 November 07:36

    Got spend £2100 for extra 2k.

    • Robman says:

      8 Nov8 November 13:38

      I finally got a reasonable offer on my Platinum. Spend £1,400, get 4000MR. Should be able to do this over a month.

      • Polly says:

        9 Nov9 November 17:50

        Good one

    • Go says:

      8 Nov8 November 19:33

      £1600 for 4000

  • Louie says:

    8 Nov8 November 07:49

    Anyone else got zilch on a plat (or indeed anything else)? Not a happy bunny now 🙁

    • Stu N says:

      8 Nov8 November 07:55

      Spend £1500 for 500MRs. Borderline insulting :-(.

    • roberto says:

      8 Nov8 November 09:34

      bugger all here too….

    • meta says:

      8 Nov8 November 09:39

      Yes, I haven’t had a single offer on any of my Amex cards since August. I am calling them today to complain and ask them to add all the offers that have been mentioned here.

      • Polly says:

        8 Nov8 November 09:56

        They won’t add them these days. Tried recently for oh plat to get the 200 credit on amex travel 600 spend which we needed to do. But no joy…

      • meta says:

        8 Nov8 November 10:14

        @ Polly I’ll give it a go though, as I am also not getting any marketing emails even though I am signed up. It is ridiculous that I have had no offers whatsoever, not even the crappy ones. My accounts have 0 offers across all cards (Plat, BA, SPG). My OH has one crappy offer on Gold which is there since August and zero on BA.

      • meta says:

        8 Nov8 November 11:13

        A data point for the few of us who haven’t been receiving any Amex offers. I’ve just been told by a manager at Amex that apparently when GDPR came in place in May, I had to opt in again as I was automatically opted out. She said that I should have received an email to opt-in. I checked and I didn’t receive any such email. She now said that within 24-48 hours offers should start appearing on my account. She wouldn’t add them manually. Fingers crossed.

      • Polly says:

        9 Nov9 November 17:52

        Meta, just did the same as OH hadn’t a single offer on his plat. V annoying. Checked all our cards for that data point. Only his needed updating. But they hadn’t told me 1st time. Just Implied it was luck of the draw.. good luck then.

    • Chuckstar says:

      8 Nov8 November 17:53

      Nowt for me … will be carefully targeted I’m sure.

    • J says:

      8 Nov8 November 21:28

      Same here. I do get lots of offers but unfortunately not this one.

  • Leafwarbler says:

    8 Nov8 November 08:32

    1000 for £600 spend

  • Jay says:

    8 Nov8 November 09:12

    Got spend £700 for 500MRs – might try and use in conjunction with the £200 off £600 spend if it’ll work as bonus MR for booking anyhow.

  • Nick says:

    8 Nov8 November 09:18

    500 MR points for 1.1K spend on Amex Rewards Gold

  • AndyW says:

    8 Nov8 November 09:36

    Spend £100 for 500MRs, i’ll take that. It’s almost like they knew I was about to cancel it..

    • Alex says:

      8 Nov8 November 09:47

      Nothing on my Platinum. £400 for 1,000 on my Gold.

      • Dubs says:

        8 Nov8 November 11:28

        Spend £2200 for 1500 points on plat.

  • BJ says:

    8 Nov8 November 10:47

    Scrooge-like amex, cancelled my platinum yesterday. It was a difficult choice to hold or churn due to 90k referral bonus.

    • Voltron says:

      8 Nov8 November 16:46

      Before I had the plat charge, i thought £450 fee was insane, however, after getting the cards and using the perks (PP, car rental insurance, 90k referrals, 40+ offers) I wouldn’t even think of cancelling it.

      However everyone should see if it works for them, alot of the info on HFP is very based on the individual i.e. I never do BA 241 as only put approx £12-15k a year on amex, and I rather put them on cards for the welcome bonus. Plus I rather spend points on hilton redemption rather than avios

      • meta says:

        9 Nov9 November 00:13

        If you do get 40+ offers. Some of us haven’t had a single offer for several months now and Amex won’t add them manually any more. It will be sad, but if I don’t get some offers soon, I’ll be cancelling Plat and just keep BA card. I’ll be switching to HSBC card as the source of flexible airline points. Amex acceptance is very good these days, but there are still lots of places that don’t. There are certainly other options there.

  • Tracy says:

    8 Nov8 November 11:15

    Spend £1000 for 1000 points

  • Jon says:

    8 Nov8 November 13:11

    £5k spend for 6k points on gold charge card. I’m guessing the offer is based on something like 25% more than your regular monthly spend to try and encourage you upwards a bit? Paying some suppliers after 15th one month then before 15th the next should do the job nicely, so pure 6k bonus for me 🙂

    • Dave says:

      8 Nov8 November 14:15

      I got spend whatever you want and get 1 MR per £

      • Peter K says:

        8 Nov8 November 14:42

        ????

  • TM says:

    8 Nov8 November 15:23

    I got spend £5k get 4k MR…..

  • Sandra says:

    8 Nov8 November 15:34

    I have just had a conversation online regarding the Spend £5 anywhere by 30/11 and get 500 Avios which was offered last month. I spent later the same day after saving (and several times since) and it still hadn’t triggered the bonus by today. I got the the usual ‘it can take 90 days from 30/11 to show’ but then the agent came back to me with this:
    Please allow me a moment to sent an email regarding this as many card member’s account has not issued the Avios
    Daniel at 15:23, Nov 8:
    SO we have raised this issue so they have asked for the merchant locations so they can fix it
    Daniel at 15:23, Nov 8:
    And it will take 3-5 working days

    So anyone still waiting should contact Amex and ignore the usual spiel, they appear to have a problem with some, maybe not all, transactions not linking to it.

    • Liz says:

      8 Nov8 November 20:03

      I also rang today about this and was told to wait 90 days after 30/11. Said it’s a bit unfair to ask you to wait 4.5 mths after the spend for what is a small reward. She wouldn’t budge. I also didn’t get the WH Smith offer even though I was emailed to say I had it. Due to some technical glitch it won’t add so she gave me the £5 credit and asked me to do the £15 spend before the offer date expires!

      • Shoestring says:

        8 Nov8 November 20:27

        I get fed up with that 90 day BS. Basically means go away, I can’t be bothered to deal with this failure in Amex Marketing, not my problem, I hope you forget about ringing back in 3 months. Very poor. And the shame is: they used to be so good, not that long ago.

        Amex CS now worse than the old Tesco trouts?

• Nick G says:

  8 Nov8 November 06:55

  At least this advert doesn’t say we don’t want your ideas????

  Good luck to those that apply….great opportunity and good pay

  • Mike says:

    8 Nov8 November 07:07

    +1

  • Perplexed says:

    8 Nov8 November 09:53

    £100 a day (in central London) is good pay?
    Internship?
    Life certainly has changed.

    • Polly says:

      8 Nov8 November 09:57

      Most pay nothing, maybe lunch and travel, max. My daughter was one of these kids.

    • Jon says:

      8 Nov8 November 10:10

      That’s a good rate for an intern! Gf interns in the fashion industry currently, and is getting diddly squat. It is really depressing.

      • Perplexed says:

        8 Nov8 November 10:50

        Of course it’s depressing. That’s my point. But it appears people just accept it. Or at least I’m not aware of pushback. It’s clearly deemed the new norm. Would any of us have accepted it (in our day) ? I know I wouldn’t have. Just because others take advantage, does that mean Rob or indeed any other employer should? Rob’s answer appears to be yes.

        Let’s be open and honest. It’s simply an exploitive practice.

        • Rob says:

          8 Nov8 November 11:12

          I’m confused. What is exploitive about offering a 5-week job which pays MORE than the going rate for full-time entry-level media jobs?

          Let’s be quite clear. I could have offered no money except expenses, kept the £2500 for myself, and would still have easily filled the role by 10am this morning. But I am a better person than that. Feel free to give us an example of how you personally gave up £2,500 recently which you could have pocketed in order to ‘do the right thing’.

      • Alex Sm says:

        8 Nov8 November 11:19

        A round of applause to Rob. Good karma is important! (To balance up the dents caused by mattress runs and high-brow looks at Ethiopia)

      • Jon says:

        8 Nov8 November 13:22

        I am a great believer that just because you would be able to screw someone into working for minimum wage, or even for nothing doesn’t mean you should – or that it’s the most beneficial way for yourself in the long term (and hopefully ultimately both me and my employees benefit from this). Well done to Rob for thinking the same way. A bit confused by Perplexed’s comments – appears to blame Rob for exploitative intern practices even though he’s paying a fair rate. Or does Perplexed live in a world where anybody on a salary under £50k is on a pittance???

      • Lady London says:

        8 Nov8 November 20:46

        fashion’s probably about the worst.
        media nearly as bad.

    • Leo says:

      8 Nov8 November 10:31

      Do you live in the real world???

      • Perplexed says:

        8 Nov8 November 10:53

        Fortunately for me, I don’t live in your world Leo.

      • Leo says:

        8 Nov8 November 21:18

        As per Jon above I have no idea what “perplexed” is actually saying – there are a lot of people highly educated and motivated who get paid much less than £100 per day in London. Rob’s offer is a good one for someone at the beginning of their career! Not everyone one who reads this blog is a “money person”. And you have no idea about my world….very odd comments.

    • BJ says:

      8 Nov8 November 10:52

      There is probably an enormous amount of people, even in central London, who would love to earn £100/d.

    • Ian says:

      8 Nov8 November 12:28

      You serious? When I first started out in London 12 years ago, I was on £18k a year.

      £500 a week for an intern is fantastic pay. I’d be interested to know what you would consider as ‘good pay’ for a short-term intern placement?!

    • Alan says:

      8 Nov8 November 13:23

      Yep sounds like a bloody generous deal to me and above the London Living Wage.

      • Peter K says:

        8 Nov8 November 14:50

        I remember when I did my pre-reg year for my job I was effectively paid under the legal minimum wage. However, that was the rate set by the regulatory body so it’s what almost everyone got and there was no other way to fully qualify without doubt the pre-reg year so I had to do it.
        That wage was about 20% of what I earned as soon as fully registered. I think this level of pay is good, plus vital experience gained as well.

    • mr dee says:

      8 Nov8 November 16:27

      Should change your name to clueless

    • Lady London says:

      8 Nov8 November 20:43

      Large company interns I’ve seen over past few years £1000-£1500 per month.

      I really hope Rob gets the support he needs. Be especially careful on dealing with party venues. They can be slippery. Get everything put in writing. (Loads of event management, unfortunately can;t do the rest!)

      • Lady London says:

        8 Nov8 November 20:44

        Oh, and I think the new apprenticeship schemes subsidised by the government basically pay an apprentice’s wages up to… not sure but think £1k/month? Others who know more than me may clarify.

• Matt says:

  8 Nov8 November 07:11

  54k current bid for Harry Potter tickets. I’d bid but tickets just say dress circle. You seats could presumably be terrible.

  • joe green says:

    8 Nov8 November 08:44

    Hi Matt please feel free to drop me an email if your looking for excellent stalls tickets for May/June time as I have a few were not using although you won’t be able to pay with points 🙂
    nepweno at gmail com

• Rob says:

  8 Nov8 November 07:40

  She is, but the party needs someone on the ground as well. The sponsorship deal is sort-of-agreed but obviously subject to satisfaction with date and venue.

• Nigel says:

  8 Nov8 November 07:46

  OT: how long does it usually take for the Hilton £50 off £250 Amex offer to show as redeemed after spending the money…?

  • Peter K says:

    8 Nov8 November 08:00

    About a week from the point the charge hit the card.

    • Nick G says:

      8 Nov8 November 09:07

      Mine was two weeks and still nothing so I think they just don’t pick it up unless you ring and complain

      • Sididdly says:

        8 Nov8 November 09:26

        I got email confirmation four days after payment and statement credit a couple of days after that.

  • Yuff says:

    8 Nov8 November 08:51

    I checked out Sunday morning and the cumulative spend Amex mail came on Tuesday.
    My stays still haven’t updated on the website ????

  • Nick G says:

    8 Nov8 November 09:06

    Forget it…I have given up with Amex recently they’re shocking so last week I rang and complained….got my wife and my 500 Avios for the spend and the £50 credit has just gone on. Had to complain, get through to someone who spoke English then complain again then have it manually applied….my advice don’t wait ring Amex

    • Robman says:

      8 Nov8 November 13:20

      Yes I too have noticed a deterioration in recent Amex customer service, and a tightening up of what I considered to be a generous “never say no” attitude. They just seem so inflexible now.

      • RakishDriver says:

        8 Nov8 November 16:23

        Depends on who you speak to; out of hours, speaking to someone in the Philippines – don’t expect much competence and/or authority. You need to speak to someone in Brighton to JFDI.

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