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My 55,000 MeliaRewards points Black Friday €165 gift card has arrived

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One of the most interesting Black Friday offers was one launched by MeliaRewards in Spain.

As this TravelWeekly article explains, Melia has decided to sell its points via Amazon.  On Black Friday and Cyber Monday, they launched the deal with a 50% discount – but only if you bought via Amazon Spain.

(You can buy these gift cards via amazon.co.uk – click here to see the listing.  You can see exactly the deal works from the T&Cs.  The current UK price is £293.80 and it looks, given the delivery date, that they come from Spain anyway.  If you want to buy from the Spanish site – which is quicker as they courier it – you can buy here.)

Melia Rewards Amazon points offer

I decided to jump in on Friday and buy a gift card for the maximum 55,000 MeliaRewards points for €165 (£146) plus €7 for express delivery.  Amazon Spain was not messing about, and my gift card arrived by DHL on Tuesday afternoon.

Whilst the card itself is credit card sized, the leaflet it is stuck to is A5:

MeliaRewards Amazon points offer

The instructions were simple enough that even my rudimentary (ie non existent) Spanish could follow them:

You log into the Melia website and head to ‘My Points’

Filter the earning and spending options by ‘Shopping’

Click on Amazon.  As well as explaining how to redeem your points for amazon.co.uk gift cards, there is a box to deposit your gift card.  I typed in the number and the 55,000 points immediately appeared as you can see below.

Melia Rewards Amazon points offer

Having spent more time now exploring the MeliaRewards redemption chart, it is not as random as it first seemed.  It is simply that hotels have totally weird redemption values which makes them appear random.

INNSiDE New York, which we reviewed here, is 23,098 points per night.  Where this number comes from I have no idea.  There is real value here – I found dates in May 2019 where cash rates are over £350 per night, whilst I would be paying under £70 if I redeemed my gift card points here.

In London, the Melia White House is 24,286 points per night.  I am tempted to cash out my points here, because I always get my brother two rooms in London in July when his family comes to visit and when prices are high.  The alternative would be to spend 100,000 to 160,000 Hilton Honors points or 90,000 Marriott Rewards points or 100,000 – 140,000 IHG Rewards Club points, and I value all of those options at far more than the £152 including postage that I paid for my Melia points.

In theory you cannot transfer these points out to Avios.  That said, I can’t prove it.  I tried to do a test transaction and it appeared to process, but insisted on sending a verification code by email.  When I input the code, I got an error message.  I tried again, same result.  It seems we don’t know.  That said, whilst this is a decent deal if you want Avios (18,000 Avios for £152, so 0.83p per point) there is far better value using the points for hotel rooms or meals in Melia’s London hotels.

If this offer comes back with a 50% discount, I will let you know.

If you want to check the current price, click here for the Spanish site and here for the UK site.

How to get MeliaRewards Gold status from American Express

How to get MeliaRewards Gold status from American Express (April 2024)

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE MeliaRewards Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Marriott Bonvoy Gold, Hilton Honors Gold and Radisson Rewards Premium status.

We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

You can discover the benefits of MeliaRewards Gold status on the Melia website here. It includes three vouchers per year worth 20% off any booking.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Small business owners may want to consider American Express Business Platinum instead:

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

(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.)

Category

MeliaRewards

Comments (28)

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

  • netxu says:
    29 Nov29 November 06:09

    Rob, could you do another test transaction and try to convert some of the points to an Amazon gift code?

  • Dan from London says:
    29 Nov29 November 06:11

    Rob, another great find I ordered 2 and they shipped on Tuesday, thank you.

    Where did you find the Melia redemption chart? I’m struggling to find dates that are not revenue based for the hotel I’m after.

    • Rob says:
      29 Nov29 November 08:24

      You don’t. I simply plugged in dates many months ahead and looked at the points number, then tried it again on different dates. If the points total remains the same, even though the cash rate changes, that is the ‘base’ price.

  • Stu N says:
    29 Nov29 November 08:00

    Online Melia to Avios is really buggy at best of times in my experience, customer services will sort it quickly if you send in a contact form with all the details.

  • Hugo says:
    29 Nov29 November 08:18

    Got 3 nights in New York for 220 euros – better than 150k ihg points!

    • marcw says:
      29 Nov29 November 18:23

      Yes! It is a gem. you pay though 20 usd per room resort fee (or whatever they call it). But that hotel is a bargain, ponits wise. And it is nice.

    • Cormac says:
      29 Nov29 November 18:47

      +1 Bagged New York for three nights – same cost and saving 105k Marriott points. Resort fee now $27.

      • marcw says:
        29 Nov29 November 20:46

        it is the best hotel points wise (I mean, you can also get Hiltons if booked at short notice and nothing is happening in NYC that night). But for planning ahead, it is a bargain.

  • Simon says:
    29 Nov29 November 09:17

    I wonder if you might cover Barcelo one day?
    Signed up because I stayed at one of their hotels. Heavily based in Spain but have hotels world-wide.

    You only need 2 stays to get to ‘Intense’, and 4 stays to get to the top tier ‘Unique’ which gives more vague benefits such as ‘VIP room features’.

    You could get to the top tier for as little as 160 EUR I reckon as some of the hotels are pretty cheap, and the value of benefits at a top end hotel might be pretty significant if they recognise it.

    • Rob says:
      29 Nov29 November 11:35

      They lost virtually all of their London hotels in one go a few years ago so little incentive, but might do it on a quiet day.

  • pixielott46 says:
    29 Nov29 November 10:00

    how can you possibily compare the mediocre melia white house to hilton park lane or hilton bankside?

    • Rob says:
      29 Nov29 November 11:33

      I did give a range of 100-160k Hilton, you don’t get much in London in the 50k bracket.

  • meta says:
    29 Nov29 November 10:49

    My work colleague tested transfer to Avios on the app. Can’t be done. It throws the following error: “the card that gives points, must have some not bonus movement.” Whatever this means. I might give a call to Melia later and ask them directly.

    • Rich says:
      29 Nov29 November 14:31

      That seems pretty clear to me, despite the poor translation.

    • New Card says:
      29 Nov29 November 14:45

      Given that wording it seems to be the questions are – (a) if you do the lowest value redemption possible via Melia (whatever that might be, possibly only a handful of points, I’m not too familiar with the programme), does that open up the possibility of transferring the rest to Avios?; and (b) if you have an account with any prior earning/redeeming activity, does that mean you are able to transfer these new points to Avios?

      • Rob says:
        29 Nov29 November 14:53

        The rules on transfers are VERY clear – you CANNOT do airline transfers from points which were not earned via hotel stays. I wasn’t expecting Avios transfers to work but I was hoping to try it to see. Whilst the website is playing up, the app comment above implies that Melia’s IT is working as it should.

  • Jak says:
    29 Nov29 November 11:19

    What a good deal! Has anyone found a site still offering the black Friday pricing? Maybe some obscure Amazon microsite? 🙂 Jak

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

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