Diners Club acceptance to hugely increase in the UK with a new Barclaycard deal

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

• hingeless says:

  5 Mar5 March 05:40

  “bar and restaurant spend will earn points even if you are not a guest in the hotel” – this is very welcome,i’m not sure why any chain wouldn’t do this!

  • Rob says:

    5 Mar5 March 07:33

    We will stop holding parties at the Holiday Inn Camden the day they let you earn points on bar spend, tripling the transaction time 🙂

    • TGLoyalty says:

      5 Mar5 March 07:44

      Easy set up a tab and settle at the end of the night

      • Andrew Bowness says:

        5 Mar5 March 09:14

        Something tells me that this would make “the end of the night” last a very long time for bar staff.

    • Andrew says:

      5 Mar5 March 09:32

      Perhaps more straightforward if F&B spend on the chain’s own Credit Card resulted in bonus points?

      Indeed, for many of us who are forced to book through company travel agents and consequently forfeit points, it would be a “nice touch” if F&B or other service spend whilst staying at the hotel on the relevant chain’s credit card resulted in some form of recognition.

    • Ross says:

      5 Mar5 March 11:17

      Receipts should have a QR code which adds points automatically when scanned into the Accor app. If Accor want to send me some points for this suggestion, that would be nice…

      • hingeless says:

        7 Mar7 March 02:23

        Can you imagine all the HfP folk hanging around Accor bars looking for old receipts!

• Rob says:

  5 Mar5 March 05:58

  OT- there is an offer for 700 Avios when making a first online purchase with Tesco. Anyone have any thoughts on how long ago the last order would need to have been made to qualify? I can’t even remember if I’ve made one before.

  • Steve S says:

    5 Mar5 March 09:50

    Who is the offer with?

  • Mike says:

    5 Mar5 March 18:52

    Probably based on Tesco account. New account = new customer.

• Alex W says:

  5 Mar5 March 06:03

  Montreal route not cancelled then, it’s postponed. Shame as I was hoping to visit this year.

  • Doug M says:

    5 Mar5 March 07:19

    Great place. Fly someone else?

    • Alex W says:

      5 Mar5 March 07:58

      Yes could do but was hoping to redeem on Aer Lingus from Dublin as much lower fees. BA fees are £650 for business class, what an absolute joke.

      • guesswho2000 says:

        5 Mar5 March 08:08

        Fly to BOS and connect, I flew BOS-LGA-YUL on DL last December, and I’m sure there’s direct options if you don’t want to connect.

      • Alex W says:

        5 Mar5 March 08:26

        The thought of flying BRS-DUB-BOS-LGA-YUL would give the wife a heart attack! I could justify 1 stop if it saves us a grand, 4 stops I suspect not!

      • guesswho2000 says:

        5 Mar5 March 10:50

        Haha fair point…my full route was MEL-NRT-BOS-LGA-YUL//YYZ-YYC-YVR-LAX-HKG-SIN-MEL, which was an elaborate way of visiting Japan and Canada in one extended trip, with a couple of nights in HK on the way home to break things up…the other half has got used to my ridiculous routings and just runs with it now, as long as she doesn’t have to sit in Y and gets lounge access.

• Anna says:

  5 Mar5 March 06:23

  OT – Marriott category “changes” seem to have been implemented overnight.

  • Anna says:

    5 Mar5 March 06:27

    Though at the moment the old points rates is still showing until you select your hotel from the list and click through, then it jumps up to the new pricing.

    • Russ says:

      5 Mar5 March 11:25

      Has the peak/off peak pricing kicked in yet? Checked a couple of award stays I’ve previously booked and they’re still asking the same amount of points right through to next year.

      • Anna says:

        5 Mar5 March 13:08

        I’ve checked a few dates where I would expect to see peak pricing but it’s showing as standard so it’s either not been introduced yet or the dates are very odd! I need to make a reward booking towards the end of April so it would be good if they held off a few weeks longer.

      • Russ says:

        5 Mar5 March 13:28

        Easter may still be within your grasp Anna 🙂

      • Tom1 says:

        5 Mar5 March 22:34

        Pretty sure the peak/off-peak was postponed again til later in the year. Sure rob mentioned it in his article about 5th March changes.

        • Rob says:

          5 Mar5 March 23:01

          Yes it is.

• Mike says:

  5 Mar5 March 07:19

  Has Billhop stopped accepting American Express ? I only ask as it now requires all credit card details to be re-entered but just sows an error code when American Express is entered. This is business payment…….I am aware the ship has sailed for payments to personal bank accounts (darn it)

  • Anna says:

    5 Mar5 March 07:21

    I made a successful payment this week – I would email or chat with them re this. Can’t see them not accepting Amex any more as it must constitute a big part of their business.

  • Rob says:

    5 Mar5 March 07:27

    Not heard anything.

  • illuminatus says:

    5 Mar5 March 09:37

    It’s a security feature after an upgrade. I regularly use them for Amex payments, nothing has changed

  • Mike says:

    5 Mar5 March 13:01

    All sorted now – apparently a temporary glitch only affecting Amex. Phew as I use Billhop a lot – although clearly not as much as previously when they accepted payments into personal bank accounts……

• NFH says:

  5 Mar5 March 08:13

  I use my Miles & More cards only at merchants that don’t accept American Express. I currently carry my Miles & More Diners Club card only to see which non-Amex merchants accept it. Only one of my frequent non-Amex merchants accepts it – a restaurant in London’s Chinatown. This is what I expect, given that Diners Club is generally accepted by fewer merchants than American Express.

  When I try to pay with Amex, many merchants say “It’s the only card we don’t take”. It’s nice to present a Diners Club card to them in response, which proves them wrong. The truth is usually “Visa and MasterCard are the only cards we take”.

  • David says:

    5 Mar5 March 09:34

    I have a Union Pay card too – this could be a fun game!

    • AlexT says:

      5 Mar5 March 12:31

      Afraid Union Pay = Diners Club = JCB for all intents and purposes

      • NFH says:

        5 Mar5 March 15:22

        Also = DIscover. The non-Amex Chinese restaurant that I referred to above even shows “Diners/Discover” on receipts. But they’re all good cards to offer when one is told “Amex is the only card we don’t take”.

  • Mikeact says:

    5 Mar5 March 16:45

    The Finextra link re the Barclaycard tie up with Discover Global seems to imply that all cards on their (Discover) platform will be accepted everywhere/globally ;

    “Barclaycard, which processes nearly half of the UK’s credit and debit card transactions, today announces that it will start accepting cards that run on the Discover Global Network across its UK merchant network.

    Barclaycard and Discover Global Network have reached an agreement whereby Barclaycard’s merchants are now able to accept Discover, Diners Club International and affiliate network cards both in-store and online.”

    I think not….I have a US Discover card which should be interesting if I present it in John Lewis tomorrow, or whenever the live date kicks in.

• meta says:

  5 Mar5 March 08:17

  O/T My Marriott Bonvoy has overnight gone from Gold Elite to Silver Elite for no apparent reason. I have Amex Platinum and the accounts were linked. At the same time Platinum benefits page shows different member number to Marriott Bonvoy page. Anyone had similar experience? If so, how did you resolve this?

  • Rob says:

    5 Mar5 March 08:34

    Reapply for upgrading via Amex Plat and it should get moved back up.

    • meta says:

      5 Mar5 March 09:45

      Thanks. Called Amex Plat line, they said they can’t reenrol, but will look into. They It might take a while… though I pressed them on this as I have a stay in 2 weeks time, so asked them to do it urgently. Hope they sort it out by then.

      • Ben says:

        5 Mar5 March 09:58

        Just checked and I also just have been downgraded to Silver – I will re apply through my Amex Plat and fingers crossed.

  • Pangolin says:

    5 Mar5 March 11:42

    Have you combined your SPG and MR accounts? This is not the same as linked accounts – it means you have all your points from the previous 2 programmes in one consolidated account.

    I mention it because some FlyerTalk posters have reported the same issue as yours (status via Amex) in cases where accounts had not yet been combined.

    I’m currently Titanium Elite whereas I’d expect to be Platinum from my stays in 2018. Weirdly, some FT members are saying that they didn’t get demoted until after combining their accounts (the opposite scenario to what I mentioned above).

    • meta says:

      5 Mar5 March 12:18

      I have combined my accounts beginning of Feb before the new programme has launched and it was all fine until this morning. It might be some weird IT issue at Marriott’s side, but I’ll let the Amex do their thing first before contacting Marriott CS.

      • Mike says:

        5 Mar5 March 19:24

        Same issue. Just been downgraded to Silver, but for some reason only on one of my linked accounts?

        Is there an easy way to transfer points from one account to the other? I’m looking at making a redemption soon and the account with the points is the one that got downgraded…

• BrightonReader says:

  5 Mar5 March 08:24

  Accor needs to concentrate on the basics.

  My check-in at one brand at the weekend was hopeless. They gave another guest a key to my room and then a housekeeper knocked asking me to call the front desk to tell them who I was! Previous visits they’ve had an envelope with room key etc prepared but not this time., Room also very dated and needs modernising. – no plugs next to the bed and shabby carpets are not good.

  At another brand in the same city they gave my friend a room that hadn’t been cleaned then another, promised him free breakfast then charged him for the breakfast.

  Mistakes happen but even so …

  • BrightonReader says:

    5 Mar5 March 08:25

    BTW I had a split stay and on Friday I was at an IHG property and everything was ready and the manager even apologised for not been able to upgrade me and I’m only a gold!

  • TGLoyalty says:

    5 Mar5 March 08:55

    Name and shame. Not a good warning for others if we don’t know where it was

  • Mr Dee says:

    5 Mar5 March 11:06

    Sounds like the staff are poorly trained which seems to happen at many UK hotels…

  • Lady London says:

    5 Mar5 March 18:58

    Which precise hotel and city please? We need to know, so as to avoid

  • Nick Burch says:

    6 Mar6 March 19:16

    There’s an Accor hotel I stay in every few months (Mercure Letchworth Hall) that hasn’t managed to give me a correct bill in about 2 years! And based on the complaints at checkin, it is getting worse…

    I now allow an extra 10 minutes for checkout, bring a print out of the booking and another detailing any extras (adding breakfast or dinner to the booking, made through the accor website, seems “problematic”), calculate the bill myself, and wait until they randomly generate a bill total that’s lower than I believe I owe before paying!

    Last time they blamed me for booking on their own website…

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