Four Grange Hotels in London to rebrand as Leonardo properties

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• Robman says:

  1 Apr1 April 18:18

  Off-topic, does anyone know how you can check Iberia avoid redemption availability easily – is there such a site as BA Redemption finder that can be used, can you use another airline website to check this, as the Iberia site doesn’t seem to have an easy way of checking availability options. Thanks

• Cuchlainn says:

  1 Apr1 April 18:18

  OT,
  Site we don’t mention offering 25% bonus transfer to BAEC Avios until 30th April 2019.

  • tom1 says:

    1 Apr1 April 22:38

    how does that work – it’s quoting me a cash payout, not Avios?
    does it convert the Cash in to Avios at any point?

    • A270 says:

      2 Apr2 April 05:53

      Thank you both. Is 25% bonus good value?

    • Crafty says:

      2 Apr2 April 08:25

      It’s better than no bonus..
      Depends what you value an Avios at. You can do the sum yourself – it’s literally given to you on the payout page.

    • Cuchlainn says:

      2 Apr2 April 15:37

      Register your BAEC No against your profile and choose ut as your payout option.

    • Cuchlainn says:

      2 Apr2 April 15:46

      Once linked, go to bottom of your payout page and BAEC Transfer should be showing – click it and should transfer at 1.25 Avios : 1p ratio

• Crafty says:

  1 Apr1 April 19:04

  OT: Can anyone confirm whether Revolut top ups from Creation or Barclaycard are treated as purchases or cash advances? New to this.

  • Alex Sm says:

    1 Apr1 April 19:50

    +1 to this question

  • Grant says:

    1 Apr1 April 20:45

    Creation IHG card is a purchase.

    • Crafty says:

      1 Apr1 April 21:06

      Thank you.

      • Jimbob says:

        1 Apr1 April 23:11

        They count as purchases, but I can only top up £250-200 every other day, before it get blocked.

• Boris says:

  1 Apr1 April 19:28

  OT- Virgin Atlantic credit card. If I close account can I sign up at a later date and still get bonus.

  If that isn’t an options for the basic card would it work for the paid card??

  Thanks

  • Shoestring says:

    1 Apr1 April 19:31

    You can hold both cards at the same time. And get 2 bonuses.

    Others have churned same Virgin card successfully, 2 year cycle definitely though some dude said he managed it after 6 months.

    • LB says:

      1 Apr1 April 19:41

      Dude..? Have you gone all 1970’s “street” on us Harry?

      • Shoestring says:

        1 Apr1 April 19:53

        I am a bit late 70s early 80s unfortunately – as that’s when I turned 18-20

    • Rob says:

      1 Apr1 April 20:35

      How can you know there is a 2 year cycle on Virgin when the cards are 11 months old?!

      Admittedly it probably will work but …

      • Shoestring says:

        1 Apr1 April 20:40

        Referring to old Virgin cards, I’m guessing same fallow period should work as well, could be wrong of course

        • Rob says:

          1 Apr1 April 22:04

          This is totally at the decision of Virgin Money compared to what MBNA used to do, Virgin Atlantic has absolutely nothing to do with it and no reason why the two should have similar policies.

      • Charlieface says:

        2 Apr2 April 00:10

        A lot of finance companies silo their records after a few years. Although I heard First Direct refused someone a current account switch bonus rejoining after 18 years!

• Alex Sm says:

  1 Apr1 April 20:44

  As for the Accelerate 2.0, great news about the extension of deadline! I have got the following targets

  Earn 70,000 total bonus points.

  14,400 Discover Our Brands
  Stay at 3 brands and get 14,400 bonus points.

  5,600 Saturday Stays Bonus
  Stay 2 weekend(s), including a Saturday night and another night, and earn 5,600 bonus points.

  8,400 Stay at 3 IHG® Hotels
  Stay at 3 IHG® hotel(s) and earn 8,400 bonus points.

  6,600 Earn More, Faster
  Earn 6,600 bonus points when you book 2 Bonus Points Package stay(s) and get to your next reward faster.

  35,000 Your Achievement Bonus
  Complete 4 of the 4 offers and earn (an additional) 35,000 bonus points.

  So, my partner and I booked three stays in total

  – 1 night with bonus points package at the brand new Staybridge Suites Bath Rd – stayed mid-March weekend, amazing hotel, did a bit of planespotting for BA retro livery planes, you might have seen my mini-report in the comments here
  – 2 nights last weekend at HIX Dartford with bonus points package (the hotel itself was nice, and surprisingly busy but so faraway from everything! Yet we spent good time in Dartford town centre, went to Barking for vintage buses parade and did a sunset walk to the Thames through the marshes and brand new eco-area which is not even on Google satellite view yet!)
  – 2 nights on Easter weekend at HI Elstree (a mini Easter break to have a nice swim/sauna, walk in the Herts countryside, go to RAF museum etc), non-refundable

  Therefore we will hit all four targets + bonus + actual points for stay + welcome amenity + card spend points. With the total cost of bookings at ca 350 pounds, we should have around 0.4p per point which is in line with Rob’s valuation.

  Happy if it is an inspiration for others to take their mini breaks for point (but not mattress!) runs

  • Crafty says:

    1 Apr1 April 21:10

    I personally would not consider buying points for their valuation. Unless you have a short term redemption in mind. They will in time be devalued.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      1 Apr1 April 23:37

      But he’s also stayed at the hotels and enjoyed the breaks by the sounds of it.

      I’d much rather do that while earning a shed load of points than a mattress run.

      • Alex Sm says:

        2 Apr2 April 01:48

        Thanks @TGLoyalty – this is exactly the point which I have been trying to highlight: you can combine points runs with spending nice time even in seemingly unpleasant London suburbs.

    • Alex Sm says:

      2 Apr2 April 01:44

      Last year we redeemed for about 1p value per point (for a stay in Tel Aviv) which is 2.5 times higher than the nominal earning rate (my personal earning rate was even better due to a combination of work travel and these promos with only £500 or so paid in hard cash by me)

• BS says:

  1 Apr1 April 23:22

  OT: just to confirm:

  You can upgrade an Amex green to platinum, and you do get the 20,000 MR bonus

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