See Wimbledon and Hurlingham tennis by spending your Marriott Bonvoy points

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• Paul says:

  30 Apr30 April 08:20

  Re Lloyd’s upgrade voucher. Anyone know how many vouchers can you earn in a card year? Thanks

  • Gin and Tonic Please says:

    30 Apr30 April 08:28

    One. There have been some system blips over the years that have lead to some people getting two, but in theory it shouldn’t happen. Also now depends on the specific details of your card closure – the letter they sent you gives the final date for earning a voucher.

• Barry says:

  30 Apr30 April 08:24

  O/T does anyone know if we are due a Hilton North America sale anytime soon? Wondering if I should hold out before booking Orlando for this August or just bite the bullet. Thanks!

  • Anna says:

    30 Apr30 April 11:32

    Unless the difference is large, could you do a semi-flex booking – then you could cancel if a sale comes up?

• Nick says:

  30 Apr30 April 09:28

  I saw a few comments a while back about pre-loading REVOLUT and exchanging into a different currency to lock in the rate.

  But how does this work in practice?

  If I exchange say £100 into ZAR1800 (by creating a ZAR account within Revolut), what do I do differently when using the card abroad? ie. how do I select utilising my ZAR account when making a card purchase?

  • John says:

    30 Apr30 April 09:48

    You can’t, or in other words, it happens automatically. If the merchant charges you in ZAR then money will be taken preferentially from your ZAR account. However some merchants will try to scam you by charging in GBP which you have to be aware of and refuse.

  • the_real_a says:

    30 Apr30 April 16:55

    Yes you can. You need to open an electronic wallet in the app in ZAR (free) then make an exchange between GBP and ZAR inside the app first which is processed at the spot rate. Then when you come to spend on your card it will use up any credit in ZAR electronic wallet in the app first before converting anything. This way you can lock in the exchange rate at Spot rather than let the card convert at the master-card rate “as and when” from your GBP balance.

• Alex W says:

  30 Apr30 April 09:55

  Thanks Rob! Another fantastic redemption to keep Mrs W and mother in law sweet. These Hurlingham packages are going for £499 + VAT EACH on the website. I make that 2.66 pence per Marriott point!

  • ken says:

    30 Apr30 April 12:00

    Not sure if you would ever pay £620 of your own money per head for Hurlingham, but that’s a great offer & would make a lovely day.

    Pretty sure last year the auction price for the Wimbledon tickets ended up round the 225k mark.
    You get a pair of the iconic Stan Smith shoes as well.

    Splendidly, his autobiography is titled
    “Some people think I am a shoe”

    • Rob says:

      30 Apr30 April 13:10

      I know Stan. The Marriott tickets are actually partially from me, as Stan buys my Centre Court debentures.

      A few years ago I bought one of these packages via SPG and sold my own tickets (I always keep a couple of days for personal use) leading to great value per point!

• Shoestring says:

  30 Apr30 April 10:16

  Aha. Nectar points renewed expiry for 12 months – 4 pints of milk for me, bloomer sliced poppy seeds loaf for her, 1 point each.

  Did you know you lose your Nectar points after 12 months of no activity?

  Not that it will be bothering many people here in future as nobody will be getting an Amex Nectar card I guess.

  • Charlieface says:

    30 Apr30 April 10:29

    Come to think of it, if the 30k or even 40k turns up again it will be the best Amex sign up around.

    • Shoestring says:

      30 Apr30 April 10:38

      But virtually nobody will be able to get the bonus?

      • BJ says:

        30 Apr30 April 13:38

        Presumably get the 10k or 20k posted directly by nectar even if you do not qualify for the amex bonus.

      • Shoestring says:

        30 Apr30 April 14:03

        Nectar could easily be p[referable to SPG – that is effectively the choice. Nectar points, Marriott Bonvoy points, Avios: they all have both a monetary value and a preferred status that will be personal to you. The convertible nature of Bonvoys (to Avios, amonst others) doesn’t matter that much to me, as I have plenty of Avios.

        Nectar can only be used (essentially) for buying stuff at Ebay or Sainsburys, @0.5p/ point. So 20,000 Nectar points on Amex (introductory bonus) = £100. But there are times when that would be worth £200 – when Sainsburys lets you spend up to £200 worth of Nectar in store @1p/ point. A real £200. (There’s another added value promotion on Nectar—>Ebay but limited.)

        Whereas the best we can say about the introductory bonus on SPG (30,000 Bonvoys) is that provided you can get to 60,000 somehow, your initial 30K is worth 12500 Avios (or £125). Even if you luck onto the +30% BA promotion, you’d only get your £125 up to £162.50.

        Nectar wins, as Charlieface said but didn’t quite understand 🙂

        • Rob says:

          30 Apr30 April 14:39

          Depends where you redeem though – you can smash the 0.5p valuation at peak times, although you are into the debate of whether you would actually pay $1,100 for the St Regis New York or slum it somewhere else instead.

      • BJ says:

        30 Apr30 April 14:31

        I’ve had £824 of nectar points in the past 3y, redeemed £700 of it all at double value. £50 on eBay, £100 on a htech cleaner and the rest on Virgin/LNER. £1400 For virtually effortless collection is a great return. I doubt I’d have managed that on clubcard without effort. Hoping my remaining £124 plus new earnings can double up on LNER for next year.

      • Shoestring says:

        30 Apr30 April 14:35

        Best sources of collecting for you?

      • TGLoyalty says:

        30 Apr30 April 14:51

        @ Harry

        Have to be honest Marriot are worth so much more as Hotel points than converted to Avios.

        Booked lots of hotels I would usually pay big money for a fraction of value of the points.

      • BJ says:

        30 Apr30 April 15:21

        @Harry: 2x amex nectar cards when they had the extra nectar bonus on top, 1x Sainsbury nectar credit card, 2x Sainsbury life insurance, loads of train journeys from EDB to HYM, loads of spend £10 and get a mystery bonus, loads of MOC for bonus/triple points, petrol coupons and the rest just regular Sainsbury spend. It helps that I am convinced Sainsburys around here are cheaper than Tesco, both for fuel and groceries. However, had a lot of good MOC through the post from Tesco recently so I’ve been there of late.

      • BJ says:

        30 Apr30 April 15:28

        @TGLoyalty, it depends what you use the avios for. I use mine for Xmas New Year flight. I’d be very hard pressed to find those flights for anything I’m willing to pay but I could always find an acceptable hotel for cash even at that time.

      • EwanG says:

        30 Apr30 April 17:08

        @BJ “loads of spend £10 and get a mystery bonus” – indeed, and the best thing is if you go to the self scan tills in a bigger store, you often find the previous customers have not picked up their tokens….!

      • BJ says:

        30 Apr30 April 17:52

        LOL, never thought of that … thanks for tip, I’ll remember to both look and collect next time in case you’re in line behind me 🙂

  • Genghis says:

    30 Apr30 April 10:58

    As a reminder you can link your ebay account to earn points.

    • Alex says:

      30 Apr30 April 12:06

      Or SWR online account.

  • Graham Walsh says:

    30 Apr30 April 16:40

    Couldn’t you set an alert in Award Wallet for expiry?

• @mkcol says:

  30 Apr30 April 10:50

  Random OT/data point: 1 week group A (VW Up!) car hire in LPA with Avis pay on reservation
  As an AVIS Preferred customer through the app £68.85 – additional driver price £TBC!
  As a BA Gold customer £61.96 inc free additional driver (they do offer it through Budget for £37.26 but no “free” additional driver)
  As a Norwegian Rewards customer £128.10 inc free additional driver

  Quite astonished at the discrepancy in prices.

  • @mkcol says:

    30 Apr30 April 10:57

    Irritatingly I never get my Avios as my surname is different on driving licence & BA profile (passport).

• Simon says:

  30 Apr30 April 11:00

  How long does a transfer from amex MR to bonvoy take? Is it instant? Thanks in advance.

  • Anna says:

    30 Apr30 April 11:18

    It was a couple of days when I did it, quite fast but not instant.

• RTS says:

  30 Apr30 April 11:12

  OT – Plat Care Hire cover. Just wondering what am i covered for here and the process etc. as I have never used it in the past.

  I am due to be in Sardinia next week and we have hired a car using my BAPP card. I do have a Platinum card, so I am just wondering a couple of things:

  1) Does the plat car hire insurance cover excess charges should an accident happen?
  2) Does it cover additional drivers (named or unnamed)
  3) Must one pay for it on my Plat card or is using my BAPP fine?
  4) Should there be an accident, do I pay the excess charge on my plat card first then claim it back?

  Cheers in advance.

  • Rob says:

    30 Apr30 April 11:18

    1. Yes
    2. Obviously if the driver is not named on the rental agreement you are committing an offence and all insurance is void
    3. Any card, Amex not needed
    4. You pay and Amex reimburses, charge can be on any card

    • Tom H says:

      30 Apr30 April 11:45

      +1
      Did this last week after SIXT accused me of scuffing an alloy.

      Process couldn’t have been easier. Phoned Amex to ask about contesting it. They said as amount was so small (271euro) that they would just settle it. I had originally paid using Lloyd’s Amex as GNB to GVA rental.

      Then paid the 271 euro on Amex nectar as have a target spend to hit and Amex paid the 271 plus the card transaction fee of approx £7 without having to submit any paper work.

      Very impressed

      • RTS says:

        30 Apr30 April 12:00

        Sweet. thanks both.

      • the_real_a says:

        30 Apr30 April 16:20

        Tom H – did you phone AMEX or AXA?

        RTS – its good practice to make sure you photo right around the car, any spare Tyre/accessories and the mileage and fuel level. If your phone can stamp the date and time all the better. Peace of mind and allows you to head off any “mistakes” when you check-in your car or if anything should happen in the future. This has saved me on many occasion.

  • Anna says:

    30 Apr30 April 11:19

    You’re probably best off reading the document rather than relying on what someone might post here, which isn’t guaranteed to be correct in the event that you need to use the cover!

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