Important dates for your diary – offers about to close which you shouldn’t miss (May ’19)

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• BJ says:

  6 May6 May 06:56

  TODAY: Last day for Marriott Europe flash sale 30% off.

  • Matt says:

    6 May6 May 08:44

    Hey BJ,

    Have you ever actually got the 30% off?
    Every time I use the Marriott codes like M96, I get the exact same rate as the prepaid rate – sometimes more expensive than the prepaid rate.

    The fake Marriott special codes drive me a bit nuts? Spoken to their customer service agents and they agree they are useless..

    Cheers Matt

    • BJ says:

      6 May6 May 09:23

      Nope, rarely stay at Marriott, don’t like them much based on prior stays and experience. Would not be surprised about the sales, Hilton sales are generally a dud too IME. IHG seem to be better but often they are just overpriced to begin with for what you get in many cases.

      • Lady London says:

        6 May6 May 10:54

        +1 BJ although i have yet to give Marriott a try in Europe/uk really…

        What I like about Hilton is that even though some of their properties have disadvantages, at every Hilton I’ve stayed in of any level i feel it’s being run by professional hoteliers. There is a system there. In the odd IHG HIX for example i’ve felt staff were just randomly doing a job rather than being professional hoteliers.
        Even felt that at the odd IC. It’s hard to put into words. Even if i dont like something about a particular Hilton the Hilton standards are still perceptibly there.

        Accor has standards but somehow feels less like traditional hotels than Hilton. Obviously I’m not staying at enough Sofitels and would love to know other readers opinion as to : Have Fairmont properties kept their same feel since being taken over by Accor? I’ve stayed in very few Fairmonts but really really liked each one and felt each one was a proper hotel experience. Bit wary since Accor grabbed them though.

        • Mark2 says:

          6 May6 May 11:33

          I am staying in four Fairmont (formerly CP) hotels in Canada over the next to weeks and will report back. The question for my wife is ‘will they still have a company dog?’

        • BJ says:

          6 May6 May 20:43

          I returned to Hilton about 4-5 years ago after I realised obtaining and retaining Diamond wasn’t too challenging. This time my experience has been great because I’ve done my homework and avoid the old school horror hotels. I focus a lot on Doubletree and newish openings. Only bad DT experience was Newcastle Airport where one of the ladies in reception was a horror story all by herself. DT Chester was let down a little by damp smell in the rooms and HGI Glasgow by their standards of housekeeping. Apart from that I’ve been very satisfied with Hilton. Accor I has never been near top of my list, outside Asia even midrange Novotels had a budget feel to my thinking. I’m sure Sofitel is different, only ever stayed in one, the St James and it is super. Not sure, but I’m guessing with the diverse range of hotels they now have, they must be allowing them to keep their own identity. It would be a big mistake not too. In general though I have found all the chain to be superior in Asia when compared to both Europe and the Americas. For example, there are many HI hotels in Asia that are better than CP and even IC hotels here.

        • DaveL says:

          6 May6 May 22:55

          Mark2 – visited three fairmonts in Canada last October (stayed in two). Stanley the Labrador was resident at Jasper Park Lodge and available for walks etc. I didn’t bump into a ‘canine ambassador’ at the others…

    • TGLoyalty says:

      6 May6 May 09:24

      The pre paid rate is the one with up to 30% off the Best available rate

  • Lady London says:

    6 May6 May 10:37

    Yes it was discounting in Italy. Only problem was i’m not there on the dates for the promo..

    With quite a few promos out there in Europe covering peak summer period this year, i’m wondering if hotel bookings for the period this year are soft.

• BJ says:

  6 May6 May 07:12

  Tuesday 7 May: First day for new HFP writer I believe ….so let’s be nice and on our best behaviour with comments 🙂

• Neil Donoghue says:

  6 May6 May 07:49

  OT: Sorry no bits article today. If I cancel my BAPP card before my points transfer over, do I lose them or do I have 30 days like with MR points?

  • Scott says:

    6 May6 May 08:02

    You’ll lose them

  • Doug M says:

    6 May6 May 08:44

    First time I cancelled I lost them. Last time around they transferred over a couple of weeks later. Not sure if that was just the timing of the cancellations.

    • Qwerty Bertie says:

      6 May6 May 08:54

      I believe that the way this works is a two stage process.

      1. Spend accumulates avios on account during the statement month; this is lost at the point of cancellation if not yet transferred.
      2. Once per month avios is transferred from the account to BAEC; once the transfer is begun, the avios will still credit BAEC even if the card is cancelled before they arrive there.

      I reiterate, this is just my belief/I have not seen this written anywhere.

      • Genghis says:

        6 May6 May 18:39

        When I’ve cancelled a BAPP early in the statement month and have a de minimis amount of avios earned, they have appeared in my BAEC acct on next the normal posting date.

        I’d wait however.

        YMMV.

  • Liz says:

    6 May6 May 08:48

    When you cancel the link between the accounts is broken. I would wait – it can be more bother than it’s worth to get the points.

    • Qwerty Bertie says:

      6 May6 May 08:57

      In spite of how I just posted I believe it works, I would nonetheless follow Liz’s advice if a worthwhile number has just been transferred/wait until they arrive to be sure! The card fee is about 50p per day…worth a few of them if you have more value in points being transferred.

      • Neil Donoghue says:

        6 May6 May 11:14

        Thanks everyone! Looks like my £12k transaction just missed the cut off date by 1 day so I’m going to sit it out and wait for the next statement.

        • Mark2 says:

          6 May6 May 11:36

          Definitely worth waiting. I cancelled expecting to lose 200 and they did appear but no guarantee.

• SG says:

  6 May6 May 08:32

  No bits today:Anyone managed to use successfully the AMEX25OFF these passed few days?

  • Shoestring says:

    6 May6 May 08:39

    4th May (reportedly) – they got error message but at checkout £25 discount was applied

  • Hmmmm... says:

    6 May6 May 14:03

    I spoke to the CS as kept getting error message and no joy at check-out either. They said that there was a limit to how many times it could be used and that limit had been met. I wonder if it had anything to do with multiple accounts being used by the same person… 🤔

    • Peter K says:

      6 May6 May 18:04

      That’s standard CS rubbish. It’s an easy fob off.

• Andrew says:

  6 May6 May 08:33

  OT – no bits (sorry!) – BA Holidays have some good deals on car hire at the moment… £86 for a week’s hire of a VW Golf in August in Lanzarote isn’t bad at all…

  • Anna says:

    6 May6 May 13:22

    Is it Golf “or similar” though?!

    • Andrew says:

      6 May6 May 13:54

      It is, yes, unfortunately. Still, prices seem good for the time of year…

• Qwerty Bertie says:

  6 May6 May 09:35

  Hang on, that’s 0.1% of Nigel the Pensioner’s Centurion annual renewal fee right there!

  Glibness aside, although this particular one is not for me I admire Shoestring’s many cunning ploys, which all add up faster than you might think, and I applaud him for sharing them. He gets out there and sniffs out points like a coked-up boar on a truffle hunt.

• BJ says:

  6 May6 May 10:21

  If only your students at IC knew…come on Alex, it’s simple 🙂

  • BJ says:

    6 May6 May 10:24

    Oops, sorry Alex, mixed up who posted what!

• Peter says:

  6 May6 May 11:31

  It looks as if the Malaysia sale is now extended to 13th May as the sale link above is showing “book before 13th May”.

  • Rob says:

    6 May6 May 14:01

    Thanks

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