Exclusive Head for Points / Avios / Kaligo hotel bonus promo starts tomorrow

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• N says:

  30 Jun30 June 08:08

  OT – Hong Kong experts – I have a budget of 100k Bonvoy points for a 6 night solo stay. Ovolo Southside and Courtyard Sha Tin seem to be my options. Or 5 nights at one of these, then one night elsewhere. No cash budget unfortunately!

  Does anyone have experience with either of these?

  • John says:

    30 Jun30 June 08:59

    Never stayed in a Marriott before, but I live near to the Ovolo when in HK. Both hotels are probably OK, but far away from the CBD.

    Sha Tin will add nearly 2 hours of commuting time per day unless you want to spend your trip up there, although more comfortable if you figure out the long-distance buses to take. Ovolo Southside is in an industrial area but not too far from a South Island line station (like the DLR) which has a quick journey into Admiralty, but a bit of walking involved in and to the station.

  • Moktar says:

    30 Jun30 June 09:58

    I stayed in Ovolo southside this April. I also considered sha tin, and picked Southside due to the better distance than sha tin. Southside is easily accessible by the train (station is less than 5 minutes walk away from the hotel) and buses (opposite the hotel). I used the buses more as it was more convenient and similar time to train (it goes through a tunnel and takes around 15 minutes to reach wan chai)
    Southside does free breakfast and happy hour for everyone. The also have a free laundry room. The manager was very good and took up his offer for room upgrade for a larger corner room on the top floor. The view was quite special (lots of greenery)

  • Adrian says:

    30 Jun30 June 13:18

    Stayed at Courtyard Sha Tin last month. It is a little out of the way but for the points I don’t think you can beat it (cash rates are also good). As a titanium they gave us lounge access and a suite. The lounge furniture is poor and the lounge generally is nothing special, but it’s a nice quiet space outside of meal times. Breakfast in the café was a zoo, there were people eating standing up as there was no where to sit, so go early or eat in the lounge if you can. There is a regular shuttle bus seating 28 or so on a first come basis, this goes to the centre of sha tin, Kowloon and TST and takes about 35 minutes. We got a normal bus back from Nathan road and it took 25 minutes (really easy if you have an octopus card).

• Anna says:

  30 Jun30 June 08:12

  Whenever I’ve looked at Kaligo they want full payment up front – I don’t feel comfortable with this on flexible bookings as I’m never 100% sure that I’ll get a refund should I need to cancel. Hilton, Marriott and hotels.com generally don’t require payment on flexible bookings until much nearer the travel date (though I’ve noticed that hotels.com is starting to request payment up front for more properties these days).

  • John says:

    30 Jun30 June 09:01

    I thought with hotels.com you usually have the option to pay in advance if you want, there have been more times where I wanted to pay up front for flexible bookings but it was pay at hotel only.

    Not sure how Hilton can charge you for flexible bookings at all, given that payments are handled by the hotels individually except for advance USA bookings.

    • Graham Walsh says:

      30 Jun30 June 09:53

      I usually find that hotels.com allow you to reserve the room and pay at checkout. When I did a recent booking, I had to pay up front for the hotel in Vegas. Maybe it was because I was not logged in (not allowed to for the Avios promo).

    • fivebobbill says:

      30 Jun30 June 11:03

      +1, you know where I am on that one John…:-)

  • SG says:

    30 Jun30 June 11:45

    Hi Ana
    I have been surprised when Kaligo asked for upfront payment for a refundable booking and was a little nervous when I had to cancel it,knowing they are Singapore based and not having dealt with them previously
    Refund was prompt,quicker than others I can say!

  • Alan says:

    1 Jul1 July 10:53

    Booking.com rarely require any payment up front for their bookings (unless you choose a non-refundable rate). Most of the time it requires payment to the hotel when you arrive. Ths can be a double edged sword if the exchange rate moves against you between booking and staying but, if staying in the US or EU I generally just exchange the required amount into the overseas currency on my Revolut card at time of booking.

• Tariq says:

  30 Jun30 June 08:13

  From the Shell app:

  You will not be able to see your Shell Drivers’ Club points in the Shell app any longer. However, please be reassured that all your Shell Drivers’ Club points are safe in your account.

  You can still access your Shell Drivers’ Club account online at http://www.shelldriversclub.co.uk and see your point balance.

  This loyalty programme is being replaced by our new rewards programme, Shell Go+. The last day to collect Shell Drivers’ club points is 30th June 2019. All points will then be converted in to your chosen reward and sent out in August 2019.

  If you would like to join our new reward programme Shell Go+, go back to the home screen and select Shell Go+.

• Moktar says:

  30 Jun30 June 10:03

  OT: looking for a day room in Cologne. Apart from Hilton, can’t seem to get any other chain to quote me a price directly. Has anyone had success using hotels.com/booking.com/airbnb to reserve such room?

  • Richard says:

    30 Jun30 June 14:40

    I used a company called byhours in Doha a couple of months ago to book an independent hotel for a few hours. They offer blocks of 3,6, 12 hours. It worked as expected. Another company is dayuse.

• Memesweeper says:

  30 Jun30 June 11:24

  OT: I have 2 * IHG free nights to spend (both thanks to HfP) — any recommendations on a good IC or Kimpton within reasonable travel time of London for a couple? The IC in Lyon looks fabulous…. but I was thinking maybe the seaside: Malta, Cannes or Bordeaux. Any thoughts?

  • The Original David says:

    30 Jun30 June 11:34

    IC Marseille is nice, convenient BA flight times for a weekend (AM out and evening back), and a few beaches down the coast a bit if that’s your thing.

    • Memesweeper says:

      30 Jun30 June 13:22

      Thanks!

  • John says:

    30 Jun30 June 14:44

    Malta is a bit disappointing, only the lounge is good but you’d have to pay for it.

• riku2 says:

  30 Jun30 June 12:33

  The Finnair edinburgh flights to Helsinki earn twice the tier points you normally get to most European destinations with BA. 80 TP in business class and 40 in full fare economy to Helsinki. This applies to all UK-Finland routes. Bizarrely Helsinki-Dublin is longer than Helsinki-Edinburgh but earns half the tier points.

• AJA says:

  30 Jun30 June 12:35

  I am confused with the Shell Drivers Club points. From.the article above I should redeem.for Avios by tonight but I received an email from Shell on Friday saying “Any points you have earned up until 30th June will be sent to you through your chosen reward in the August statement.”

  That suggests I don’t need to do anything as they will automatically transfer in August but I am beginning to think I have to do it manually myself. Though I also thought you could still earn points on purchases today so how would I transfer them to Avios before midnight as I thought they only showed up online the next day, do they show up immediately? I was planning to buy fuel later this afternoon.

  • Rob says:

    30 Jun30 June 12:54

    The Friday email probably supercedes this article. I didn’t see that email and indeed we’d written this before Friday anyway, based on the evidence at the time (which was ba.com saying ‘you must convert by the end of June’ – a page now deleted.)

    • AJA says:

      30 Jun30 June 13:34

      Thanks Rob. I will just wait and see what happens.

• Optimus Prime says:

  30 Jun30 June 12:37

  OT – has anyone stayed in IC Times Square or IC Barclay in New York since the recent Ambassador T&C’s changes? Do they give you a room upgrade or just 10k points? I guess it’ll be the latter in high season such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s…

  • Rob says:

    30 Jun30 June 12:53

    There are a lot of room categories at these hotels so you are likely to get 1 category, issue is that you may not really notice the difference.

    • Optimus Prime says:

      30 Jun30 June 15:06

      Thanks, Rob. I have just checked IC TS and as you said there is a basic King Room and then a King Room Deluxe which look exactly the same.

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