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The new Hilton Garden Inn hotel in Heathrow Terminal 2 and T3 is open

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The new Hilton Garden Inn, which is the first hotel directly connected to Terminals 2 and 3 at Heathrow Airport, opened last night.

It was touch and go, apparently.  Bookings for the previous four days had been cancelled at short notice, and guests who checked in yesterday afternoon were told that they would need to leave again if a certain permit was not received by the evening (it was).

Hilton Garden Inn Heathrow Terminal 2 and 3

I’ve never been too sure what a Hilton Garden Inn is meant to be, as opposed to a standard Hilton or DoubleTree.  They price below a Hilton and I can see weekend nights at this hotel as low as £80 during August, which is decent value for a hotel which links to the terminals.

The owner is Arora Group, which also owns the Sofitel at Terminal 5 and the new Crowne Plaza / Holiday Inn Express attached to Terminal 4 which I rate highly (my Crowne Plaza Terminal 4 review is here, my Holiday Inn Express Terminal 4 review is here).

The Hilton Garden Inn website is here if you want to find out more.


How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards

How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards (April 2024)

There are various ways of earning Hilton Honors points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Marriott Bonvoy Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Did you know that the Virgin Atlantic credit cards are a great way of earning Hilton Honors points? Two Virgin Points can be converted into three Hilton Honors points. The Virgin Atlantic cards are the only Visa or Mastercard products in the UK which can indirectly earn Hilton Honors points. You can apply here.

You can also earn Hilton Honors points indirectly with:

and for small business owners:

The conversion rate from American Express to Hilton points is 1:2.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Hilton Honors points

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Comments (176)

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  • Murray says:

    OT – I’ve just linked my Hilton Honors account to my Platinum card to enrol for gold status. It says it will take up to 15 days to process. Does anyone know how long it took for them? I’m wondering if there’s any chance it will be finalised in a week for a hotel stay.

    • Leigh says:

      Mine took 2 weeks; but my daughter linked hers recently and it only took 5 days.

  • r* says:

    A friend has been delayed at airport for the last 4 hours due to an electrical problem on a long haul flight back to uk, they currently have no estimate on when they will be able to fly, presumably this will qualify for 261 compensation when they get home but at what point does the airline have to provide a hotel?

    • Lady London says:

      only on a european airline as eu261 applies to all airlines leaving europe (regardless of whether the airline is a european airline or ont) but eu261 only applies to European airlines, if flying from somewhere else into Europe.

      Airline should provide duty of care meaning appropriate food and non-alcoholic drink (or expenses for that, reasonable level) if approprirate meal times occur and pass during the delay. same for hotel. if you have to stay a night airline must provide accommodation and transport to and from hotel, relevant meals as above etc. this is regardless of fhe cause provided the journey and airline fall under eu261 (see above). Logistically airline may struggle to provide personnel who can arrange hotel for all – if that is happening get your own and send bill to the airline for your expenes – but make sure you give the opportunity a reasonable opportunity to provide it by a means of their choice first. so if you’rve been handing around for 4 hours and it’s approaching midnihgt, get your own and forget queuing or trying to contact the airline. that’s all assuming your journey and the operating carrier is covered by eu261 of course.

  • Bob says:

    3 weeks ago I was on QR172 ARN-DOH on my way to HKG (booked during the previous sale in April) and it was chanced to A350 with Qsuites about 5 weeks prior to departure. DOH-HKG-DOH were B777-300 Qsuites as expected.
    On a different note, wouldn’t it be nice if QR would have similar fares from more EU cities (being Amsterdammer I recall all the nice fares ex-AMS about 3 years ago 🙂

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

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