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Redeem your points for O2 concerts, Ashes cricket hospitality and Disney on Ice

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Both Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors have added a variety of new experiences for the coming months that you can now book or bid for with your hotel points.

If you never want to see the inside of a hotel room ever again and can’t think of a worse thing to do with your hotel loyalty points than book another stay, we have some good offers for you.

More Marriott Moments concerts at the O2 launched

As you may know, Marriott has a box (they like to call it a ‘luxury suite’) at the O2 in Greenwich. These packages come with food – a decent hot buffet – and non-stop drinks throughout the evening, including alcohol.  Each package is for two people.

Here is a review of a seeing Muse from the suite – who are back on the bill this Autumn – last time they played at the O2.

The following concerts have just been added:

Muse, from 30,000 points

Khalid, at 45,000 points

Alice Cooper, at 45,000 points

Brad Paisley, at 45,000 points

The Chemical Brothers, at 45,000 points

Elvis in Concert – Live on Screen, at 45,000 points

Alter Bridge, at 45,000 points

Cher, from 30,000 points

Jim Jefferies, at 45,000 points

John Legend, from 30,000 points

Björk, at 45,000 points

Michael Bublé, from 30,000 points

Rod Stewart, from 30,000 points

Disney on Ice, at 30,000 points

Marvel Universe Live, at 10,000 points (not in the suite)

Oddly, these are a mix of ‘redeem now’ and auctions. Marriott Bonvoy clearly values most of these packages at 45,000 points – the ‘buy it now’ price – so you can probably expect to pay at least as much if you are bidding for the bigger names.

It will be interesting to see how much the auction packages go for – hopefully not too much, or Marriott will get ‘ideas’ about how to price their ‘buy it now’ packages.  There is no sign of the Elton John ‘farewell tour’ concerts yet.

You can purchase and see the full list of events on the Marriott Moments website here.  Click on the search item and filter by ‘London’.

See Ashes cricket with Hilton

In addition to the exclusive Abbey Road Beatles experience we wrote about two weeks ago, Hilton Honors has added two further interesting auctions.

If you are a cricket fan you may be interested in tickets to the Ashes – England vs Australia – match at Manchester Emirates Old Trafford on the 6th September.  The experience is for two people and is for the Hilton hospitality suite inside the Hilton Garden Inn overlooking the pitch (see photo above).

The day includes lunch and afternoon tea, complimentary beer, wine and soft drinks as well as a program and score card. The bidding starts at 100,000 Hilton Honors points and there are four packages available. You can bid here.

If you get bored watching cricket, then a Waldorf Astoria and Aston Martin driving experience may be more your cup of tea.

Waldorf Astoria Aston Martin Hilton package

This package is for a stay for two in a luxury suite at the Waldorf Astoria Edinburgh, a 60 minute Aston Martin driving experience with a ‘performance driving instructor as well as a seven course tasting menu at The Pompadour and a full Scottish breakfast the following morning.

It takes place on Friday 20th September – which could be inconvenient for some people – and the hotel stay is on the Friday night, leaving on Saturday.

Bidding for this package starts at 85,000 points, although it will no doubt increase substantially given the value of the package.  A standard room redemption at the Waldorf Astoria is 80,000 points a night. This package gives you a suite and tasting menu and breakfast and the driving experience.

Rob stayed at the Waldorf Astoria Edinburgh earlier this year and recommends it, although – as a conversion of a Victorian railway hotel – you shouldn’t expect the bells and whistles of some of the new Waldorf Astoria resorts out there.  You can bid for the Aston Martin package here.

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.)

Category

Hilton Honors, Marriott Bonvoy

Comments (73)

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

  • Robert says:
    21 Aug21 August 12:27

    Does anyone know the cost of the ‘drive&dine’ package at WA Edinburgh?
    The suite price for either of the two nights the package is available starts at around the £500 mark. 85,000 points therefore sounds like good value for one of the slots, but I would rather pay.
    Thanks for any help (the hotel concierge never got back to me).

    • BJ says:
      21 Aug21 August 12:58

      Why would you prefer to pay? 85k is a great rate for a £500 suite, even at today’s horrendous exchange rates you would be saving about £150 were you to replace those points in the next 100% bonus or 50% discount buy points sale. Personally, I would lock it in and reconsider if an amex offer came along and rates got better in the next sale. Earlier this year Rob and his family got upgraded to the Doyle suite but I don’t recall what he booked. So, status recognition might ge good should you have it. Upgrade from status could see you get a bargain in an out of season £150 room. Never heard any rave reviews about their food, there are clearly better places to eat in Edinburgh.

      • Robert says:
        21 Aug21 August 13:39

        Thanks for the useful info. I only have Silver status and around 20,000 points short, hence wanting to pay. Agree it looks a lot more attractive to redeem. I would just like to know what the cost for the drive&dine package is, as I know how much the room costs and I know how much a daily hire of an AM costs.
        I think this will be good value.

      • Colin MacKinnon says:
        22 Aug22 August 00:35

        Been going to The Pompadour restaurant since I was a kid and it was a British Transport Hotel. Galvin at The Pompadour is not cheap but much prefer it to 21212, for example. Food just not quite so fussy. Tables well spaced apart – they move more in st busy times and take some out when it is quiet, nice views and professional staff.

  • Bob_M says:
    21 Aug21 August 12:28

    O/T- Is the BA offer of 1000 Avios for £100 spend still available? I can’t see it listed among my Amex offers.

    • BJ says:
      21 Aug21 August 12:43

      That is probably now a November offer (as per next comment)!

    • Rob says:
      21 Aug21 August 13:16

      Very possible it hit the limit of registrations. If you did register it will now be under your saved offers.

    • stevenhp1987 says:
      21 Aug21 August 16:35

      Has anyone had the points yet?

      I made a purchase ~ £150, so posted as 2x ~ £75 10 days ago and no sign of the offer moving into redeemed or the points…

      • Matt B says:
        21 Aug21 August 18:11

        Yes booked a redemption on my BAPP and points are in my Amex account a waiting transfer to BA

      • Anne says:
        21 Aug21 August 19:56

        Yes, no email notification received that offer had been used but avios showed up a couple of days after the transaction (mine was £119 IiRC) and have now swept over to BA as ‘Amex Retail Bonus Avios’

      • Harry T says:
        21 Aug21 August 21:26

        It didn’t work for me the first time but did work for my OH (she used her free BA and I used my BAPP). I tried again and it worked – the second time I clicked through the “Redeem Now” link on the offer on my amex page. Unsure whether that made a difference or the IT just glitched the first time.

  • DaveL says:
    21 Aug21 August 12:31

    OT – did anyone else receive their ‘May’ offers from Amex today?!?!

  • Jake says:
    21 Aug21 August 13:32

    OT:

    I want to buy some shares in one particular company. Only about £59 worth.

    Don’t have plans to invest in anything else, just want to see how that goes. Obviously, I don’t want to do it with a service where the fees will wipe out my investment.

    Is there a good service anyone could recommend that would be low fee?

    Thanks

    • Genghis says:
      21 Aug21 August 13:37

      Avoid single stocks and “buy the world” through trackers.

      • BLT says:
        21 Aug21 August 14:16

        Agreed. Simple and low cost = Vanguard life strategy funds.
        Check out The monevator blog

      • the_real_a says:
        21 Aug21 August 14:24

        I agree to a point about funds… but with such a small outlay its more about fun and experience. When starting out having a few individual stocks peaks interest and you can learn over the months/years how to read company fundamentals and how externalities effect the stock price.

    • the_real_a says:
      21 Aug21 August 14:20

      I would consider spread bets in that case. There are no fees and spread is virtually nothing. Someone like IGIndex has been around for 20 years… You can then place a very small amount – say 0.01 a point. Put in a stop loss that will close your trade to avoid losing money. Of course you need to know your personality, and its not suitable for those that have a propensity to gamble.

      • Roy says:
        21 Aug21 August 19:44

        Not sure I would ever recommend spread betting to a beginner! In the event of extreme market movements, you can end up owing large amounts of money, even with a stop loss (unless it’s a guaranteed stop loss). And for long term holding, rather than short term trading, you’ll probably just end up getting accidentally stopped out, anyway.

        • the_real_a says:
          22 Aug22 August 12:36

          Well – you only lose a huge amount if you bet a huge amount. If you are placing 1p trades then your potential losses are minuscule. Also, regulation states you can not lose more than whats on balance in your account these days. There is also a plethora of free market information/news. I respectfully disagree and think its a great a place to learn about stocks and share IF and only IF you dont have a gambling personality and an element of personal responsibility.

    • Matt says:
      21 Aug21 August 15:20

      For such a small sum maybe Halifax sharebuilder at £2 a trade. Designed to do monthly purchases.

      Agree though that this isn’t a good strategy, funds are better longer term and spread betting for small single investments sound good ( though haven’t used myself). The problem with small Investments is the fees, and if a small stock the bid offer spread is large too. These make it hard to make money unless you find a ten bagger.

    • BJ says:
      21 Aug21 August 16:19

      I think you are all missing the point here, seems to me that Jake wants particular shares for a particular reason and given the precision and size of the number he quotes I doubt financial gain or more specifically an increase in the value if the shares is his primary motivating factor.

      • Lady London says:
        21 Aug21 August 19:30

        I agréé with you BJ that was clear. Perhaps thé OP is taking a minimum number of a particularité to fulfill a requirement to vote, to get a discount on the company’s products, etc.

        But I must say the answers are jolly useful and interesting, aren’t they ?

        • BJ says:
          21 Aug21 August 19:56

          Always, only on this quasi frequentflyer penny-pinching community wound we find a mad rush of readers falling over each other to help a reader squeeze the maximum value from a £59 investment 🙂 I think the Travel Journalism awards will have to come up with a creative whole new category on account of HFP.

    • JPLondon says:
      21 Aug21 August 16:40

      Freetrade. Easy app on phone. And yes it’s free for transactions done daily at specific time or £1 for immediate.

    • David says:
      21 Aug21 August 17:49

      That is a very small amount.

      Firstly, if this is with the intention of obtaining perks, e.g. a shareholder discount at the company, etc, then do note that for private investors share holdings are normally held electronically these days in the name of a nominee company (usually with ties to your broker) so it is their name that appears on the company register. Given the admin costs associated, and reduction in the number of companies offering perks, very few nominees support helping people obtain shareholder perks these days. Hargreaves Lansdown is the one that springs to mind.

      More generally, the problem is that trading cost, will make this economically non-viable.

      Assuming this is a mainstream liquid share, to reduce trading costs, either use a brokers regular investor functionality (e.g. HL gets down to £1 – but you just deal at market price).

      Or find the cheapest broker you can.
      Degiro springs to mind. I’ve put my refer-a-friend link in the link on this comment (click my name), I’ve used them and they have been fine. But I use them for small playing around bets on mostly foreign shares where their cheapness offsets any other concerns.
      I keep my actual investment portfolio’s elsewhere.

  • C F Frost says:
    21 Aug21 August 18:29

    OT and EU261. Had a reassuring EU261 result with Eu1200 back. HFP community was wrong with its predictions of a failed full claim, however. Wife and child were put on a substitute flight with a scheduled arrived time that put them in the Eu600 zone. But in fact arrived early and no longer in the Eu600 zone. Regardless, it appears is the scheduled arrival time that counts rather than actual. Small data point, but may come in handy.

    • Roy says:
      21 Aug21 August 20:04

      There’s case law that says the time that matters is the time the door of the aircraft is opened. I think you were lucky.

      • C F Frost says:
        21 Aug21 August 21:06

        No, not lucky. That logic applies to a delay on a flight flown, and not to the offer of the alternative flight. In other words, my wife’s flight was always going to be a 261 Eu600 flight, regardless of the fact that due to a fair wind it arrived earlier than it was scheduled.

  • The Savage Squirrel says:
    21 Aug21 August 19:26

    OT: I see Capital On Tap are changing from a debit to a corporate credit card by October, thereby negating their most useful feature (HMRC payments) :(. Means I’ll say goodbye after year one as corporate credit cards are 10 a penny and no need to pay £250/yr for a 1% cash/points earn rate.

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:
      21 Aug21 August 21:24

      Interesting development.

    • Ken says:
      21 Aug21 August 21:57

      Where did you see Capital on Tap changing?

      • The Savage Squirrel says:
        21 Aug21 August 22:21

        Received an Email with the changes today. Of course in the Email it’s “changing for the better” and “a big upgrade”. Hmmmmm…

  • Roy says:
    21 Aug21 August 19:49

    OT IHG Rewards: I have a room booked with points at a HIX. It’s possible I may now want two rooms. I presume there’s no problem adding a second booking after the fact (since IHG tells you to place multiple bookings if you’re booking with points and need multiple rooms)?

    So, my main question is: if I create a second booking, will the two bookings remain separate, or do they get merged? So that if it turns out I only need one room after all, I can just cancel one booking and leave the other active?

    Does it make any difference whether I use the ‘duplicate’ feature on the existing booking or just enter a completely new booking?

    Thanks,

    roy

    • BJ says:
      21 Aug21 August 20:04

      Never done multiple booking on points myself but I see no reason to overthink it. Just make a second separate booking on points, adding the name of one person who will stay in it to the reservation. Keeping them separate presumably keeps any future changes or cancellations simpler if they become necessary.

      • Roy says:
        21 Aug21 August 20:11

        Right, that’s exactly what I was thinking. *Presumably* the bookings will remain separate, and not get automatically combined…?

        • BJ says:
          21 Aug21 August 20:31

          I don’t know, I suspect it would be down to individual hotels. It is clear to me from bookings I’ve made in the past that some access bookings, change room types etc. However, that has happened to me more as Diamond at Hilton. I think not so likely at a HIX where most rooms are similar. Even if they do combine, I don’t see much problem uncoupling and modifying them if you have to. When booking for relstives at IHG, as a matter of courtesy I usually call or email the hotel in advance just to let them know what is going on and if I have any special requests. Nothing lost in doing so, I think they appreciate the heads up.

        • Lady London says:
          21 Aug21 August 22:57

          Never heard of a case where a hotel combined bookings without being requested to.
          Some chains only let you earn on one room per night, though. I think one of them (Hilton?) allows 2.

          The annoying people that combine bookings when not asked to are IME Amazon. I had good reasons to raise separate orders and they went and combined them. As a result delivery got messed up and audit trail for recharging cost got a lot messier. Plus they messed up and so the whole thing got refunded and done again. Second time around I made the first item had shipped before I created the second order.

          But hotels – never heard of them doing that. Although BJ is right any notes you can make on the booking or any call you make to them giving nay info you think might be helpful or might lead to less confusion, will probably help. I annotate my hotel bookings all the time to try to avoid any confusion on the part of the hotel but have never had a case where if I booked 2 rooms on the same night the bookings combined.

        • Roy says:
          22 Aug22 August 00:18

          Thanks, both.

  • Stoneman says:
    22 Aug22 August 01:02

    OT:

    Flew on Qatar from Stockholm to Hong Kong with the Doha to Hong Kong leg being delayed by 7 hours. Any chance i can claim some sort of compensation?

    • Anna says:
      22 Aug22 August 01:20

      If it was all on one booking very possibly as it originated in the EU. There are online tools you can use to check eligibility, but the reason for the delay will be crucial.

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