Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

New ‘Emyr’ benefits at Conrad, Waldorf Astoria and LXR hotels

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We ran an article on Thursday about the Mayfair launch of The Biltmore, Hilton’s new luxury London hotel and the first in Europe to operate under the new LXR brand.

Our hotel booking partner, Emyr Thomas, dropped me a note to say that LXR is now included as part of Hilton’s Impresario scheme offered to luxury travel agents.  These benefits also apply to all Conrad and Waldorf Astoria hotels.

When booking via Emyr, you receive:

complimentary breakfast for two people

$100 hotel credit per stay

one category upgrade, subject to availability (does not double-up if you already get an upgrade due to Hilton Honors status)

double Hilton Honors base points

You need to pay Best Available Rate to get these benefits.  If a non-refundable Advanced Purchase rate would also work for you, you should run the maths to see whether Best Available Rate is actually cheaper when you factor in the extra goodies.  For a short stay, it may well be given the $100 hotel credit.

You can contact Emyr for a quote for any luxury hotel stay you are planning via the online form on this page of HfP.  Remember that he can get very similar deals for Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton etc etc.


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 (70)

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

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      Oooh, harsh

    • MD says:

      I did an actual LOL.

    • MikeL says:

      In poor taste, potentially 150k TC customers stranded abroad and 9k British jobs at risk.

      • ChrisBCN says:

        Except they won’t be stranded abroad

        • Shoestring says:

          Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter – Nietzche

    • Yorkieflyer says:

      Agreed, in slightly poor taste to laugh at those daft enough to still book a package holiday to Spain with a broken down company to which even the most cursory glance at its finances would tell you was going to hell in a handcart. I don’t think we’ve booked a package holiday since the 1980s and the only people we know who do are those folk in fear of Johnny foreigners who perhaps are looking forward to Brexit?

      • Spurs Debs says:

        Wow how sanctimonious are you! That’s me being polite.

        • Tariq says:

          Right on the money more like. If only TC had as much foresight!

        • Yorkieflyer says:

          Daft b***ers but I still feel sorry for them , customers that is, not Thomas Cook who are blaming everyone but themselves. Jet2.com and Tui can still make that business model work

      • Funtime says:

        It’s not all package holidays though.

        They fly direct to Vegas, New York. Orlando and maybe others, can’t be bothered to check, direct from Manchester.

        Currently by the pool in Vegas and not slightly concerned that I may be “stranded” in New York the week after next week.

        Some much for stereotypes lol

    • Lady London says:

      Ouch. Even a French newsreader commented today are that 98% if the Labour movement in the UK is against Brexit, that Jeremy Corbin has said we need a second vote, and yet he himself has sat on the fence for three and a half years without saying what he thinks.

      But would you? The moment he opens his mouth and states a view, either way he’s ****ed %?? at least 40% of the electorate.

  • Mike P says:

    Worth also checking CPH. I managed to get HKG over Xmas for £1300

    • Polly says:

      Agree, we rotate between cph and arn, hel. Plus had the 200 off last booking so brings it down a bit more.

      • Optimus Prime says:

        Do you guys always choose the cheapest ex-EU departure or do you factor in something else?

        We’re going to NZ next year and even though ex-ARN was a little bit cheaper we decided to do ex-OSL. This one has a connection time of just 1h 30 min in DOH both ways versus 7h 55 min if ex-ARN.

        • Lumma says:

          8 hours in the lounge in Doha isn’t the worst place to spend some time.

          Ideally I’d prefer something in between the two layovers, especially if the final flight was as long as New Zealand. Have a shower, some food and relax

          • John says:

            Personally it’s either 3 hours or 15 hours in Doha for me. 8 hours would be awful.

        • Terri says:

          I have experience of both a 90 minute connection and a 7 hour connection at Doha.

          The first was enough time for a comfort break and a cuppa. If you are wanting to get to your destination as quickly as you can this is the the better option in my view. The 7 hour overnight connection is a long time, even in a nice lounge . The lounge can be very busy at night. The quiet area is not that quiet and has limited capacity. I found 7 hours dragged. It is not enough time to leave the airport for a hotel.

          I have just returned from an ex oslo trip and scheduled flights specifically to avoid 7 hours in Doha. Enjoy your trip.

          • Lady London says:

            Done both also, +1 @Terri

          • Polly says:

            Same here. We aim for up to 2 hrs transit, if not, then try for a day with an 8hr plus connection which gives the hotel. But making sure there is no shorter connection available that day. But if there is a difference of around £200pp in price we will put up with a 5 or 6 hr rest on the bendy beds in the quiet area. Staff v nice there, bring rugs etc. Plenty of time for rest, shower, nice food and naps.
            We are also waiting for a nz oz trip in the next year or so.

  • Josh says:

    OT but bits

    If you have multiple heathrow rewards accounts, how do you transfer these all out to the same avios account?

    Seems you can only link one account to BA

    • Bagoly says:

      You can move from one HREW account to another.
      At least one could do so last year.

  • Jude says:

    OT re use of Avios on internal flights in Australia on Qantaslink. I found that these are now bookable online on ba.com which is great. WE are planning a trip next year and will go Sydney to Cairns to Adelaide. Is there any change that we could book a flight Sydney to Adelaide via Cairns and save some miles/cost? I know it has been talked about for some other routes. AS there are 4 of us it could save quite a few Avios for us

    • Lyn says:

      I’m not sure if I’ve understood your question correctly, so apologies in advance if I haven’t.

      As far as I know BA charges a separate amount of avios for each sector flown, so Sydney – Cairns would cost X avios and Cairns – Adelaide would cost an additional Y avios. That is assuming both flights are non-stop.

      Alaska Airlines is the only frequent flyer programme I am aware of that still allows a free stop-over on a 1-way award, in terms of miles anyway, although obviously not taxes. So 1-way Adelaide – Sydney – Cairns with a stop-over in Sydney should cost the same number of miles (12,500 in economy) as just Adelaide – Cairns. Is the sort of thing you were asking about? Only useful if you collect Alaska miles of course, or are willing to buy them or convert Marriott points or something else to them.

      • Lady London says:

        Could be worth checking if changing a couple of flights operating carrier and using the BA multiple partners award chart works better. Then you can pretty much choose your routing within the mileage. Rob did an article.

        • Lyn says:

          Yes, but how many BA partner / Oneworld operating carriers would there be in addition to Qantas for the internal Oz flights? Or are you thinking of including the whole journey from the UK?

        • Jude Hirst says:

          Hello, yes that is what I was looking at doing,do you have the link to Rob’s article please?

      • Jude Hirst says:

        Hi thanks for the reply. Yes that was the idea that i was thinking off, but didn’t know the name for it so couldn’t search for Rob’s article. Do you have the link?

  • Drew says:

    Is anyone able to confirm that Curve works in the same way with the new Lloyds Avios MasterCard that’s replaced the old dual Amex/MasterCard? Eg no cash transaction fees etc…Thanks, D

    • paulm says:

      Yes it does, no problems

      • Nick_C says:

        And twice as many Avios as before ☺ (I have a Club Lloyds account).

        How many balance transfers is it safe to do? (how frequently). Just done my first one.

        • Mark2 says:

          not many!

          • BJ says:

            Did you come unstuck Mark?

            My monese card has arrived; all these repetition games are a bit tedious but with other earning opportunities having dried up they are about the only game left in town at the moment.

  • Shoestring says:

    O/T the Amazon free £5 offer for signing up to Amazon Assistant is going fine x4 at the mo, ie 4 different Amazon family a/cs on different browsers. You install it, wait a couple of days, the offer pops up – basically visit Amazon through the app 5x in 14 days to earn a £5 Amazon credit. Works even if you got the £10 Amazon Assistant offer last time, uninstall it first.

    And buy your Amazon stuff through the HfP link 🙂

  • SL says:

    OT Amex business cards. Does it make any difference what position my wife holds in my company for her to get one of the cards i.e. director, company secretary, shareholder etc?

  • RussellH says:

    OT:
    Re IHG Accelerate.
    Has anyone ever found credits to their accelerate target(s) from a stay that did not meet the criteria for that target?
    And if so, did the credit actually work, or was the credit subsequently removed?

    • Lady London says:

      No.
      Have you?

    • Alex Sm says:

      No, I only had the reverse which obviously was annoying!

    • BJ says:

      If this is about stay the weekend, it does count if you stay two successive weekend nights at different hotels as opposed to two consecutive weekend nights in one hotel.

      • John says:

        Oh wow, I missed out on lots of points if this is how it worked for previous iterations of accelerate….

        • BJ says:

          How it has always worked AFAIK John. With that target I usually stay at adjacent hotels, e.g. CP Aberdeen one night and next door to HIX the next which then doubles up both brands and stays too. Have not done it for the current iteration but will do so some weekend next month and report back unless somebody reports sooner.

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

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