Hotels.com Rewards adds an avoidable £4 reward booking fee

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• Lyn says:

  26 Sep26 September 08:15

  O/T Accor data point – re automatically converting Accor points to frequent flyer programmes (Qantas in my case) after each stay instead of trying to reach the minimum threshold before the Accor points expire.

  I had problems with converting my points to Iberia after a recent one-off stay at the Sofitel. Quite likely my own fault. However, I was able to set this up for conversion to Qantas fairly easily and the points moved over in a couple of days. Will be useful to keep my OH’s Qantas points active, and perhaps useful for someone else as well.

• BigSi says:

  26 Sep26 September 08:23

  OT, Rob you may recall you posted details of a Hertz Summer Competition back in July. I got an email yesterday to say I had won 1,200 points enough for a Reward Rental Weekend. I don’t even remember signing up but I must have so belated thanks for the link!

  • Rob says:

    26 Sep26 September 08:35

    Great, well done.

• James says:

  26 Sep26 September 08:39

  So you’re no longer getting 10% 🙁

  • Rob says:

    26 Sep26 September 09:23

    If you average spend is £150 then it is a 3% hit, assuming you can’t be bothered to use the app. Not life changing. At £50 average spend it is clearly more noticeable. My last free night was for £168.

  • Nick_C says:

    26 Sep26 September 10:01

    You never were getting 10% off.

    You need to stay an 11th night to get the reward, so are you getting 11 nights for the price of 10, so 9.1% discount. Still a very good scheme though.

    One of the things I really like about Hotels.com is being able to lock in a good rate on an advance booking, but cancel and rebook if the price drops. Or if the exchange rate moves favourably. Although refundable rates seem to be less common than before.

• Barry says:

  26 Sep26 September 09:07

  O/T
  Has anyone been offered any retention deals when calling Amex to cancel Platinum after the new £575 renewal fee has been charged? Is it worth it?

  • roberto says:

    26 Sep26 September 11:18

    Mine renewed at the old rate despite bring billed after the new £575 charge date. Did others?

    • Paul says:

      26 Sep26 September 17:37

      Mine renewed on the 27th August at £450

• Luthar says:

  26 Sep26 September 09:12

  O/T – Closing Amex MR and wondered whether i’m better off transferring to Avios or Asia Mile. I’ve relocated to Asia recently and not sure if there’s more value to be gained by signing up to Asia Miles and transferring MR. In the past I’ve always transferred to Avios. Any thoughts?

  • Tom1 says:

    26 Sep26 September 10:42

    +1

  • the_real_a says:

    26 Sep26 September 12:59

    Unless you book many months in advance, my opinion is diversity across schemes is key for Asia.

  • memesweeper says:

    26 Sep26 September 13:49

    I went with Marriott when cashing out mine to maintain some flexibility in which airline scheme to move it to (if I want to). I lost some value along the way I guess but figured this was better than ‘picking a winner’ of an airline scheme ahead of needing the points. I believe the cash out from Marriott is optimal at 60,000 point multiples, so if you don’t already collect Marriott then you might want to make your MR withdrawal ‘align’ with that, and send the remainder to an airline scheme you think it’s likely you might use.

  • Polly says:

    28 Sep28 September 00:03

    Use avios a lot in Asia, plus LCC such as air Asia. Avios proved vbuseful around the region. Esp if plans change etc.

• Anna says:

  26 Sep26 September 09:13

  OT – to save me trawling through the pages of bumpf I’ve got from Lloyds about the creditcard changeover, does anyone know if they are offering avios for balance transfers on the new MC? This might swing it for me to hang onto it.

  • Brasov says:

    26 Sep26 September 09:18

    They are to some customers – you have to check your account to know if you are included

    • Mark2 says:

      26 Sep26 September 09:20

      that is my experience and the offers come and go.

      • Nick_C says:

        26 Sep26 September 10:04

        I just did a BT and cleared it the next day. As I have a Club Lloyds AC, I’m getting 0.5 Avios per £ spent or transferred.

        How many times can you do this without upsetting Lloyds? They are my main bank, and I don’t want to fall out with them.

        • Anna says:

          26 Sep26 September 13:11

          If they are offering the facility they can’t really change complain about you using it! IME of Lloyds the actual human staff don’t have the first clue what’s going on with anyone’s account. I’m toying with the idea of submitting a complaint to the FOS when I get the new dates as they haven’t given me a specific date for the changeover, just the vague “about 2 months” line in a letter!

  • Steve says:

    26 Sep26 September 17:27

    I do a BT twice a month and clear the following day. No adverse issues after 6months

    • Nick_C says:

      27 Sep27 September 01:33

      Lol. I was thinking once every 2 or 3 months! Many thanks for that.

  • Brian W says:

    27 Sep27 September 00:22

    Yes, 400 Avios per £1k transferred.

    Not a patch on the old rate of 1.5k per £1k but I’ve kept the card as a result.

• graham coombes says:

  26 Sep26 September 09:27

  I would be interested in your view of the booking.com t&cs which were updated last year. My understanding, which booking.com would not deny, is that they will sell your booking information to anyone who can pay. If you book a hotel in Malaga they will sell your information to car hire firms, taxi companies for example.

  • Sussex Bantam says:

    26 Sep26 September 10:48

    I’m not denying they would do this but it would be interesting to see the GDPR implications of such an action. Burying permissions in T&C would not count as freely given consent to sell your data…

  • the_real_a says:

    26 Sep26 September 13:04

    Isn’t it so they can allow the partner companies to dynamically quote BEFORE checkout so that they can provide you an exact quote for companion services for car rental / excursions etc on your dates on the checkout page?

• Stoneman says:

  26 Sep26 September 09:33

  OT:

  Trying to claim some compensation from SAS for a flight delayed because of a baggage handling strike (it was an unannounced strike). They have rejected the EU261 citing that this was an “extraordinary” circumstance. However, I am pretty sure that RyanAir had to pay out when their staff went on strike. Any thoughts?

  • Charlieface says:

    26 Sep26 September 09:52

    Two counts against you: baggage handlers are not employed by SAS and it was a wildcat strike.

    • Rui N. says:

      26 Sep26 September 11:37

      WIldcat strikes were exactly the type of strikes that the EU Court said last year that were not extraordinary circumstances. About Ryanair having to pay, I think the UK CAA told them they had to pay because of the aforementioned decision of the EU Court; but I’m not sure Ryanair complied (I wouldn’t; EC261/04 is very clear on its preamble that “regular, non-wildcat” strikes are extraordinary circumstances).

      • Stoneman says:

        26 Sep26 September 13:39

        Thanks for the advice. May escalate it a little further to see whether I can get some wonga out of them.

        • Lady London says:

          26 Sep26 September 20:49

          I don’t think you will win this. It’s not fair that you wouldn’t win, as most airlines seem to employ other companies as baggage handlers at airports. so as that baggage handler is part of their normal operations, personally I think you should be able to say it’s the airline’s fault in that monopoly case of that baggage handler at that airport working for the airline on a longstanding basis.

          But I don’t think the law has caught up with that kind of thing yet, and so I don’t think you will win.

          Let us know if you do win 🙂 !

        • Shoestring says:

          26 Sep26 September 21:00

          Stoneman: save yourself some aggro and see if Bott & Co will take on the case. (Pretty sure they won’t, which would probably be a good indication you stand little chance of success.)

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