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Join an Amex-sponsored charity dinner at the Hotel Cafe Royal

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If you were unlucky in getting a spot at the Head for Points reader dinner next week, you may be interested in a charity dinner at the Hotel Cafe Royal on Regent Street on Saturday 26th October.

This is an annual charity event organised by luxury travel consultancy Driven2travel, who I know, and sponsored by American Express.  For out-of-towners there are other events going on over the weekend around the dinner, but there is enough space at the venue to add additional guests (like you!) just for the meal and the charity auction.

The gala dinner will be held in the Domino room at Hotel Cafe Royal.  Following a ludicrously huge investment over recent years, Cafe Royal now looks gorgeous and is well worth a visit.  As you can see, it is a lovely room (click to enlarge):

Hotel Cafe Royal domino room

The event is organised on a fully non-profit basis and has raised over $25,000 for HUSK Cambodia over the past three years alone. This year, the money raised will be shared between HUSK Cambodia and the Shinta Mani Foundation, two charities that support needy families living near Siem Reap with education, housing and hope for a sustainable future.  A photo of a project supported by the event in previous years is below.

The evening costs just £60 per person.  This is exceptional value for a welcome champagne reception and a three-course dinner with wine in such a venue.  The price is so low because American Express is fully sponsoring the dinner.  Your £60 fee does not pay for your meal (Amex is paying) but covers a donation to HUSK and is also valid as a credit during the charity auction after the dinner.

Here are the highlights of the current auction list.  There is an opportunity to bid on a stay at some great hotels and all income from the auction is donated to charity.

  • 3 nights at Shinta Mani Wild, a member of the Bensley Collection, including transfers, all-inclusive dining (including as much champagne as you like!), all activities, spa treatments and use of the hotel’s zip-line!
  • 2 nights at the Park Hyatt New York, including breakfast
  • 2 nights at Capri Palace, including breakfast
  • 3 nights at any Myconian Collection property, including breakfast
  • 2 nights at the Park Hyatt Mallorca, including breakfast
  • 2 nights at the Chedi Muscat, including breakfast
  • 2 nights at the Park Hyatt Vienna, including breakfast
  • 2 nights at Canaves Oia Suites, including breakfast
  • 2 nights at the Fairmont San Francisco, including breakfast

Many of the fellow guests are Flyertalk users and, whilst not all conversation at the event may be focused on miles and points, everyone will be a passionate traveller.  The organisers will seat HfP readers on the same table where feasible.  Attendance is limited and the remaining seats are available on a first come, first served basis.

For full clarity, I have attended this dinner in the past and it is a very pleasant evening with a fascinating bunch of people.  I also know Jenny who organises it and who I know is very committed to the evening and indeed to the HUSK charity.  However, neither myself or Rhys will be attending – I am on holiday as it is half term, and Rhys will be in Israel with Sir Richard Branson, as you do.  Anika’s baby is due the same week so she’s not going either.

If you would like to attend (and you won’t find a better value Saturday night in the West End), you need to register here and pay the £60 per person fee.

If you want to spend the night at the Hotel Cafe Royal, Jenny can book you in and get you the added Virtuoso benefits on top.  A lot of HfP readers will have a ‘£100 cashback on £400 Cafe Royal spend’ offer on one of their American Express cards at the moment, but this expires on 24th October so you’d need a pre-paid room.  Contact jenny.price@driven2travel.co.uk for more information.

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Comments (119)

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

  • Ian M says:
    2 Oct2 October 08:07

    OT..

    Flying BA from JFK – LHR in Club World, then LHR – DME in First on a separate ticket. Will I be able to use the Concorde Room at JFK by showing my LHR-DME boarding pass?

    • Polly says:
      2 Oct2 October 08:12

      No reason why not, after all you are flying F to DME.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        2 Oct2 October 08:28

        Don’t the rules depend on if the flight on a separate ticket is on the same day?

        There’s a useful thread on flyertalk that will probably answer the question better than BA website.

        • Polly says:
          2 Oct2 October 08:45

          Would it be considered the same day, if it’s an ongoing flight without that 24 hr break? Worth finding out, tho.

    • Alex W says:
      2 Oct2 October 09:50

      Does it matter?? Try it and see, if it doesn’t work, go round the other side to the club lounge.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        2 Oct2 October 10:02

        Depends I’d probably add some time for a little CCR time but get to the airport as late as possible if it was just the club lounge, though NYC lounge is much better than galleries in LHR.

        God they need an overhaul. Depressing in galleries south the other day, North was closed, B gates isn’t as bad ofcourse.

        Why is it you’ve got a bar doing a few cocktails in club in NYC but nothing in First at LHR let along Club lounges.

    • john says:
      2 Oct2 October 10:54

      The 2016 lounge eligibility guide doesn’t really cover this scenario which would probably put you as only the access on your CW ticket. If it was the other way round, F connecting to CW at LHR then you would have access to the CCR at LHR, so I would give it a try on that basis..

      • Ian M says:
        2 Oct2 October 13:22

        Thanks for the replies everyone. I’ll post an update next week to let you know if they let me in 🙂

  • Steve says:
    2 Oct2 October 08:15

    OT – Regarding LATAM’s pending departure from OneWorld – if I book a redemption flight on LATAM using Avios whilst they are still in OneWorld, but for a flight that will take place after they have left the alliance, will they honour it? And will they let me book it in the first place? I know they need to give a year’s notice, but I had been planning to take a holiday to South America early 2021, and I’m hoping I could still sneak the flights in…

  • Louise A says:
    2 Oct2 October 08:17

    “IMPORTANT: New Terms & Conditions say that tickets CANNOT be transferred. During the purchase process, you can no longer give another name as the attendee. It looks like the mileage holder must attend. Photo ID is required to collect tickets at the ground”

    That’s a shame, I have no interest in football but I would have bought tickets for my brother and Dad who are both lifelong Arsenal fans (you can’t choose your family…) 😉

    • Zed says:
      2 Oct2 October 10:39

      That’s a terrible change to the T&Cs.

      My wife regularly uses hers miles to redeem tickets for family members as well, especially events abroad.

      Can’t see that it needed to be changed to this. Poor by emirates….

      • Zed says:
        2 Oct2 October 10:49

        Just found this in their FAQs though:

        Can I gift an item to family or friends?

        In most cases, you are welcome to gift an item or ticket package to a family member or friend, pending approval from the Emirates Skywards team. Please contact us at skywardseventsregistration@emirates.com. Miles will be deducted from your Emirates Skywards account when you win an auction or buy an item and cannot be refunded or transferred. Please note that any item you bought or won may not be transferred, sold, assigned, re-marketed, or otherwise disposed of, without obtaining written consent from the Emirates Skywards team.

        So this suggests you can still do it right? If so, you may need to update your article.

        • Rob says:
          2 Oct2 October 10:57

          Let’s see first if it works …

          It would be rather foolish of me to suggest people spend 40,000+ miles without a guarantee that the transfer can be done.

    • Alan says:
      2 Oct2 October 17:28

      They confirmed to me directly this morning that it’s absolutely fine to have someone else pick up the tickets. You just need to email them to advise who will be collecting them and ensure the email comes from the Skywards member’s registered email address.

      • Stewart says:
        9 Oct9 October 09:29

        But I think that they have (deliberately?) misunderstood your question. this is the reply that I got this morning about transferring tickets:
        ‘Unfortunately, all redemption tickets are non-transferable. If you are redeeming one ticket only, it has to be under your name as the Skywards account holder.
        If you purchase two tickets, one of the tickets has to be under your name as the Skyward account holder and once you receive the second email confirmation you will be entering your guest name.’

  • Jordan D says:
    2 Oct2 October 08:32

    Just to note the Arsenal v Man City and Chelsea games have as yet not been confirmed for the dates shown and I would guess are prime candidates for being changed due to TV. Likely confirmation will come on or about 12 Oct.

    • Rob says:
      2 Oct2 October 08:43

      Thanks

    • MattyS says:
      2 Oct2 October 08:45

      I think Arsenal are playing in the Europa League on Thursday 12th Dec so the Man City game will almost certainly be moved to Sunday 15th if not the Monday.

  • N says:
    2 Oct2 October 08:58

    Went to Olympiacos this weekend via Emirates box – experience was pretty naff compared to our experience at PSG last year. I’d go as far as saying it’s a waste of points!

    • Zed says:
      2 Oct2 October 11:04

      I had been looking at Olympiacos and Benfica. What’s so naff about it compared to PSG?

      • N says:
        2 Oct2 October 11:15

        If you’ve been to PSG, it just doesn’t compare.

        No champagne on arrival, no gift shop.
        No feeling is anything special – difficult to put a finger on this one!
        We weren’t ‘hosted’ – left to fend for ourselves a bit
        No bar as such – had to ask the host for drinks (even though there was a price list on the table?!). Wine available was questionable at best, left us with a headache by FT!
        Budget frozen pizzas as a snack during first half
        An enormous pile of grilled meat and chips at half time (buffet) – doesn’t compare to the PSG offering.

        Would love to know how Benefica is like – it seemed like a good excuse to visit Lisbon but feel a bit knocked back by Athens experience!

        • Tom W says:
          2 Oct2 October 17:08

          Was thinking similarly re Portugal/Greece so would be interested to know if people have been.

          We went to PSG v Monaco at Easter and it was brilliant, we each got given 4 engraved wine glasses on departure and one person received a signed shirt. Food/drink/service were brilliant too!

  • Alex W says:
    2 Oct2 October 09:52

    Are the arsenal prices per person or for 2 tickets? If it’s per person, definitely a waste of points!

    • Rob says:
      2 Oct2 October 11:02

      Per person.

      You can’t buy Arsenal tickets, full stop (except perhaps for the European games). Hospitality-wise, you would be paying at least £500 a head for a similar package in a box as well positioned as the Emirates Box – if there was a better positioned box, which there isn’t.

      £110 – assuming 1p per mile – for a general admission ticket seems pretty decent value to me if you really want to experience a game but are not a season ticket holder.

      • ken says:
        2 Oct2 October 12:13

        Its £29 for Arsenal membership which would allow you to buy tickets.
        About 3500 tickets available for each match.
        A further load of tickets available on the ticket exchange, probably ranges from nil to 8000 tickets depending on match.
        There are at least 5000 empty seats for most matches (claimed attendance was 58k v Qarabag last year, actual attendance was more like 23k)
        The box seems great value. General admission is just average value for Premier League, but awful value for Europa league.

        • Chabuddy geezy says:
          2 Oct2 October 13:05

          I know a season ticket who said he would struggle to give away his tickets for almost nothing on the ticket exchanges for low profile league games.

  • BJ says:
    2 Oct2 October 09:53

    O/T: Dave Lewis has quit Tesco; hopefully they will replace him with a big clubcard fan.

  • sayling says:
    2 Oct2 October 10:08

    “Rhys will be in Israel with Sir Richard Branson, as you do”

    😂

    • Charlieface says:
      2 Oct2 October 10:16

      Rob, what were you complaining about? Branson or Israel?
      Personally I’d take either but not in combination, that would be horrific 🙂

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

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