The best Black Friday deal? MeliaRewards points being sold both directly and via Amazon

It’s back for another year – the EXCEPTIONALLY good Black Friday deal for buying MeliaRewards gift cards on Amazon Spain.

Spanish hotel group Melia has been selling points on Amazon Spain for a year now.  They come in the form of gift cards you deposit into your MeliaRewards account.  Here are the standard prices:

35,000 points for €210

55,000 points for €330

80,000 points for €560

Until Monday, these prices have been slashed.  Look here:

35,000 points for €126 – €3.60 per 1,000

55,000 points for €198 – €3.60 per 1,000

80,000 points for €308 – €3.85 per 1,000

You can check the price and availability on this page of the Spanish Amazon site.

I bought this deal last year, when I paid €165 for 55,000 points (you will pay €198 this year).  This is what you get:

Whilst the card itself is credit card sized, the leaflet it is stuck to is A5:

The instructions were simple enough that even my rudimentary (ie non existent) Spanish could follow them:

You log into the Melia website and head to ‘My Points’

Filter the earning and spending options by ‘Shopping’

Click on Amazon.  As well as explaining how to redeem your points for amazon.co.uk gift cards, there is a box to deposit your gift card.  I typed in the number and the 55,000 points immediately appeared as you can see below.

Can you get value paying €308 (£264) for 80,000 MeliaRewards points?

Oh yes.

Now …. MeliaRewards points can be converted to Avios at 10:3.  However, these points are not transferable.  The value is in hotel rooms.

Having spent a lot of time last year exploring the MeliaRewards redemption chart, it is not as random as it first seems.  It is simply that hotels have totally weird redemption values which makes them appear random.

INNSiDE New York, which we reviewed here, was 23,098 points per night when I looked last year (the Melia website was down at midnight last night and I couldn’t look up the current figure).  Where this number comes from I have no idea!  There is real value here – cash rates are around £300 per night in the Summer, whilst you would be paying under £100 if you redeemed gift card points.

In London, the Melia White House was 24,286 points per night last time I checked.  Again, on a peak date this is a bargain at under £100.

What you CAN’T do is transfer these points to Avios or to anything else.  They are ringfenced for hotel stays.   You also need to note that the hotel only offers a few rooms per night at the points prices above – once those have gone, rather like the way Hilton Honors works, redemptions are priced off a revenue based system which is much less attractive.

This is how I used my points from 2018

Last year, I bought 55,000 points for €165 (€198 this year).  I used 48,500 for two nights at the Melia White House for my brother.  This was during Wimbledon and the cash rates were over £250 per night.

Surprisingly, after this stay I was able to transfer the remaining points to Avios at 10:3.  This got me another 2,000+ Avios.

My total return on €165 was therefore £500-worth of hotel rooms plus 2,000+ Avios.  Not bad.

Ordering is easy.  Your Amazon UK log-in details work on the Spanish site, and your UK delivery details are pre-populated.  Postage to the UK is €4 and delivery is expected around 5th December.

I wouldn’t buy these points totally speculatively, but if you are fairly sure you can use them then this is a very good deal.  The link to the Amazon Spain page is here.  The offer runs until Monday.

---

How to get MeliaRewards Gold status from American Express (April 2024)

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

We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

You can discover the benefits of MeliaRewards Gold status on the Melia website here. It includes three vouchers per year worth 20% off any booking.

Small business owners may want to consider American Express Business Platinum instead:

(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.)