Who won ‘Best UK Travel Rewards Credit Card’ at the 2019 Head for Points Awards?

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• Crafty says:

  3 Jan3 January 09:20

  Agree they are clueless, but in other aspects this works very much in one’s favour.

• Craig says:

  3 Jan3 January 09:29

  Does anyone have any experience of running 2 IHG Premium Mastercards? I’m about to cancel the Virgin card having earned the voucher and enough points for a return flight to NYC over NY2020/20201. I’m getting close to earning the 2nd batch of 20k Avios on the HSBC WE card and will easily hit the £10k on my IHG Prem card. I’m wondering if it’s worth Mrs S signing up for another one?

  • Anna says:

    3 Jan3 January 09:42

    Definitely – OH got one in July and had hit the £10k spend by October due to some particular expenses we had so I applied for one and am now spending towards another free night – hopefully we’ll be able to redeem them for 2 nights during the same stay when we come to use them.
    Now there is the Creation app, it’s easy enough to have his and hers accounts on different devices. One of the major advantages of having the 2 cards is that it doubles your Curve/Revolut potential. A 2nd sign up bonus is useful, of course.

    • Anna says:

      3 Jan3 January 09:43

      Aim is to use 2 x free nights at the GCM Kimpton where cash prices can hit $1k per night, so this would easily justify the £99 card fee.

      • Craig says:

        3 Jan3 January 09:55

        That’s a good shout Anna, I was possibly looking at this hotel for next year. One CC free night and 6 points redemptions. The latest IHG 4x has been very lucrative for me! 🙂

        • Anna says:

          3 Jan3 January 11:03

          Get another card and you could have 2 free nights! There seems to be very good availability on reward nights at the Kimpton and you can book studios with enough room for 2 adults and a teenager as a standard redemption which is an extra bonus.

        • Pid says:

          3 Jan3 January 23:44

          Just need to pay the resort fees but still a good redemption.

  • JPa says:

    3 Jan3 January 10:11

    I have had two before fine in a household (but stupidly cancelled my one after a year and can’t get it back again now. Just keep getting declined. They said it was because I also have the white card. Cacanelled that and still can’t get it!). We still have my wife’s one.

    • Crafty says:

      5 Jan5 January 21:30

      Lesson from the Hilton Barclaycard. Never cancel an unusually lucrative card (without being ready not to be able to have it back).

• TGLoyalty says:

  3 Jan3 January 09:38

  So while I don’t disagree all these comments show they are pretty bad CS. What if you got your card when it launched about 3 years ago without any fuss and have been pain free every since?

  I’m sure there are many more tales of the above than of shocking CS encounters.

  It’s the best package for a credit card on the uk market today.

  • mark2 says:

    3 Jan3 January 10:03

    +1

• James says:

  3 Jan3 January 09:51

  Apologies for the OT question, but has anyone received the usual AMEX Travel offers in the last few days that are usually offered in January i.e £50 off £200 spend, £200 off £600 spend etc? I’ve usually had one of these for the last few years but nothing so far.

  Thanks.

  • David says:

    3 Jan3 January 10:20

    Likewise, have been looking out for it, not seen it yet across any of my cards.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    3 Jan3 January 10:22

    Nope I do have

    Spend £300 or more, get £150 back
    Claridge’s, The Connaught & The Berkeley On my Plat and spend £300 save £75 on my BAPP

• Tim says:

  3 Jan3 January 09:52

  I agree with the other comment about Creation. Of all the cards I have, they are the company I least trust to not leave me high and dry. Their cards can’t be added to your Transport for London profile and I’ve had to switch to another card a few times now, when an online site has not been able to get an authorisation code from them. And the fact that their customer services aren’t there 24/7 is really poor nowadays. Not being able to use your card for up to 48 hours until they re-open isn’t helpful.

• chrisbak says:

  3 Jan3 January 10:13

  Anyone had trouble getting a refund paid into their BA Amex card. I recently changed an open jaw companion booking. They charged for the new booking and then canceled the old booking saying the £1200 refund would be sent back to the card it was paid from. Eleven working days later, I am still waiting and wondering why it takes 2 to 3 days to take money out of my BA premium Amex and weeks to return it.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    3 Jan3 January 10:37

    I think that’s a BA processing the refund issue rather than the type of card you have.

  • Darren says:

    3 Jan3 January 10:40

    That seems long, I did the same a couple of weeks ago and had the money back in a week or so.

  • Lady London says:

    3 Jan3 January 12:48

    BA say they process refunds on tickets within 7 days so chase them up. Would 3 UK Public Holidays in UK in the past 10 days have made it nearer 10 than 7 though?

    • h2d says:

      3 Jan3 January 21:51

      In a similar position so would chase them regularly – I have been waiting for a £1000 refund from BA for a cancelled 241 for more than two months. Absolute shambles

• Craig says:

  3 Jan3 January 10:25

  It’s a real shame that the Virgin card is economy only without status, I’ve earned enough for a particular redemption but I will be closing it before the second fee hits the account.

  • Lady London says:

    4 Jan4 January 13:21

    Maybe Virgin is only allowing redemptions from their card in Y because their amazingly high level of charges – no, its not taxes, Virgin it’s money that you keep – is so high that you are basically paying so much Virgin is not really giving you anything for your miles anyway?

    Virgin likes to market themselves as a special experience. We know Virgin Upper Class is an experience that can be aspirational. We are not hearing the same about Economy flying on Virgin and there is plenty, plenty of competition that costs same and less in Y. So I am wondering why Virgin doesn’t want big spenders to aspire to Virgin Upper Class.

• Darren says:

  3 Jan3 January 10:41

  BAPP is becoming more difficult to generate the required Avios to use the 241’s, but I seem to manage it eventually. The lack of availability is less relevant to me as I’m pretty flexible and fly East or West as it is available which means that I never ring T-355, if its warm and sunny that will do me.

  I wish I could see value in all of the Hotel points mallarky, but there isn’t a suitable one for me I don’t think. I tend to go for more luxury hotels and don’t like the cookie cutter nature of some of the chains. But then I don’t use them for business just leisure and can’t rack up the loyalty aspect

  • Anna says:

    3 Jan3 January 10:53

    I was the same re hotel cards but now I’m really glad I bothered with them. Having 2 x SPG Amex has meant we’ve now got a 5 night reward stay booked at the Westin Resort GCM which would have cost £3500 at Easter, and hoping to do the same at the similarly expensive Kimpton in 2021 via IHG (which also has InterContinental if you like luxury). Most of our stays however, are at Hiltons which suit our various needs, especially when we travel as a family and appreciate chains like Homewood and Embassy Suites. I generally get very good recognition as gold as well which make the travel experience that much more of a treat.

    • Darren says:

      3 Jan3 January 11:11

      I used my Hilton Gold status (via Platinum) last year in the Millenium Bangkok which was pretty good actually for a one nighter.
      The Westin looks lovely, did it take much effort to rack up enough points for the stay?

      If I look at where I stay and where I could’ve stayed in a place the that might swing me in a certain direction, IHG or Bonvoy etc. But the points systems confuse me 🙂

      • Anna says:

        3 Jan3 January 14:32

        Darren & JRC – OH and I both got SPG Amex last year, so got the sign up bonuses and then used the cards for our main spend after triggering OH’s BAPP companion voucher. I generated a few more points by booking trips through the Marriott moments page for the holidays we took in 2019. We also both bought some points when the 25% bonus offer was on so we had enough for 4 nights which then became 5 nights with the 5 for 4 offer. I secured it before peak pricing which would have hit us at Easter, so it’s 240,000 points in total for the stay. This being the Cayman Islands, they also whack you with a $65 per night “resort fee” but you can’t avoid it, unfortunately.

        The Westin is a lovely hotel, we’ve visited the premises a few times as OH sometimes dives from their water sports centre, and it’s also the pick up location for Avis hire cars. However, it’s definitely not worth the silly prices they charge at peak period so I was really chuffed to get the redemption nights!

        • Anna says:

          3 Jan3 January 14:33

          Also got a few more points from a couple of referrals to each other.

        • Darren says:

          3 Jan3 January 15:37

          Thanks Anna, that’s good to know.

        • JRC says:

          3 Jan3 January 19:11

          Thanks Anna!

    • JRC says:

      3 Jan3 January 12:32

      Anna, how much spend and how long did it take to get enough points for WESTON GCM? I’ve always focussed on Avios but a new job means a bit more travel and hotel stays. Generally credit to Hotels.com plus double dip with Voldemort.com and everything goes on BAPP or other Amex. Thanks

      • JRC says:

        3 Jan3 January 12:32

        Westin not Weston damn autotype!!

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