News in brief:
Interesting Crowne Plaza deal in Sydney
If you’re heading down to Sydney this year, here is a good hotel deal to consider.
In mid April, a new Crowne Plaza hotel is opening – Crowne Plaza Sydney Darling Harbour.
I don’t know anything about Sydney so I can’t comment on the location, which is apparently in the CBD near the Convention Centre. However, I can comment on the value! As a redemption, Crowne Plaza Sydney Darling Harbour is currently just 30,000 IHG Rewards Club points per night.
Cash rates are around A$400 (£210) per night, so you are getting a far better deal than my usual 0.4p per point.
It is also worth noting that the Holiday Inn Darling Harbour is 40,000 points per night but noticeably cheaper than the Crowne Plaza for cash. There is nothing surprising about this, though, as IHG will often use discounted redemption rates to push business towards brand new hotels.
The hotel website is here if you want to take a look. The official opening date is 15th April but history shows that you should have a back-up plan if you are planning to stay within 2-3 weeks of the stated opening date of any hotel …..
Thanks to Daniel for this.
New Opodo discount code
Opodo is running two sale discount codes. These are both valid until Monday night.
The promo code you need is SALE1. It gets you:
- £20 off flight bookings (minimum spend £465, must depart UK)
- £60 off flight + hotel bookings (minimum spend £720, must depart UK)
The booking link is here. You need to add the code in the box on the payment page.
The two new Hyatt hotels in Manchester have launched
Yesterday was the day that the Staybridge Suites Manchester Oxford Road became Hyatt House Manchester, and Crowne Plaza Manchester Oxford Road became Hyatt Regency Manchester.
As of last night you could, bizarrely, book the hotels on both websites! IHG is still selling the hotel. The pricing doesn’t match either.
Here is Staybridge Suites Manchester Oxford Road for 15th January – rooms from £91.70:
….. and here is the same hotel, Hyatt House Manchester (which is what it actually is now) with rooms from £157 for the same date. Does the Hyatt name justify a £66 price hike?!
All very odd. Hyatt now has a presence in London, Birmingham and Manchester – they are getting there slowly ….!
About Head for Points
OT – has anyone ever used the Club America lounge in Concourse F at MIA? We will be there in April for an onwards flight in economy to the Caribbean and will have 2 free Lounge Club passes (but presumably will have to pay the fee for our teenager). I was considering using the passes there but the reviews on TripAdvisor are absolutely awful!
It is truly awful. Visited a couple years ago when flying airberlin (that was their designated contract lounge). I walked in and left again 2 mins later. The terminal was grim too but seemed preferable!
OT. How quick does a 2 4 1 voucher post in BA account? I have spent the £10000 today and have flights I want to book
Usually within a couple of days of the spend crediting, which may be delayed slightly at the weekend.
Ahh, thank you. Hopefully availability still there
OT Amex: Is self-referral working again?
It’s more about whether Amex banning people who have done it will spread from the USA to here.
Ive been away for a while. Is self referring not allowed now?!
there was a big purge in USA & Amex closed down offending accounts – not yet done the same in UK
o/t New York Hiltons
Seems there are about 20 Hiltons around Times Square of various guises.
Having read about 300 trip advisor reviews, I’m still none the wiser if any are consistently better than others.
Homewood suites seems to get good reviews, but 70k per night vs 40-50k, don’t think it’s worth it for me.
Any recommendations please?
Depending when you are travelling, you may consider paying cash
It depends on a few things like…do you get breakfast from status? If not then the free breakfast & kitchen in homewood suites would be useful (though not many supermarket stores in Manhatten). Same for lunch/dinner. On the flip side, homewood suites breakfast was very basic when I last used them so if you are gold/diamond then you may get more from elsewhere.
Do you get lounge access from being diamond? If no lounge then you lose that.
Yes – should have expanded.
Gold so free breakfast wherever.
However a lot of the reviews say even breakfast for gold is limited choice – I.e, water or tea or coffee or juice. One cooked item and one pastry.
The other reviews I’ve read also suggest some hotels are charging destination taxes even on redemptions.
So I guess I was really asking if anyone has suggestions of a Hilton that might give an upgrade for gold, has good breakfast, and doesn’t charge destination fees for reward nights!
Not too much to ask?!
No Hilton hotels charge resort fees on redemptions.
Reading lots of tripadvisor reports, they do if they can get away with it.
Actually Rob, is it written down anywhere? Would be handy to have.
I think it is in the full rules, yes.
Found it :-
“At hotels with resort fees, members on reward stays booked using all Points, or using a Promotional free night reward (e.g., issued by credit card partners, etc.) will not pay resort fees.”
Interestingly doesn’t mention points + money, which I thought also counted.
Under Reward Redemption, clause 18
https://hiltonhonors3.hilton.com/en/terms/index.html