Has IHG Rewards Club killed PointBreaks, the 5,000 points hotel room redemptions?

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• Alex Sm says:

  29 Jan29 January 09:13

  What are City Lights and will IHG do Accelerate this spring? I need a hotel near Gatwick for a few nights in May and waiting passionately

  • Peter K says:

    29 Jan29 January 09:24

    I imagine it’s a US promotion.

• Alison says:

  29 Jan29 January 09:19

  I often used Points Breaks, I like a staycation, used those obscure holiday inn expresses off the motorway from time to time because I live in Scotland and they broke a journey south up. I was able to stay near family a few times across the country too. I also took advantage of a few out of the way London hotels, didn’t mind a 15-20 minute tube journey to the centre and got to know areas of London I was less familiar with. The odd city break including a great Edinburgh stay at the Crowne Plaza once. RIP Points Breaks, you were good to me!

• Benilyn says:

  29 Jan29 January 09:33

  Re 6 Sense Istanbul, it seems soo far away from all the tourist action? So unless you want to go for pure relaxation, I would struggle to stay there?

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    29 Jan29 January 12:03

    It would be a fairly slow, if pleasant, ferry trip to the main sights or a relatively cheap taxi. I think it would work if you wanted one or two day trips into the city, but not if you wanted to be seeing the sights every day.

• Alan says:

  29 Jan29 January 09:39

  Can’t say I’m that fussed. Had a couple of pointsbreak stays – both were existing bookings that I rebooked at a significant saving so it didn’t drive any extra business and TBH the list has got less and less inspiring! Recent Accelerate was very poor. Ambassador is still proving worthwhile, esp the 10% discount on redemptions. Also found a new HIX in Melbourne at the Southbank which is superb value for money compared to the other chains so I still feeling I’m getting good value from IHG.

  • guesswho2000 says:

    29 Jan29 January 10:26

    Inclined to agree tbh, the one and only time I’ve had a Pointbreaks hotel available where and when I’ve wanted/needed was actually at LHR. That said, it did drive additional business in that instance as, if it hadn’t been reduced, I would have driven to LHR the next morning.

    It actually cost me extra in one sense, as I had to pay to park a rental car at the hotel overnight until I was due to return it the next day.

  • Andrew says:

    29 Jan29 January 11:03

    How does the Ambassador redemption discount work? Is that only at IC hotels or all IHG?

    • Adam says:

      29 Jan29 January 12:11

      You get 10% in points back in all the IHG portfolio hotels. Should post automatically after 2 months, but I always had to chase them with customer services.

      • Simonbr says:

        29 Jan29 January 12:42

        Adam, is that two months after making the reward booking or the stay itself? Thanks.

        • Adam says:

          29 Jan29 January 16:47

          After stay is finished.

    • Rob says:

      29 Jan29 January 12:18

      When you RENEW Ambassador (but not the first year) you get 10% back on ALL IHG redemptions, at all brands. Sometimes including ones you end up cancelling 🙂

      • Andrew says:

        29 Jan29 January 12:23

        Thanks, really helpful to know – I’m in my first year, so that explains why I wasn’t aware of it.

        • Adam says:

          29 Jan29 January 16:48

          Also want to add – if you renew with cash (not 40.000 points)

  • Harry T says:

    29 Jan29 January 17:35

    @Alan
    I’m staying at that HIX in March. Looks good. Booked it using points for the Grand Prix weekend when cash prices were very toppy.

• Will says:

  29 Jan29 January 09:55

  Given that status is basically meaningless at IHG it makes their brand much easier to pick and choose than Hilton or Marriott.

  Personally I’ve found immense value in regular points redemptions year after year with them without points break or paying too much attention to accelerate. Location and time specific of course.

• Nick says:

  29 Jan29 January 10:04

  OT: How do I transfer Vuelling Avios out into BA / Iberia or Aerclub

  When I log into Avios.com – I can see my Iberia and Aerclub and BA details – but not my Vuelling account?

  Also – best way to stop Iberia avios expiring? I believe transfers don’t work

  • guesswho2000 says:

    29 Jan29 January 10:27

    Not sure you can txfer Vueling Avios? Might be wrong.

    Easiest way to reset the clock on IB is to transfer some in from Amex, if you have any.

    • Rob says:

      29 Jan29 January 10:41

      There is no such thing as ‘Vueling Avios’. They are standard Avios in a 3081xxxxxxxxx numbered account which works perfectly well at avios.com, just like a 3081xxxxxxxxx AerClub account. From avios.com you can move them to BA or Iberia as usual via ‘Combine My Avios’.

  • Shoestring says:

    29 Jan29 January 11:11

    https://sso.dufry.com/register?referralId=0511052 (from ‘Charity Walk’ Cat)

    • Cat says:

      30 Jan30 January 08:09

      Harry, bless your cotton socks! I’ve only just spotted this – you are a sweetie! X

      • Shoestring says:

        30 Jan30 January 08:20

        can you see if you got any? 🙂

        unfortunately, apparently they’ll only help you get status once somebody buys something in DF using the QR code/ app – ie a ‘naked’ referral doesn’t do anything

      • Cat says:

        30 Jan30 January 08:38

        I have got a few referrals, but my account is currently offering me 100 points per referral, not the Platinum if you refer 3 people deal that it was showing before. It might be because I used the HAPPYBIRTHDAY2020 code – maybe when you are Platinum, you can’t work towards keeping Platinum through referrals. Maybe if 3 of those I’ve referred spend some money, I’ll keep the status. Who knows? Thanks for trying though Harry!

  • marcw says:

    29 Jan29 January 13:00

    There are no 100 Avios for joining Red By Dufry. You get, I believe, RED Points, but they hace nothing to do with Avios (those points are useful to achieve higher tiers in RED by Dufry).

    • Shoestring says:

      29 Jan29 January 13:22

      really? he must have done something wrong, then – good job he shared his RBD birthday code with a couple of thousand people, he’s generous like that 🙂

      I’ll ask RBD to take them back as they were obvs awarded in error
      12/08/2019 AVIOS EARNED WITH DUTYFREE Shopping 250
      12/19/2019 IBERIA PLUS CAMPAIGN Other services 100

      • marcw says:

        29 Jan29 January 13:51

        Nope. There was a time when RED by Dufry had a promo rewarding 250 Avios for new sign-ups insideflyer.co.uk/2019/06/250-free-avios/ (they’ve had that a few times I believe, the last time in december).
        Your 100 Avios points are from that promo promoting IbPlus Infinita headforpoints.com/2019/11/10/get-100-free-avios-in-iberia-plus-for-30-seconds-work/

    • Shoestring says:

      29 Jan29 January 14:13

      probably right 🙂

• Ming the Merciless says:

  29 Jan29 January 11:52

  OT – given the 1.5% charge curve are now implementing, at HMRC, I’m considering starting to collect M&M via the card card. I put around £20-30k per year to them in Self assessment, plus VAT and corporation tax – the latter two I understand they frown on.

  Is it worth the £70 fee for the card? what are redemptions options like/ realistically I’ll only be redeeming premium cabins long haul to asia or africa.

  I’m also sitting on 0.5m avios, 1m Virgin, 0.6m Bonvoy have no status (i don’t fly for work) and usually redeem as a group apart from around once a year.

  My normal day to day spend goes to IHG and Virgin with the occasional amex use if im chasing a sign up bonus.

  Views on this change of strategy appreciated – I hate to see some good spend at HMRC go to waste, probably circa £70k if you take into account VAT, NI and CT

  • Rob says:

    29 Jan29 January 12:17

    As with all these things, it depends where you want to go. Middle East, for example, is 35k one-way in Business with Miles & More vs 50-60k Avios. Even better with kids as Lufty gives a 25% discount.

    However (as another example) there are no day flights back from the Middle East to Europe on Star Alliance. Lufthansa and SWISS fly at 2am which, at least for me, stinks. We therefore use M&M outbound and come back a different way.

    If you redeem to the US you may find diverting via Frankfurt a waste of time. For Asia, less so. And so on. Pull out the redemption chart and look at your favourite destinations.

• Simonbr says:

  29 Jan29 January 12:46

  OT but IHG related: does anyone know roughly when Mr&Mrs Smith properties will be bookable via the IHG website?

  • Rob says:

    29 Jan29 January 14:11

    No

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