Got your free Amex Plat £400 Marriott credit? Get an extra $100 and breakfast if you book with us

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• Crafty says:

  13 Oct13 October 04:11

  If anyone has successfully saved this offer to their card, yet already finds themselves unable to use it during the offer period, I will happily stay in your name (thereby earning you points) and send you a nice gift, in exchange for a booking I can use this Thursday night (returning from a funeral; currently staying at the grotty Crowne Plaza near Gatwick).

  • cinereus says:

    13 Oct13 October 12:42

    How are we supposed to contact you?

    • Lady London says:

      13 Oct13 October 17:29

      you just did

    • Crafty says:

      14 Oct14 October 06:53

      If you have Twitter, my profile is @craftybison. Alternatively, I’m sure Rob or Rhys could connect us via visibility of our email addresses, which has been the case in the past. Do let me know!

• Mr(s) Entitled says:

  13 Oct13 October 04:13

  Amex have scored an own goal with this one. It’s a very generous offer but not one available to me. Not only do I get very little for my £595 fee, but it supports generosity elsewhere. I feel a little like they are rubbing my nose in it.

  • Andrew says:

    13 Oct13 October 05:45

    +1 I rang Amex yesterday to give them a piece of my mind for being a loyal platinum paying member for decades and not been targeted for this £400 gift – the agent said they had a lot of complaints yesterday and that it had maybe backfired. Marketing offers I understand are targeted but this is a zero out of pocket £400 gift offered to some not others. I got the usual blah blah blah hang in there more offers coming, but at nearly £50 a month I really don’t know if it’s worth it.

  • Jonathan says:

    13 Oct13 October 07:41

    This won’t be paid for by your or anyone else’s card fee, it’ll be a Marriott funded promotion presumably to try & drive bookings with some incidental spend on top at a very quiet time of year. For most of these large hotels their marginal cost for the rooms sold via. this will be <£20 so anyone spending more than £450 will be profitable.

    It’s also quite hard to hit bang on £400 unless you adopt Rob’s tactic which the non HfP readers won’t.

    The Langley is the only one I don’t really see the numbers stacking up as it’s so small compared to the others but then the window of opportunity is basically 1 weekend.

    By ringing up & complaining you just minimise the chances of Amex running this sort of promotion (which you may benefit from) again. You pay the fee for the core benefits so if they don’t work then cancel!

    • Angry Voldemort says:

      13 Oct13 October 07:58

      They could have offered a £200 credit and offered it to more people maybe?

      • Jonathan says:

        13 Oct13 October 08:24

        They could but then maybe they could have offered £800 to 1,000 or £50 to 16,000? It’s their call and calling up to throw your toys out the pram gets you nowhere as a) they can’t/won’t add it to your card & b) they won’t do another offer as generous again which you may benefit from!

        Be happy for those who benefited (I didn’t) & move on. I didn’t realise HfP was read by so many toddlers!

        • Angry Voldemort says:

          13 Oct13 October 08:42

          I am delighted for all those who benefited and yes I’m also very jealous! But I’m not a toddler and didn’t ring up to throw my toys out the pram.

          But I agree.. £800 to 1,000 would have been great, as long as they had chosen me!

      • Rob says:

        13 Oct13 October 08:44

        £200 credit at £400 per night hotels wouldn’t work well.

        These are hotels usually filled by rich tourists who are not here now. Mid market hotels are doing better.

  • Crafty says:

    13 Oct13 October 07:44

    I was going to say that. A very interesting marketing initiative, presumably the “surprise and delight” element is supposed to encouraged churned cardholders (like me) to reopen an account. However, they seem to have underestimated the ill-will from those who have NOT been surprised and delighted!

    • Andrew says:

      13 Oct13 October 08:04

      Yes I have been surprised but certainly not delighted by Amex on this occasion. I hope that mine and others’ complaints make them think twice about such offers in the future.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        13 Oct13 October 08:53

        Why? Would you rather you didn’t get it next time something like this is around?

        It’s a lottery. There’s no need to be sour your ticket didn’t come in this time.

      • JohnG says:

        13 Oct13 October 21:01

        It might. When you, and everyone one else, never get a similar offer again I hope you feel all warm and fuzzy inside 🙄

  • Alan says:

    13 Oct13 October 07:57

    Totally agree, big own goal for Amex that just drives ill-will amongst those not targeted. This isn’t the same as the usual offers, it’s totally free money.

    • Rob says:

      13 Oct13 October 08:47

      Er, no. £100 at Waitrose is free money.

      It’s only free money if you were planning to spend £400 at a luxury London hotel.

      I value mine at £200 max, assuming I get 2 days of office space from the room (saving £80) and a free dinner for me and the wife.

      Someone who only values the dinner will get £150 of value, ie the cheapest hotel room (not used) with food for the balance.

      • meta says:

        13 Oct13 October 09:39

        @Alan and Andrew you have to remember you haven’t missed much.It’s not that great of an offer actually.

        All of these hotels are very expensive not just the room, but F&B wise. Take Langley for example: Cheapest rooms are around £400. Even with packaged rates which start around £450 you get breakfast and $100 spend which is less than £80 plus a bottle of champagne which you could buy for £25. Mains in Langley’s restaurant are £30+. Spa use is free, but any treatment will cost you £100+. Take in the fact that it is a pain to get to from North London for me… The costs add up quickly. I am sure the bill will run to £300+ in the end for my partner and me and after I apply Marriott offer on another card maybe £250.

        I booked as a backup W London for all in rate which is £455 (breakfast, lunch, dinner), but I could cook breakfast, lunch and dinner myself for much less. I am sure I’ll need to spend extra on drinks, etc. I also don’t need to spend a night in London, so spending £10 to get to the hotel is an extra cost that I have to factor in.

        This credit won’t get you far cash wise if you want to have a great break. It would have made sense a bit more abroad as room rates are cheaper, but 90% of the hotels on the list are located in countries with restrictions, national lockdowns, etc.

        Then there is also the time limit as you have to use offer until 23 Nov. Langley doesn’t even open until mid-Nov…

        So overall the offer is very clever in making you spend more than you initially thought. I wonder as well whether the hotels actually upped their prices before this promo started.

        • Rob says:

          13 Oct13 October 09:43

          That’s one way of looking at it. Try another way:

          * Grosvenor has a £260 rate which allows 6am check-in and 6pm check-out, so I can use it as an office for 2 full days (saves me £40/day on WeWork)
          * Executive Lounge is open so I can eat and drink myself silly for 2 days due to my Marriott status
          * I get breakfast on both days due to my Marriott status
          * I have £140 left which will pay for a decent dinner for my wife and I in the Corrigan’s restaurant or the steak house
          * I will get at least 7,500 Marriott points if I do it next week, and potentially 10,000 Marriott points if they launch a double points promo
          * I get a night of elite credit towards the 9 I still need to trigger 5 Suite Night Upgrade certificates

        • meta says:

          13 Oct13 October 10:02

          Granted everyone’s situation is different.

          I don’t need the office space and don’t need to chase SNA’s. Points wise, yes, I could get a decent chunk of points, but I could equally buy them for much less than the extra spend if I needed them. Also judging by the comments Executive Lounge at Grosvenor has limited offer at the moment.

          So yeah, it’s not clear cut that’s why people shouldn’t be too angry for not having received the offer.

        • Andrew says:

          13 Oct13 October 10:04

          I thought the 6am/6pm rate was a day use rate rather than an overnight so you get it from 6am to 6pm on the same day rather than 6am on day 1 to 6pm on day 2?

        • Rob says:

          13 Oct13 October 10:10

          No. I thought that too but it clearly comes up when pricing for a one day in, another day out booking.

          Let’s be frank. They are at 15% occupancy. Why do they care if I come at 6am?!

        • TGLoyalty says:

          13 Oct13 October 10:09

          @Andrew that’s how I read it before too.

          Which is why I didn’t book.

          @Rob Have you confirmed with hotel it’s an overnight stay?

        • Rob says:

          13 Oct13 October 10:22

          No. But if I turned up at 8.30am waving a Platinum Elite Bonvoy card and my confirmation they won’t turn me away.

        • Lady London says:

          13 Oct13 October 14:51

          Is WeWork £170 a day then ? seems steep.

        • Rob says:

          13 Oct13 October 15:05

          £40 per day, so I save £80 if I go 6am Mon to 6pm Tue

• Ana says:

  13 Oct13 October 04:44

  We got it and booked it last night – 2 nights at The Wellesley for this week!

  • Ana says:

    13 Oct13 October 04:45

    Wished I had received this email as would have happily booked via Bon Vivant (but our booking is for today)

• Tom King says:

  13 Oct13 October 04:52

  Rob,why don’t you offer your night as a competition prize ?

  • Rob says:

    13 Oct13 October 07:44

    Because my wife’s been nagging me to take her out for dinnner for ages!

• James says:

  13 Oct13 October 06:06

  Just checked my offers in the app and it there! :). Thanks Rob for the heads up!

• Cat says:

  13 Oct13 October 06:24

  Hey, I was a bit late to this one (but got lucky, and saved it to my card at 11pm last night – Marriott has now completely made up for Qatar’s rather exhausting offer from last week!).
  I would absolutely love some quality time in a spa, but I’m not sure I trust that we’ll still be on tier 1 come late November. Which of the hotels in the South has an amazing spa (ideally one that’s still open, despite COVID, and is kept in a pristine condition), other than the Langley?
  Thanks Rob, I’m delighted to hear about this one in time to be one of the lucky 2000!

  • Nick Burch says:

    13 Oct13 October 10:45

    I don’t think you can use your Marriott £400 for a spa other than the Langley, however some of the other offers you might have (eg Marriott £200/£50, Hilton £200/£50) might work. Do a search on the Marriott website for United Kingdom, hit filter, then activities, then Full Service Spa, and you’ll see a bunch that could work. For Hilton, probably search on London then hit filters then Spa, repeat for a few other cities. The Hilton search covers a pretty big radius.

    The Small Luxury Hotels and Leading Hotels offers of spend £350 get £100 back could work too, if you don’t mind spending a bit more…

    • Cat says:

      13 Oct13 October 17:28

      I’m being a cheapskate, Nick!
      I think the Bulgari Hotel Spa is supposed to be pretty amazing, and the W has one, but no idea how fancy it is. I may just have to give both hotels a ring, to see how they’re operating the spa at the moment, and whether I’ll be able to use it (and feel safe doing so!).
      It’s good to hear from you! Love to both you and M! X

      • Nick Burch says:

        13 Oct13 October 21:51

        Would be interesting to do the risk comparison between an indoor spa here (with ventilation issues), or flying to somewhere like Iceland where you could be outside in thermal waters but with the extra travel!

        I’ve stayed at a few mid-range hotels lately on work trips which have pools, and they have all been “booked spa treatment guests only, no hotel guests permitted”. Cuts down on numbers and hence risks, but means you really need to be sure you’ll be allowed in. Phone call seems the best option to check.

        I’ve not been on FB in months, M uses it infrequently, but message us if you fancy a chat or a socially-distanced walk out this way!

        • Cat says:

          13 Oct13 October 23:01

          You have a point there! Getting on a plane at the moment makes me nervous though. I think being in an inside pool with limited numbers will be fine, as pool areas are generally pretty well ventilated – it’s the sauna and steam room that aren’t (and they’re all closed at the moment).
          I’ll give the Bulgari a call, but the Langley seems to be closed at the moment!
          I may take you up on that socially-distanced walk one weekend soon, if the new tier system allows!

• Giacomo says:

  13 Oct13 October 07:02

  What if I book a cheap 50£ for 8 night and I show up only for check-in and check-out?
  Will the hotel have a problem with that?

  • Andrew says:

    13 Oct13 October 07:11

    None of the hotels in the offer are selling for less than £200 a night.

    • Giacomo says:

      13 Oct13 October 07:31

      Swindon which seems to be in the list (linked pdf) is 52£ or I’m reading it wrong?

      • Jonathan says:

        13 Oct13 October 07:44

        You’re reading the wrong list. Are you looking at the spend £200 get £50 back offer?

        • Giacomo says:

          13 Oct13 October 07:55

          No, I’m looking at the spend 400 get 400 back. (the link is above) I understand I will not get the addional 100 usd credit (bon viant), but still I may find some value on the points and the +8 nights.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          13 Oct13 October 08:09

          There is only one hotel outside London in the uk and that’s trump

          Not sure if the link was incorrect and now been fixed but there’s no where that costs less than £200 a night on the list.

        • Giacomo says:

          13 Oct13 October 09:04

          For some reason from my mobile I always got the wrong (probably cached list, same wrong list also using the amex app) from laptop in incognito I can see the “london only” one. Thanks you saved me :). Will have to drive to London

• CF Frost says:

  13 Oct13 October 07:08

  Hi. To check a point. The ‘Best Available Rate’ – is that (in other words) the ‘Flexible rate’ published under the ‘Standard rates’ tab?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    13 Oct13 October 08:11

    Yeah the flexible rate. Not the member one as that’s for stays booked via Marriott.

    Remember you also give up any ca$h back

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