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News: Nectar Connect fixed, Virgin Holidays Dubai & Maldives deals, Crowne Plaza JFK closes

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News in brief:

Nectar Connect is now accepting American Express registrations again

Six weeks ago I published an article called ‘Nectar Connect is growing on me, because it doubles up with Amex cashback offers‘.

Nectar has a ‘card linked offers’ programme called Nectar Connect. This allows you to earn Nectar points (and therefore Avios) when you link your credit and debit card details to your Nectar account and spend at participating retailers.

What is good about Nectar Connect is that it doubles up with other deals, such as American Express statement credit offers. I am finding this increasingly valuable.

Unfortunately, at the same time as our article came out, Nectar Connect lost the ability to connect to Amex due to some tech changes.

This is now fixed. Readers have told me this week that they can now register American Express cards. I get an error message when I try to renew my existing links (you need to renew them every 90 days because of the high level of data mining that Nectar does on you) but new registrations seem fine. I may have to let my existing registrations expire and then start again.

You can find out more in my original article, link above.

Nectar Connect American Express acceptance

Virgin Atlantic Holidays offering Dubai and Maldives discounts

Virgin Atlantic is gearing up to launch flights to Dubai (from October) and the Maldives (from November) and Virgin Atlantic Holidays has launched a short term promotion on both destinations.

(Pressure from Virgin Atlantic Holidays was a core reason for returning to Dubai, which the airline on its own struggled to justify. Even now there will be just four flights per week – and only for the Winter season – compared to 11 per DAY from London on Emirates.)

Here’s the deal:

  • save £250 per booking to the Maldives and £150 per booking to Dubai
  • book by Tuesday 11th July
  • travel between 22nd October 2023 and 29th March 2024
  • stay at least four nights and include a hotel
  • flights must be on Virgin Atlantic

You can find out more on the Virgin Atlantic Holidays website here.

Virgin Holidays discounts

Crowne Plaza JFK Airport New York City closes

Finally, a brief note that the Crowne Plaza JFK Airport New York City hotel has unexpectedly closed down.

A HfP reader with a reward booking for next week was emailed by IHG to say that the hotel was now shuttered. Whilst IHG did offer alternatives, the only options given were three Holiday Inn Express properties, only one of which was anywhere near the airport ….

The hotel situation around JFK is odd, with none of the hotels having a good reputation. The TWA Hotel, whilst architecturally impressive, is driving guests away with its ‘nickle and dime’ attitude to charges, including for the swimming pool, as Rhys found.

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Category

IHG One Rewards, Sainsbury's and Nectar, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (26)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Chrisasaurus says:
    24 Jun24 June 06:41

    I was at CP JFK a few weeks back and it was a mess. Mostly shuttered off for ‘refurbishment’ and staff were taking pleasure in not serving . Thought I was in a post office with the number of staff sat on checkin desks not serving anyone – queue was to the door at midnight

  • SammyJ says:
    24 Jun24 June 07:47

    The situation at that CP is rather baffling – someone on the IHG group was there the day it closed, had checked in, and was then asked to leave due to the sudden unexpected closure. It was rumoured to be due to it being used to house migrants/deportees but that doesn’t really stack up. We were there a couple of months ago and it was undergoing substantial refurb works. Shame, as it was a comparatively decent hotel with the bonus of free parking.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      24 Jun24 June 10:34

      Maybe they realised they can’t actually operate while being refurbished, from the sounds of it they can’t, or came across more construction problems than expected

    • Lady London says:
      24 Jun24 June 23:10

      has it gone bust?

  • Dean says:
    24 Jun24 June 07:48

    I just re-registered with Nectar Connect (my account got mangled during the IT problems when trying to re-authorise) but it says there are no available offers for me. Anyone else seeing that?

    • Rob says:
      24 Jun24 June 08:12

      Takes a while until they mine your card data.

    • Lawrence says:
      24 Jun24 June 17:34

      Will be interesting what offers I get once my card gets mined – I only have three offers showing, all for wine.

      I don’t drink

      • JD says:
        25 Jun25 June 18:48

        Hi Howard. Is this your bank card or your Barclaycard credit card. I don’t seem to get as far as you. I just get a message saying that they could not connect to the third party application. How are you finding the Barclays Premier Account btw. I am thinking of switching

  • Travel Strong says:
    24 Jun24 June 07:51

    It feels like a strategic oversight that the timing of the virgin flight schedule to Dubai cuts off in the *middle* of the easter weekend (purely because thats when the last day of March happens to fall?!). They’ve cut themselves out of the market for easter holiday makers as you can fly out on the Fri/Sat/Sun but then there are no returns!.
    Seems like a crazy decision/error (even if the aircraft was needed for launch of another route – surely it would make sense to make one or the other destination available for easter round trips, not stop/start both routes in the middle of the peak weekend?).

    • Rob says:
      24 Jun24 June 08:12

      Equally crazy it doesn’t start a week earlier to get October half term in many places.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      24 Jun24 June 13:28

      The March cut off isn’t related to Easter but when the winter/summer schedule comes in which is the last Sunday of the month and the same day the clocks change in Europe.

      In 2025 Easter Sunday is 20 April yet the summer season will start on Sunday 30th March.

  • PeterK says:
    24 Jun24 June 08:24

    The nectar / Amex link still doesn’t like it when you try to connect all of your Amex cards at the same time. Connect them one by one and it works ok.

  • Mutley says:
    24 Jun24 June 09:34

    I stayed at the CP JFK on 8 th and 12th June, no refurb work as far as I could see, massive room on 8 th floor, same grumpy staff as always though. Radisson Hilton , Hampton and Marriott right next door. So plenty of alternatives

  • JD says:
    24 Jun24 June 10:35

    Anyone having issues adding Barclaycard to Nectar Connect? I am getting an error message when I try to link my accounts.

    This Nectar connect thing is still very flaky. I have had several transactions that have not tracked and the Nectar support line are just useless!!!

    • Howard says:
      24 Jun24 June 11:45

      I managed to connect the Barclays card. You should be given a code to input into the Barclays banking app (if you have that installed), then you go to the Barclays app, go to settings-> make a banking connection -> input code.

    • Andrew. says:
      24 Jun24 June 12:01

      It takes multiple nudges to get IHG stays to register, then Nectar just blame Cardlytics.

      I’ve complained directly to Cardlytics about their poor performance, but had no response.

      Might do an ICO complaint next. I’ve given them consent to trough my data, but if they aren’t paying out points properly it’s clear evidence (in my mind anyway) that they aren’t processing my personal data with due diligence.

    • TooPoorToBeHere says:
      24 Jun24 June 12:54

      Successfully linked Barclays and Amex.

  • Daniel says:
    24 Jun24 June 12:31

    Stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Jamaica – JFK AirTrain – NYC, which is close to the airtrain, so actually quite well connected both to the airport via the airtrain, but also Manhattan through the subway. During Covid the worst breakfast I had ever encountered and not the nicest neighbourhood, but decent enough for an affordable nights stay.

    • Nick says:
      24 Jun24 June 18:21

      Well it’s not the upper west side but it’s perfectly safe and you can be on airtrain/subway within 5 mins of leaving the hotel. Just make sure to ask where breakfast is as they won’t tell you automatically. It’s my go-to at JFK as it’s half the price of any other hotel with easy access to the airport. Or was, I suppose, given how much they’ll hike prices with this news.

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