[bruinbrown]

An interesting new offer just popped up on my platinum card – spend £6.99 at reward flight finder and get £6.99 back up to 3 times before April next year.

[bruinbrown]

A new offer popped up on my platinum this morning – spend £50 anywhere get £10 back 3 times

[bruinbrown]

I have a suspicion as to what has happened here. Given the cost of the hotel in local currency is reasonably high, as soon as you had a sufficiently high number of nights, the total cost of the hotel overflowed a 32 bit integer. Some part of the site clearly couldn’t cope with the large numbers caused by a high daily rate in a currency like Rupiah.

Unfortunately I think in this case you’ll get no recourse as it was just a “presentation” bug rather than an invalid rate. The hotel clearly knew the actual rate was 169000000 per night and since Marriott processes all payments at the hotel I would anticipate the hotel would be able to process such a high rate which marriotts it couldn’t.

[bruinbrown]

Quite a few new offers for me today
De Beers Spend £1000 get £200 back
Game Get 10% back
Fortnum and mason Get 10% back
Farrow and ball Spend £200 get £20 back
Selco builders warehouse Spend £150 get £15 back

[bruinbrown]

Carlos wrote:

bruinbrown wrote:

One thing to consider with airport lounges is how long they’ll actually let you stay there. I’ve just taken a look on priority pass and you’ve got a few lounges which will only let you stay for 3 hours at a time (lounges in concourse A and C) but there’s also some in concourse B which will let you stay for 4 or 5 hours when using a lounge card. I can’t comment on whether any of them are worth spending 5 hours in though.

How do they track your stay?

It depends on the lounge, I’ve got a feeling that quite a few don’t care, especially if it’s quiet. You’ll be reminded of the limit when you arrive but that’s about it. Some of the lounges, the main one I can think of being Amex centurion lounges, won’t allow you access until 3 hours before your flight is scheduled to leave to limit how long you can actually spend in the lounge.

[bruinbrown]

One thing to consider with airport lounges is how long they’ll actually let you stay there. I’ve just taken a look on priority pass and you’ve got a few lounges which will only let you stay for 3 hours at a time (lounges in concourse A and C) but there’s also some in concourse B which will let you stay for 4 or 5 hours when using a lounge card. I can’t comment on whether any of them are worth spending 5 hours in though.

[bruinbrown]

I booked a couple of nights for early next year. Standouts are the Hotel Alfonso XIII in Seville for £210. The main reason for booking though is that these are prepaid rates but refundable. I booked the Barcelona edition for one night through FHR later this year for about £330. So now the 2 stays combined will be enough to trigger the Marriott luxury hotels offer on my Amex.

The rate discount was about £40 which isn’t bad either. I also booked an AC which saved me a couple of pounds as well.

[bruinbrown]

Guernsey Globetrotter wrote:

Great write-up @bruinbrown – thanks so for much detail and useful comparisons between the options. I think you’ve covered a lot of the Dubai / UAE resorts that often get mentioned on here, so it makes for a very handy summary for some planning that I (and lots of others) will likely be doing at some stage. You seem quite taken with the RC Al Hamra in spite of the food but I wondered if you’d had a look at the beach etc. at the Waldorf and whether that might be an option (not Marriott of course)? I get the impression it is better value than the RC but perhaps suffers from having too many large groups/ kids etc so may not be as peaceful as the RC for a couple. It looks like you packed a lot in and made the most of your Platinum status and hopefully you two had a great trip!

We drove past the WA on the way to the RC and the building looked stunning – to the extent that we actually planned to have lunch in the WA on the last day until we realised the Lexington Grill was only open in the evening. It’s definitely a much bigger hotel than the RC and I’m sure that gives it a very different feel.

I can’t comment on the WA beach but if it’s similar to the beach at the RC then the sand is quite sharp due to the amount of crushed shells. Whilst you could walk barefoot down to the sea, there were a few places where it was more noticeable and was uncomfortable to walk.

[bruinbrown]

Whilst it’s not a hotel breakfast, Hide on Piccadilly has an excellent breakfast.

[bruinbrown]

There’s 2 parts to the Barclays Premier Avios, there’s the premier bank account which can be opened in branch, online, by phone. Then, once you’ve created an account and can see the account in the app then you can opt into the Barclays Avios Rewards within the Barclays app.

[bruinbrown]

You’d get credits for the nights, and points for any incidentals during the stay, but your hotel cost is 0 and so you won’t get any points for your stay cost and you’ll get no points for your city taxes etc. If you’ve got any status with Marriott then you’ll also get the bonus points on your spend. If you choose a welcome gift of points then they’ll credit as well. You might also get any points from promotions.

[bruinbrown]

Looking at the bonvoy terms and conditions says the following

United States, Canada, Europe: 500 Points per Stay or U.S. $10 F&B credit per night of Stay for Member +1**

Asia, Australia, Pacific Islands, Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, South America, the Middle East, and Africa: 500 Points per Stay or F&B amenity per Stay or U.S. $10 F&B credit per night of Stay

So in Europe you should be getting the $10 per person per night (don’t forget you don’t get a $200 credit but $20 per night). Although in the Middle East and Africa the welcome gift is a F&B amenity.

[bruinbrown]

No, my mistake, I’ve just gone through my Twitter DMs and it was 16 nights for platinum not 12

[bruinbrown]

I signed up for it back in February and the terms were to complete 12 nights within the next 3 calendar months plus the current month. I.e. sign up on the 1st Feb and you get February, March, April and May or sign up on the 28th Feb and get March, April and May. I’m not sure how often they offer it and whether it’s targeted or not. Not long after I signed up they stopped accepting applications. If you’re interested I’d suggest just messaging them on your preferred social media platform asking whether they are offering a status challenge at the moment.

[bruinbrown]

The Amex platinum gives you gold status but doesn’t give you the 25 nights to get the status.

If you take out the bonvoy card then you do get 15 night credits leaving 35 nights needed for platinum.

If you’re looking to get platinum with a lower night threshold, you can occasionally message bonvoy on Twitter or Facebook and ask for a status challenge where 12 nights in 3 months gets you platinum, however, they don’t publish when this is available and you don’t get platinum until after the 12 nights.

[bruinbrown]

Summer in Korea goes one of two ways, it’s either incredibly hot and can easily reach over 40 in certain parts of the country or there can be typhoons which are intense and lead to rainfall for weeks at a time.

I would definitely recommend spending quite a bit of time in Seoul, each time I go, I can easily spend 5 or 6 nights there. I’d say the best areas of Seoul over the past few years have been the areas north of the station. Dongdaemun, Namsan, Jongno are all great areas. The metro is cheap and easy but Seoul is a really big city. The shilla Seoul is definitely the best hotel I’ve encountered in Seoul, the rooms are dated but the service and food are incredible. The Signiel is great for views across Seoul but there’s not really lots in the neighbourhood. In terms of cheaper areas, I think places like Myeongdong have declined during the pandemic and aren’t as lively as they were 5 years ago but you’ll regularly find some great hotel deals around there. It’s quite easy to pick up a 4 points or courtyard for £50 per night.

Outside of Seoul, Busan is great but I don’t think you need too long there. After 1 night I’m usually bored. It’s great seeing the hundred storey skyscrapers around haeundae and walking along the beach but there isn’t as much to do as other cities. The Hilton resort just outside Busan is great for 1 night as well.

Jeju is great and should definitely be on your list as others have said. Make sure to get some Jeju black pig or ribbon fish, both local specialities.

For me one of the best things about korea is the food and different cities have different specialities. Jeonju is great for banchan and makgeolli. Gyeongju is great for a really historic feel. Pohang is amazing if you’re a fan of seafood, if you can stomach wriggling octopus, there’s a few places in the seafood market which serve sanakjj.

To travel between cities, the train is probably the easiest option. The high speed train is fast and comfortable. You can take the munghungwa train to save money but it’s much slower. Flights to jeju are very busy and Seoul to jeju before the pandemic was the worlds busiest flight route but because there’s so many seats your tickets should never be that expensive.

[bruinbrown]

I think it really depends on the hotel. The strictest I’ve stayed in, the shilla in Seoul, asked to see my platinum card at check in and then put through a pending charge to verify the card actually worked. They also commented that they have had people try and use cancelled cards for FHR and were declined all of the benefits of their booking. But this is definitely an outlier and most of the hotels I’ve stayed in don’t care too much about the card you use, it really just depends on the front desk staff.

[bruinbrown]

This recommendation might be a bit much but based on your comment that you were willing to take local flights from Bangkok, I’ll add it. Have you considered Bali? You could get a BA Avios flight to Singapore and from there take a short haul budget flight to DPS. AirAsia offer flights from Singapore to Bali for about $150 per person (even cheaper from KUL and similar flight times but there’s no BA flights there yet) and take about 2 hours 30. Once you get there though it would definitely fulfil a lot of the requirements you’ve got. There’s plenty of great hotels and AirBnBs there for low prices. The food in a local restaurant would range from £3 to £10 per person, beer, coffee and other drinks are a little cheaper than the UK. Taxis are pretty cheap and are a few pounds for local journeys or £20 for longer trips, and bike taxis are even cheaper than that. There’s plenty of sight seeing and things to do.

[bruinbrown]

I’m a fan of the autograph collection hotels for making the most out of platinum, each one I’ve stayed at has given great upgrades across several categories without prompting and the breakfast benefit ends up being a full restaurant breakfast rather than a few pastries in the lounge. My 2 favourites this year have been the Gewandhaus in Dresden which was a great hotel with a great breakfast and Roomers Baden-Baden, where we got a huge upgrade to an amazing suite.

I know Rob has reviewed it a few times now but the St Regis New York I’ve found to be great for platinum recognition. The room upgrade was to a massive 120 m2 suite, the breakfast credit goes quite a long way and they were the most proactive hotel I’ve encountered with the 4pm guaranteed late checkout (I forgot to ask at check in about it so when we stopped by later in the day and asked about it the staff said it was already done when we checked in).

[bruinbrown]

We ended up staying in a few hotels in New York when we visited earlier this year, mainly driven by the lack of affordable options this year. We stayed around Times Square in a Courtyard (not far from the HI Times Square), the Thompson Gild Hall, the St Regis and also the Conrad Downtown. So we ended up getting to stay in quite a few areas of the city.

Personally I quite enjoyed the Conrad Downtown, the hotel is clean, modern and seemed to be in good nick generally. The rooms were a great size and we ended up getting a river view room which was more like a sliver of the river through the buildings opposite. The toiletries were Byredo. The breakfast for golds was a $25 credit per person per day which was enough for a single dish but the portion sizes were huge. I thought the area was great, it feels like Canary Wharf, and the hotel clientele will likely reflect that (it’s right next door to the Goldman Sachs office) but it’s easy to move around downtown and the city. The WTC station is within walking distance and the subway from there makes travel around the city easy, and the path trains from new jersey terminate there as well making travel to Jersey City reasonably quick, but there’s plenty nearby as well.

Overall I really liked the hotel and would happily stay there again. It’s great value on points and with the 5 for 4 it’s even better. If I had to choose between the Courtyard Times Square or the Conrad Downtown, I’d likely choose the Conrad, especially if booking on points.

[bruinbrown]

I’m personally a big fan of the le labo amenities in edition hotels. Since using those for the first time I’ve actually ended up getting the thé noir 29 range, which is the le labo name for the scent, as a Christmas gift the other year.

[bruinbrown]

bruinbrown wrote:

Roaming in the US is easy enough, I’ve had decent network coverage but speeds haven’t been particularly amazing. You can’t use a personal hotspot whilst roaming either. But the biggest problem I’ve found is that accessing certain websites whilst roaming will just redirect you to the three website. Eg if you try and load opentable you just get redirected to the three website. The websites which seem to be affected by this change frequently, opentable is now working properly but certain tourist websites are now blocked.

An update on this – I followed @AndyGWP’s advice and changed networks manually, AT&T and t mobile I seemed to have problems with but I’ve been using Verizon with no problems at all

[bruinbrown]

A brief experience report using a couple of three PAYG SIM cards whilst roaming in the US recently. I bought a couple of the 3 8GB prepaid PAYG SIM cards from Amazon for about £8 each for roaming in the US, painless to set up in the UK, drop the SIM card in and you’ve got 8GB of data valid for a month.

Roaming in the US is easy enough, I’ve had decent network coverage but speeds haven’t been particularly amazing. You can’t use a personal hotspot whilst roaming either. But the biggest problem I’ve found is that accessing certain websites whilst roaming will just redirect you to the three website. Eg if you try and load opentable you just get redirected to the three website. The websites which seem to be affected by this change frequently, opentable is now working properly but certain tourist websites are now blocked.

Also it seems like I semi-regularly just lose all capability of accessing the internet until I restart my phone, it sometimes seems to happen whenever you receive a security code by text message, and flicking your phone to airplane mode and back isn’t enough to get data back.

I’m not sure if this is limited to three roaming in the US or if I’m likely to see it elsewhere but I’m unlikely to use three for roaming in the future. It’s problematic enough that it seems like I just can’t depend on it.

[bruinbrown]

I had a cancellation on a Prague to Heathrow flight on the 3rd April. I also got the weekly emails asking that I be patient and then I got an email on the 12th May saying that my claim was approved and all expenses and compensation would be paid out with 2 weeks.

[bruinbrown]

I’ve been using it since December of last year mostly for international spend, I’m pretty happy with it so far. The app is fine but you can only be logged in on 1 device at a time which is an annoyance. Also I’ve occasionally had problems at hotels with using the card for a deposit since it has no numbers printed on it.

The cashback is really good though and appears in a pot ready to transfer to your account soon after the transaction moves from pending to complete and transfers of cashback to your account are instant.

They’ve also just started offering a savings product at 1.5% which you can get in the app.

I’ve not used some of the more unique features like multiple accounts but as a travel card with cashback it’s been great, although the cashback is only a 12 month offer.