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Thanks all – much appreciated. Compensation claim is in, so fingers crossed…

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@u07ch – fair point about breakfast being included in the rate. Maybe I am overstating the Ambassador value a bit… But even the free spa treatments by themselves works out very well for us!

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@NorthernLass – I totally missed your question about breakfast – apologies.

Sadly I am no longer Diamond due to a combination of the loss of the credit card, plus the ambassador trick ceasing to work. For the first time in years and years I am not top tier with IHG 🙁

I did ask in advance the difference between the benefits for Ambassador and Diamond though – copied below. I hope it’s useful!

Ambassador
– Upgraded wellness platter with handwritten card;
– Late check-out at 4pm subject to availability.
– Early check-in at 10:00 subject to availability
– Room Upgrade subject to availability.
– Free Breakfast at Farmers Market;
– 50 minute massage per person complimentary OR free experience or 100€ to spend in F&B.

Diamond
– Upgraded wellness platter with handwritten card;
– Late check-out at 2pm subject to availability.
– Early check-in at 10:00 subject to availability.
– Room Upgrade subject to availability.
– Free Breakfast at Farmers Market;
– 30 minute head massage per person complimentary OR reflexology for two.

Come to think of it, I didn’t get my upgraded wellness platter…

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Indeed @LadyLondon and @NorthernLass, all of the above! Not actually IB, but we both work in similar sorts of jobs… Plus having two nursery age kids. Tired doesn’t even start to cover it!

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@JDB – yes, agreed re: luxury hotels as part of the larger groups. I was initially a bit concerned when IHG bought SS, but thought that the opportunity for outsized value redemption opportunities at SS hotels offset the concerns a bit.

Post closure of the IHG credit card, introduction of variable reward pricing, and the recent devaluation, it now all seems to be headed in one direction… Which is a real shame.

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@u07ch – that is horrendous. Absolutely no surprise that you won’t be back! Thankfully, despite the negatives, my stay was nowhere near that bad.

Interesting point about ‘blocks of hotel rooms’ – I was going to include something about that in my review, but dropped it in the end. There’s no escaping that the Ibiza hotel is just a pile of shoeboxes stacked up, all facing the sea, much like pretty much any beach hotel anywhere in southern Europe. It’s about as nice as it can be within that framework, but it’s not exactly what I think of when I think of ‘Six Senses’.

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@JDB and @LadyLondon – thank you for the kind words. Particularly from such venerable members of the community!

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Fairmont Royal Palm Marrakech does – I would also be keen to hear of more hotels, as this worked really well for our recent family trip.

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As a follow up – I emailed customercare@accor.com on 8th Feb with my request. After asking for some further information to verify who I was, I received an email yesterday (15th Feb) telling me that my auto-conversion had been turned off.

Not a particularly quick turnaround, but not difficult at all.

Thanks again everyone above for your help.

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chrisw1983 wrote:

Hiya. Maybe not one that you have looked at but it is lovely and peaceful and has a shuttle to the mayhem of the town is the Fairmont in Marrakech. We stayed there in January for a few nights.

I am just back from a stay at the Fairmont (I might write up a review…) and with kids one of the ‘Prince Villas’ they have in the grounds is a great option. We were very happy with it.

It wasn’t a flawless stay from a service perspective though, and I would say the hotel is definitely a notch below what I would expect from Aman/Royal Mansour/Mamounia. However, if you value the space and privacy (and don’t mind a 25 minute drive to the Medina) it is worth considering.

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With one kid, I never had any problem booking a room for 2 adults, then contacting the hotel to ask for a cot in the room (if required – sometimes I had a travel cot).

Mostly the hotel was happy to provide a cot in the booked room, and sometimes I was upgraded to a room with a bit more space (generally where I had decent status).

As a counterpoint to some of the comments above – if I had the travel cot, I wouldn’t even bother to tell the hotel that we were bringing an infant too, and I have never had an issue at check in (mostly UK/Europe). YMMV, of course.

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Thanks @PeteM – I have just emailed them. From your experience @Rob I am not holding out much hope! I can’t believe that such a large consumer business has such terrible IT.

Thanks also for the advice @Meta, but that is probably beyond me without more effort than I am willing to make…

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I stayed at the Level Meliá Sky last year for work. It was fine as things go, and the lounge was a nice place to pass the time, but it’s not the best location for a short visit as a tourist. I am sure the Nobu would be a notch above from a design/finish perspective as well. As noted above, I would look elsewhere.

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e14 wrote:

I get points and status on my Corp TA bookings ?

Me too…

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I had missed that Som Saa was on this list – thanks for the prompt @kevinchoi! I am overdue a visit…

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yorkshireRich wrote:

I checked this morning and I’m now platinum. I tried but ultimately failed. Some you win, some you lose, but it was nice when I had it.
I’ve booked in Sydney Ic in 2 weeks time but the reviews for breakfast weren’t great anyway, so it will now force me to eat somewhere else.

Same for me, downgrade to Platinum. A shame, but nice while it lasted. I really don’t think I will make it back to Diamond again without credit card earnings.

Re: Sydney, I can’t think of many cities in the world with better breakfast/brunch options! Maybe it is a blessing in disguise

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Same for me. I have rolled my Diamond status via the Ambassador route since the creation debacle, so a downgrade may be on the cards… I certainly haven’t got the stays to retain it!

I do have a high value IHG stay booked for this year though, so maybe they will be lenient!

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I think you would be absolutely fine at Fallow. I also have a soft spot for Lyle’s (used my credit there last year) which is consistently very good. Agree with avoiding Petrus – there are much better options out there.

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Agree with all of the above. Arrive at LHR with the car reasonably well charged and you will be fine. Our VW EV loses virtually no charge when parked up for an extended period. Zapmap is good, as noted above. There will likely be LHR hotels with chargers, but I can’t help with that. I have done meet & greet parking at LGW which included charging the car, and that was fine, but I understand the concern with a new car!

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Thanks @fh2 and @BBbetter. I will have a look at Abu Dhabi as well. It has generally passed me by as a holiday destination until now, but I will take a look at the hotels.Much appreciated.

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The real Swiss Tony wrote:

Note half term seems to straddle two weeks this year, so slipping your trip into March may have some advantages.

Also “nearly 3” might preclude the older one from kids club type things, so i’d check that carefully. If you’re exhausted, I assume someone else doing a bit of the heavy lifting is wanted.

Remember that the UAE is a 4hr time difference in the winter, which is the same as Barbados, so might be looking west as well as east.

And just to throw it out there, there are some brilliant family centric ski hotels out there, that come with superb kids facilities including all day childcare from a very young age, lavish pools and great food. The childcare is typically designed so the parents can go skiing but no one will judge you! Check out the Lowe and Bar hotels in Serfaus (1hr from Innsbruck) or the Zauchenseehof in Zauchensee (1hr from Salzburg).

By March it will likely be warm, it’s a 2hr flight, no jet lag etc and even if you don’t ski yourselves, you could likely get the almost 3 yr old some taster lessons – or at least go sledging!

All good points! I hadn’t actually realised that Barbados was only a 4hr time difference… Still, we are somewhat scarred by taking the eldest to Miami when he was about the same age as our youngest is now, and being awake at 3am. Every Single Day. We were the first people at breakfast every day, banging on the door at 7am… I have vivid memories of walking along South Beach with the baby in the carrier at about 5.30am, just for something to do. It’s an experience we aren’t keen to repeat, so going East is preferable.

Interesting points about ski hotels. It probably is something that we should think about. We really want the kids to be able to ski from a young age, but every time I think about a Jan/Feb holiday I just want some palm trees…

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Yo-yo, all day long. Have travelled a good amount short and long haul, and never had any issues. Brand recognition is so good that gate staff try to take it off you, then say ‘oh, it’s a yoyo’ and wave you through.

They are surprisingly robust as well – ours has seen a lot of wear and tear…

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Interactive Investor has historically accepted curve. Need to test whether the underlying cards I have used before will still work with no fees…

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I am with Barclays, and did not know that you could make payments using bendy… That is interesting! Are you talking about making overpayments, or a payment in place of the regular monthly DD? I have a slightly terrifying amount of mortgage debt at the moment, and earning some points back would soften the blow a bit!

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How are people reaching CS to discuss the undisclosed fees etc. I have tried calling the phone line, but have given up after a 1h+ wait each time… Is there an email / Twitter account or anything else that people have had success with?