Bits: 400 Avios with Rioja, LateRooms.com £5 Amazon voucher extended, Cat 1 Hilton deal

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News in brief:

400 Avios with six bottle of rioja

The British Airways Wine Club, run by Laithwaites, is fairly well known. Far fewer people know that Iberia has its own UK-delivery wine deal with vinoseleccion.

Here is their latest offer. You receive a half-price case of six bottles of award-winning Rioja Reservas for just £40, including free UK delivery. You will also receive 400 Avios in Iberia Plus – which is a good way of ‘activating’ a new Iberia Plus account to allow transfers in and out.

LateRooms.com extends its £5 Amazon voucher offer

UK hotel booking site LateRooms.com has extended its current offer of a £5 Amazon.co.uk voucher when you book selected hotels. Not all hotels are included, but there is no minimum stay – this means that it represents a decent return on your expenditure.

You can find out more on the LateRooms.com site here. Hotels offering the voucher are shown clearly during the booking process. The offer will now run until at least 18th August although you can stay at any point.

Using your Hilton HHonors points at the new Hilton Alexandria King’s Ranch in Egypt

There are only a handful of Category 1 Hilton HHonors properties in the world which are just 5,000 points per night (4,000 per night for 5 nights or more if you have status).

Three of them are in Alexandria in Egypt. Hilton Alexandria King’s Ranch has literally just opened, and HfP reader Xavier was there last week.

He highly recommends the property – it is obviously in excellent condition, being new, and the facilities are excellent. These three photographs were taken by him.

To put this deal into comparison, you could stay here for free for 8 nights (10 nights if you have Hilton status) if you got the free American Express Gold card and converted the 20,000 Membership Rewards points into Hilton HHonors points. You can even get Hilton HHonors status for free – at Silver level – by taking out the Hilton credit card.

How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards (December 2021)

There are various ways of earning Hilton Honors points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as they hold the card? It also comes with Marriott Bonvoy Gold, Radisson Rewards Gold and MeliaRewards Gold status. We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Did you know that the Virgin Atlantic credit cards are a great way of earning Hilton Honors points? Two Virgin Points can be converted into three Hilton Honors points. The Virgin Atlantic cards are the only Visa or Mastercard products in the UK which can indirectly earn Hilton Honors points. You can apply here.

You can also earn Hilton Honors points indirectly with American Express Gold (20,000 bonus points), the American Express Rewards Credit Card (5,000 bonus points) and – for small business owners – American Express Business Gold (20,000 bonus points) and Business Platinum (40,000 bonus points).

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Hilton Honors points.

(Want to earn more hotel points? Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Category

Hilton Honors, Iberia and Iberia Plus

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

James says:

7 Oct7 October 05:23

The only problem is the security situation in Egypt, which can best be described as unpredictable.
Linda says:

7 Oct7 October 05:43

On the subject of wine. Tesco have a new wine code. 500 bonus club points on £60. Valid until 11 Oct for first 3500 orders. From MSE.
- harry says:
  
  7 Oct7 October 06:33
  
  XXPPGG
  - Linda says:
    
    7 Oct7 October 06:45
    
    Oops. Cheers Harry
  - idrive says:
    
    7 Oct7 October 15:36
    
    still active as of now 3.37pm
    - Rob says:
      
      7 Oct7 October 22:37
      
      Exactly, which is why I have removed comments clogging up this page!
Mark says:

7 Oct7 October 06:35

More picture of hotel via trip advisor http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g295398-d7319768-Reviews-Hilton_Alexandria_King_s_Ranch-Alexandria_Alexandria_Governorate.html

As for security situation being unpredictable, then you would be ruling out most of the Middle East starting from Turkey then onwards, plus you could include the Indian subcontinent too.

Put every simply you are either risk adverse or not and you will not go anywhere as most countries have area that you would not go to, this means the few people with extreme views win and dictate what we do. So my answer is I want to see the world and I will no matter what a few people do or think!

My final thought on this is, if you travel anywhere l.e. drive, fly or take a train you are risking your life! So we only have one life and we will go when it’s our time, so just live it.
- plastikman says:
  
  7 Oct7 October 06:53
  
  looking fwd to your trip review on syria.
  - Rob says:
    
    7 Oct7 October 10:09
    
    IS has opened its own hotel as you may have seen in the press. No offer to review it yet.
    - Brian says:
      
      7 Oct7 October 13:53
      
      Do they give loyalty points? 🙂
      - Neil says:
        
        7 Oct7 October 15:52
        
        Understand their not keen if you switch chains though… A status match with Judaism frowned upon…
      - Neil says:
        
        7 Oct7 October 15:52
        
        They’re… Grrr (editable posts please, Rob!)
- Danksy says:
  
  7 Oct7 October 07:06
  
  I’ve been to Egypt 10 or 11 times, in reality at the moment I wouldn’t go anywhere other than Cairo or Sharm El Sheikh. https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/egypt is always worth a look before travelling.
  
  Alexandria is on my list of places to visit, but given its proximity to Libya and the well documented security there I’m waiting until things improve.
  - Sebastian says:
    
    7 Oct7 October 09:16
    
    Yeah, I’ve been looking to go to Alex for a while, but I’ve got to agree, with the way Egypt is at the moment I am not prepared to go anywhere bar Cairo and Sharm as the defence is lacking in the other areas.
    - James67 says:
      
      7 Oct7 October 14:35
      
      IME it was often the defence you had to worry about! I had a four year project there before all the troubles started, had mant great times and would love to go back but I feel this risk is too great. It is not so much a personal thing but rather the anxiety caused to familyand friends back home that is the main deterant.
oyster says:

7 Oct7 October 08:25

If I open an Iberia account, how is it ‘connected’ to my BA Exec Club account? Or even to my Avios account?
Or are transfers between the 3 allowed by way of a name & address match and nothing more?
- Raffles says:
  
  7 Oct7 October 09:14
  
  You use Combine My Avios as usual. Needs the usual date of birth, email and surname match (or at lesst 2 of the 3, we’ve never fully cracked it!).
- Mark says:
  
  7 Oct7 October 09:15
  
  You transfer points via Combine My Avios on BA.com or Avios.com.
  
  You can transfer between any combination, though it gets a little more complicated if you have household accounts.
- Liz says:
  
  7 Oct7 October 10:05
  
  I recently booked next years holiday using the Lloyds voucher so I had to phone Avios.com to make the booking. After the booking was complete I asked her if I could combine my Iberia points which she did instantly over the phone. I had a household account at the time. Although I think she created a new account in my name to do the transaction while I was on the phone then combined them that way. I have since split the account into individual names.
Neil says:

7 Oct7 October 08:47

Ref the Rioja – good nudge. Account now activated via this good deal.

Ref Alexandria – looks good but there are levels of risk! For me the Hilton in Oman a short hop from Yemen too risky at present for me to risk taking the family there – not sure ref Alexandria but probably not…
- Danksy says:
  
  7 Oct7 October 12:50
  
  Neil – I went to Oman earlier this year; right now I’d need some convincing to go back until IS calms down a bit. Hopefully they’ll be too distracted in Syria for the forthcoming months to give Oman too much attention.
Brian says:

7 Oct7 October 13:55

OT – since it’s a ‘Bits’ article – that Kensington Forum HI deal, with all room available for redemptions, was clearly a glitch – only standard rooms are showing now. So well done to all those who managed to take advantage. My bookings have not been changed – yet – so still showing as suite bookings.
Liz says:

7 Oct7 October 14:16

OT: What are the rules for checking in at IHG hotels if the member is not staying. I just booked my husband in as a last minute booking for tomorrow night and I won’t be staying although I booked under my Spire Elite a/c with him as a 2nd guest. I also booked it through the Accelerate promotion and hope to get the 5000 pts per 1 night stay. Will there be a problem with me not checking in??
- James67 says:
  
  7 Oct7 October 14:43
  
  No issues in UK given you named him as second guest. Overseas it is mostly fine too although Rob has previously reported Spain to be a problem. You could always call the property direct if you are anxious about it. If there is any problem you will still have time to cancel and rebook elsewhere
  - Liz says:
    
    7 Oct7 October 15:02
    
    Thanks! I’ll keep the booking and hope for the best. He got a last minute hospitality offer for the Scotland v Poland match at Hampden tomorrow night!
Leo_C says:

7 Oct7 October 17:19

Thanks very much for the tip about vinoseleccion- The Rioja looks too good to be true- have ordered a case and will let you know- I have an iberia plus card thats to HfP
Ill let you know if the wine is any good
- harry says:
  
  7 Oct7 October 20:39
  
  Thanks, I’m waiting for your report
  - harry says:
    
    7 Oct7 October 20:41
    
    Please give it marks out of 100.
    
    Will surely buy – or not – on your recommendation, so kindly treat it very carefully.