Bits: IHG UK sale at 9am, triple Avios registration hiccups, HfP lounge review links

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News in brief:

IHG flash sale starts at 9am

IHG, owner of the Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental and Indigo brands amongst others, is launching a 72-hour flash sale at 9am today.

This will ONLY cover hotels in the UK.

I don’t have any further information except that the discounts will be “amazing” (says IHG) and that you need to stay between 4th January and 27th February 2017.

The landing page for the sale is here. The InterContinental O2, pictured below, may or may not be included.

As the sale requires you to be an IHG Rewards Club (free to join) member to book, I would imagine – but check the small print – that rooms are guaranteed to qualify to earn points and stay credit. This could make it a cheap way to tick off some of your targets for the Spring ‘Accelerate’ promotion, especially if you are targeted for an extra bonus for a stay in January.

Registration issues for ‘triple Avios’

I wrote about the new British Airways ‘triple Avios’ promotion yesterday.

Many of us were getting odd messages when registering. During the morning, BA changed the website to say that UK and US residents must wait until Thursday to register. If your BA account lives elsewhere you can register now.

If you tried to register yesterday and got the confusing ‘Thank you for registering / you are not registered’ message, try again tomorrow.

Plaza Premium Terminal 4 two

Our UK airport lounge reviews collected

Following a reader suggestion, I have put together links to all of our UK airport and train lounge reviews in one place.

Going forward, you can easily find a link to a UK lounge review by going here. I haven’t included our overseas reviews because they are a rather eclectic selection. The UK listing is fairly comprehensive for the South East – I apologise for the weaker coverage elsewhere.

This is what we have so far:

Heathrow: Club Millesime T5 Arrivals, British Airways Concorde Room T5, British Airways Galleries First T5, British Airways T5 Arrivals, Aspire T5, Plaza Premium T4, Etihad T4, SkyTeam T4, Qatar Airways T4, Cathay Pacific T3 (and video and video), American Airlines T3, British Airways Galleries T3, Club Aspire T3 (and a video), Emirates T3, No 1 Lounges T3, Virgin Atlantic T3, Aer Lingus T2, Plaza Premium T2, Plaza Premium T2 #2, Plaza Premium T2 Arrivals, Lufthansa T2, Air Canada T2, United Airlines Business and First T2, Singapore Airlines T2

Gatwick: No 1 Traveller North, My Lounge North, My Lounge North #2, No 1 Lounges South, No 1 Lounges Clubrooms South

London City: First Class / Private Jet Terminal (and a video)

Luton: Aspire

Stansted: Escape

Southend: SkyLife

Edinburgh: No 1 Lounges, British Airways

Eurostar: St Pancras

Trains: Euston, Kings Cross, Paddington, Liverpool, Manchester Piccadilly

The photo above is from the Plaza Premium lounge in Heathrow Terminal 4.

Getting airport lounge access for free from a credit card

How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, here are the three options to get FREE airport lounge access via a credit or charge card:

The Platinum Card from American Express

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

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with two free Priority Pass cards, one for you and one for a supplementary cardholder. Each card admits two so a family of four gets in free. You get access to all 1,300 lounges in the Priority Pass network – search it here.

You also get access to Plaza Premium, Delta and Eurostar lounges. Our American Express Platinum review is here. You can apply here.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for the first year. It comes with a Priority Pass card loaded with two free visits to any Priority Pass lounge – see the list here.

Additional lounge visits are charged at £20. You get two more free visits for every year you keep the card.

There is no annual fee for Amex Gold in Year 1 and you get a 20,000 points sign-up bonus. Full details are in our American Express Preferred Rewards Gold review here.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard

A huge bonus, but only available to HSBC Premier clients Read our full review

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard gets you get a free LoungeKey card, allowing you access to the LoungeKey network. Guests are charged at £20 although it may be cheaper to pay £60 for a supplementary credit card for your partner.

The card has a fee of £195 and there are strict financial requirements to become a HSBC Premier customer. Full details are in my HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard review.

PS. You can find all of HfP’s UK airport lounge reviews – and we’ve been to most of them – indexed here.

Category

British Airways and Avios, IHG Rewards

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

Travelful says:

4 Jan4 January 11:49

IHG offer is a scam. Normal prices under the label of a ‘sale’
- Travelful says:
  
  4 Jan4 January 11:51
  
  How can we go about reporting this scam? The police or another body?
  - John says:
    
    4 Jan4 January 12:20
    
    https://www.asa.org.uk/Consumers/How-to-complain.aspx
  - Crafty says:
    
    4 Jan4 January 18:11
    
    Not even normal prices for me. Increases! I have never paid £89 for the HIX in Crewe and never will…
- Brian says:
  
  4 Jan4 January 13:34
  
  There are cheaper rates e.g. best available £55 but sale £39 at hotel I’m looking at.
  
  However can’t access these on the app. Despite the T&Cs stating app bookings count.
  
  What a screw up!
  - Colin JE says:
    
    4 Jan4 January 14:16
    
    Agreed. Very annoying as the Accelerate offer was going to give me a couple of thousand extra points for two app bookings, which I’d do in the sale if it wasn’t for the fact that the prices are at least £10 more in the app. There doesn’t seem to be a way to enter the sale code.
Max says:

4 Jan4 January 12:29

To make things worse, you can’t even book the Flash Sale prices via the app, which doesn’t help if you have an accelerate target of booking via the app.
- Scott S says:
  
  4 Jan4 January 12:34
  
  I haven’t found one price yet that’s cheaper through the sale. Not to say they’re not there somewhere though. It’s not quite like last year (or the year before?) where people were booking a hotel in London to use as an office etc. due to how cheap it was.
  I’m just going to book the normal rates that are up to £50 cheaper through the app / outside the sale and hit my Accelerate targets that way.
- Paul.H. says:
  
  4 Jan4 January 19:49
  
  Online chat agent confirmed that this is a web sale and no way to use the app.
  
  Crown Plaza towards end of Jan in London Docklands is £89 in sale… normally towards the £200 mark… so there are some savings to be had.
Liz says:

4 Jan4 January 12:49

OT but IHG related – has anyone ever had an IHG birthday bonus offer. I have just booked one night in Edinburgh in Jan to kickstart my Accelerate promotion off and noticed I had a couple of messages in the app. Offer was to stay any weekend winthin 90 days of my birthday (13/12) and earn 125102 bonus points which is obviously the balance I had in my account on the day of my birthday? I just booked a non refundable night on a Friday so now need to sort out another trip before March! I am hoping this is all stackable with my Accelerate promotion???!!! That’s some bonus!
- Brian says:
  
  4 Jan4 January 14:25
  
  Given that that is at least 2 free nights in any IHG hotel in the world, it doesn’t really matter if it stacks with Accelerate! Great bonus, Liz. Never seen that myself – alas!
  - Liz says:
    
    4 Jan4 January 14:31
    
    I use my pts for our USA road trips spending around 15k or 20k pts per night so that will give is about 6 nights ! Still can’t believe it – will see if they post after our stay on 22/1 – have taken a picture of the registration page! Everyone should add their birthday to their IHG profile!
    - Liz says:
      
      4 Jan4 January 14:34
      
      I managed to cancel my non refundable night in Jan and rebook for 2 nights so fingers crossed it pays out!
    - Cate says:
      
      4 Jan4 January 16:37
      
      Thanks for the tip Liz. My birthday in a few weeks so will keep a look out.
- HayMow says:
  
  4 Jan4 January 17:55
  
  Liz – just be sure to double check the fine print on your offer and the date of the message in your app inbox. I got my birthday offer, for 3k points, last year via email and it was valid for 90 days from the date of the email notification (not from my birthday) – email was received 6-7 weeks before my registered birth date (incidentally not my real birth date as I don’t like giving that out online) – and valid until 6-7 weeks after that “birth date”. Also, I would have to do a minimum 2-night stay, and at a weekend Fri,Sat or Sat,Sun, for it to be valid for the bonus.
  [I didn't get my offer in the app I don't believe - though since one of the app updates previous messages have disappeared]
  - Liz says:
    
    4 Jan4 January 18:54
    
    I just checked it and it is dated 13/12/16 so hopefully ok! I have now booked a Fri & Sat.
    - HayMow says:
      
      4 Jan4 January 20:19
      
      Oh good . You’ll have to report back on what happens, Liz – look forward to hearing. Will be keeping an eye on my hubby’s account to see if he gets something similar to your offer!
      - Liz says:
        
        4 Jan4 January 20:31
        
        I am thinking it is too good to be true – fingers crossed it pays out. I had just bought 120000 pts on the 30/11!
- Alan says:
  
  4 Jan4 January 23:47
  
  Wow that’s an amazing bonus! Hope you’ve taken some screenshots in case their IT doesn’t quite live up to the promise!
Adrian says:

4 Jan4 January 12:51

How can IHG be so good with accelerate and so poor with sales? My £83.16 a night at a CP (booked to get double points on HfP 4 days ago) is today in the sale at £83.16!
Dave says:

4 Jan4 January 13:06

Any goodies for reviewing one-world lounges ex-UK? 🙂
Brian says:

4 Jan4 January 13:17

I can’t seem to access the flash sale rates on the IHG App. Only on the website.

Anyone else having this problem?

Thanks
- Colin JE says:
  
  4 Jan4 January 14:17
  
  Me too. Grrr.
- Colin JE says:
  
  4 Jan4 January 14:25
  
  I’ve tweeted rewards club. Let’s see what they say.
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  4 Jan4 January 16:54
  
  Do you have a message in the app about the sale starting? click book now then you can see what hotels are available at the certain rates and book a room
  - Brian says:
    
    4 Jan4 January 18:59
    
    Tried that. Link doesn’t load up anything for me.
Brian says:

4 Jan4 January 14:26

A lot of negativity about the sale on here, but I’d say that £89 for one of the Indigo or Crowne Plaza hotels in London during the week is a pretty good deal.
Colin JE says:

4 Jan4 January 14:31

Rob, I can add reviews for Bristol AspirePlus (with photos), which I did for Loungebuddy, and also Edinburgh Aspire lounge and Birmingham No1 Traveller (though neither would have photos I’m afraid}
Let me know if you’re interested.
- Rob says:
  
  4 Jan4 January 15:26
  
  Happy to take Bristol if you’ve got the pics, thank you. rob at headforpoints.co.uk The LoungeBuddy guys are mates and won’t mind.
- Andy S says:
  
  4 Jan4 January 19:08
  
  Would be interested to know if the aspire plus is worth the extra, have been in the normal aspire at bristol. asked about access with priority pass and told it was 15 quid extra. but the pay on the door rate is only 10 quid more than the normal aspire so i told them no thanks!