Bits: Qatar Airways sale starts Monday, Hilton / American Airlines promo

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• Anon says:

  5 Jan5 January 07:46

  OT bit, re Hilton, was thinking the “Happy You Year” would be a targeted bonus promo like IHG Accelerate, anyone else think I’m wildly optimistic? 🙂

  • James67 says:

    5 Jan5 January 08:30

    If you are correct I hope they launch it soon as I will need at least 3w nights of stays in February and March so currently awaiting 1st quarter promos to decide where to use them. I could potentially exceed 100 nights this year for the first time in many years so opportunities should be interesting.

• Simon says:

  5 Jan5 January 07:54

  If i book a Waldorf Astoria Dubai via a travel agent, will I still get all my Gold HH benefits??? Prices booking direct with hotel just don’t get close to online agents deals…..

  • Anon says:

    5 Jan5 January 08:07

    Benefits possibly, points no. Although no free breakfasts for HH Golkd at WA as standard.

    Care to share an example of costs for each, ie TA vs Hilton website

    • Rob says:

      5 Jan5 January 08:14

      Exactly. Not much in the way of benefits to miss out on – you may well get upgraded as hotels which resort to dumping rooms via agents tend to oversell their cheapest rooms.

      • Simon says:

        5 Jan5 January 08:41

        TA is £3700 Half-board, Hilton is £4300 and only Bed and Breakfast…… for a family suite. If I knew I was going to get an upgrade I’d try booking cheaper room direct. Didn’t know if there was a better way to fandangle a good suite at best price.

        • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

          5 Jan5 January 09:14

          I’d email the hotel and ask them to match the rate. In my experience it’s a 50:50 shot.

        • N says:

          5 Jan5 January 09:29

          Try Hilton BRG. They will match the rate and take 25% off.

        • Simon says:

          5 Jan5 January 09:48

          I will try emailing them to see what they say. Thanks.

        • Anon says:

          5 Jan5 January 20:34

          Good luck with the price match, be shame to miss out on the pts esp with promos on.

        • Alan says:

          5 Jan5 January 20:40

          Indeed, success rate for price match guarantees with all hotels is pretty poor IME – I’ve definitely managed it, but other times they come up with spurious reasons to refuse and then the good deal gets pulled!

      • Matthew says:

        5 Jan5 January 12:11

        What about when booking via Amex travel…will you lose status benefits too? Thanks

        • ankomonkey says:

          5 Jan5 January 13:36

          I did this once at Hilton Tokyo Bay. Received status benefits, but no points.

        • Rob says:

          5 Jan5 January 16:20

          Hit and miss. Sometimes they sneakily give you wholesale rooms which pay them a huge profit but don’t qualify. Fine Hotels & Resorts, if you have a Plat, is always OK.

    • Genghis says:

      5 Jan5 January 08:33

      I got breakfast at WA shanghai but agree it’s not a standard benefit.

      • Lawro says:

        5 Jan5 January 09:39

        And that is a breakfast worth having! One of the best I’ve seen…

        • Genghis says:

          5 Jan5 January 09:42

          Agreed. It was fantastic!

• Andy says:

  5 Jan5 January 07:55

  The Triple Avios offer as finally worked ‘Thank you, Mr Stock, you are now registered for this offer’.

• Phil says:

  5 Jan5 January 07:57

  Thanks for sharing the Hilton promo details !!!

  By the way, would anyone know how to change safely the earning partner on an existing reservation ?
  I am asking because in the past, every time I thought I had changed it correctly (either through the preferences menu on the website ; or when checking-in at the hotel) I realised i was anyway earning miles through the earning partners selected at time of booking…

  The AA promo seems really interesting for cheap stays so I would not want to miss that 😉

  • John says:

    5 Jan5 January 08:44

    You have to individually ask every hotel at which your bookings were made prior to changing the earning partner on your Hilton account.

  • Alan says:

    5 Jan5 January 20:35

    Changing miles earning partner on the website NEVER makes any difference – you always have to say at the hotel desk (I do it at check-in and confirm again at check-out) to get it swapped. Easy for them to do at the time, total nightmare/nigh-on impossible if you try to do later. Changing earning preference between p+p and p+m is easily done on the website and works fine.

• Anon says:

  5 Jan5 January 08:04

  Bits: Qatar ever likely to sell tickets that you can upgrade with Avios?

  • Rob says:

    5 Jan5 January 08:14

    No – and even if they did, it would be useless! Qatar has no Premium Economy so the only option would be to buy FULL FARE Eco to upgrade to Business, which is pointless. First is only on a handful of A380 routes and even then only 8 seats so odds of an upgradable award seat are slim.

    (Redeeming to Paris is the best way to get A380 F rewards.)

    • Talay says:

      5 Jan5 January 13:15

      Redeeming to Paris for A380 F rewards ?

      Sorry for my ignorance but does that mean you get to Paris under your own steam and then use Qatar redemptions in F ?

      This would be no good with the Amex 241 though as travel must originate in the UK.

      Apologies if I have misinterpreted this point – quite possible !

      • Yuff says:

        5 Jan5 January 13:37

        You also need to be on a BA plane 🙂

      • Rob says:

        5 Jan5 January 16:18

        Yes.

        You can’t use a 241 on Qatar anyway so its a moot point.

    • Ro says:

      5 Jan5 January 13:37

      yeah qatar don’t allow upgrades to first class to or from London

      Currently qatar allow upgrades from economy to business (with cash or qmiles) on flexi, value and saver fares, it’s only promo (and group/tour) fares with are not eligible. Which is quite generous really. often I find saver fares are only slightly more expensive than promo fares.

• the real harry says:

  5 Jan5 January 08:19

  O/T the other day we were talking about British Airways: is it a hugely profitable airline or not? Does it have the means to replace its ageing fleet or not? Do the pension liabilities and need to update the fleet mean that headline profitability is a smokescreen hiding a basket case? Do modern lease arrangements & low interest rates mean that the cost of updating the fleet is far lower than one might think? Does this help to explain why it can’t afford to pay second tier staff more generously?

  It occurred to me that we just need to look at the empirical evidence: BA is roundly criticised for its tired aircraft compared to the upstarts – so surely the fact that it doesn’t have a new fleet demonstrates it simply can’t afford to. Otherwise it surely would!

  Look at this site http://www.airfleets.net/ageflotte/British%20Airways.htm

  Average fleet age (yrs):
  BA 12.6
  EJ 7
  RA 6.7
  Emirates 5.8
  Qatar 5.8
  Lufthansa 11.3

  I rest my case 🙂

  I suppose you could argue that this is a legacy problem; that BA has only recently become profitable; that lead-times of acquiring new aircraft make it difficult to speed up the rejuvenation process.

• Melissa says:

  5 Jan5 January 08:30

  Thanks for these top tips! Can I purchase flights on Qatar at sale prices and use points? Thanks

  • Rob says:

    5 Jan5 January 08:41

    No, cash only. You will earn Avios back though when you fly.

    • melissa perkins says:

      5 Jan5 January 09:13

      Thank you.
      Do I have to book through the Qatar airways site to get the deals and the Avios points or can I still access the deals and claim points via sky scanner etc?
      I’m looking to book a one way flight to KL and want to get the best possible deal…I was thinking of using my points (as I have quite a few now), but wondered if it would be better to pay cash and then maybe use points for the return…It’s a mine field, so happy we have this site to help guide us through! Cheers

      • Wayne Phillips says:

        5 Jan5 January 09:18

        Hi Melissa
        prices last time were so good that using Avios points was pointless, other than for positioning yourself in the European departure city. The taxes etc on BA redemptions are so high when departing from London so the best deals were from other places (eg Copehagen)

        The Qatar sale won’t have one way tickets at the good prices – beware of that

        • melissa perkins says:

          5 Jan5 January 11:58

          Thanks.
          I was planning on only getting a one way because I don’t know how long I’ll be travelling for yet…but may be worth looking at a flexible return.
          I’ll also look at the flights from other European destinations outside London.
          Will you be putting the best deals on here?

        • Rob says:

          5 Jan5 January 16:20

          You won’t get a flexible return unless you pay the full £4,000ish fare.

      • Rob says:

        5 Jan5 January 11:22

        You won’t get a one-way. You’d have to buy a return and not use the return bit – so points may be a better option in this case.

        • JohnW says:

          5 Jan5 January 14:31

          What is the reason for airlines not offering reduced fares for a one-way?

          I know that none (or not many of them) offer it but I was just wondering why?

• Graeme says:

  5 Jan5 January 08:36

  Bah! If they could just add in the first week or so of January so I can get to Sydney for the Ashes, that would be lovely.

  • Ro says:

    5 Jan5 January 13:41

    All about the MCG boxing day test 😉
    I don’t think it will be many months before qatar have another sale to australia that will include next year, if 2016 was anything to go by

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