Get GHA Discovery Platinum hotel status for just £16 this week

Business Traveller magazine is running its excellent Black Friday deal again this year.  If you didn’t think there was any reason to subscribe, because you always pick one up in the airport, read on ….

You can get a 40% discount this week.  This means:

A 1-year digital subscription is £16.49

A 1-year print and digital subscription is £25.77

….. and get free Platinum status with Global Hotel Alliance

The reason I am advocating a subscription to Business Traveller (apart from the quality of the writing of course) is that you will get one year of Platinum status with Global Hotel Alliance for free.

If you have a stay at a GHA hotel coming up, especially at a resort, it may be worth subscribing for a year just to get this benefit.

Once your subscription is confirmed, you need to sign up for Business Traveller Plus VIP membership here and claim your GHA Platinum status as well as various other benefits.

What is Global Hotel Alliance?

Global Hotel Alliance is a marketing group used by 30+ upmarket hotel brands with a total of 550+ combined properties.

Kempinski is the biggest one you might be familiar with.  Other big names include Pan Pacific, Corinthia, Omni, Capella, The Doyle Collection and Anantara.

In general, these are strong national chains in their respective heartlands which have not – with the exception of Kempinski – made the jump to being global brands.

The full list of members, including sub-brands, is:

• Anantara
• Atura
• Avani
• Capella
• Corinthia
• Discovery
• The Doyle Collection
• Elewana
• GLO
• Ja
• Kempinski
• The Leela
• Lungarno Collection
• Marco Polo
• Meritage
• Meydan
• Mysk
• Niccolo
• Nuo
• Oaks
• Omni
• Outrigger
• Pan Pacific
• PARKROYAL
• QT Hotels
• The Residence
• Rydges
• Shaza
• Thon
• Tivoli
• Ultratravel
• Viceroy

GHA Discovery is the loyalty programme for Global Hotel Alliance

Because of the loose nature of the GHA grouping, it has not been possible to develop a points based redemption programme.  GHA does not have the muscle with its members to make them accept £20+ per night for a reward night, which is all the major hotel programmes pay to their properties if the hotel is not completely full.

Instead, the programme is driven by benefits.  Here is the full list but in summary:

Gold is the entry level, given to you immediately when you sign-up.  This is well worth doing.  It gets you free internet, free bottled water and a free newspaper.

Platinum is their mid-tier status given after 10 nights in a year.  Platinum gives you extra benefits on top – an upgrade to the next room category, 3pm late check-out and a local amenity.

Black status requires 30 nights and gets you a 9am check-in, 6pm late check-out and a double upgrade.

You receive Platinum status with your Business Traveller subscription – which will cost you as little as £16.49 this week.  Whilst benefits are never guaranteed, I have had a few emails over the years from HFP readers who received good upgrades at GHA resorts.  Those people only joined after reading about the Business Traveller offer in previous HfP articles.

I’ve no idea if anyone will status match GHA Discovery Platinum, but that is clearly another interesting option to look into if you don’t have any other hotel mid tier memberships.

The Business Traveller Black Friday offer is here.  I’m not sure when it runs out but you’ve definitely got until Black Friday.

Hotel offers update – December 2021:

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.

Want to buy hotel points? There is currently a special offer running with IHG Rewards (80% bonus to 4th January 2022) and World of Hyatt (30% discount, equivalent to a 43% bonus, to 30th December 2021).