Bits: exclusive HfP competition, two Lufthansa hotel deals, free Etihad First Class upgrade

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News in brief:

Exclusive HfP competition coming on Monday

On Monday we will be launching an exclusive competition with Chivas Regal whisky (an excellent choice if you’re looking for a duty free purchase!) giving away a VIP distillery tour. One lucky reader will win a trip to Scotland, including flights, hotel and spending money.

Don’t forget to visit Head for Points on Monday to enter. Over 18’s and UK residents only.

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Two new Lufthansa Miles & More hotel deals with Accor and Hilton

Two new Miles & More deals have been launched for anyone looking to boost their Lufthansa balance.

Hilton Honors is offering triple Miles & More miles between 1st September and 30th November. To take part, you need to register at this page on the Hilton site and change your earning preference from ‘points and points’ to ‘points and miles’.

You are trading off five Hilton Honors points (which I value at 1.5p) for three Miles & More miles (which I value at 3p) so this is a decent deal if you have a Miles & More balance.

At Accor (Novotel, Ibis, Sofitel, Mercure etc) you can earn 500 bonus Miles & More miles with each qualifying stay. This means that your stay will earn 1,000 Miles & More miles in total.

You need to register via this page and stay before 31st October. Your Le Club AccorHotels account needs to be set to automatically convert your points into Miles & More miles.

The terms and conditions state that you will only earn Lufthansa miles if you stay at least one night at a Sofitel, Pullman or MGallery hotel, at least two nights at a Mercure, Novotel or Novotel Suites hotel and at least four nights at an ibis or ibis Styles. Shorter stays earn nothing if you take miles.

Free Etihad first class upgrades for Amex Platinum members

Etihad is running a very attractive offer for American Express Platinum cardholders at present.

If you book a fully flexible business class ticket, you will be upgraded to First Class for free. This includes the amazing Etihad A380 First Class Apartment which I reviewed here.

It is valid on all routes with a First Class cabin. You need to book via American Express Travel and pay with a Platinum card.

Because you need to buy a full price, fully flexible Business Class ticket this is unlikely to be a great deal for the leisure traveller unless you were planning to pay for First Class anyway. If your company books you into fully flexible Business Class – and you can persuade them to let you book your own trip on your own credit card – this would be a great result.

You need to book by 31st December 2017 for travel at any point in 2018. Full details are on the Amex Platinum website here (log-in required).

You can learn about the A380 First Class Apartment on the Etihad site here.

How to earn Etihad Guest miles from UK credit cards (December 2021)

Etihad Guest does not have a UK credit card. However, you can earn Etihad Guest miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards. These are:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 20,000 Etihad Guest miles. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with two free airport lounge passes.

The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 30,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 30,000 Etihad Guest miles.

American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 5,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 5,000 Etihad Guest miles. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Etihad Guest miles which is an attractive rate. The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Etihad Guest mile. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it.

Etihad Guest is also a partner with the HSBC Premier Mastercard (0.5 miles per £1 spent) and HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard (1 mile per £1 spent).

Category

Accor Live Limitless, Etihad and Etihad Guest, Hilton Honors, Lufthansa and Miles & More

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

Sanjay says:

8 Sep8 September 05:52

Platinum and Centurion cardholders.
Alex W says:

8 Sep8 September 09:55

I wouldn’t mind betting that J fares could exceed the cost of non-flex First class fares! Sadly nonbusiness travel for me at the moment.
Tony says:

8 Sep8 September 11:01

As an American Express® Cardmember, you can still enjoy up to 10% off eligible First, Business and Economy Class flights with Etihad Airways (excluding taxes, and charges) from London Heathrow, Manchester and Edinburgh.

1. Economy Smart Seat only available on certain routes.

American Express Cardmembers can receive up to 10% off when booking a flight with Etihad Airways. Cardmembers must book and travel by 30 June 2018. Payment must be made with an American Express Card and bookings must be made on etihad.com/amexoffer Flights and fare types are subject to availability at the time of booking. Offer is only valid on eligible one-way and return trip fares. The discount would not apply on multicity destinations or stopovers.

The discount only applies to flights that are sold by Etihad Airways and operated by Etihad Airways or their codeshare partners. Flights eligible for the discount are clearly signalled by a yellow star next to them. Please ensure only flights eligible for the discount are selected when booking. The discount only applies to the base fare and not on taxes or additional charges. The discount is valid on all Economy Saver, Economy Classic, Economy Flex, Business Saver, Business Classic, Business Flex, and First, excluding child or infant fares.

From time to time, Economy Class fares categorised as Economy Deals may be available for sale. Discount will not apply to these Economy Deals, but they will be bookable through etihad.com/amexoffer Changes and cancellations are subject to charges and fees as per published fare rules. All changes must be made with Etihad Airways via etihad.com or Etihad Airways call centres.
Wally1976 says:

8 Sep8 September 11:07

OT – trying to look for the cheapest way (in cash terms) to fly DIRECT from England (not INV or JER!) to NYC return in J using a sensible amount of points in some programme.

I was thinking AA from LHR with AAdvantage points but as far as I can see the MileSAAver rewards are like hens teeth on AA metal and if you book them on BA metal the fees are similar to BA on Avios (i.e. £500+ each return). AAnytime rewards for the dates I looked at were a whopping 245k points each return!

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
- Rob says:
  
  8 Sep8 September 12:41
  
  I think you’ve summed it up nicely!
  
  Really, using Iberia from Madrid will save you a lot of Avios (only 68k return off-peak), tax is minimal and if you do want to stay overnight the day before / after then there are worse places.
  
  Aer Lingus will be 100k off-peak but at least the taxes (if booked by phone with BA, not at avios.com) are peanuts. You can clear immigration in Dublin which justifies the connection.
  - Wally1976 says:
    
    8 Sep8 September 14:09
    
    Thanks Rob; was hoping I was missing something on the direct options but it appears not!
Dieter says:

8 Sep8 September 13:43

Does the triple M&M offer combine with Hilton’s double points promotion? Just booked 7 nights yesterday at the Conrad Tokyo in the flash sale so I’d be grateful for any advice on how to maximise this!
- John says:
  
  8 Sep8 September 21:50
  
  Annoying
  
  Missed this
  
  Was it on HfP?
  - the real harry1 says:
    
    8 Sep8 September 22:02
    
    today’s post
    
    Two new Lufthansa Miles & More hotel deals with Accor and Hilton
    
    Two new Miles & More deals have been launched for anyone looking to boost their Lufthansa balance.
    
    Hilton Honors is offering triple Miles & More miles between 1st September and 30th November. To take part, you need to register at this page on the Hilton site and change your earning preference from ‘points and points’ to ‘points and miles’.
    
    You are trading off five Hilton Honors points (which I value at 1.5p) for three Miles & More miles (which I value at 3p) so this is a decent deal if you have a Miles & More balance.
    - John says:
      
      8 Sep8 September 23:04
      
      Sorry – was referring to the flash Hilton sale!
- Dieter says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 22:07
  
  So Hilton have confirmed via twitter that these can be combined. Does this mean that I’m trading effectively 10 points for 3 M&M (i.e. 2x 5 HH points because of the double promotion)? Or does the double up promo “only” give 2 x 10 HH points plus 1x 5 points (if not doing Miles& points)? If I set my earning preference to Miles and points I’ll be getting 2x 10 HH points plus 3x 1 M&M per $ spent, right?
  - Rob says:
    
    9 Sep9 September 23:15
    
    Correct. Past Hilton offers worked the same way.
    - Dieter says:
      
      10 Sep10 September 02:12
      
      Thanks, this is a tough one, which one would you choose as I have a £2k stay coming up? I have a sizeable amount of bothM&M and HH, but since the recent Hilton changes I think the scheme has devalued. For example, a standard room at the WA Amsterdam for next Saturday is €926 or 431,000 points. 431,000! That would give me 0.21 Euro cents per point. To earn this many points, I would need to spend $14,366 in the current promotional period before tax (i.e. 14366 x 15 x 2). Admittedly a status member would need to spend less but even then, isn’t this a notoriously poor return?
      - Alan says:
        
        10 Sep10 September 08:42
        
        Is totally ignore that WA redemption rate. It’s not what I’d consider a true redemption, instead you’re effectively purchasing the points off Hilton and as you say it is appalling value. Instead look at standard redemptions, which should be in the 50k, 60k, etc range.
the real harry1 says:

8 Sep8 September 20:55

lounge passes!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travel-truths/expensive-luxury-or-money-saving-hack/
Kevin says:

10 Sep10 September 16:58

Thank you for this lovely info! Managed to book JNB->LHR with AUH->LHR upgraded to first (one way). £1319 total cost! Never thought I’d ever get to try Etihad First for that price!