Bits: IHG ‘buy points bonus’ last day, Avios ‘dynamic pricing’ job, more Plaza Premium T5 photos

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News in brief:

IHG’s extended ‘100% buy points bonus’ ends today

IHG Rewards Club – the InterContinental, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza etc scheme – extended its recent ‘100% buy points bonus’ promotion but IT DEFINITELY ENDS TODAY. It is as generous an offer as you will ever see for IHG points.

The page to buy points is here.

The offer is targetted but very widely targetted, so it is very likely you will see it on your account. Here are the standard purchase rates which do NOT include the bonus:

1,000 – 10,000 points for $13.50 per 1,000 points
11,000 – 25,000 points for $12.50 per 1,000 points
26,000 – 60,000 points for $11.50 per 1,000 points

I receive a 100% bonus with any order of 5,000 points or more. Some people seem to have a higher minimum, as high as 25,000. Some people also seem to have been offered a cash discount on top of double points for buying the full 60,000 points, although I did not receive that.

With a 100% bonus, you would be able to buy 120,000 IHG points for (at current exchange rates for $690) £525. This assumes your credit card has 0% FX fees.

At the top end of the IHG Rewards Club portfolio, you have InterContinental properties which top out at 50,000 – 60,000 points per night. That’s what you would pay for InterContinental Le Grand in Paris or the InterContinental Amstel in Amsterdam.

With a 100% bonus, IHG is effectively selling you a night at a 50,000 point property for £219 all-in. A 60,000 point hotel would be £262. At the bottom end, the points for a 5,000 point PointBreaks night would cost just £22.

You should look at this if you have a ‘buy points’ target for your Accelerate promotion – although it makes more sense to buy 5,000 and get the bonus than buy 1,000 for no bonus. If you are topping off your account, it is also a good deal irrespective of the exact cents per point cost. The maximum number of points you can buy per year is 120,000 (ie 60,000 plus the 60,000 bonus).

You can buy via this link.

Some more clues about Avios ‘dynamic pricing’

British Airways is planning a move to ‘dynamic pricing’ for Avios redemptions, it was disclosed at the Investor Day presentation last week (read more here).

If you want an idea of what that may involve, aajob description appeared on the Avios website last year. £55,000 – £60,000 was on offer.

Here is what someone, assuming they filled the vacancy, is now doing:

“The role is responsible for the dynamic pricing of rewards for members of the loyalty programmes that use Avios as their reward currency, delivering the right product at the right price and at the right time, in order to best maximise margin and the satisfaction of members to drive engagement.

The Senior Pricing Manager will work closely with the pricing team, product teams, marketing, and other members of the Avios and relevant travel partner commercial teams to manage inventory and drive ongoing pricing strategies, as well as providing critical input to the tactical promotion process. The Senior Pricing Manager will provide analysis, advice and recommendations to drive the pricing strategies, with support from the Avios management team in line with stated commercial objectives.

This is a dynamic cross-functional role that requires excellent organisational and analytical skills, commercial awareness and a passion for delivering results.

What we are looking for…

Deliver the budgeted margin on redemption for the Avios currency (cost per avios)
Deliver Avios redeemed and cash on redemption targets
Use price to drive volumes back to suppliers at optimal levels to drive value through the chain
Directly responsible for the “dynamic pricing portfolio” and strategies to deliver the above
Support the development and implementation of “Pay with Avios” with partners
Work closely with Customer Insight & Analytics to determine the impact of price or inventory changes on customer satisfaction and long term loyalty
The role will be key in managing the transition to new dynamic pricing system capability, ensuring processes are robust and accountabilities between internal stakeholders are clear
Ownership of the maintenance and development of dynamic pricing systems and rules engines
Support, manage or own (as appropriate) CAPEX / OPEX projects involving customer price
Work with the Head of Pricing to develop integrated pricing strategies across existing products
Support continuous improvement and consistency of the reward pricing propositions across products, markets and schemes”

Some reader pictures from inside Plaza Premium Terminal 5

Yesterday we ran some PR pictures of the new Plaza Premium lounge in Heathrow Terminal 5, which opened on Monday.

At present the only way to get in for free is via Dragonpass or by showing an American Express Platinum charge card.

It looks similar to the Aspire lounge in terms of scale (not surprising, as they are in identical spots in the terminal, but on opposite sides):

…. but with a better use of space:

and

You can find out more on the Plaza Premium website here.

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.

the real harry1 says:

9 Nov9 November 06:38

O/T also last call for the £5/£10/£15 Esso/ Amex deal – ends on 11th Nov
Brian says:

9 Nov9 November 06:45

OT – a new Hilton offer has appeared on my Amex Gold card – spend 250, get 50 back. Better than the last one that just ended, which offered 3,000 MR points.
- Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
  
  9 Nov9 November 06:57
  
  Need to carefully check the list of participating properties though.
- Kai says:
  
  9 Nov9 November 09:35
  
  Anyone knows if it has to be in one transaction?
The_real_a says:

9 Nov9 November 06:54

Seems quite a low salary for that kind of role…
- Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
  
  9 Nov9 November 07:05
  
  That’s exactly what I was thinking. Some quite premium things they’re asking for: advanced analytics, commercial accountability, managing IT change etc.
  
  Doesn’t sound like the role comes with a team either.
  - Alan says:
    
    9 Nov9 November 08:09
    
    Interesting, I was thinking the opposite! Only on about £10k more than that after two decades training…
    - Genghis says:
      
      9 Nov9 November 08:18
      
      Go private, Alan. Those BUPA guys I go to seem to charge £150 for 10 mins work.
      - Alan says:
        
        9 Nov9 November 08:24
        
        Haha nice idea, but outside SE England there’s hardly any of that!
    - JamesB says:
      
      9 Nov9 November 11:35
      
      @Alan, there is a group of enterprising young (well some not so young anymore) ladies in Stockbrig who could show you how it’s done! Might make some of their colleagues green with anvy or leave others feeling blue.
    - Worzel says:
      
      9 Nov9 November 16:09
      
      Overgenerous salary: I know someone who runs a hospital for the same!
  - bagoly says:
    
    9 Nov9 November 09:29
    
    We don’t want them paying so much that they get someone who forsees arbitrage opportunities!
  - Cate says:
    
    9 Nov9 November 12:35
    
    You have to keep in the back of your mind that the alleged requirements of many advertised job roles are just advertising the brand. i.e. ‘This is a dynamic cross-functional role that requires excellent organisational and analytical skills, commercial awareness and a passion for delivering results’ sounds better than ‘can talk to mates from other departments at the coffee machine, analyses who paid for the last coffees, considers if it’s worth popping to Waitrose across the road for a free cappuccino, can multi task i.e. can carry two cappuccinos back at the same time.
    - Kinkell says:
      
      9 Nov9 November 13:01
      
      Tell it how it is! Oh for more plain speaking in job adverts!
    - Lady London says:
      
      9 Nov9 November 15:50
      
      🙂 Brilliant, Cate
- Talay says:
  
  9 Nov9 November 08:36
  
  Crawley is not Kensington but I suspect most property there is unaffordable on a £60k salary and this job specification is, in my opinion, asking for some skills and responsibilities quite a way over a £60k job.
  
  As mentioned elsewhere, this should really be more of a team specification and given the importance, I would have thought someone senior would have it in their portfolio. Perhaps that is a failing of BA and their management, giving important tasks to outsiders with no experience and not prioritising it highly enough ?
- Aliks says:
  
  9 Nov9 November 08:42
  
  The low salary indicates that the Senior Pricing Manager is all about crunching the numbers, and not about making the decisions.
  
  I suspect the major challenge is to pull the data together from different incompatible sources, and squeeze it into monthly report packs.
  - Lady London says:
    
    9 Nov9 November 12:12
    
    Yes it looks like an Excel bunny job, that knowledge of databases and a bit of IT would help with. Travel industry also notoriously pays badly.
    - temp says:
      
      11 Nov11 November 14:59
      
      Indeed, this role actually seems pretty well paid for the industry… BA revenue managers earn significantly less (c.20k)!
      
      That most comments are surprised how low a salary this is probably says more about the HfP demographic!
      - Alan says:
        
        11 Nov11 November 15:05
        
        Indeed, was quite a surprise to me, I thought it sounded a pretty well paid job!
    - temp says:
      
      11 Nov11 November 15:01
      
      Indeed, this role actually seems pretty well paid for the industry… BA revenue managers earn significantly (c.20k) less!
      
      That most comments are surprised how low a salary this is probably says more about the HfP demographic!
    - temp says:
      
      11 Nov11 November 15:36
      
      It’s weird. I have never really considered what the background of the average miles collector (if there is such a thing) is, but far clearer now! I guess it shouldn’t be so much of a surprise that a lot of people into miles-collecting earn a good wage… Appetites have already been whet for business class, 5-star hotels/resorts etc. And I can’t imagine many people on an average wage consider paying £450 a year for a credit card, no matter what the ‘benefits’!
Roger I* says:

9 Nov9 November 07:39

Somebody quibbled when I refer to the Avios price of a redemption.

A quick count shows 23 references to ‘price’ and ‘pricing’ in the ad. 🙂 QED
- Genghis says:
  
  9 Nov9 November 08:20
  
  Why would someone quibble that?
  - Roger I* says:
    
    9 Nov9 November 09:48
    
    Indeed.
Liz says:

9 Nov9 November 07:40

OT update from yesterday – pts have finally arrived in our BARC from BAPP – that took a week to transfer instead of the normal overnight.
- Stu N says:
  
  9 Nov9 November 08:26
  
  Same here. Household account finally back up to six figures.
- Anna says:
  
  9 Nov9 November 09:15
  
  +1 and card just cancelled!
- RichS says:
  
  9 Nov9 November 13:51
  
  Has anyone else not received theirs yet? Not sure if I should call or just sit it out, but had wanted to cancel this month.
Roger I* says:

9 Nov9 November 07:40

er, ‘refer’ should read ‘referred’ (1st line)
Mike G says:

9 Nov9 November 07:50

Plaza Premium or Concorde Lounge, which would you favour?
- Rob says:
  
  9 Nov9 November 08:23
  
  I’ve got some more Concorde Room photos for tomorrow so you can decide!
  
  PP will be rammed as soon as they start allowing Priority Pass. Just had some more pics from a reader – this morning, at the peak period, there were 6 customers.
Sarah says:

9 Nov9 November 08:22

If I wanted to stay in a 60,000 intercontinental, would I be best to buy points using this deal or renew ambassador membership and then use the ambassador certificate to buy a weekend night and get one free? Would I also get points for buying first night?
- Genghis says:
  
  9 Nov9 November 08:34
  
  Depends. You need to run the numbers yourself. If AMB route you then have it for the year. You get points for night 1 on AMB stay.
  - Sarah says:
    
    9 Nov9 November 09:09
    
    Thanks.
- Cate says:
  
  9 Nov9 November 11:34
  
  Be sure to check out the cash price for the date you want first. I was looking at the IC Lisbon yesterday for a weekend jolly and they wanted 60,000 points but only about 135 euros cash. Points didn’t make sense this time.
- Alex W says:
  
  9 Nov9 November 12:10
  
  Consider whether a paid stay would hot accelerate targets too.