The Qatar Airways flight sale starts today – save an extra 5%

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• Genghis says:

  9 Jan9 January 17:43

  OT. I ordered a Cat 1-5 Marriott travel package last year for 270k Marriott. I would like to redeem for a Cat 9 Hotel and so need to pay 120k to upgrade. Can I book now and pay the 120k later (ie. is book now pay later combinable with redeeming the certificate of an already purchased travel package)? Thanks.

  • Julie says:

    9 Jan9 January 19:14

    Hi Genghis, I started with a Cat 1-5 travel package a couple of months ago. I just booked the higher Cat 7 hotel I wanted and then when I had the extra points I needed, I phoned up and asked if they could upgrade my travel package to that level and apply it to the hotel booking. All done in a couple of minutes. Very easy and pleasant phone call.

    • Genghis says:

      9 Jan9 January 20:39

      Thanks Julie and Waribai. I’ll do just that.

      • Asp says:

        9 Jan9 January 21:48

        Genghis/Julie – do you mind me asking which properties you’re looking at for your travel packages? Thanks

    • Julie says:

      10 Jan10 January 00:05

      Hi Asp, I’ve booked the Marriot in New Orleans for a week in October. Lots of other Marriott group hotels there of various categories but as i’m Marriott gold we’ll get breakfast and lounge entry at the actual ‘Marriott’ hotel there. Flying there on BA club (reward flights using a 2-for-1 voucher). Never been before and really looking forward to it!

      • Asp says:

        10 Jan10 January 18:12

        Hi Julie, sounds like a great trip! Hope you enjoy it.

  • Cate says:

    9 Jan9 January 19:50

    I’m starting to question whether the 1-5 packages are always better than keeping in points. You can miss out on the special award reduction offers and sometimes hotels can be cheaper paying with points or points and cash rather than the seven day certificate. Also fitting in a seven day break when one of the party is an employee may mean leaving the hotel earlier.

    Back of fag packet calculation, in hindsight for us it would have been quicker and more point profitable to keep an amex MR card with a 1:1 amex partner. Has anyone done the math on this?

    • mark2 says:

      9 Jan9 January 20:22

      There was discussion, but no agreement, on this yesterday https://headforpoints.com/2018/01/08/british-airways-galleries-first-new-york-closed/comment-page-2/#comment-227595

      • Cate says:

        9 Jan9 January 20:56

        Thanks mark2, missed that and there are some strong points raised. It needs weeding out a bit more I think.

      • Rhys says:

        10 Jan10 January 13:45

        Wonder how much you need to earn to feel comfortable spending that much on hols!

    • Rob says:

      9 Jan9 January 21:43

      90k SPG for £90k spend is 120k Avios plus 5 hotel nights. In Amex Gold it would be 90,000 miles. On BAPP, 145k Avios but you are tied into Avios.

      • Cate says:

        9 Jan9 January 22:44

        Well it’s the 7 night one that doesn’t sit well. Your’e missing out on stuff like the stay 4 nights get one free and then there are the sales – Domes in Greece is now 20% off in their PointSavers sale in peak season (August) at 270,000 for 7 days. That’s 120,000 points less than the 390,000 you’d have to put towards the Hotel and Miles package. That’s a lot of points.

        P.S In the interest of full disclosure you should know by now my math is, at best, ‘icky’

      • mark2 says:

        9 Jan9 January 22:53

        surely no-one would spend £90,000 on one card?

        • Rob says:

          10 Jan10 January 08:37

          To be fair, I am trying to do £37,500 of tax / VAT / PAYE on my wife’s IHG card before Friday to lock in 2019 Spire! Unlikely to do it due to Creation’s 3-4 day lag in processing payments inwards.

      • Waribai says:

        9 Jan9 January 23:37

        I met someone at the HFP Xmas party spending £300k a year on one card albeit for business. It was an IHG card to boot……

        • Rob says:

          10 Jan10 January 08:36

          Someone emailed me yesterday who asked for advice, he had £120k of personal FX spend last year – just holidays …..

      • Waribai says:

        10 Jan10 January 13:26

        Presumably he wasn’t looking for advice on how to spend £120 on travel…Otherwise, I think that’s almost consultancy fee territory!

• Tracy says:

  9 Jan9 January 17:48

  Another bits question from me today – My ambassador renewal is up in March. I have prebooked 4 rewards nights in July, total outlay 180k points. If I choose the ambassador renewal option with 10% rebate, will I get the rebate of 18k points on the prebooked nights or do i need to cancel and rebook after ambassador renewal?

  • Genghis says:

    9 Jan9 January 18:01

    Neee to cancel and rebook

    • Genghis says:

      9 Jan9 January 18:03

      If you have enough points book them again now and then rebook later. Reward nights usually go back into reward inventory but not always.

      • Waribai says:

        9 Jan9 January 19:04

        The other option to ensure your nights are reserved and if you don’t have enough points yet for the Cat 9 travel package is to book a standard 7 nights room only on reward points as you don’t need to have the points in the bank now to do this. Then when you do eventually have enough points for the CAT 9 travel package, phone up Marriott and swap your standard rewards nights reservation over to a travel package one. It means you don’t have to fret over the hotel selling out. We did this over New Year at the RC Abama which was just as well as Tenerife does sell out.

      • Waribai says:

        9 Jan9 January 19:11

        Sorry Ghengis, I just realised you asked the question about Marriott. I thought your IHG answer had been answering the Marriott question! AFAIK the method I mention is the only way to ensure you have the nights reserved as I’m fairly certain you can’t book travel packages until you have the points.

      • Tracy says:

        9 Jan9 January 20:34

        Unfortunately, I have emailed some of the hotels and managed to get them to change some of the room types for me in advance from the basic points rooms. IC monterey to a 2 bed room, HIE grand canyon to a kids bunk room. I’m loathe to cancel these as they are already updated in app.

• Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

  9 Jan9 January 17:48

  The E&O would be perfect for a weekend break.

• S879 says:

  9 Jan9 January 18:54

  OT: BA has changed the departure time of my flight. Tickets were booked via Avios and £35 tax. It’s shortened my connection time to a long haul flight (not on same ticket and not BA) and I want to play it safe by flying the day before. Will BA let me change for free online/via phone?

  • Waribai says:

    9 Jan9 January 19:12

    Yes, they should even let you cancel too.

    • S879 says:

      9 Jan9 January 19:16

      Thanks.

  • Lady London says:

    9 Jan9 January 20:26

    I’d suggest before you call BA, take a long hard look at the alternative(s) you want and when you call, ask BA for your preferred alternative. (Have a backup handy.) Check out loading on the flight, aircraft type, etc. You get quite a bit of leeway in this type of case usually.

    Btw: are you sure it’s just a time change of the same flight that you’ve been given and they’re not actually trying to move you to another flight so as to make your seat on the original flight available for others to book? I’ve had that done to me!

    • S879 says:

      9 Jan9 January 21:10

      Very useful, thanks. It’s flight time change, flight number is the same. Can I book an alternative through manage my booking or do I need to call?

      • Stu N says:

        9 Jan9 January 21:17

        In my experience they are pretty flexible so good to know what you want in advance. They will open up Award availability to enable a change after a schedule change – I wasn’t entirely expecting that but was very helpful.

        Try online but don’t be surprised if you need to call – they can see if you have tried to make the change online and will waive the offline fee, some agents will need a prompt to do this.

• Lady London says:

  9 Jan9 January 20:27

  I’d suggest before you call BA, take a long hard look at the alternative(s) you want and when you call, ask BA for your preferred alternative. (Have a backup handy.) Check out loading on the flight, aircraft type, etc. You get quite a bit of leeway in this type of case usually.

  Btw: are you sure it’s just a time change of the same flight that you’ve been given and they’re not actually trying to move you to another flight so as to make your seat on the original flight available for others to book? I’ve had that done to me!

• David says:

  9 Jan9 January 21:02

  Are there any conditions for the 5% discount? I cannot seem to get it to work.

• Polly says:

  9 Jan9 January 21:38

  Rfs like we did

• Anne says:

  9 Jan9 January 23:36

  I’ve booked OSL – DOH – SIN return for £1150 each (2 passengers). I couldn’t get any of the 5% promo codes to work but it’s still a decent deal.

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