Last day to buy Hilton Honors points with a bonus

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• Mark says:

  7 Jun7 June 12:28

  Im tempted to buy the full amount but please check if I’m not being stupid. Buying the full amount will give me enough points book 5 nights at the Hilton Tokyo, being Hilton Gold this would get me breakfast. This would then allow me to cancel 5 nights in the Prince Sakura tower (autograph collection marriott) which when I booked, I thought I’d get breakfast and lounge access. This would release 160k marriott points and leave me within touching distance of the cat 1-5 120K avois travel package.

  Hope I’ve explained that well enough, what are peoples/Rob’s thoughts?

  • Genghis says:

    7 Jun7 June 12:29

    Put some pound notes to your analysis

    • Mark says:

      7 Jun7 June 12:35

      essentially £570 would turn into 5 nights stay plus I’d then be able to get a marriott travel pack and 120k avois, would that make it almost like buying avois for 0.4p? Genghis your expertise is always welcome.

      • Mark says:

        7 Jun7 June 12:36

        the other option is to pay for the hotel at £1300 (we’d probably pick the Hilton Tokyo anyway for location and gold recognition.) Thus alleviating the need to buy points but still releasing the marriott booking but I think the buying points seems a better options. The Hilton is 60k per night but get 1 night free.

      • Genghis says:

        7 Jun7 June 12:49

        Based on the info provided:
        – the Hilton Tokyo costs 60k points and if buying would need 240k points bought at 0.35p – £840 in total (you’d have to get your wife etc involved as max purchase is 160k). That is obviously much better than paying £1,300 and you’d get the free breakfast as Gold etc.

        As you say, this would free up 160k Marriott points (nominal value of £800 IMO so very close to paying for the Hilton points). You would then need to top up somehow to 270k (so not exactly touching distance but a bit of his n hers churning would get you there) and that would get you 120k avios and 7 nights. Essentially it depends how you’re then going to use the points and the 7 nights.

        If you have (or could have) up coming plans for them, I’d go for the buy Hilton points route. However, if no concrete plans, I’d save the cash. I’ve been sensibly running down points balances (i.e. redeeming IHGs at 0.4p instead of waiting for just outsized redemptions) as cash is a much more solid a currency

  • Craig says:

    7 Jun7 June 12:39

    Hilton Tokyo is very good, the Japanese breakfast was offered one morning, I’d go for that if you can. Have you not considered a Diamond status match just before you go? Lounge access would be very valuable for a 5 night stay.

    • Mark says:

      7 Jun7 June 12:52

      Thanks gengis, I already have 100k marriott in the back so would put me at 260k marriott and I’ve got some MR points I could move. I’ll give it a think over this afternoon.

      • Mark says:

        7 Jun7 June 12:53

        I did consider that but it isn’t until september and I’m not sure on the hit rate is on marriott gold being offered diamond.

      • Charlie says:

        7 Jun7 June 17:45

        You can get a Hilton diamond challenge by being a Hilton gold. They’ll upgrade you immediately, with a challenge to hit a number of stays from that point in a small timescale to then be given diamond on a longer basis. Time it for Tokyo for a diamond upgrade :).

        PS – fairly sure the diamond challenge is a one time offer.

      • Craig says:

        7 Jun7 June 19:54

        It is a one-time offer unless the terms change, last time it was a straight match. This time it was the 8-stays challenge, ideal for me as I had 6 booked within a 90-day bracket already. Having IHG Spire probably made the reply come through quite quickly.

• AndyW says:

  7 Jun7 June 13:02

  OT, but hotel related. Does Marriott have any policy for releasing reward availability? As was discussed yesterday Domes in Crete seems to have nothing for next year.

  • New Card says:

    7 Jun7 June 19:33

    I asked the hotel about this – they said in August / Sept they’ll load 2019 dates.

    • Jonny says:

      7 Jun7 June 20:53

      Hmmm sounds like they’re waiting for the opportunity to increase the points rate before releasing rooms!

    • AndyW says:

      8 Jun8 June 12:02

      Interesting. Question is how my Marriott travel package will translate across in the new world

• Lev441 says:

  7 Jun7 June 13:41

  O/T – virgin reward seat sale for economy on limited number of routes – good value for those using premium economy upgrade vouchers!
  First reward seat sale since the move to peak/off peak redemptions

  • Lev441 says:

    7 Jun7 June 13:42

    https://www.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/flying-club/miles/spend-miles/reward-seat-sale.html

    • Rob says:

      7 Jun7 June 14:03

      Thanks for telling me in advance Virgin team 🙂

  • Tony says:

    7 Jun7 June 13:53

    Virgin Miles on sale as well, 30% bonus until 19th June. Works out 1.15p per mile

• Mark says:

  7 Jun7 June 14:19

  O/T just got an email offering 1000 Avios for getting a supplementary card on the free BA Amex, apologies if this is well known already. Also read the small print and it says you can get up to 99 (!) complimentary supplementary cards, good luck hitting that limit!

  • Jenni says:

    7 Jun7 June 15:42

    I got the email for the paid version of the card (3,000 Avios), and it clearly states the bonus points apply for the first approved supplementary card only.

• FX says:

  7 Jun7 June 14:46

  O/T Any recommendations for the best lounge in Beijing T2 (domestic) for a BA Gold / Amex Plat, and also Shanghai (PVG) airport flying BA F international?
  Thanks!

  • Kai says:

    7 Jun7 June 17:50

    How is BA Gold useful if you are flying domestic route in China? The Air China lounge via priority pass should be decent though.

  • Alex W says:

    7 Jun7 June 21:38

    At PVG use Cathay. The lounge BA sends you to is horrific unless you like tea eggs etc.

• Paul says:

  7 Jun7 June 17:12

  OT. Made some purchases through the Marriott More portal and they have gone through in USD rather than GBP, it’s part of the t&c’s so not really worth using unless with a 0% foreign transaction card.

  • Mark2 says:

    7 Jun7 June 17:43

    I warned about this some time ago.
    I actually did well out of it in the end. I complained to Amex and they refunded the whole £56.67 when I was only complaining about the extra £1.67.

  • the_real_a says:

    7 Jun7 June 18:00

    Do a charge back. There is a charge-back code for “wrong currency” used.

• Nick M says:

  7 Jun7 June 17:52

  Unbelievably OT…. I ordered something from Amazon that (I didn’t realise) was dispatched from Japan. It has finally arrived, but there’s £12 import tax to pay – can I request a refund/refuse delivery? Or am I stuck? (Item can be bought in the UK for circa £25)

  • the real harry1 says:

    7 Jun7 June 18:32

    Those £12 import taxes take several forms, often most of it is the fee for processing the import tax due.

    Yes – you can refuse delivery at the door and it’ll get sent back & you’ll get a refund. This is another good way to avoid paying return postage costs if you change your mind about an item before it gets delivered. (cf my Paypal tip, up to 12 x >£15 refunded p.a. on P&P for returned items.)

  • Lady London says:

    7 Jun7 June 19:59

    If it wasn’t clearly stated when you bought it then you could ask Amazon to refund you and they will take the money off the vendor. But even a line somewhere saying any charges for delivery to your country are your responsibilty, would get Amazon/the vendor off that.

    So it needs to be made clear the product may incur these charges even if not stated exactly how much upfront.

    I had a vendor fail to deliver, I realised a few months later and had Amazon refund me.

    • Nick M says:

      7 Jun7 June 22:33

      Thank you both… have submitted the issue through Amazon and will see what happens!

• Andrew says:

  7 Jun7 June 18:23

  On topic… Tesco call centre agent just informed me that I can’t pay towards the cash balancr until the statement has been generated. So anything I pay now would only pay off purchases (not accruing interest). This in effect means I have to pay a minimum of around 25 days interest on the cash balance… this can’t be right surely? Is this just a case of HUACA?

  • the real harry1 says:

    7 Jun7 June 18:35

    HUACA, I reckon. But why are you contacting them at all, just fund the a/c. Anyway, just going to be a few pence, surely?

    • Andrew says:

      7 Jun7 June 19:15

      HUACA worked. Unfortunately I chose the wrong time to pay for some holidays so I have £2,200 quid as a cash balance at 30% APR!

      I am hoping the back in time feature on curve works quickly so it accrues less interest, but felt in the meantime I should clear as much of it as I can afford.

      • Andrew says:

        7 Jun7 June 19:18

        Oh and sorry, to answer your question I was also calling to see if there were any signs of the refunds yet that weren’t clear to me online.

      • SL says:

        9 Jun9 June 16:35

        the back in time feature does not reverse the fees charged. I called and they are adamant that the funds were used so it does not matter if the transaction were reversed. I raised a complaint over the phone and explained that they are the one who would be losing out – having a long term customer cancelling the card over £3.77 and spend the time and resource to deal with this formal complaint (which would cost them more). The agent went away and checked with his supervisor and decided to waive the charges as I have never been charged before (not because they were wrong). Dealt with at the end so off to use HSBC world elite card and see how long that lasts!

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