How to buy 2,000 Avios points for under £17 via Groupon Spain

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• Chelseafi says:

  29 Dec29 December 08:51

  Sorry very OT I’m thinking of Vegas this year maybe Sept as got 241 to use up any advice appreciated for Hotel if good value for points, otherwise I’d use cash. I’ve got Amex Plat so only Hotel status from this, Currently got 150k IHG points, can get around 250k Membership Rewards from amex Plat and have around £1k in Tesco Clubcard. Looking at around 5 nights. Thanks

  • Jon says:

    29 Dec29 December 09:02

    Not one of the groups you mentioned, but the old Mandarin Oriental has just converted this year to a Waldorf-Astoria. So basically a way to stay at a MO on Honors points.

    If you are going to stay at a Caesar’s property (about half the properties on the strip) then look into status matching at Wyndham and then matching further to Caesar’s Total Rewards program.

    https://www.caesars.com/total-rewards/tr-partners/wyndham_resorts

  • Graham Walsh says:

    29 Dec29 December 09:21

    Depends on time of year and what events are on. You might be better off with a cash rate as there are so many hotels. Look on Hotwire/Priceline etc too see if you can get a mystery booking but that’s probably better for last minute instead.

  • Alex W says:

    29 Dec29 December 10:35

    For Vegas especially if you’re going midweek, rooms can be quite cheap and not worth burning points. You can earn points with various hotels, we’ve done the Tropicana (Hilton) and Venetian/Palazzo (IHG). Both were good, although we didn’t get an upgrade at Tropicana as a Diamond (I didn’t try that hard).

    • Chelseafi says:

      29 Dec29 December 11:00

      Thanks so much for replies, we haven’t been for over 12 years so I know lots has changed, stayed MGM and Venetian (good old Virgin holidays on Tesco Clubcard free holiday days!!) but I know lots more additional charges and taxes are now added. Thinking could do a points back up booking and keep an eye out last min on cash rates, as agree rather get value for points for another holiday. Flexible on time of year thinking Sept Oct might be good?

      • Anna says:

        29 Dec29 December 11:23

        Not much award availability left for then so get cracking!

    • Matt says:

      29 Dec29 December 13:49

      We’ve got the Venetian booked on points for 2 nights in February. Everyone says Vegas hotels are dirt cheap mid-week but everyone I’ve looked good 5* hotels are £250+ per night. I must just be lucky!

      • Lumma says:

        29 Dec29 December 14:12

        Yeah, it’s cheap midweek if you’re ok staying in the Excalibur or Circus Circus. Decent hotels are cheaper than weekends but not by much

  • dgsupersonic says:

    29 Dec29 December 13:52

    My go to hotel is the Cosmo but not necessarily the best use of points. As well as being my preferred hotel I like the fact I can double dip with Identity points too. Basically I got a free night stay thanks to my identity points/level for the last 12 months.

• 1967stuart2 says:

  29 Dec29 December 10:31

  My free 250 Shangri-La points have posted and so have my wife.

  Is there anyway to transfer from one account to another as to redeem them for a US$50 voucher now requires 500 points.

  Thanks for any advice

  • Rob says:

    29 Dec29 December 15:52

    If you can get Shangri La to send you a plastic card then you don’t need to hit $50 for a voucher as you can use (in most venues) as many points as your want.

    • Alan says:

      29 Dec29 December 17:40

      Received my points now too, although I did need to send them an email to chase them. Need to look out my GC membership card now, am sure I have it somewhere!

• Lee says:

  29 Dec29 December 12:16

  Re Accor offer if you book in next couple of days you may find the triple points if booked with their App more generous? ( especially if you don’t have status )
  https://headforpoints.com/2018/12/07/warning-for-ba-ggl-guf2-holders/

• Craig says:

  29 Dec29 December 12:44

  OT: I would appreciate thoughts on a few BA options I have?

  I fly into JNB using the recent sale pricing, this will earn me 280TP, I already have 10 and have an Economy flight to CPT earning 5. This leaves me 5 short of Bronze with 3 months until TP collection year expiry.

  1. I could upgrade the economy flight for around £400 (£200pp) which would give me enough TP for Bronze and access to the Slow lounge in JNB. We have a 5-hour layover but with an Amex Plat would have lounge access anyway.

  2. I could cancel an Avios booking from PLZ-JNB and book in economy, this would effectively cost around £200 (£100pp) after forfeiting the fare and paying for the economy flight but would recoup 15500 Avios.

  3. Hope to be able to book a return BA economy flight over the next few months.

  My gut feeling is option 2 but have I missed anything obvious?

  Thanks.

  • Genghis says:

    29 Dec29 December 12:49

    Seems a very expensive way of getting 5 TPs, especially for just bronze. In your shoes I wouldn’t bother / go for option 3 if you really want to (cheap day return to LUX?)

    • TGLoyalty says:

      29 Dec29 December 13:47

      I don’t know if it’s 15,500 Avios then personally I’d py the c£200 cash and earn the 5 tp for hitting bronze. It’s a useful status if you travel ba alot.

      Any reason why you cant keep one and only pay cash for the other? If you always book with your partner you both get the bronze benefits. Only really worth both hitting status if it was silver/gold and you needed lounge access for 4

      • Craig says:

        29 Dec29 December 14:19

        Not sure Mrs S would be too happy if I’m in business and she’s in economy?

        Genghis, thanks, I know Bronze isn’t worth much but it seems a shame to be so close and not go for it?

  • Sunguy says:

    29 Dec29 December 15:35

    5tp is the lowest number you can earn on any tp earning flight.

    Have a look around for the cheapest one-way deals you can find – either in Europe or domestic. Remember about partner airlines too…. you could probably get something for next to nothing…

    For example – Return to Glasgow on BA from Gatwick on 8th Jan – £92 – this should get you 10tp and 250avios:

    London (LGW) to Glasgow (GLA) — Tue, Jan 8
    British Airways 2956
    Dep: 7:20 am
    Arr: 8:50 am
    Airbus A319
    Economy (O)

    Glasgow (GLA) to London (LGW) — Tue, Jan 8
    British Airways 2959
    Dep: 1:40 pm
    Arr: 3:05 pm
    Airbus A319
    Economy (O)

    • Shoestring says:

      29 Dec29 December 15:40

      Amsterdam return for £40-50 at times

      • TGLoyalty says:

        29 Dec29 December 19:18

        But there’s the 15500 Avios too.

        They are worth c£150. So it’s effectively costing £25 each to make them revenue flights rather than redemptions.

        I know what I would be doing here.

    • Sunguy says:

      29 Dec29 December 15:41

      Or of course even cheaper – a whole host of days to many destinations at £47 one way and an RFS back (or vice versa) – would be £64.50…..

      • Shoestring says:

        29 Dec29 December 15:51

        the points have a value…

  • bsuije says:

    30 Dec30 December 19:04

    If all else fails, ring BA close to your year expiry and ask them nicely if they will gift you the 5 TPs. I remember from a couple of years ago that they were willing to gift me 20 TPs as a Silver (or extend my year by 2 weeks, so that I could earn the TPs I was missing). Perhaps someone who has done this recently might confirm whether BA still entertain such requests?

    • Alan says:

      30 Dec30 December 20:32

      They offer 2 weeks extensions pretty routinely I believe. Not sure they’re quite as keen on gifting TP though, haven’t heard as many successes on that front.

• Delbert says:

  29 Dec29 December 14:37

  Totally missed the dead Qatar Airways Milan to Bangkok business class deal, though convincing the good lady wife to route LHR-MXP-DIA-BKK would never happen (and I couldn’t blame her). Coupled with the Amex offer, tier points and Avios was certainly an attractive offer.

  Anyway, it was a far easier proposition to convince my wife to go for the Swiss / Lufthansa deal which we are doing in April, LHR-ZRH-BKK return for a bargain £2.5k all in. After a bit of research we settled on booking seats 1D and 1F both ways on the ZRH-BKK section and first time we’ve ever flown indirect to LOS but saved at least £1.1k over direct flights.

  And thanks to Rob for running that article back in August otherwise I would have been none the wiser.

  • Tom H says:

    29 Dec29 December 17:13

    Is that in F delbert? I ve convinced the wife to fly LHR-AMS—LHR-BKK-LHR- dropping the last leg for 1.25k eachin CW which I didn’t think was too bad

    • Delbert says:

      29 Dec29 December 17:55

      Apologies as should have clarified it’s in business, Tom H. Notwithstanding, first class isn’t available.

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