Join an Amex-sponsored charity dinner at the Hotel Cafe Royal

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If you were unlucky in getting a spot at the Head for Points reader dinner next week, you may be interested in a charity dinner at the Hotel Cafe Royal on Regent Street on Saturday 26th October.

This is an annual charity event organised by luxury travel consultancy Driven2travel, who I know, and sponsored by American Express. For out-of-towners there are other events going on over the weekend around the dinner, but there is enough space at the venue to add additional guests (like you!) just for the meal and the charity auction.

The gala dinner will be held in the Domino room at Hotel Cafe Royal. Following a ludicrously huge investment over recent years, Cafe Royal now looks gorgeous and is well worth a visit. As you can see, it is a lovely room (click to enlarge):

The event is organised on a fully non-profit basis and has raised over $25,000 for HUSK Cambodia over the past three years alone. This year, the money raised will be shared between HUSK Cambodia and the Shinta Mani Foundation, two charities that support needy families living near Siem Reap with education, housing and hope for a sustainable future. A photo of a project supported by the event in previous years is below.

The evening costs just £60 per person. This is exceptional value for a welcome champagne reception and a three-course dinner with wine in such a venue. The price is so low because American Express is fully sponsoring the dinner. Your £60 fee does not pay for your meal (Amex is paying) but covers a donation to HUSK and is also valid as a credit during the charity auction after the dinner.

Here are the highlights of the current auction list. There is an opportunity to bid on a stay at some great hotels and all income from the auction is donated to charity.

3 nights at Shinta Mani Wild, a member of the Bensley Collection, including transfers, all-inclusive dining (including as much champagne as you like!), all activities, spa treatments and use of the hotel’s zip-line!
2 nights at the Park Hyatt New York, including breakfast
2 nights at Capri Palace, including breakfast
3 nights at any Myconian Collection property, including breakfast
2 nights at the Park Hyatt Mallorca, including breakfast
2 nights at the Chedi Muscat, including breakfast
2 nights at the Park Hyatt Vienna, including breakfast
2 nights at Canaves Oia Suites, including breakfast
2 nights at the Fairmont San Francisco, including breakfast

Many of the fellow guests are Flyertalk users and, whilst not all conversation at the event may be focused on miles and points, everyone will be a passionate traveller. The organisers will seat HfP readers on the same table where feasible. Attendance is limited and the remaining seats are available on a first come, first served basis.

For full clarity, I have attended this dinner in the past and it is a very pleasant evening with a fascinating bunch of people. I also know Jenny who organises it and who I know is very committed to the evening and indeed to the HUSK charity. However, neither myself or Rhys will be attending – I am on holiday as it is half term, and Rhys will be in Israel with Sir Richard Branson, as you do. Anika’s baby is due the same week so she’s not going either.

HUSK Cambodia

If you would like to attend (and you won’t find a better value Saturday night in the West End), you need to register here and pay the £60 per person fee.

If you want to spend the night at the Hotel Cafe Royal, Jenny can book you in and get you the added Virtuoso benefits on top. A lot of HfP readers will have a ‘£100 cashback on £400 Cafe Royal spend’ offer on one of their American Express cards at the moment, but this expires on 24th October so you’d need a pre-paid room. Contact jenny.price@driven2travel.co.uk for more information.

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Category

American Express Platinum card

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

Spaghetti Town says:

2 Oct2 October 10:59

Rob, if you weren’t on holiday for half term, you still wouldn’t be at this Dinner, as you would of gone to see Branson instead of Rhys 😀
Ali says:

2 Oct2 October 11:42

OT

1. I was on the emptiest BA flight I’d ever been on yesterday (73 to AUH) – 97 pax on board total. I was down the back but each person basically had a row of 3 to themselves. I thought BA had their pricing algorithms down to a T to ensure full flights but evidently not. Who needs club/first?!

2. does anyone know if the worldremit offer works when sending money to the usd / eur accounts that revolut provide?
- Shoestring says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 11:50
  
  2 – is there a way to remit to Revolut using Swift and/ or IBAN details? In which case, probably yes
  - Sandgrounder says:
    
    2 Oct2 October 12:34
    
    If I remember it’s a bit messy because you can’t choose UK as a destination, and you can’t choose Lithuania either as the IBAN is too long.
    They may have updated the site since I used it though. Try picking Germany (I think that is the right length) and putting the rest of the address details in correctly. It should just go through, if not it’ll bounce back. It worked sending money to my wife’s N26. But at your own risk! 🙂
- John says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 17:21
  
  It may be that the return flight was going to be full, and/or the few people on board had paid a lot. Or the potential EC261 costs of cancelling the flight outweighed the costs of running the flight at a loss.
  
  I’ve been on plenty of emptier flights.
  - BJ says:
    
    2 Oct2 October 18:05
    
    O/T @John: Did you see my comment yesterday that the consecutive nights at IHG accelerate weekend/Saturday stays now need to be at the same hotel. Consecutive nights at different hotels no longer appear to qualify.
- Paul Pogba says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 20:51
  
  I think the algorithm or the economy is broken. I was looking at heading to YVR 06/12 to 10/12 going to buy WTP and upgrade to CW. In Sept momondo was telling me £1278, got an alert today and its down to £766.
sh83 says:

2 Oct2 October 12:43

OT – I want to book a flight London or AMS to Nicaragua, departing 20th Dec to 5th Jan.
Most connections to Nicaragua seem to depart US from MIA via AA. How can I book this using Avios? The route doesn’t seem to appear on BA webite. AA website shows it as 65k AA points + fees.
Any help on best/cheapest points based way to get to this part of the world?

Thanks in advance.
SH83
- Ben says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 15:15
  
  Im off to Costa Rica over Christmas and the best I could do was F to Dallas (from LHR) and then AA down to San Jose not as good as direct but was the best at short notice
- Cat says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 16:30
  
  Try Iberia flights to Managua. Transfer Avios across to Iberia and book from there for lower taxes, although check for any difference in Avios due to differing peak / off-peak calendars.
- sh83 says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 18:06
  
  Thanks – however the AA flight MIA to MGA is not appearing on ba.com at all – Is this route not bookable via BA website thus not Avios redeemable?
  
  It’s showing on AA website using AA miles.
  - Cat says:
    
    2 Oct2 October 21:38
    
    Try a variety of different dates over varying time periods. If you can’t find availability in the short, medium or long term, then maybe you can’t book it, or availability is sparse. If you can find availability sometimes, then you might get lucky.
    It’s probably easier to find an available redemption seat on Iberia though.
r* says:

2 Oct2 October 14:09

Which is the best Iberia business class-eligible lounge at Narita?
- Jonathan says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 16:54
  
  JAL definitely. Recently refurbed. Cathay is ok.
xcalx says:

2 Oct2 October 14:10

OT Monese card. When topping up at Coop or PO does the name on the Monese card being topped up have to be funded by a card with the same name.
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 15:11
  
  I doubt anyone even checks what is being topped up
- Mark2 says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 16:32
  
  In both the card machine is far from the cashier so that they could not see the name in the unlikely event that they were interested. As long as it comes up as paid on their till they are happy.
Don says:

2 Oct2 October 16:13

7% off at Morrison on Amex. Am I good to buy a lot of gift cards and use for fuel?
- Tilly71 says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 16:16
  
  Yes
- Shoestring says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 16:16
  
  giftcards: yes nice & easy, possibly better to take them & pay for them / activate them at the kiosk if in quantity
  
  fuel also easy but you need to do it indirectly, ie first buy Morrison’s vouchers (at the kiosk is again best) then use those to pay for fuel, they are treated as cash
  - Anna says:
    
    2 Oct2 October 16:56
    
    I’ve done 2 shops at Morrison’s since I saved the offer (some good wines at 3 for £20) but so far not had an email or any other acknowledgement of using it.
    - Shoestring says:
      
      2 Oct2 October 17:06
      
      I didn’t get any for my big M spend earlier this year – they all credited OK
    - Polly says:
      
      3 Oct3 October 20:50
      
      Same here at Xmas.
Alex Sm says:

2 Oct2 October 17:11

Curve sent an email that Tesco cards linked to Curve will start incur 3.99% fee fro cash withdrawals from 24 Oct. Wasn’t it the case for a long time already?

https://mailchi.mp/ca14e6b9b695/potential-tesco-credit-card-charges-for-payments-through-curve?e=b43f982f1b
- Rob says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 18:49
  
  Tesco screwed up and did not give proper notice originally. Everyone who was charged has been refunded.
BJ says:

2 Oct2 October 18:12

O/T: Not sure if anybody has mentioned this yet but there is currently a £125 bonus available for switching banks to Club Lloyds account. This also has benefits for those holding Lloyd’s Avios cards.
- Federico says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 19:31
  
  If only I knew! Just closed my M&S account… crap!
  - BJ says:
    
    2 Oct2 October 20:02
    
    Valid through 5 November so you have a month to open an account with a couple of direct debits set up and then switch.
    - Nick_C says:
      
      2 Oct2 October 20:33
      
      You don’t need any DDs to get the switching bonus. 2 active DDs gets you 1% interest.
      
      You need to deposit £1500 a month to avoid paying the monthly fee.
      
      You also get 6 free cinema tickets every year
      
      https://www.currentaccountswitch.co.uk/banksandbuildingsocieties/Pages/banks.aspx#S lists banks that participate in the switching service.
      - Mark2 says:
        
        2 Oct2 October 22:09
        
        or you can get a magazine subscription.