The new HFP chat thread – Sunday 14th June

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

• Charlieface says:

  14 Jun14 June 03:00

  So what do people think is the best IHG hotel within 2 hr drive of Manchester? Non city centre please, preferably a country estate.

  • John says:

    14 Jun14 June 07:50

    I don’t think there are any. Countryside basically equals motorway junction HIX, the rest are in cities. Maybe voco solihull? Lancaster? Stratford/Avon?

    If you wanted Hilton then DT Chester is an easy choice, Liverpool also ok

    • mark2 says:

      14 Jun14 June 08:03

      Stratford upon Avon Indigo has just had multi million pound refurb of four hundred year old property (does not fit with IHG in my opinion). Amazing restaurant as long as you eat meat! (assuming that it re-opens)

      • TGLoyalty says:

        14 Jun14 June 08:41

        It’s a very nice courtyard in the summer and Stratford upon Avon is a nice town the indigo is in a nice location both quiet but very close to the centre.

        Not country hotels but Indigo Chester or Principal York?

        I think CP Marlow, CP Gerards Cross, voco Oxford Thames or Wotten House are probably their only intentional non city centre hotels but I think none are worth a journey from Manchester.

        • Rob says:

          14 Jun14 June 10:01

          Not exactly an inspriring list – we need those Mr & Mrs Smith hotels to come online!

        • Steve says:

          14 Jun14 June 10:35

          Any updates from IHG on when the Smiths will be available for booking?

        • TGLoyalty says:

          14 Jun14 June 11:26

          @Rob exactly.

          I think all of the major chains miss special properties in the countryside, I’m surprised so few see the advantage of joining any of these schemes perhaps the schemes aren’t approaching them?

          SLH (therefore Hyatt) does actually have a few though a few Monkey Estate, The Fish, Dormy House, Great Fosters, Stoke Park, Luton Hoo etc

        • Cat says:

          14 Jun14 June 13:59

          +1 for the Mr & Mrs Smith properties! A few of them look stunning, Much as I adore camping and hiking with my OH, I have a few friends who are very into weekends away involving a lovely day of hiking, then returning to the spa. The Mr & Mrs Smith properties would open up a whole world of possibilities for weekends away with my friends!

    • Charlieface says:

      14 Jun14 June 13:22

      I wanted IHG because of the new points prices. I don’t specifically need a countryside hotel, just not a big city. After a bit of research the ones that pop out are Dumfries HI, Chester CP or Indigo, Harrogate CP. Anyone with experience of these?
      The Mr and Mrs Smith do look tempting but they’re not bookable yet, and probably will have bad pricing on points when so.

      • Chrisasaurus says:

        14 Jun14 June 14:47

        CP Chester nice, compact rooms and lousy lounge but right in the centre of what is a nice city, and actually very good bar, didn’t eat in hotel as Chester in the doorstep

        breakfast good in restaurant too (which was as well since lounge had no milk, bowls, silverware, cups or pastries)

      • Secret Squirrel says:

        14 Jun14 June 17:40

        You might want to look at the limited amount of Mr&Mrs Smith hotels that are bookable using ihg, that might give you an indication of pricing for future redemptions.

  • Steve says:

    14 Jun14 June 08:28

    How about exploring the lakes from HIX, Barrow In Furness?

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      14 Jun14 June 14:51

      Almost certainly it’ll. depends on two things – whether the locals in question are in or dependant in tourism and whether the visitors are considerate and sensible.

      I would hope on the whole that visitors to the lakes and (eg) the N Yorks Moors etc would be but enough exceptions to that will ruin it for the rest.

  • Simon says:

    14 Jun14 June 10:34

    Related to this, I’ve been looking for a countryside hotel in the Manchester area for a one night Saturday stay in August on the rocketmiles daydream promotion. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance

    • Marc R says:

      15 Jun15 June 09:19

      Hi
      Try Mottram Hall in the village of Mottram St Andrew, it’s in the middle of the Golden Triangle of Alderley Edge, Wilmslow and Prestbury in a beautiful part of Cheshire, a couple of miles from the airport and M56 but very quiet.
      They’ve got a footballers WAGS image but ignore that, a lovely hotel with a superb spa.
      Or Mere Country Club at Bucklow Hill, often on Secret Escapes and again handy access.
      Have a nice time!

  • Phil H says:

    14 Jun14 June 11:14

    Holiday Inn Express in my home town of Burnley. Easy access to Pendle countryside with the history of the witches as well as the Ribble Valley. I’ve even stayed there myself a couple of times in order to hit IHG Accelerate bonuses.

    • Anna says:

      14 Jun14 June 11:43

      I worked in Burnley a long time ago before it was a Holiday Inn. The finest lodging in the town, lol!

      • Phil H says:

        14 Jun14 June 19:34

        @Anna, you’re right, we’re not exactly spoilt for choice of quality hotels in Burnley, LOL.

    • Jonathan says:

      14 Jun14 June 13:26

      HI South Chester or HL Lancaster?

      Neither exactly country hotels but within striking distance as an estate agent might say…

• Si says:

  14 Jun14 June 06:29

  Anyone have any opinion on which Edinburgh hotel is nicer – the intercontinental or the Kimpton??

  Both, amazingly, only 25,000 points for the dates I want (£200pn cash)!

  I am guessing the intercontinental is fancier, but Kimpton is only a year old, and has been shut for a good couple months of that so might be better condition…??

  I’m Platinum Elite if that makes any difference

  Thanks

  • Michael says:

    14 Jun14 June 09:16

    Location wise there isn’t much between them being a couple of minutes walk apart on different end of George St. As a local I’ve not stayed in either but based on Rob’s (Anika’s?) review of the Kimpton I’d probably choose that.

    • Rob says:

      14 Jun14 June 09:59

      It was Rhys actually!

      • Michael says:

        14 Jun14 June 10:21

        d’oh!

  • Chris says:

    14 Jun14 June 10:07

    Both are decent enough but I think there are still some rooms to be refurbed at the IC so there is a risk you could end up in one of those so unless you have AMB I’d probably opt for the Kimpton. Also checkout the Indigo on Princes Street which over the last few days has been pretty low for points nights and is very good and on it’s day could give both the George St properties a run for their money.

    • Si says:

      14 Jun14 June 13:15

      Thanks for help everyone. I’ve plumpt for the Kimpton. The recommended Indigo is actually 20,000 points more per night for my dates (although £80/night cheaper – you do the logic…!?!?) !

      It’s definitely a buyer’s market at the moment

  • Peggers says:

    14 Jun14 June 12:42

    Both hotels very central, so good for connections with Airport tram/bus links. IC slightly closer to Waverley station.
    But for me it’s the Kimpton by a mile. Totally refurbed 2/3 years ago. Full of character. Great staff. Sits on most prestigious of the Georgian Squares in the New Town.

• Dominic says:

  14 Jun14 June 07:35

  I’m looking to shift from a Gold Amex to the BAPP, but have a large points balance.

  I eventually will shift these over to BA, but would rather keep in Amex points for now. Would a fair strategy be to get the BAPP, then downgrade the Alexa Gold to keep the points?

  • Peter K says:

    14 Jun14 June 08:28

    Unless it’s one of the old gold charge cards from ages ago that you’ve had for years you can’t downgrade the gold (credit) card.

  • Rhys says:

    14 Jun14 June 08:47

    The Amex ARCC card is a way of doing this (no annual fee): https://headforpoints.com/2020/05/16/keep-membership-rewards-points-cancelling-american-express-gold-platinum-card/

    • Dominic says:

      14 Jun14 June 10:47

      Cheers Rhys! I knew there was something about this.

• iain says:

  14 Jun14 June 08:22

  advice from the hive mind please:
  I have an Avios booking with Amex Companion Voucher. Booked in Feb, flight in Aug. Cash element was £100. I also paid for seating.
  I need to change the date.
  Apparently I don’t benefit from free changes because I booked in good faith before COVID was a big thing (strange policy but ok).
  I can pay £140 (4 people) to change the date.
  Or I can cancel, lose the £100, get the avios and voucher back (?) and rebook. But then I’d lose the seating money as well?
  Can I get a voucher under the coronavirus policy? If so, how long does it take to come through and how easy is it to use? I think that would “include” everything?
  What would you do?
  Any advice appreciated!

  • Anna says:

    14 Jun14 June 09:39

    You don’t say where you’re travelling to but there’s a good chance BA will cancel – flight for July are now being cancelled in large numbers. So you could wait a few weeks and see what happens. If you cancel, you can get vouchers but these have to be used for the same people travelling on the original booking and have to be redeemed by phone. I’m not sure what the situation is with seat selection fees; I can’t see that BA could ultimately insist on holding on to these.

    • memesweeper says:

      14 Jun14 June 12:21

      +1

      Wait for cancellation — even a significant retiming will do — then call up and reschedule to a date/time that suits. Should cost nothing apart from the call.

      If with a few days to go there’s no cancellation by BA then you have normal Avios cancellation options anyway.

• James says:

  14 Jun14 June 08:55

  I’ve been unable to transfer Amex Rewards to Virgin Flying Club all weekend. It won’t acknowledge my FC number or my partners. Transfers to Singapore Airlines weren’t an issue. I appreciate there were some issues with Flying Club recently but I thought they had been fixed? Anyone else having this issue? Dodgy IT or something more sinister?

  • Travel Strong says:

    14 Jun14 June 09:28

    Call amex. Always happens on trying to register flying club number for transfers, and is resolved on the phone. Not sure why it has not been fixed, but once sorted you can transfer online at will in the future.

• Secret Squirrel says:

  14 Jun14 June 09:31

  Reward Flight finder still giving incorrect data on BA first flight availability.

• Baresi says:

  14 Jun14 June 09:38

  Morning all,
  I fired off an email to Qatar yesterday (below) regarding requalifying for gold during the next 12 months. During their status match offer they advertised on their website we only need to hit half the requalifying target!
  Has anyone else noticed the same on their dashboard that its the normal requalifying target?

  Thanks in advance 👍

  Hi Qatar

  Thank you for status match from Etihad Guest Gold to Qatar Privilege Gold. 👍

  A question for your good self.

  I read on your website and from the reputable website Head for Points, that to re-qualify for Gold we only need to collect half of the usual tier points during the next 12 months. In my case 150 Qpoints instead of the usual 270 Gold Qpoints.
  Now on my Dashboard it states 270 Qpoints to re-qualify for Gold?
  Can you clarify the advertised 150 requalifying for Gold?
  Why i ask is with the lockdown around the world and no flying at this moment in UK, it will be very hard for me to re-qualify for Gold at 270 Qpoints at 150 Qpoints it will be a little easier!

  Please see attached Head for Points article.

  Best Regards

  • Baresi says:

    14 Jun14 June 14:29

    Just had a reply! All good 👍

    Thank you for writing to Privilege Club.
    Please accept our apologies for the delay in replying to your query.
    We would like to inform you that to retain your Gold Tier for the following year you required a minimum of 150 Qpoints until 07th Jun 2021.
    Your profile will be monitor manually by our status match team to calculate requirements as per our offer.
    We appreciate your understanding and cooperation in this regard.
    Sincerely,
    Afsari Galsulkar.
    http://www.qmiles.com

• Keely says:

  14 Jun14 June 09:47

  Morning all I currently collect only Avios but am also considering whether to also collect hotel points so am looking at the best way to do this. I’m reasonably new to this game so missed all the best hotel credit cards (I have to get over the bitterness!) I’m thinking that my best strategy would be firstly to get the IHG Mastercard and then once my 2 year hiatus is over also reapply for the Gold Amex ? If my husband also gets the IHG card, can we combine the points? Is my strategy right or have I missed something?
  I don’t travel for work (I’m one of those public sector types….!) and neither does hubby . I also don’t (yet!) have any loyalty to a particular hotel brand. Thanks all 😁

  • Rob says:

    14 Jun14 June 09:57

    No, you can’t combine IHG points.

    It definitely makes sense to take a 2-year Amex gap, and then come back with a full 2-person cross-referral strategy like this one – https://headforpoints.com/2020/01/06/how-to-earn-185000-avios-from-american-express-bonuses/

    • Keely says:

      14 Jun14 June 12:42

      Thanks Rob I’ll take a look

    • @mkcol says:

      14 Jun14 June 12:44

      My husband & I each have our own IHG credit cards (paid & free) linked into just my IHG Rewards Club account.

      • Rob says:

        14 Jun14 June 13:14

        Ooh …. I take it back (unless they only check surnames).

      • Keely says:

        14 Jun14 June 17:42

        Thank you – makes it more interesting then. I’m presuming it’s not an ‘official‘ link then , you just the relevant IHG account number on the application form ?

      • Secret Squirrel says:

        14 Jun14 June 17:44

        Interesting glitch, how did you go abouts that then, did you enter one ihg account number on all card accounts?

  • Sandra says:

    14 Jun14 June 11:11

    They still discount and members of ‘Defence Discount’ can access via logging in (maybe Blue Light members too). It is normally only w/e rates and includes B & B but you do need to double check against normal pricing. Generally I’ve found either a very worthwhile discount or none at all and often only the basic rooms are available. When we have used it we’ve never been asked for ID but terms state they can request it.

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    14 Jun14 June 12:07

    PR11PN, I believe.

    • @mkcol says:

      14 Jun14 June 12:45

      Correct!

    • Aston100 says:

      14 Jun14 June 14:08

      Takes me to a dodgy backstreet in Preston.

  • Keely says:

    14 Jun14 June 12:42

    Ooh interesting! I’ll do some research ..

    • Cat says:

      14 Jun14 June 14:05

      I’ve used this offer loads – I’m Hilton Gold (from my Platinum card), so I often get a cheap rate using PR11PN, then get a free breakfast as well.

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