Redeem Avios for Nectar points for Marks & Spencer gift cards

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

• Baji Nahid says:

  25 Feb25 February 03:39

  Fun story about the Roosevelt hotel. Its owned by PIA and recently had to restructure its 150 Million dollar loan as there was an apparent land grab by the lender to take over the hotel. Shame as it was a great hotel but mismanagement killed it off.

  • Relay says:

    25 Feb25 February 06:38

    Stayed at the Roosevelt on my first visit to NYC… sadto h

  • Relay says:

    25 Feb25 February 06:39

    Stayed at the Roosevelt on my first visit to NYC… sad to hear it close. Great lobby and atmosphere back in the day. Let’s hope it gets some new investment and management.

    • fivebobbill says:

      25 Feb25 February 10:05

      As did I, a long time ago now, great breakfast on Madison Avenue…
      Fond memories, sad to see its demise.

  • Mrs H says:

    25 Feb25 February 09:32

    Stayed at the Roosevelt for a conference Sept 2019. Beautiful lobby was looking a bit tacky with cheap coffee bars etc. Room was very poor and in bad state of repair. Not cheap either. Needs major investment.

  • OLR says:

    25 Feb25 February 15:05

    Lovely roof top bar – but showing its age and in need of some loving restoration

• NC says:

  25 Feb25 February 04:14

  This seems long winded when you could just buy One-for-all vouchers using nectar points at Viking Direct

  • Andrew says:

    25 Feb25 February 08:15

    Viking terms say nectar can’t be used to buy gift cards. Is that not the case in practice?

  • Rob says:

    25 Feb25 February 08:19

    Hadn’t seen that, thanks. Will have a dig.

• Andrew says:

  25 Feb25 February 06:21

  Genghis seemed to suggest there was a way to spend nectar on M&S food, unless this is it and in reality the vouchers aren’t limited to non-food purchases.

  • KBuffett says:

    25 Feb25 February 06:34

    Perhaps buy non food and then refund to a voucher that can be spent on food.

  • BJ says:

    25 Feb25 February 06:40

    Just try buying any branded giftcard you like in your local Sainsbury’s and paying with Nectar points. It was definitely possible in my local store and I am assuming it remains so unless they have cracked down on it during the past year. I know the t&c exclude it but I suspect they always have and it didn’t stop it working. Try usual trick, mix with some groceries and go on a Sunday when part time students are in.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    25 Feb25 February 07:27

    I can’t see how they issue special vouchers. I’ll try it out with £5

    • Andrew says:

      25 Feb25 February 07:35

      Agree, I think it must just be empty words so they don’t step on Sainsbury’s toes. Like the John Lewis gift cards they sell at Tesco don’t have the Waitrose logo on.

      • James says:

        25 Feb25 February 13:38

        But with with clear T&Cs saying they can be used across the partnership in Waitirose. They are separate trading businesses, it not some sort of great Machiavelluan plot.

• Michael says:

  25 Feb25 February 06:49

  Anyone convert avios to nectar yet? The app software is broken with no date of fix. Now it gives you a phone number. I called up and they are taking 10 working days to do a “manual transfer form”.

  • Andrew says:

    25 Feb25 February 07:01

    Did a big convert when it first launched but not since they took down the self-serve option. Apparently it’s to install 2FA to avoid fraud and should be up and running again soon.

  • Rob says:

    25 Feb25 February 08:08

    It was working on Tuesday night because I moved 400. There was rudimentary 2FA on it, which I assume – when the kinks are ironed it – will be permanent.

• tony says:

  25 Feb25 February 07:54

  Ref: NY hotel closures “although it is clear that some capacity needs to come out of the market”

  What’s the rationale behind this statement? I haven’t needed to travel to NY for the last few years but prices always struck me as being even more obscene than London. Reducing capacity means higher prices, lower quality service and even more stupidity such as the “resort tax” many now tack onto the room rate.

  • Simon Barlow says:

    25 Feb25 February 08:31

    Only if demand remains the same. Drop in demand = drop in prices and/or supply.

    • tony says:

      25 Feb25 February 10:08

      But for prices to be where they were, demand must have been exceeding supply for much of the year by a long way.

      And presumably a large part of the hotel room cost was coming from the yield demanded by the freeholder. So if property prices fall, the required yield falls, room prices fall and demand is stimulated.

      This is interesting – https://aka.nyc/content/uploads/2017/12/new_york_city_travel_and_tourism_trend_report_2017.pdf – it’s a few years out of date but the patterns presumably still applied 12 months ago – 80% of visitors to NY are domestic and 80% of visitors are there on leisure.

      To me it seems that the bit that will be squeezed in the longer term by fundamental shifts in behaviour (risk assessments & border controls) will be overseas and/or business travel.

  • Alex Sm says:

    25 Feb25 February 11:57

    Exactly the same thoughts! Crazy prices can only be explained by a great demand/supply mismatch. In the short term demand might drop yes, but on the longer term it’s a chronic issue. The only explanation I can see is accelerated refurbishment of dated properties while the situation permits to do this without losing much revenue

  • marcw says:

    25 Feb25 February 14:04

    TBH, NYC hotel prices were (or are) high whenever there was a high profile event, conference, concert (you name it).
    Otherwise, prices weren’t that expensive – unless you wanted a very high end hotel.

    • tony says:

      25 Feb25 February 17:29

      Well, that certainly doesn’t reflect my experience, and I have been there on an irregular basis, so not always the same week/month type of thing. The night I got a room at the RC Central Park in a club room for just the price of the club upgrade via a BA Holidays pricing error was rather sweet, mind….

    • BP says:

      26 Feb26 February 08:55

      I guess that depends what you call high priced. I paid about £250 a night for the Bryant Park Hotel when I first went 8 years ago. I thought that was on the high side at the time.

      Second time I went in 2018 I stayed 5 nights at the Even hotel on IHG points. No worries about pricing!

• elt says:

  25 Feb25 February 08:32

  Bits: Sizeable amex PPlus credit – so shut card?
  From several trip refunds I have built up sizeable credit in amex account.
  In order to qualify for next companion voucher I have to spend £10 K plus the credit – which will not be achievable in time allowed.
  If I cancel PPlus , use gold card in interim, and restart PPlus later in year will I then just have to make the £10K spend?
  Thoughts appreciated, thanks

  • Harry T says:

    25 Feb25 February 08:48

    Yeah, cancelling the card and opening a new one at a later date will mean you only need to spend 10k in 12 months on the BAPP. I would personally do this rather than spend extra on a card that’s significantly in credit, especially as you will also have a negative points balance and not earn points on spend until you clear that.

    • tony says:

      25 Feb25 February 10:10

      Wish I’d thought about this last year when my £6k refund came in from Swissair, with the transaction straddling the card anniversary date. Going to be touch and go whether I can trigger the voucher this time round.

    • Doug M says:

      25 Feb25 February 10:26

      BAPP is my churn card with Amex. Recently got it again after 2 year wait. Bagged 30K+ points and will shortly cancel to start clock again. No use for 2-4-1, so just a nice source of Avios for little effort.

      • Harry T says:

        25 Feb25 February 11:22

        Same with me now, Doug. 241s aren’t actually that useful for me but it’s nice you can churn the card fairly easily.

• RussellH says:

  25 Feb25 February 10:06

  You do not get 80 Nectar points / wk from the Daily Mail anymore, only 50 is the standard offer, though for the last couple of weeks it has been 60 (triple points on Mondays) and every so often they have a double points week.
  The standard offer is 5pts / day Mon-Fri = 25. 10 pts Sat and 15 pts Sun.
  Until a couple of months ago there was a 30 pts bonus if you got points all week; that was a downgrade for 30 pts bonus for 5 days out of 7.
  Before they went for Nectar they had their own points; the switch to Nectar was a 50% devaluation at the time.
  They are putting all the points they have saved through the various cuts into occasional prize draws for huge numbers – it is slowly turning into a lottery instead of a loyalty scheme.

  • James says:

    25 Feb25 February 13:41

    The thought of being loyal to the Daily Mail (shivers).

• Save East Coast Rewards says:

  25 Feb25 February 10:19

  M&S was a partner in the Daily Mail reward scheme before they switched to Nectar so it’s a bit like the Aer Lingus partnership with United, it seems odd now but it’s a historical benefit. I seem to recall a lot of Mail readers angry at the thought of losing their M&S vouchers at the time. I certainly remember a lot of non Mail readers angry at Nectar partnering with them

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