The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 4th August

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• Michael says:

  4 Aug4 August 10:21

  Looking for any inspiration on how to use IHG points and a couple of reward nights, given I’ve accumulated a lot over the last two years. I’m aware of some of the better redemptions in Paris/Amsterdam etc. but the issue I have is they are for a basic room. For context we have a baby and ideally require something larger or a suite for example, otherwise we could happily redeem anywhere.

  Is there a way to book larger rooms with points or does anyone know of good Six Senses/Mr & Mrs Smith hotels that have a larger “standard” room? Can be anywhere, but preferably within Europe.

  Thanks in advance

  • Genghis says:

    4 Aug4 August 11:39

    All case by case. We have a two year old and whilst not done loads of travelling recently, he’s stayed in a few hotels. The Amstel put a little bed / cot in the room. Hotels in Cape Town and Franschhoek (Marriott) provided cots. More recently, at the Artists Residence (MAMS) in Oxfordshire we got the Barn Suite and they put a bed in the room. All on points. Premier Inn are good in UK but cash and not exactly fancy.

    Now I look out for king bed rooms since we can all sleep in the king bed.

    To give you some idea, our holiday at the end of the month is resulting in:
    – two rooms in York Indigo – free night certificates as got them to burn
    – one room (with sofa bed) in Stirling – points
    – one room with two double beds on Skye – hotels.com vouchers
    – one room with double bed and single bed in Fort William – cash
    – one room with two double beds in Glasgow – points
    – one room with sofa bed in the North East – points

  • Gareth says:

    4 Aug4 August 12:24

    Similar situation to yourself, our baby is 11 months old so goes to bed early and it makes it tough in the same hotel room. You could book two rooms and call and insist on interconnecting rooms so effectively have a room for the baby and a room for you.

  • Toppcat says:

    4 Aug4 August 18:49

    I would imagine any of the resort SS in the tropics would be fine. Certainly Seychelles is. Not so sure about Europe though.

    Also – it’s worth contacting hotels and seeing what they would charge to cash upgrade from a basic room points redemption to the room category you actually want. Sometimes works out quite reasonable, sometimes not!

• J says:

  4 Aug4 August 10:24

  Morning all,

  I’ve got 1,517 Accor points and 392 Eurostar points. Both stashes expire in December. How do I keep them alive or transfer them out?

  • Blenz101 says:

    4 Aug4 August 10:58

    For Accor you just need activity on your account. Easiest way is to pop into hotel bar / restaurant. See their website for details of those participating.

    • Rich says:

      4 Aug4 August 11:06

      I thought bar/ restaurant spend didn’t accrue points? Certainly didn’t when we had a disappointingly-high F&B bill at Novotel a couple of years ago.

      Eurostar – any Amex MRs to transfer across?

      • JP says:

        4 Aug4 August 11:07

        One of the survey companies is easiest, points usually appear within a week after a qualifying survey (which can take a while to find….)

      • Blenz101 says:

        4 Aug4 August 11:17

        Since they relaunched as ALL you can indeed earn points in bars, cafes and restaurants. More reliable than trying to find a survey company etc.

        https://all.accor.com/loyalty-program/promotions-offers/program-benefits/earn-reward-points-on-food-and-beverages.en.shtml

        A pint of beer in an Ibis will do it.

        • Tony1 says:

          4 Aug4 August 14:01

          Just make sure that you have a hotel that is part of the scheme. Most are not. Check before you get a coffee. ( And keep receipt incase it is not processed correctly. )

  • Genghis says:

    4 Aug4 August 11:26

    Do 1,517 Accor points and 392 Eurostar points constitute a stash? 🙂

    • Optimus Prime says:

      4 Aug4 August 11:43

      One man’s trash is another man’s treasure 🙂

      • Russ says:

        4 Aug4 August 12:47

        Was in Sopot 2019 (nice place by the way) and a chap in the RAF was telling me how he’d saved 250,000 Marriott points over the years for him and his wife to go traveling when he retired. I just congratulated him….

        • Tony1 says:

          4 Aug4 August 14:05

          Totally agree. Sopot is very nice and not many people know about it. The Sofitel there is the place to stay next to the beach. Do take the breakfast in the restaurant. Did not rate the Marriott ( next door ).

        • Save East Coast Rewards says:

          4 Aug4 August 19:52

          You should have at least mentioned HfP to him

  • Chris Heyes says:

    4 Aug4 August 13:46

    J Another way is book into Sofitel, when they cancel your booking due to it being a quarantine Hotel complain to Accor for free 12 month extension.
    Although not sure they would do it for a small amount of points ?
    We have a free upgrade to an executive suite with lounge excess on our next booking compliments of the manager

    • Tony1 says:

      4 Aug4 August 14:02

      Dont get too excited by lounge access ….

      • Chris Heyes says:

        4 Aug4 August 15:35

        Tony1 Always get Lounge access would be more worried if we didn’t out of well over 1000 Hilton stays only missed out on three Lounge access and that was only because there wasn’t a Lounge, Blackburn Hampton, my first experience of a Hampton, Brighton, and Arundel every other been upgraded to Executive Suite
        Don’t use Accor to much except Sofitel 3/4 times a year, before flights partner says Sofitel is the start of her Holiday who am I to argue lol

• marcw says:

  4 Aug4 August 10:28

  Great news for BAs 380s. BA has extended their contract with LHTechnik for another 5 years.
  https://twitter.com/LHTechnik/status/1422840920953827332?s=20

  • Richie says:

    4 Aug4 August 10:46

    That is. It’ll be interesting to see if any get CS.

  • Memesweeper says:

    4 Aug4 August 13:17

    Fantastic news. I’d be even more pleased if they picked up a few more second hand… absolutely love flying them.

    • Lord Doncaster says:

      4 Aug4 August 14:09

      The crew don’t enjoy them in economy from what I saw. Faces like smacked behinds for the entire trip to Hong Kong and back.

      • Lord Doncaster says:

        4 Aug4 August 14:11

        While people may disapprove of mixed fleet on BA…it invariably seems that the very best and very worst crews are all those on the former legacy contracts.

      • Memesweeper says:

        4 Aug4 August 14:15

        Last long-haul economy flight I took and enjoyed was an A380 …

      • Gruntfuttock says:

        4 Aug4 August 15:21

        It’s part of the training together with chewing a wasp 😂

• r* says:

  4 Aug4 August 10:29

  If Beardy visits Solihull today, then goes into pending today but moves to confirmed next week will that trigger the cash advance changes that are due to start tomorrow?

  Would it use the date of transaction, so before changes and so no charge, or the date it goes confirmed which is after changes to a charge?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    4 Aug4 August 10:58

    Who knows if it even will.

  • Jimmy says:

    4 Aug4 August 11:08

    I don’t think anybody knows at the moment. Will probably require testing until statement date.

    • Grant says:

      4 Aug4 August 11:16

      Any cash advance fees will show on the back of the relevant transaction. At least that was the way it played out when they implemented the change to Rev top ups.

      • The Urbanite says:

        4 Aug4 August 13:20

        Virgin didn’t implement a change to treatment of Revolut topups. Revolut changed their merchant category to one which Virgin Money always considered to be a cash advance.

        • Pangolin says:

          4 Aug4 August 15:20

          I can top up Revolut using Virgin w/o any fees/interest

        • Grant says:

          4 Aug4 August 15:45

          Potato Potatoe

• AnotherUser says:

  4 Aug4 August 10:39

  You could book something cancellable and then email the hotel to ask about an upgrade (due to status, or paid)? As Spire, I’ve sometimes been offered an automatic one category upgrade. Or get Ambassador and see what you can negotiate at an Intercontinental?

  As far as larger base rooms, some of the Staybridge hotels might be worth a look.

  • AnotherUser says:

    4 Aug4 August 10:40

    That was a reply to Michael

• FFoxSake says:

  4 Aug4 August 11:00

  Smile of the day… a video of an out-of-control airport service vehicle. Give the tug driver hero a pay rise!
  https://twitter.com/i/status/1422693308904706048

  • Alex says:

    4 Aug4 August 11:05

    I remember this… happened Oct 2019…

• Venturelog says:

  4 Aug4 August 11:41

  I had this when I opened it for the first time after an update. Closed it and opened it again later today to find its back on the bottom.

• LessCleverAndrew says:

  4 Aug4 August 11:51

  Ongoing BA accelerating business amex 50k welcome bonus not paid saga. After numerous online chats and calls to call centre with the promise of we’ll investigate and get back to you in 7-10 days, nothing has happened after 2+ months. Have decided to cut my losses (I did not actually lose anything other than the card fee), cancel this card and demand my 210 back on the basis of false advertising of this product, and take my business elsewhere.

  If anyone has had luck with this please comment.

  • Yorkie Aid says:

    4 Aug4 August 13:37

    Trying to get money out of Amex is worse than blood from a stone. Move on.

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