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The HfP chat thread – Sunday 10th October

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General

Comments (363)

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

  • George K says:
    10 Oct10 October 10:01

    Marriott BRG question: Can anyone recall whether the 25% discount applies to the value of the total booking if lower rate found elsewhere – or only just for the night (or nights) that the rate is lower?

    Because there can be a situation where a comparison of a five-night stay between marriott and an OTA would show a lower rate for the nightly total, but really it would only be one of the five nights that actually has a lower rate. Would the BRG team then apply the discount on that single night, or the booking in total?

    • JDB says:
      10 Oct10 October 10:15

      “Claims made against only a portion of your entire scheduled stay will not be honored. Multiple claims for a stay consisting of two or more nights in the same week at the same Marriott hotel or Marriott hotels in the same geographic location (e.g. city) may be treated as one claim for one stay, even if booked through more than one reservation.”

    • TGLoyalty says:
      10 Oct10 October 10:31

      Never come across that situation

      Have you submitted the BRG and seen what they do?

      • Rupert says:
        10 Oct10 October 10:43

        It’s the total price of the booking

        • TGLoyalty says:
          10 Oct10 October 10:48

          They’ve always matched the price by night then taken off 25% in my experience but every night has been cheaper.

          I don’t know if the claim will be accepted or not if 1 night of 5 is lower and the rest are the same/higher. I suspect it will be no idea best thing to do is submit and see what they do. There’s a big thread on flyertalk too.

          • KBuffett says:
            10 Oct10 October 12:41

            I managed to secure an amazing BRG. The online travel agent had a double room whereas Marriott only had a twin room available. I don’t understand their email (extract below) to me, but I’m glad I have a lot of money with the BRG

            “Thank you for choosing Marriott and submitting a Best Rate Guarantee claim. I am happy to share that I was able to approve your claim.

            Please be advised that your claim was approved based on the fact that the hotel was not offering this room type: Deluxe room with either king bed or two twin beds , directly for your date of stay. Had the hotel been able to offer this room type, your claim could have been denied as a room type mismatch, as the Terms and Conditions of Marriott’s Best Rate Guarantee require that valid claims must be submitted for the same room type/ accommodations with the same guarantee requirements, including cancellation policies and, if applicable, advance purchase policies. We honor our Guarantee if the hotel does not provide the same option as a third-party website.”

        • George K says:
          10 Oct10 October 17:35

          Thank you everyone – yes, I am in the middle of a BRG claim which was approved, but got a breakdown of the nightly fares which show that only the last night was actually cheaper on the OTA, so the discount was only applied to that one and is therefore miniscule.

          I will hold my ground but it’s not clear cut in the T&Cs, as far as I can tell. They don’t accept claims for part of stays, so that might be my best bet..

    • Harry T says:
      10 Oct10 October 13:04

      Ask on Flyertalk thread. My gut instinct is this wouldn’t work, but that doesn’t mean you can’t eventually ram it down their throats lol

  • Paul says:
    10 Oct10 October 10:03

    I have some spare nfl tickets for today. Free to a good Hfper. 4 tickets but unfortunately they are individual seats scattered all over stadium. E tix and can email. Let me know if anyone wants one.

  • Harry T says:
    10 Oct10 October 10:08

    Date point – just received the 2000 bonus points for the Week of Wonders Bonvoy Amex promotion… for a stay I booked months ago and completed yesterday.

  • SteveJ says:
    10 Oct10 October 10:24

    Good deal for half term. Buy a £2 lotto ticket, get £25 visitbritain voucher. Must use voucher on a purchase within 7 days, but that purchase can be a booking from now til end of March 2022.

    It’s one per person, but can use multiple addresses and email addresses to get around this if you must.

    E.g. Just booked two London eye tickets for the price of two lotto tickets (£4) for Oct Half Term.

    https://www.visitbritainshop.com/gb/en/nationallotterydaysout

  • Scott says:
    10 Oct10 October 10:24

    Are there any cards like Revolut out there that are recommended? Currensea?
    Got sick of the card not working, so looking for an alternative that might charge less than my bank for say spending in US$, EUROS etc. Virtual cards would be a bonus.

    • Rob says:
      10 Oct10 October 10:28

      Currensea is the idiot-proof option – pay 0.5% over interbank (which is equivalent to paying 0% on a card using the Visa or Mastercard rate) and the money is sucked from your bank account. Lack of Section 75 is the only issue. Doesn’t clog up your credit report with another card.

      Virgin credit cards are fee-free in Eurozone but not elsewhere.

      A mix of these two may work.

      • Andrew says:
        10 Oct10 October 11:35

        The Clydesdale site and App is a bit rubbish isn’t it?

        I was about to respond with… “But some Virgin cards are FX Free worldwide”, but you can’t see what card options are available to you until you start the credit application process and the T&Cs aren’t available. So no way of telling if the card I hold is still available.

        The help centre doesn’t mention anything about worldwide FX free cards, just a few bits about Europe. Yet I bought an item online in US Dollars last week using my Virgin Money Credit Card, and as expected, it was processed at the Mastercard rate with no additional fees.

        • mark2 says:
          10 Oct10 October 12:23

          ‘The Clydesdale site and App is a bit rubbish isn’t it?’
          Surely the understatement of the year?
          We have just switched both Virgin current accounts to Santander for £130 each (although they are advertised by Ant and Dec)!

    • Youllnever says:
      10 Oct10 October 10:29

      Chase maybe?

  • Andrew H says:
    10 Oct10 October 10:28

    Has anyone tried asking Amex if they’ll give some sort of bonus for upgrading from free BA to paid? Had the paid until recently but downgraded. Other option is to get the Accelerating Business one – have to balance 60,000 bonus miles against a 241 on the free. Not sure I’d get to a £20,000 spend for the bonus on that.

    • Youllnever says:
      10 Oct10 October 10:31

      I heard others say that Amex won’t allow them to upgrade BA to BAPP anymore due to a change in policy a not sure if that was just isolated cases.

      • Louise says:
        10 Oct10 October 12:06

        It’s the downgrading from BAPP to free blue that seems to be the issue – experienced it myself this week. Apparently, according to call this week, from 1 Sept downgrade is no longer allowed if you have only held BAPP for a ‘short’ period of time (2 months for me after upgrading from free blue). Will try again this week to see if I get a different answer. I do understand why they might have bought this ‘rule’ in to stop the upgrade and then quick downgrade to trigger vouchers though

        • Youllnever says:
          10 Oct10 October 12:13

          Ah thanks for clarifying. OP did say he had the paid one recently but downgraded, so unless they plan on sticking onto the BAPP for a while, Amex probably won’t let you do this again.

        • Grimz says:
          10 Oct10 October 14:26

          I was successful in downgrading to blue yesterday after only upgrading to BAPP from blue 5 weeks ago. Bagged the voucher and said I was cancelling but would happily take the blue card if that was possible. Keeping blue for shop small before cancelling and waiting my 2 years.

  • Alex says:
    10 Oct10 October 10:35

    If I have a Virgin Atlantic credit card companion voucher, do I have to travel on the booking? Or can I book a reward flight + ‘free’ companion for my son and friend?

    • Gary says:
      10 Oct10 October 11:26

      Flying club account holder who the voucher is issued to needs to be travelling if using as 2-4-1, can book for someone else if utilising as upgrade voucher

  • Optimus Prime says:
    10 Oct10 October 11:04

    Good morning,

    Marriott mobile app is letting me check in at the moment, my stay starts on Tuesday.

    I booked it via Emyr – should I hold off till I arrive at the hotel to see if there’s an upgrade? At the moment the app is still showing the same room I booked.

    Another question about mobile key – if I take it can I request a card key for my OH?

    Thanks.

    • Harry T says:
      10 Oct10 October 13:09

      I never check in via the app. I do use the chat in advance to let the hotel know my arrival time and ask nicely for an upgrade. If I’m not upgraded as nicely as I would prefer, I then ask politely again at check in. I think checking in in person increases your chances of a good upgrade, based on my experiences as Platinum and now Titanium. There’s no real advantage to checking in via the app anyway.

      Also remember that some hotels only allocate rooms the night before your stay or the morning of your first day/night. So you may well be upgraded closer to Tuesday or on Tuesday.

      I don’t use mobile key but I believe it’s only possible on the phone used by the elite member.

      • Harry T says:
        10 Oct10 October 13:10

        Oh, misread your last line. You should be able to get all the physical key cards you want tin addition to mobile key, as far as I’m aware.

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

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