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Reminder: London NYE hotel bookable now on points
Just a quick reminder that, if you need a hotel for the New Year’s Eve, they have already been loaded into the system and bookable using points now.
If you are looking to watch the fireworks, the most convenient option is Marriott Country Hall. It is located in the White zone and all hotel guests receive wristbands prior to their stay. You could walk down literally 15 minutes before midnight to watch the show.
My friend who went last year had some troubles though as the staff insisted they must have tickets to get on the bridge. It was confusing and horrible, but luckily they got in eventually. You may also see (some of) the fireworks from inside the club lounge and certain guest rooms.
Availability of Marriott County Hall hasn’t been loaded yet but I expect it to be soon. It will be priced at around 120,000 points, and unlikely to sell out even close to the date.
Another similar option is Great Scotland Yard. It is not as close to the show as the Marriott, and you cannot see anything from inside the hotel. But it is in the Blue zone which has an arguably much better viewing angle.
Also it costs only 29,000 Hyatt points per night. Reward night is currently not available but a friend of mine managed to book it a few days ago.
Fireworks aside, here are some hotels that are good value on points:
- InterContinental London Park Lane – 84,000 points
- Holiday Inn London Oxford Circus – 42,000 points
- Holiday Inn Express London Limehouse – 36,000 points
- Bankside Hotel (Marriott) – 92,000 points
- London Hilton Park Lane – 80,000 points
- Hyatt Regency Blackfriars – 23,000 points
- Hyatt Regency Embankment – 23,000 points
Devaluation: Choice Hotels & AirHelp Plus
No one likes the word devaluation, but it is kind of unavoidable in the world of frequent travellers. It has just happened to two schemes which we introduced very recently.
As posted by Travel-Dealz, a few Strawberry hotels have become more pricey when redeeming Choice points. It seems that Strawberry hotels now cost a minimum of 16,000 points, and the adjustment is in line with such guidance. The Clarion Sign Hotel in Stockholm when I reviewed here for example, is no longer as cheap as 10,000 points.
However, I wouldn’t make too much a deal out of it. The best value of Choice points lie within the high-end Strawberry hotels. These properties, including At Six (Stockholm) and The Thief (Oslo), still cost only 20,000 points which is a steal.
A much harder hit comes from AirHelp Plus, an insurance program I spoke very highly of in a recent post. My baggage was delayed by BA just three weeks ago and I got the €150 payout very quickly, which more than triples what I paid for the insurance.
A reader reached out a few days ago regarding a negative change to the Complete plan as shown on their website. At that time the phrasing changed from “unlimited trips” to “12 trips”. As of now it got even worse, down to just “7 trips”.
I’m still awaiting a response from AirHelp after requesting more details of the change. However as far as I’m concerned, the new limit shouldn’t affect existing customers who had signed up previously.
The original terms of the Complete plan was, without any doubt, way too generous and too good to be true. I can’t say I’m surprised at the cut, but it’s much more difficult to justify its value given the new stingy limit now.
As a “trip” could be a return with connections it covers (many) more than only 7 flights in a plan year. It might still make sense to sign up, but only register your trips with most flights or that are more likely to be disrupted.
Hyatt status challenge offer for corporate clients
Hyatt has brought back its exclusive elite tier offer, which allows members who work for select companies to earn Explorist and Globalist status much faster.
- You need your Hyatt membership number and a company email to register
- Once enrolled, you are on an Explorist trial for 90 days
- Stay 10 nights during the trial to extend your Explorist status through Feb 2026, or
- Stay 20 nights to earn Globalist status
To know if a certain company is eligible, just try with a random email address with the respective domain (e.g. [email protected]) and see if there’s any error message. Just like the current Hilton offer, it seems to be very widely available, and targeted companies include Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Huawei, Bloomberg, Cisco, KPMG, Accenture and more.
You’ll receive an activation email if the company email is qualified. Note that however, once you’ve confirmed the 90-day clock starts right away, and you can only sign up once every three years. The timing is important.
For those who are in need, it’s a great offer to earn Hyatt status in an accelerated way. For me however it’s a non-starter: I only stay at Hyatt hotels occasionally, and with the positive 2024 changes it’s really easy for me to enjoy Globalist benefits with my friends’ GOH privileges.
Instant GHA Titanium status with Mastercard
GHA has a long-term partnership with Mastercard, allowing cardholders in Asia Pacific for an instant status match. Geographically it might not fit the majority of our audience, but it’s worth a refresher.
If you have a Mastercard World Elite issued in Asia Pacific, you can claim GHA Titanium status by registering at the Mastercard redemption portal. Note that they now verify full card number, expiry date and CVV so you must have a valid card, although they don’t run a name check.
Despite that I have an eligible card, this approach doesn’t work as I couldn’t see the GHA match offer in my account. There’s an alternative though – you could register with Mastercard Travel & Lifestyle Services, link the card and email [email protected] for a manual match.
After two days I received a response along with a link to activate my Titanium status, which came through and is valid till the end of 2025!
I don’t stay at GHA hotels often at all, but when I do the double upgrade and 4pm late checkout are very useful.
IHG flash sale: 15% off award night globally
IHG’s regular award night flash sale is back, and you can save some points if you have upcoming travel plans.
The official announcement hasn’t come through yet, but here’s what we know:
- Book by Jan 14
- Travel by February 22
- Valid at all IHG hotels globally
- Save 15% off on award stays
You can search and book directly on IHG’s website. The offer is only available to IHG co-branded cardholders at the moment, but will open up to Platinum and Diamond members on the 11th.
My review of At Six Stockholm
After two days at the Clarion Sign hotel, I’m splashing out and changing to the At Six hotel. By splashing out I mean the cost has doubled, but still I paid like just $105 for the 20,000 points.
At Six is one of the best hotels of Stockholm and very centrally located, as in you can reach the main places within 10 to 20 minutes. Next-door in the same block is Hobo, another Strawberry hotel.
I was wondering what its name actually means, until my friend reminded me that the hotel’s street number is six…
As you can see from the plate at the entrance, At Six is also part of the Preferred Hotels group. It is not uncommon for high-end boutique hotels to join multiple groups at the same time, and you can expect to see crosses between Preferred Hotels / LHW / Mr & Mrs Smith / Melia / SLH.
Right in the middle of the lobby is a spotlight of the hotel: Mar Whispering by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa. I’m not an art person but I find the sculpture quite interesting, and I saw another piece of artwork from him at St Regis Venice a couple of months later.
The concierge welcomed us warmly with a glass of Prosecco upon entering. I just became a Strawberry Platinum member thanks to their tier match offer, but the staff never mentioned that at all during the check-in process. I did however get free breakfast and 4pm late check-out.
The hotel is almost full and no room upgrade was granted. The levelling is a bit weird – Ground floor is Floor 4 and the underground gym is Floor 1.
Our standard room is on Floor 8.
The room size is even smaller than Clarion Sign, but the materials and finish make a whole world of difference.
All the small pieces here and there show you it is a lavish hotel. I have only one complaint: the extensive use of granite and black wood dims the whole tune, and they should install more (brighter) lights to compensate that.
The room key:
There’s no swimming pool, but the gym and sauna room are free to all guests.
Breakfast buffet is priced at over 300 SEK pp which isn’t cheap.
In terms of spread it’s not much better than Clarion Sign, but the quality is finer and they make eggs too. Croissant is especially tasty.
All hotel staff are very enthusiastic and go out of their way to make sure your need is satisfied. Except for the lack of a pool I’m fairly impressed by the hotel, and my 20,000 points is well spent.
Instant Hilton Gold / Diamond for targeted corporate employees
Hilton is, again, running a promotion targeting select corporate partners that offers their employees a chance for instant elite status upgrade and a challenge.
There are quite a few variations:
- Instant Silver, and stay 6 nights by April 29th to upgrade to Gold
- Instant Silver, and stay 6 nights by April 29th to upgrade to Gold or 12 nights to Diamond
- Instant Gold, and stay 6 nights by April 29th to maintain Gold, or 12 nights to upgrade to Diamond
- Instant Diamond, and stay 12 nights by April 29th to maintain Diamond, or 6 nights to maintain Gold
To sign up. you must verify with an eligible corporate email address. If you manage to complete the challenge, your status will be valid through March 2026, which is over two years from now.
There’s a way to check whether your company is eligible. The following URL leads to the promo page for Shell: https://www.hilton.com/en/preferred-rates/shell/
… where you’ll see a blue banner promoting the Diamond offer. Likewise if you replace the “shell” bit in the URL with your company’s name you may see a landing page that shows the same or another offer.
Compared to its last reincarnation, Hilton is much more generous this time as the Diamond match has been extended to a lot more companies, including Amazon, Google, Apple, Oracle, Siemens, Shell, Deloitte, Accenture and Nestle, just to name a few,
It is a good offer especially if you can get the Diamond one. If you aren’t a Hilton member yet, there’s another offer which allows you to earn 3,000 bonus points after staying within six months.
Marriott soft landing and annual choice benefit
If you haven’t selected your 50-night and 75-night annual choice benefit, remember to do so before January 7th, otherwise Marriott will choose the suite night awards for you by default.
If you want to choose the 40K free-night certificate for the 75n benefit, there’s always an advantage waiting till January to make the election. Despite what the term says, your certificate will be valid for one more year.
As you can see, mine is valid through the end of the 2025. The suite night award on the other hand, doesn’t offer this quirk. That said, SNA is supposed to become more valuable soon, as Edition and Ritz Carlton hotels will start accepting them.
On a different subject – Marriott leaked its soft-landing policy a few months ago but quietly withdrew it. The FAQ page is now live again, confirming that members who failed to retain their status will be downgraded by only one level in March 2024.