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Amazon sells heavily discounted Melia points (cheap 5-star hotels / Avios!)
We’ve written about Melia quite a few times on this blog. Melia Rewards is a low-key yet valuable hotel loyalty scheme. It runs frequently sales for points purchase which can represent great value.
It’s running another excellent deal on Amazon UK at the moment, which if I remember correctly is the first time. There are two options:
- 55,000 points – £161
- 35,000 points – £103
The 55,000 points one works out slightly better, although at the time of writing it’s temporarily sold out (UPDATE: still available on Amazon DE at the same price). You are paying roughly £30 for 10,000 Melia points, which is close to the record low. In last-month’s points sale on Melia’s website, the price was €35.7 (~£32) per 10,000 points.
As we’ve discussed before (here and here), it’s very easy to outsmart Melia when redeeming your points on hotels. Usually a five-star Melia hotel costs 22,000 points per night whereas a Gran Melia would cost 28,000 points, with few exceptions.
In the worst case, you could spend your points directly at the hotel venue, on food, drinks and spa services etc. The rate is fixed at €5 per 1000 points which is still significantly better than what you are paying now.
Melia is also a transfer partner with British Airways too, so you can transfer your Melia points into Avios at the rate of 10:3. It’s not a great rate, but if BA decides to run 30% conversion bonus in the future, then you are now “buying” Avios at roughly 0.77p.
Note that these are physical paper vouchers shipped to your address and you need to visit Melia’s website to redeem them. Once redeemed, they function as normal Melia points and have the same expiry rules.
Historically Amazon Spain also runs (even better) deals on the same Melia voucher. Although it’s not the case now, as Black Friday in approaching I’ll keep an eye on the relevant page in case it comes back.
Subscribe to The Spectator and earn Avios
We know that The Economist runs continuous sign-up bonus deals with Avios and many other loyal schemes. And now there’s a chance to earn Avios by subscribing to The Spectator too.
To participate, visit this page. Note that the offer is not visible on BA’s website anymore but as it’s still up on The Spectator I assume it’s still valid.
The following options are provided:
- Digital only six months: £59.5 / 5,000 Avios (1.19p / Avios)
- Print + Digital six months: £79.5 / 6,250 Avios (1.27p / Avios)
- Digital only one year: £119 / 10,000 Avios (1.19p / Avios)
- Print + Digital one year: £159 / 12,500 Avios (1.27p / Avios)
From the buying-Avios point of view, you are paying more than 1p per Avios which obviously isn’t a bargain. However if you are keen to subscribe anyway it’s a good rebate on your money spent.
Avios are credited to your account within two weeks and you can cancel your subscription for a refund within 14 days – however if you opt to cancel the Avios will be recalled too.
Is another Avios devaluation approaching?
Right after the amazing 50%-off redemption sale, it appears that BA may be doing something dodgy in the background. I’ve just noticed something weird with the Avios pricing on certain routes.
One of them is Tokyo Haneda to London Heathrow. Earlier this year Japan outlawed fuel surcharge on most flights departing from the country (or at least it is my understanding), so HND-LHR should only carries £30-ish taxes.
When I try to book an off-peak economy-class flight on BA, although the fee does look right, you can see it tries to charge me 35,000 Avios instead of 19,500.
If you click continue it gets worse. Now the fee becomes £100 (first option)?! The standard Avios pricing is still available (19,500 points), however in this case BA wants £180 from you which is crazy.
I’m not sure if it’s even legal, when carrier-impose surcharge is banned by Japan. There are also a couple of amusing facts:
- Economy class on Japan Airlines costs only 31,000 Avios + £28.9
- Pricing on other BA cabins hasn’t changed – therefore premium economy on the same flight costs 39,000 Avios + £27.1, which works out cheaper than economy class!
Similar irregularity can be found on HKG-LHR as well. Japan and Hong Kong do have one thing in common: both of them have imposed restrictions on fuel surcharges. Admittedly the latter has lifted its restriction, however most airlines haven’t really increased their surcharge yet.
So is it a way for BA to pocket extra money / Avios from the fuel surcharge loss? It’s unwise for them to only execute it on economy class though, as that’s the least attractive redemption option anyway. Whether it’s an intended experiment, or simply an IT glitch (although unlikely) I have no clue, and I hope BA can make some clarification or fix it soon!
Six best ways to use your Avios
Avios is the award currency of British Airways, Iberia Airlines and Aer Lingus. It is probably the most well-known the most popular airline loyalty programme in the world.
