HK Express Full Miles offer, redemption from 2,000 Cathay miles
Hong Kong Express, a budget airline which is now a subsidiary of Cathay Pacific, has a regular-ish promotion named Full Miles, where you can redeem award tickets at a very low cost.
A new iteration just came live:
- Valid between Hong Kong and Beijing / Ningbo (China)
- One-way redemption costs 3,500 miles / 2,000 miles respectively
- Book by February 22
- Travel between March 12 and July 11
You’ll need to pay ~400 HKD in fees per way. Availability is decent:
To book, create a new HK express account by linking your Cathay Pacific account, so that it has access to your Cathay miles.
It is not a continuous promotion, and I’m not sure when the next round will start, but probably in one or two months. If I remember correctly they included some routes to Southeast Asia (Thailand?) last time.
The catch is, as it’s a budget airline no baggage allowance is included. Your Oneworld benefits also won’t apply.
Free eSIM with 1GB data roaming
Just saw this deal on hotukdeals, which might be useful to our readers.
It is a promotion run by Better Roaming, a company that provides eSIM service. If you scan the QR code below with your phone, you will be redirected to installing an eSIM:
Once activated, the eSIM comes with a 30-day plan including 1GB data. The package is valid at 148 countries, full list here.
It is a pretty good offer (and most importantly free). If you need more packages, you could consider Airalo as well which I’ve been using extensively in the last two years.
Error fare: Virgin Atlantic LHR-PVG Upper Class for 30k points
(UPDATE: Virgin woke up and pulled the “offer” – it lived for almost 20 hours though!)
Virgin Atlantic launched a new global reward sale:
- Book by Jan 31st
- Travel by Dec 31st
- Save 20% points on all reward flights
- Few destinations are excluded
It is a good offer, although not as good as the previous 50%-off and 33%-off sales.
More importantly, their Shanghai route seems to have loaded the sale fare erroneously.
You pay the following for PVG-LHR, off-peak and peak:
- Economy: 8,000 points / 16,000 points + 873 CNY
- Premium: 14,000 points / 22,000 points +1,565 CNY
- Upper Class: 30,000 points / 38,000 points + 1,719 CNY
To put it into context, the original price for Upper Class off-peak is 57,500 points, so it is almost half-price, not just 20% off. For LHR-PVG you pay the same amount of points, but taxes are gonna be much higher.
If you have an onward connection, the discount works too.
Just a couple of days ago VS had an £800 error fare to Shanghai in Upper Class too – something’s going on there for this route? Do not hesitate as it might get fixed anytime soon.
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.
20% off and free lounge access at Japan’s Oriental Hotels
Quite a niche offer I know, but it might come handy when you visit Japan. Smart Traveller, Plaza Premium’s membership program, has an ongoing promotion with Japan’s Oriental Hotels group which gives away upgrade to their Oriental Partner Passport status.
Oriental owns a few hotels in Japan, some branded Hilton, Sheraton and Holiday Inn. Only the Oriental branded hotels are participating though, and there are a handful in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Okinawa and Kobe etc. You can expect the following benefits at these hotels:
- 20% off best flexible rate
- 25% off restaurant bills
- Free lounge access when applicable
It turns out the room discount can sometimes be greater than 20%, for example at 30%, and is still flexible.
Only three hotels have an executibe lounge:
- Kobe Meriken Park Oriental Hotel
- Oriental Hotel Okinawa Resort & Spa
- Okinawa Harborview Hotel
You must book the special rate for lounge access, and it generously applies to up to 3 rooms!
It seems that you don’t have to be a staying guest to avail the dining discount.
Once you’ve signed up with the link, the upgrade should be added to your account within a few days, after which you could start booking the special rate.
Business class deal: £500 Europe-China o/w
[Air Serbia]
Air Serbia has very few routes outside Europe, whereas Tianjin, a Chinese city just next to Beijing, is one of them. Air Serbia operates two weekly flights from Belgrade to Tianjin.
If you are looking for a business class flight from Europe to China, the best sweet spot is Berlin to Tianjin, which costs only £564.
Even better:
- This is Business Freedom fare, which implies free cancellation and change
- One free stopover is permitted
The ticket is issued in C class, accruing 175% miles in Etihad Guest. You can book a return ticket for around £1,200. Other cities than Berlin are available too but they are more expensive.
[Xiamen Air]
Xiamen Air, a Skyteam member, has some equally attractive fares between China and Europe as well.
- Valid for many European cities, including London, Barcelona, Rome and Athens
- You need to depart from / arrive at Xiamen in China
- Can be booked as one-way or return, valid at both directions
- XMN-AMS is operated by Xiamen Air, whereas the European leg is by KLM
As far as I know the trip must origin from or end in Xiamen, although this post on Flyertalk has a contradictory statement.
Your chances are the best for January departures, but there’s scattered availability in February too.
Remember that you can get a further £10 discount by booking on Trip.com’s app.
If you have a French, German, Italian, Spanish or Dutch passport you can now visit China visa-free for up to 15 days. Failing that you could always do transit-without-visa as long as you are flying to a third country afterwards.
Great deal: complimentary 3rd night with Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts and The Hotel Collection
If you hold an Amex Platinum or Gold card, there are some pretty good hotel deals to be had with their exclusive preferred programs.
You can refer to the promotion page here, which lists the hotels that currently offer a special deal. In my opinion the best sweet spot is Complimentary 3rd Night, as it gives you 33% discount on the best flexible rate in addition to the benefits.
Fine Hotels & Resorts – for Platinum cardholders, benefits include free breakfast, $100 credit, room upgrade early check-in and late check-out.
- InterContinental Osaka
- Conrad Seoul
- Capella Bangkok
- Rosewood Bangkok
- The Murray Hong Kong
- Capella Shanghai
- Four Seasons Hotel Shenzhen
- The Langham Melbourne
- Corinthia London
- Conrad Dublin
- Le Royal Monceau Raffles Paris
- Regent Berlin
- Mandarin Oriental, Munich
- InterContinental Porto – Palacio das Cardosas
- Hospes Infante Sagres Porto
- Andaz Prague
- Raffles Istanbul
The Hotel Collection – for Platinum and Gold cardholders, two-night minimum stay required, benefits include $100 credit and room upgrade.
- The Strings by InterContinental Tokyo
- NH Collection Venezia Murano Villa
- NH Collection Venice Grand Hotel Palazzo Dei Dogi
- Fairmont Windsor Park
The lists above are not exhaustive. Although the promotion page is from Amex UK, the offer should be global – I checked with my U.S. card account and could see the same discounts.
IHG 30%-off secret sale in Europe, Asia and more
IHG started a pretty decent sale which covers many regions globally, and it could be suitable for your upcoming travel plans.
- Book by October 16th
- Stay between October 6th and March 31st
- Book at least 10 days in advance for two-nights minimum
- A 15%-discount off the Book Early and Save rate applies
- Non-refundable
The promotion runs in Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia (Greater China excluded). Note that the 15% off is against an advance rate, which is already cheaper than the best flexible rate.
You MUST book via the promo page to see the discount. Here are some rate examples, compared to the best flexible rate:
- Holiday Inn Bangkok Silom £67 / £86 (22% off)
- InterContinental Singapore Robertson Quay £175 / £235 (25% off)
- InterContinental Yokohama Grand £138 / £197 (30% off)
- InterContinental Rome £396 / £528 (25% off)
- Crowne Plaza Paris Republique £ 216 / £290 (25% off)
- Hotel Indigo London Leicester Square £252 / £319 (21% off)
- Holiday Inn London Whitechapel £132 / £177 (25% off)
- voco Dubai £152 / £204 (25% off)
As you can see, most of the time the saving is 25%, although it goes up to 30% in some cases.
It’s branded a “stay with us again” promotion and has been sent to select members who presumably haven’t stayed at an IHG hotel for a while, but anyone can book it and there’s nothing in the terms and conditions that is against it. The only caveat is bookings are non-refundable.