Hyatt Lindner offer bonus points posted
Hyatt acquired Lindner – a German hospitality group – recently, and launched a bonus points offer intended for existing Lindner members.
After signing up to this offer, you earn 1,000 bonus points per night when staying at any Hyatt property in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. You can earn the bonus up to 10 times.
It might be to tricky to carry out the eligibility check without breaching European data privacy laws, which is why registration is actually open to everyone. I wasn’t sure if the bonus was going to post, but a friend has just shared his success after completing a stay in Cambridge:
Together with the Bonus Journeys global promotion you will earn 2,500 bonus points per night by the end of May, which is very impressive!
How to book LATAM flight with Avios
LATAM left Oneworld in 2020, which was a blow to the alliance as it was the only airline they had in South America. In 2018 I few to Peru on a cheap LATAM business class ticket which helped me earn BA Gold status, and I also redeemed Avios for some domestic trip which would otherwise be more expensive.
Fortunately, LATAM maintains its ties with most of its alliance partners except American Airlines. You can still earn Avios when travelling with LATAM if crediting the flight to BA, although you won’t earn tier points and BA elite benefits don’t apply.
More importantly, we didn’t lose the ability to redeem Avios on LATAM flights. You can do it with either BA or Iberia, and they charge the same:
Here are the catches:
- You can redeem LATAM tickets online with Iberia, however they are non-changeable and non refundable
- You cannot redeem LATAM tickets online with BA, and intra-continent economy class tickets don’t come with baggage allowance
If you are very certain about your trip, it’s better to book your trip on Iberia’s website. It’s hassle free and you are guaranteed one-piece baggage allowance when travelling in economy.
However, for the peace of mind I’d say flexibility is very important under most circumstances, so I’d rather book with BA and you can change / cancel for the standard £35 fee. You can check availability on Iberia’s website first and then phone BAEC’s hotline, but be prepared for a long call. Many of the agents aren’t well trained or familiar with the LATAM procedure, and even if they are issuing the ticket can still take quite some time.
Once the ticket is issued, you can manage your booking on LATAM’s website but it requires their own PNR. The quickest way to figure it out, from my experience, is by messaging @Latam_Chile on Twitter with your itinerary details. They are very helpful and prompt.
A final non-Avios-related tip for those who hold an US-issued American Express card: you might want to check the ticket price on Amex Travel too. It turns out LATAM is an Amex Insider Fares partner so you can sometimes get preferential rates:
In my case, the ticket from Buenos Aires to Santiago is more than 50% cheaper on Amex Travel for the Easter holiday period, as long as you have enough Membership Rewards points to pay for it. It also comes with free seat selection and one-piece baggage allowance.
Etihad sale: Rome – Abu Dhabi for €70 only (including Easter) !
I just booked myself a First Class ticket on Etihad from Abu Dhabi – London via Aeroplan, and then trying to figure out how I can get to Abu Dhabi from Southern Europe. Athens is already quite cheap at €142 with the hidden-city trick, but then I realised Etihad is running a ludicrous sale from Rome!
There are plenty of €70 tickets for FCO-AUH (one-way) throughout March and April:
Considering that it’s a six-hour flight on a wide-body aircraft, it’s almost handing out the ticket for free – in fact, the ticket’s fare is only €29 with the remaining being taxes. It appears to be a flash sale and can be booked on etihad.com only. Looking at Skyscanner, it’s even cheaper than Wizz Air!!
A return trip is available for around €160:
Dates around the Easter holiday are available, which is handy if you are planning a last minute holiday break.
Six hours for a day flight isn’t too long so I’m happy to fly in economy class. Note that it’s hand baggage only though, and you can pay an additional €40 to add on a check-in luggage when booking.
(Gone) Zurich Marriott, Club Room for 100 CHF!
Zurich Marriott is offering a great deal which is well worth considering if you plan to visit the city in the next month.
Marriott’s price calendar suggests that rooms are being sold for circa 100 CHF on many March dates (until April 1st), whereas the usual rate is over 300 CHF.
If you click through, it is very obviously a pricing error. A single rooms is priced at over 260 CHF, whereas the Club Room with Lake View at less than 100 CHF…
I stayed at the Zurich Marriott Hotel in 2021 and reviewed here. It is not an inspirational property by any standard, but does its job. Club Room comes with access to the M Club, which offers breakfast and evening canapes / happy hour.
100 CHF is an amazing price for a five-star hotel in central Zurich. Beware that hotels tend not to honour such error rates though, so wait at least one week after you’ve booked to see if they get cancelled.
TAP Portugal sale: London to Cancun and Brazil for £1,100
TAP Portugal’s sale has returned, which includes some bargains if you are looking to travel to Cancun or Brazil.
The offer page for UK departure is here. There are similar deals for departures from Portugal, Spain and France etc, so if you are based in those countries you may want to check it out too.
The most attractive deals listed on the page are (ex-London or -Manchester, business class return):
- Cancun £1,262
- Rio de Janeiro £1,333
- Sao Paolo £1,334
Cancun is wide open from April, however for Brazil in order to get the cheap fare you have to depart in October and beyond. Here are a couple of examples:
London – Cancun April 18 – 22
London – Sao Paolo November 17 – 26
Remember, you can always add a stopover in Lisbon / Porto for over 24 hours, which helps you escape from UK’s ridiculous APD. You can expect to save about £150:
Ticket is refundable at a penalty of €165. From what I can see travel agencies are only slightly cheaper than TAP Portugal, so I recommend booking direct, which makes your life much easier if there’s a flight schedule change or you want to cancel your flight.
The booking class is J, and you will earn between 125% and 200% with TAP Portugal’s partners.
Great Eithad first class reward availability from London and other cities
Etihad has opened up a lot of reward space on its first class route, and it’s a good opportunity if you are in for the experience.
First of all you could perform your searches on Etihad’s website which will give you a 7-day calendar view at a time. In the following example, the 88,024 miles price on March 18th indicates standard award availability, which doesn’t exist on other days.
Once you find your desired flight you could book using your Etihad Guest miles, which can be converted from Amex membership rewards points. You’d be overpaying (by a large margin) though, and the best way to redeem an Etihad ticket is to use Aeroplan instead.
A one-way ticket from Abu Dhabi to London in first class costs only 65,000 points and 84 CAD. Charges will be higher for the other way around because of UK’s APD. Aeroplan doesn’t have a promotion on point purchase right now, but you can still get their points by transferring from:
- Amex membership rewards in US / Canada, which is instant
- Marriott Bonvoy, but it might take quite a few days
Etihad flies to London and Geneva in Europe, as well as Washing DC in the States.
This is how Etihad’s first class on Boeing 787 looks like:
Which is, unfortunately, not comparable to Emirates’ first class suite that I was in a few days ago.
Hopefully their A380 fleet will return soon, and I can’t wait to sit in the first apartment!
My review of Air Serbia Premium Lounge, Belgrade
My flight back to London departs at 10.20am, but I wanna review the Air Serbia Premium Lounge so got in quite early.
As you can imagine, Belgrade airport is fairly small and it has only two lounges: the Business Club which is used by the majority of the airlines except Air Serbia, and accepts Priority Pass.
The Air Serbia Premium Lounge is about 10 metres away. admitting the following passengers:
- Business class
- Etihad Guest elites
- Priority Pass
- Economy Comfort, under a current promotion
Economy class booked using miles falls into the Comfort category and thus is eligible for complimentary access to the lounge. As they accept Priority Pass however, gaining access shouldn’t be a problem anyway.
The lounge is separated by a wall with the business area on the left:
And dining area on the right:
There’s a fancy VIP room which is by reservation only.
In terms of food options there’s a decent breakfast spread:
There’s only bottled water in the fridge though. For anything else including soft drinks you’ll need to request it from the bar.
The bathroom is posher than the rest of the lounge. There is a shower room you could use to refresh yourself.
As it’s the flagship (and only) lounge of Serbia’s national carrier, I had high expectations and can’t lie about being disappointed. It’s so tiny to start with and has no natural light, and I’ve been to many independent airport lounges (especially the Plaza Premium lounges) that are better. Anyhow the food is decent and they’ve got a shower room, so feel free to stop by for a bit before your flight but it’s not worth too much of your time.
My review of Hotel Indigo Belgrade
Having stayed two nights at the very tired Metropol Palace, I needed some fresh air and thus moved to the Hotel Indigo, which opened in October 2021. It is very centrally located in the shopping district, neighbouring a Courtyard and a Radisson Individual hotel.
Unlike most hotels it’s not at the storefront. There is a small entrance that leads to an alley, where there’s an elevator that takes you to the lobby of the hotel. This is a very unique feature, and kind of isolating the hotel from the busy crowd outside.
The art pieces, paintings and other decorations are so beautiful. It feels more like a Kimpton than an Indigo in my opinion.
You can have a drink at the rooftop terrace.
My reservation was upgraded to Premium the second day, then to Queen Suite one week before but then downgraded to Premium again before my arrival. The hotel has only one suite, so not sure if it was booked or upgraded for someone else.
However, my Premium room more than does its job already. Unfortunately I can already see some wear and tear, but overall it’s a very clean, comfy and functioning room.
Unlike the Indigos that I’ve visited in the UK, minibar here isn’t free (or cheap). There’s a supermarket right in front of the hotel so I suggest to top up there.
The hotel restaurant, on the other hand, is very reasonably priced and I had a simple dinner here.
Breakfast is free for Diamond members, which otherwise would cost €15 per person. The spread may not be the richest, but it’s carefully curated and food quality is excellent.
You can order one item from the menu for free too.
The hotel is pretty small but still has a gym.
They also reserved a taxi to the airport for me, which cost only 1800 dinars by metre. I am very satisfied with my two-night stay and can highly recommend Hotel Indigo Belgrade if you visit the city. From what I learned the Courtyard has a similar vibe, but obviously if club lounge and swimming pool are important to you, you need to look elsewhere.