TAP Portugal: London – Brazil in business class for £1,200
TAP Portugal has launched an Executive (business) class sale for flights from Europe to Brazil. You can depart from multiple cities (including London) and arrive at Rio or Sao Paolo.
Many dates are available from September to March.
London – Rio de Janeiro, Nov 24 – Dec 4
London – Sao Paolo, Feb 21 – Mar 1
You need to book by May 16. Stopover in Portugal (Lisbon or Porto) is possible, but your itinerary will be repriced.
Flying to the US? Take 15% off your next TAP Portugal flight
TAP Portugal has semi-frequent 15%-off discount codes, and another one is making its rounds which may be useful if you are travelling to the US soon.
You could check the (UK-version) landing page here.
- Book by April 10
- Travel between April 18 and May 16
- Depart from Europe for the following destinations: Chicago, Miami, New York and San Francisco.
- Limit one use per person
- 15% discount against the base fare and carrier imposed surcharges (but not taxes)
- Not valid for Discount or Executive (Business Class) fares
Discount codes are market-specific. For UK departures use USA15GBP, and for other European countries it would be USA15EUR or USA15CHF etc.
Enter the code when searching for the flight, and below is an example of the discount being applied:
Shame that it doesn’t work on business class tickets. For economy class, the code should work on all fares except Discount, a.k.a the hand-baggage only fare.
IHG second-room free offer in UK and Europe
IHG has started a new second-room free offer in UK, Ireland, Germany and France, which may be useful you are travelling with family or friends.
The offer page is here, and details are:
- Book by April 20
- Stay by July 15
- Valid at select hotels only
- Fixed two-night two-room stay only
- The second room will be free-of-charge
- Non-refundable
Despite what the promotion name suggests, your grandparents don’t need to travel with you 😛 You could travel with anyone and avail this offer, and no proof of relationship is required.
That said, the offer is quite restricted – it has to be a two-night stay, and not refundable if plans change. Not many hotels are participating either: out of the six listed London properties, three are airport hotels, one is outside London (St Albans), but the other two hotels (Hotel Indigo Kensington and Holiday Inn Camden Lock) are solid.
InterContinental Edinburgh is another nice property.
Rates on the booking reflect charge for both rooms, but you’ll only be charged for one upon checkout.
My review of Sky Lounge, Vienna Airport Terminal 3
I’m flying with British Airways from Vienna airport terminal 3, and the only lounge open at the moment besides Austrian’s is the Sky Lounge.
You could access Sky Lounge with Priority Pass, or if you are a business class passenger / elite member with select airlines. After security, turn right to walk down the hallway and you’ll see it along with an Austrian Lounge. It’s in the Schengen area, before passport control.
The lounge is big-ish with several function areas.
Business room:
Diner:
Relaxation zone:
Food options are not bad, as two hot items are served: chicken in cream sauce and dumplings stuffed with leek, although I didn’t try them.
There are a variety of wines and a station where you can mix your drink.
Enjoy!
My review of Ritz Carlton Vienna
After spending two nights in Hotel Bristol, I moved over to the Ritz Carlton hotel for a different experience. My first Ritz Carlton stay at Tenerife was a total disappointment, and I’m hoping for the best this time.
Unlike Hotel Bristol, the hotel feels very new.
I’m also upgraded to a Junior Suite for my stay. Service-wise I’m quite impressed, as someone accompanies me to the room with my luggage, and explains everything about the room and hotel facilities in great details. From what I read online Hotel Bristol is known for their great hospitality, but to be honest I didn’t remember anything special there.
The Junior Suite is actually an open-plan corner room, which I usually have a preference to. You don’t see any extravagance and the room may be more on the simple side, but it stills conveys the appropriate luxury message.
I quite like the design of the minibar.
And as a welcome gift, two bottles of mineral water and a snack ferris wheel.
The L-shaped balcony is unfortunately a bit confined, and there isn’t much a view to admire around here.
You can however, see the Hotel Imperial, which is a spectacular building.
Spa centre is on floor -2.
As I vaguely remember from what the staff told me, it’s the largest indoor pool you can find at any Vienna hotel.
There’s no separate jacuzzi pool or hot tub, but this corner in the swimming pool has got some of the functions.
After swimming, you could try out the sauna or steam room but they are in the changing rooms, which is not very convenient.
Club lounge access is priced at €120 per room, which isn’t too bad if two people are travelling. From what I’ve seen on Flyertalk it’s also not limited to just two people – if you’ve booked a room for three or four (assuming the occupancy permits), you could pay the same €120 and everyone gets lounge access, which is a great deal.
The is the distrikt restaurant where guests have breakfast.
At €30 per person it’s not cheap, but it’s actually worth a try. Have a look at the menu:
Just as its title suggests, you have a lot to choose from, including some dishes you wouldn’t expect to see on a breakfast menu. Breakfast is open until 2.30pm.
It has been a positive experience, and definitely way better than my stay at Ritz Carlton Abama. In general I’m more comfortable at new hotels like this one, however the old ones like Hotel Bristol are more of a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I’d love to visit Hotel Imperial on my next trip to Vienna.
Radisson hotels 25%-off sale and 2,000 bonus points
Radisson hotels is running a sale in Europe, Middle East and Asia. You can check out the offer page here.
As a Radisson Rewards member, you save up to 25% on stays at participating hotels (non-member saves only 15%). You also earn 1,000 bonus points on 2-night stays, or 2,000 bonus points on 3-night stays or longer.
When booking the sale rate, you’ll also get 25% discount in the Middle East and Africa, or 20% discount in Central / Southern Europe on food and drinks spend.
You need to book my March 30 for stays between April 1 and May 31, 2022.
My review of Sala VIP Roja at Tenerife South Airport
After spending five nights at Ritz Carlton Abama I’m on my way back to London. There’s a huge queue in front of the Eurofins covid test centre at the airport, which are presumably mostly British tourists, but fortunately the pre-departure test requirement will be scrapped soon.
Sala Montana Roja is the only lounge available at TFS, or at least the only one that’s open.
The lounge is pretty spacious.
Some of the sections are closed, but it doesn’t feel crowded at all.
You can help yourself to the drinks or make your own coffee using the Nespresso machine:
The alcohol selection is very impressive. For food you’ll be served by one of the staff:
There’s a good spread of cold-cuts, pastries, snacks and desserts.
My review of Ritz Carlton Abama, Tenerife
Failing to visit Mauritius, my friend and I decided to spend the Christmas holiday in Tenerife instead, which is also a popular winter sun destination.
Surprisingly there isn’t a strong presence of international hotel chains on the island – none of Hilton, IHG and Hyatt has any property at all, whereas Marriott has one each of Sheraton and Ritz Carlton. Gran Melia Palacio de Isora, generally regarded at the best Melia hotel, is also at Tenerife, and redeeming points for a half-board package can be an awesome deal.
[Getting Here]
This is the first time I stay at a Ritz-Carlton, and in fact it’s the main reason why I wanted to choose this hotel. From the airport (TFS) we grabbed a taxi which took us only around 20 minutes, and it usually costs between 40 and 50 euros.
It actually brings up my first point – the hotel is kind of in the middle of nowhere, and you have nothing to do or see outside the hotel unless you drive or hail a cab. Unless you want a staycation, don’t pick the Ritz-Carlton and the Sheraton is probably a lot better.
Check-in is very slow although to be fair we are sat down and offered free drinks. The receptionist hands us the room keys but explains nothing at all. We only realise it afterwards and come back to ask about elite benefits, facilities and food options etc.
[Room]
We paid 200,000 points (off-peak) for five nights in a standard room. In terms of upgrade we are offered a choice: standard room with sea view, or junior suite with resort view. We end up with the former.
Apologies for the mix-up, we switched from a double room to twin:
The room is huge, about 50-60 sqm in size. If you are not with kids I don’t see much need of a suite.
Balcony is nice with a partially blocked but still impressive view.
A special holiday gift is prepared in the room – a bottle of Cava and chocolate.
[Facilities]
The hotel is massive and signage can be confusing at times. The swimming pool is well designed:
Very disappointingly, the spa centre is closed due to Covid, which I think is a big let-down for a resort hotel. There’s only a small gym and you need to make prior bookings.
All these facilities are in the main building, a.k.a. Citadel. Behind it there’s also a massive Villa area which offers residences with better privacy.
I don’t get a chance to see the inside (although a friend who used to stay in Villas didn’t like it), but it’s definitely a much quieter area, and feels more exclusive.
Villa guests have their own swimming pools, as well as a mini gym.
If you walk past all the villas, you reach the hotel’s private beach.
There are frequent shuttle buses between the reception, villas and the beach.
A few more random photos of the hotel:
[Dining]
The hotel features a Club Lounge in Citadel and a Villa Club in the villas. However both are closed at the moment.
All paid rates include breakfast, but redemption rate doesn’t. We are offered a half-board package at €65 pp which we think is fair and have accepted.
Breakfast is served in the restaurant La Veranda.
This is literally one of the worst breakfast I’ve ever had at any hotel, to the point that the only edible dish is the freshly-made omelette. I’m shocked how a Ritz-Carlton can get away with it – I guess breakfast is inclusive for 95% of the guests anyway so they don’t need to sell it, and they put you off having breakfast then you have to spend more on lunch and dinner.
Villa guests have breakfast at El Mirador, but it’s also a buffet and I assume quality will be similar.
For lunch and dinner, there are around five restaurants available and you can use your half-board/full-board package at most of them. More expensive items (often half of the menu) require surcharges though.
El Mirador is probably the most popular restaurant, next to the villas.
Txono is another restaurant by the swimming pool. I ordered a wagyu steak at a hefty surcharge, and it tasted no better than a £5 Waitrose steak!
The last restaurant we tried is the Melvin. It’s owned by a Preferred hotel nearby, but Ritz-Calton’s half-package is also accepted here.
Food here isn’t much better than the Ritz Carlton, but service is at a totally different level: the shuttle driver is super welcoming, and a waitress proactively apologises for us waiting too long and offers a couple of complimentary dishes. We’ve had so many issues at Ritz Carlton on the other hand: waiting more than half an hour for the appetisers, the waiter forgetting our requests etc…
If you want to eat out, there’s a small town nearby called San Juan. It costs €5-€7 to get there by taxi, and there are many cheap restaurants in that area. You can have a promenade by the sea too.
In a word, I’m very disappointed by the stay. First of all the location is very weird and it’s anything but easy to get around; secondly the room and hotel facilities don’t feel luxurious at all – I mean they are adequate but far below the Ritz Carlton standard; last but not least, as friendly as they are the staff needs substantial training too, to avoid the so many teething issues we’ve had throughout the stay.