Regions | Verylvke

Book The Singapore Edition for only 40K points!

11 September 2023 / Leave a comment

Marriott Bonvoy’s Edition brand is launching another location in Singapore, and they’ve now started to accept bookings from December onwards. It is a great opportunity to burn your Marriott points!

As you can see from the rate calendar, award nights in December starts at only 40,000 points.

Unfortunately the price climbs up quick from January to up to 70,000 points. However, as its cash price hovers around the 800 SGD mark (~$600), it still yields outsized value.

For the date I checked in December, the Edition costs only marginally more points than the Aloft and Courtyard. As Marriott has a dynamic pricing system in place, I’d suggest you to lock in the redemptions sooner than later if you have any travel plans.

My Review of Plaza Premium Lounge Rome T3

9 September 2023 / Leave a comment

I’m flying from Rome to Abu Dhabi on the very cheap Etihad deal. It’s an early flight so I didn’t get to have breakfast at the Westin, but thankfully there’s a Plaza Premium Lounge at Rome’s Fiumicino airport. I’m yet to visit any Plaza Premium Lounge in continental Europe!

The Plaza Premium Lounge is located at Terminal 3, Zone E. This is the non-Schengen departure area after border control, therefore you cannot access the lounge if departing from different terminal or zone.

Take the stairs up after security and border control, and you’ll see the BA Lounge and Plaza Premium Lounge in front of you.

You can access the lounge courtesy of Amex Platinum, Priority Pass or Dragonpass. I am Immediately impressed by how big the space is and how much natural light it has. The lounge is circular-shaped which might remind you of a theatre. The curves and lighting on the ceiling are beautiful.

The bar and dining area are in the centre.

Some working desks at the side:

Many seat options that offer different levels of privacy and comfortableness.

The octagon seats bring back the memories of my overnight stay at Hong Kong airport.

The breakfast buffet includes the usual suspects:

Plus some salad and pastry.

The bartender can make a great cappuccino!

Once again I’m very pleased with what the Plaza Premium Lounge has to offer. I’m not sure how I feel about them re-joining Priority Pass, as we might not see the lounges being so quiet again.

Nectar / Avios bonus via Daily Mail subscription

7 September 2023 / 1 Comment on Nectar / Avios bonus via Daily Mail subscription

MyMail, the membership program of Daily Mail, is to cease its partnership with Nectar on September 14. Interestingly however, they’ll still be running Nectar promotions, and there’s currently a very good incentive.

If you purchase a Digital Annual subscription now for £20, you will earn 4,000 Nectar points as a bonus, which is equivalent to £20 in return.

The 4,000 points can be spent at Sainsbury’s, Argos and Ebay amongst other shops. You can also convert them to 2,500 Avios, which effectively means buying Avios at 0.8p.

It’s unclear when the promotion ends. There doesn’t seem to any restriction on how many times you can avail the offer either.

BA sale: £600 Premium Economy deal, Silver for £800

6 September 2023 / 2 Comments on BA sale: £600 Premium Economy deal, Silver for £800

British Airways has launched their end of summer sale, and as usual you can use the low fare finder to dig out the best deals.

I can’t see any particularly good Club World or First destinations, but there are genuine savings if you don’t mind travelling in premium economy. Here are some headline prices:

Beijing £743
Shanghai £721
Tel Aviv £618
Doha £636
New York £636
Toronto £747

And a couple of examples for China in Skyscanner:

Beijing 03/10 – 24/10 £683
Shanghai 23/01 – 05/03 £717

When it comes to Club Europe flights, we no longer see as many low prices as we used to. Here are some examples:

Basel £198
Bucharest £288
Dublin £176
Istanbul £312
Luxembourg £148
Pisa £198
Sofia £212

The destinations in bold earn you 80 tier points per return whereas the rest earn only 40. Sofia is the one standing out (example 07/03 – 10/03), as you’ll earn BA’s Silver status after four returns which costs around £800.

BA’s Silver status, or in other words Oneworld Sapphire, comes with priority check-in and boarding, fast track, additional baggage allowance and business class lounge access.

Earn Skyteam Elite Plus after two China flights

1 September 2023 / Leave a comment

China made a drastic response in cutting almost all its international flights during the pandemic, and the recovery didn’t really start until the end of 2022. Although most of its international routes have resumed some level of service, there are still very few flights to/from the U.S. as a consequence of political wrestles.

The ice seems to have started breaking finally, and China Eastern, a member of Skyteam, launched an interesting promotion.

Book by November 15
Travel by December 1
Buy one return flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai and earn Gold or Platinum status
The upgrade take effect immediately after your first flight
Both Economy and Business Class tickets are eligible

Like most of the promotions you see in China, the terms and conditions are very ambiguous. My assumption is that if you travel in economy then you get Gold, or Platinum if you fly business. Both statuses are Skyteam Elite Plus though so there isn’t much difference. Lounge access is granted even on domestic flights when you fly China Eastern or Xiamen Airlines.

It’s restricted to certain fare buckets though, which isn’t specified. If you are interested, call their customer service line 1-626-583-1500 for more details.

My review of Leeds Marriott Hotel

30 August 2023 / Leave a comment

This is a quick review of the Leeds Marriott Hotel. I was half-way through my £100 off £300 Amex cashback offer and needed to find a participating Marriott property to fulfil the spend requirement. I didn’t want to travel far, and Leeds Marriott came to my attention.

The hotel sits in front of the Trevelyan Square. It is very close to the train station and Trinity shopping centre.

The lobby and restaurant:

I received an upgrade to an executive room on the top (sixth) floor, which is actually a corner room.

The room is bright with large windows on two sides of the walls.

Here’s the problem though: noise level here can be really bad. The rail tracks are 50-ish yards away. And as if that’s not enough, there are many bars and pubs just around the corner.

I complained the next morning and they moved me to a double-double room which is sort of interior facing. It is a lot better.

Set-up of the executive lounge is a bit strange. It’s like another boutique lobby inside the lobby area.

Presentations are nice, but it is a very small lounge. You can imagine it being very busy in the evening.

Soft drinks, fruits and coffee machine are available throughout the day.

Happy hour is hosted between 5.30pm and 7.30pm. Two hot dishes and a decent spread of canapes are on offer.

Breakfast in the main restaurant isn’t comp’ed, but you can have it in the executive lounge.

It is an average Marriott hotel you expect in this country, and there’s nothing particularly good or bad. If you are a light sleeper and sensitive to noises though it may not be for you.

£4 off your next Amazon pickup order

29 August 2023 / Leave a comment

Amazon has a new iteration of its Click & Collect offer, and you may be eligible if you haven’t taken advantage of the offer recently.

You can check your eligibility here. The offer runs until December 31st, but is limited to the first 50,000 redemptions only.

If you are eligible, claim the offer for a £4 reward to be added to your account. Place a pickup order of £12 or more and the discount will apply at checkout automatically. As usual only items sold by Amazon (i.e. excluding third-party resellers) are eligible for the offer.

Other Amazon offers: