2,000 bonus Marriott points for linking your Emirates account
In 2020 Marriott offered 1,500 points to some members to sign up to its partnership program with Emirates. According to a thread on Flyertalk the offer is coming back.
@flyme2 received an email from Marriott:
Earn 2,000 bonus points1 with Your World Rewards™. Simply join by 31 July and complete a stay by 31 August to earn your exclusive bonus. Plus, you’ll earn twice on stays and flights with this exclusive partnership from Marriott Bonvoy® and Emirates Skywards®.
Bonus is slightly higher, however this time you must complete a stay to earn it.
You World Rewards allows elite members from Marriott and Emirates to receive reciprocal benefits when travelling. Marriott elites are entitled to priority check-in and priority boarding when flying Emirates, and also earn Marriott points for the flight ticket.
Note that you must have received an invitation by email to participate. Otherwise I suggest you not link the account until you receive an invitation or travel with Emirates.
My review of Kimpton Monaco Seattle
Hotels in the US tend to be expensive, which is why I prefer to splash some of my points here. It doesn’t seem easy in Seattle however, as there aren’t many options to start with. Hilton redemption values are poor, whereas Marriott and IHG may have a dozen of options combined.
I didn’t find anything that’s near ideal, but went with the Kimpton Monaco hotel eventually. 107,000 points for two nights isn’t cheap, but the hotel is quite well located, and it’s right after the new IHG One benefits came into effect so I want to see how it plays out.
The Monaco brand appears to be a chain itself, as it’s present in other cities like Washington DC, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The Seattle one is very close to the University Street station, so around half an hour by train to the airport.
The building looks quite tired, and to be honest the W opposite doesn’t look any younger.
The lobby has an Arabic style.
To my disappointment the hotel restaurant is operating at limited capacity and isn’t open during my stay, which means I can’t choose breakfast as a Diamond welcome amenity. However they are running a special promotion, so I’ve got 600 welcome points + 5,000 bonus points instead.
(I forgot to say the Kimpton password :()
There’s a small refuel corner in the lobby for snacks and drinks. If you choose the $20 welcome credit instead you can spend it here.
eStandby was offered online on IHG’s website. The suite upgrade offers are very attractive, and I opted for Premier Monte Carlo Suite which costs only $25 per night. It’s the second-best suite this hotel has (there’s an Ambassador Suite which you must consult the hotel directly for booking).
The top three floors (9, 10 and 11 if I remember correctly) are the so-called Premier Floors. It’s similar to what some hotels have as an Executive Floor – no tangible benefits, but only a dedicated express elevator.
It’s actually a big room split into a living room and a bedroom by a curtain, so not a proper suite in the real sense.
This is the living room with sofa, desk and TV.
And the bedroom:
Nothing to see here in downtown Seattle.
The drapes aren’t black-out at all, which annoys me in the morning.
One thing I like about the UK Kimptons is that all rooms have a yoga mat. I didn’t find one here though so I guess it’s not a global standard.
What they do offer is a daily happy hour (6pm-7pm), which means free drinks for all hotel guests.
I don’t recall if you can order cocktails (for free) too, but from the display I guess it’s possible.
It’s a nice touch of the Kimpton brand.
There’s a gym at the lower ground level.
The hotel advertises a destination fee but I wasn’t charged, not sure if it’s due to the restaurant not open or me booking with points. My total bill is the $50 for eStandby upgrade (no extra taxes).
When I checked out I mentioned the 5,000 promotion points didn’t hit my account. The manager told me it’s actually misinformation and the promotion is double points (1,200 points) or double credit ($40), but since I was told so they’d acknowledge it and award me the bonus.
Two weeks after I checked out there’s still no sign of the 5,000 points and I had to raise it with IHG’s customer care. It was confirmed again – and to my surprise a batch of three 5,000 bonus points landed at my IHG account a couple of days later. I guess they were just a bit slow 🙂
Free Red by Dufry Platinum status (10% off duty free shopping)
Red by Dufry is the membership program for the Dufry company, who owns duty free shops such as World Duty Free, Nuance, Reg Staer and Hudson. Red by Dufry has multiple tiers and the higher up you are, the more discount and benefits you are entitled to.
We wrote about a promotion by Plaza Premium in 2020 which has expired, however a similar offer has just emerged from Aegean Airlines. You can read more details here.
Basically, sign up using this link or enter promo code AegeanMilesPlatinum, and you’ll be upgraded to Platinum (the top tier) right away. If I remember correctly your status is maintained as long as you make one purchase every year.
The most straightforward benefit is 10% off all your purchases at participating airport stores, which is a free win. There are certain restrictions though, and the following apply to the UK:
- Max £250 discount per transaction
- Two transactions per day
- Not to be used in conjunction with any other promotions
- Not to be used on any tobacco products
One other benefit is a special Dragonpass account which allows you to purchase $27 lounge passes, which isn’t really a great deal. However some airports may have better offers – Dufry used to give away free lounge access at Madrid if you spend a couple of hundred euro.
Best UK SIM options for data roaming
Due to Brexit, most of the major UK network operators have now reintroduced roaming charges when you are in Europe. You can always pick up a local SIM of course, but there are options you can consider whilst in the UK to avoid the roaming fees as well.
[O2]
As of today, O2 still doesn’t charge any roaming free when you are in Europe. Good news for those who are a customer with them.
[Three]
Three used to have a fantastic feature called Feel at Home / Go Roam that allowed free roaming in Europe and many other international destinations. Unfortunately it terminated last year and is no longer included for new contracts starting in or after October 2021.
However, Go Roam is still valid for Pay As You Go (prepaid SIM) customers. It sounds as if Three was punishing their loyal customers under a contract, which is a bit weird.
Go Roam supports many more territories than just Europe, including United States, Australia, Israel, Brazil, Hong Kong and Vietnam, just to name a few. If you are heading to one of these destinations, just grab a pre-paid SIM before you go – at the time of writing the cheapest plan costs only £10.
[Airalo]
If your destination is not included in Go Roam, or you don’t have time to order a SIM card, Airalo is your friend.
Airalo sells eSIM for over 190 countries, so wherever you are travelling it’s most likely that Airalo has an eSIM that works for you. Because you don’t need to acquire a physical card, it’s more convenient and the process is almost instant – that’s assuming you have a compatible device of course.
I travelled to the United States recently and tried it out. I purchased an eSIM with 10GB data for $16:
Installation was fairly easy and reception was satisfactory throughout my two-week trip. Note that it’s for data usage only and cannot be used to make/receive calls or SMS.
If you are interested you can sign up on their website or via the app. Use my referral code KAI2510 to save $3 on your first purchase.
My review of Seattle Marriott Bellevue
I need to stay four nights in Seattle, and following my friend’s advice I chose to split the stay and spend the first two nights in Bellevue. It’s also because I found a good Marriott deal – two nights at the Seattle Marriott Bellevue hotel costs only 48,000 points.
Departing from the airport, there was some traffic going into Seattle and it took 40 minutes to get to the hotel. The hotel is about 10 minutes’ walk away from the downtown park which isn’t too bad. The Westin and W are more centrally located, but more expensive too.
According to their website, most rooms are more or less the same, and one of the main differences is the presence or absence of a bath tub. I expressed my preference for a room with bath tub, but then it turns out to be a quest – no one has any idea what rooms that would be.
They have to turn so many pages before finally assigning me a room. Then I make all the way to it only to find no tub in the bathroom at all. I have to go back to reception and they start another investigation, but this time they send a housekeeper to check the room first, and I eventually get what I wanted.
From what I understand they don’t have suites at this property, and what I’ve got – a high-floor, mountain view Executive room – is the best in their inventory.
The room is okay although nothing inspiring.
When the sky clears up – not very often during my stay in Seattle – you can see the mountains. The Westin and W presumably have better views as they are much taller.
To my disappointment, the bath tub is so tiny and low that you’d be lucky to fit a kid in it. I truly can’t figure out its purpose.
The previous room I entered has a microwave, but it’s not available in this one.
The M Club just re-opened the Sunday before.
Soft drinks and snacks are available throughout the day. I don’t think there’s any arrangement in the evening though.
Elite breakfast is served in the M Club.
Although there are a few hot items served, the quality is very underwhelming.
The hotel has no swimming pool, but a gym.
In summary, the Seattle Marriott Bellevue is just about acceptable and nothing more. If you want to spend your Marriott points and are on budget, it’s one of the better options in and around Seattle.
Good London deal: 25,000 IHG points for Holiday Inn Bloomsbury on Saturdays
A friend of mine developed a tool for monitoring reward night pricing of multiple hotel chains, and recently added support for IHG hotels in London. It’s all in Chinese and lives within Wechat so I’m not sharing the tool, but I spotted a couple of great deals that are worth mentioning.
Crowne Plaza Kings Cross: 27,000 points for most Sundays from August 7th
Holiday Inn London Bloomsbury: 23,000 points for most Sundays from August 7th, and 25,000 points (or below) for Saturdays starting September 9th
London IHG hotels (as well as many other countries / cities) used to be very cheap point-wise when IHG started to introduce dynamic pricing, but unfortunately it’s no longer the case. It’s nice to see however that great redemption values are not completely gone. (shame on you, Hilton!)
The Holiday Inn Bloomsbury deal is well worth considering in my opinion. It’s not a brilliant hotel, but 25,000 points for a four-star in central London on a Saturday night can’t be sniffed at.
How to accrue 60 nights annually via Marriott credit cards only
(Warning: I must admit first that this is a clickbait, as although practically possible very few people qualify for all the credit cards required 😉)
Marriott issues co-branded credit cards in many markets including the US and UK, and one major perk of them is elite night credits which is awarded annually to accelerate your membership tier upgrade process. Usually such credits are not stackable across multiple cards, but there are rare combinations that work.
Up until recently, the maximum annual credits you can possibly accrue was 30 nights, by holding:
- A Marriott personal card (15 nights), e.g. Amex UK, Amex US or Chase US, and
- An Amex US Marriott business card (15 nights)
You can only stack one personal card with one business card, otherwise having two personal cards (e.g. Amex US & UK) only yields 15 night credits.
There was an Amex SPG card in Japan which offered another stackable 5 nights, but that card has been re-branded to give 15 nights instead which no longer works.
There has been a very recent development though. Citic Bank just started issuing the first Marriott co-branded credit cards in China this week. It comes with three versions that offer 5, 10 and 15 elite night credits respectively.
Terms say that you can only apply for one of the three cards, and the night credits don’t stack with credit cards issued by other banks. However in reality it works slightly differently: people have reported to be able to submit three applications, and whilst they are all pending, all night credits have already hit the Marriott account – and that’s on top of what’s offered by other banks.
Sorry that I don’t have a screenshot in English, but this is from someone who’s just applied for all three cards and he’s already had the US Marriott Amex card. The four cards have deposited a total of 45 nights into his account.
This could well be an error (especially as those credit applications aren’t even approved yet) and will possibly be fixed soon. But in theory, at the moment you can harvest 60 night credits for this year which gives you Platinum status straightaway, if you are eligible for credit applications in both US and China of course.
Apply for a US Amex card via Global Transfer
[Background]
The credit card market in the United States is way more competitive than anywhere else in the world, and as a result the payment cards offer substantially higher bonuses and better benefits than, say, the UK. Take American Express as an example, it’s not uncommon to see the same card hands out 3x the sign-on bonus plus better day-to-day perks.
Interested in getting a card in the US? It’s actually much easier than you think. First of all you don’t have to be a Resident Alien (I still find the term very amusing) to be eligible, although you do usually need to have a tax identification number, i.e. SSN or ITIN. They are similar to the National Insurance number in the UK, and you need to provide them when submitting a credit application.
There are workarounds though, especially with American Express. We wrote about its Credit Passport feature a while back which approves your US credit card application using your UK credit history. In fact there’s an even easier route, as long as you are already an Amex customer in another country.
The feature is called Global Transfer, and you can read more about it on Amex’s website. You only need to meet the following criteria to apply:
- Be an existing Amex customer
- Have an address in the destination country to receive the card
- Have a telephone number in the destination country
You don’t need a credit history in the destination country, and in the context of United States, nor do you need SSN or ITIN. It works in a similar fashion with Credit Passport, but utilises your client record with Amex instead, which I imagine is in your favour.
In theory you can global transfer from any country to any other country, as long as Amex does business in both of them. There are few exceptions (such as China) due to local financial regulations.
[Why Global Transfer]
As I’ve just mentioned, Amex cards in the US are much better than the UK counterparts from almost every perspective. It’s critical to choose the right card to start with, as you can only request one via Global Transfer and you’ll be stuck with it for a while. (Anecdotes suggest that you may apply for two card simultaneously if applying by phone).
I started with the Platinum card mainly because they were offering a huge sign-on bonus. Compared to the UK version, the US one has the following advantages:
- Better earning rate (1 point / $1)
- Frequent conversion bonus to airline / hotel programs
- No foreign transaction fee
- Priority pass with +2 guests
- Annual credit for FHR and US airlines
You can also transfer UK membership rewards points to the US one at the current exchange rate.
I don’t see myself holding the US Platinum card in the long term, but as I said it’s just a start point.
[Making an application]
We all love earning referral bonuses, but you can’t do global transfer and refer a friend at the same time. You should start your application on Amex’s website, and some public partner offers work too (for example this one from Resy).
The procedure is quite simple. When applying, click I’m Already a Card Member at the top right:
Sign in using your Amex UK credentials and the form would come back partially pre-filled.
Tick the box declaring that you have no SSN, and fill out the remaining information including your passport number, US address and phone number.
Assuming that you’ve been a great client of Amex, your application should be approved right away.
[Receiving the card]
If you are not physically present at the shipping address, whoever receives the card should forward you the necessary information to activate it.
Since Amex supports Google Pay / Apple Pay, adding the card to your e-wallet should satisfy 99% of your use cases. In the unlikely event that you require a physical card right away, the safest route is probably ask your family/friend to send it across to you.
However, if you have the Platinum card, it’s also legit and straightforward to request a replacement card of an alternative design.
Go to online chat and ask the agent to add an alternate address to your profile, and you can enter your international (UK) address. You could choose a design and request it to be sent to your alternate address in the same conversation. My card arrived in five days.
Since it’s not a lost/stolen situation, the old card remains functional. I’m not sure how long you must wait after card opening to request the replacement though.
[Payment]
Since most (all?) US Amex cards charge no foreign transaction fee, you can use them safely in the UK and abroad. The next question you may have is probably how to make payment, which is surprisingly easy.
All you need is a Wise (formerly Transferwise) account. Once registered you can open a USD Personal Checking Account. They might need to verify your identity (e.g. UK driving license) which shouldn’t be a problem.
With the routing number and account number, you can link your Wise account in Amex online banking. It doesn’t work like Direct Debit in the UK though – every month after your billing date you still need to log in to Amex online banking and click a button to pull funds from Wise.
You can transfer your GBP funds in a UK bank to Wise’s USD account very easily. The exchange rate is favourable, and the handling fee is only about 0.3%.
If you are new to Wise, feel free to support us by using my referral link which gives you a fee-free transfer of up to €500.
[Conclusion]
I believe that’s all the essential information you need to know now. Once you’ve built up enough history with Amex, you can start applying for more cards, but that story is for another day.