Don’t forget to claim your IHG Spire Choice Benefit
When I wrote about IHG’s status challenge offer, I mentioned that I registered to that offer and then got downgraded to Platinum…
I complained to their customer service and my Diamond status was finally resumed after two days. The expiry date is still end of 2022, but to my surprise I’m able to choose the Spire Choice Benefit again:
Obviously it’s just a glitch, and IHG is already onto the downgrade bug – if you sign up to the status challenge offer now your status won’t change immediately anymore.
Anyway, if you are a Diamond Elite it’s worth checking whether you have claimed the Spire Choice Benefit or not. It seems that the option is hidden for at least some people, but you can use this link directly. You can choose between 25,000 points or gifting Platinum Elite to a friend.
IHG Platinum & Diamond fast track offer
Although their Platinum status had been quite attainable at a low cost, IHG has rarely provided official status match or fast track opportunities. To celebrate the launch of their One Rewards program, IHG has now opened the flood gate.
You can view the offer here. Although you must select a hotel scheme and membership tier to proceed, there’s no level requirement or proof of membership needed, so it’s more of a survey than status match initiative.
In short:
- Register by July 31
- Enjoy instant Platinum trial for 120 days
- Stay 5 paid nights during the trial to keep Platinum status, or
- Stay 15 paid nights to upgrade to Diamond
- Mr & Mrs Smith hotel stays are included
The offer is open to everyone except residents of Greater China, and stays in Greater China don’t count.
WARNING: don’t register if you are a Diamond member already, otherwise you’d be downgraded to Platinum. I learned it the hard way…
It’s a very good promotion. In the worst case scenario you’d be granted a free Platinum trial for 120 days, which is literally available to everyone.
Should you be interested in the Diamond challenge, 15 nights within 90 days is quite achievable and much easier than the regular 70-night requirement. Considering that Diamond benefits will receive a significant refresh in June, the challenge may well be worth it.
£10 Amazon credit for Barclaycard customers
If you are a Barclaycard customer, there’s now a chance to grab a free £10 Amazon credit.
You can check out the offer details here. Note that according to the terms and conditions you must land on the offer page first before taking part.
- Offer ends September 30
- Pay at least £10 on Amazon with your Barclaycard
- You’ll then receive a £10 voucher to use by October 30
The offer should be open to all Barclaycard customers – note that it is Barclays’ credit card division, so debit cards that come with their current account won’t qualify.
My review of Eurostar Business Premier Lounge, Paris
Eurostar departs from the Gare du Nord station in Paris, with a dedicated entrance on the second floor. After entering, you’ll pass the border control of France and UK, the security check and then you’ll be in.
On your left, you can take the stairs or lift up to find the Business Premier lounge, which is available to Business Premier / Carte Blanche guests, or Amex Platinum cardholders.
Unlike the London lounge, the Paris one occupies only one floor, but it pans out nicely. Once inside you see the main lounge area on your right.
Which is connected to the drink and snack area.
The selection of snacks is noticeably better than London. There is also a bar, which isn’t serviced at the moment.
The left part of the lounge is comprised of semi-private compartments, ideal as a workspace.
Some of the seats come with a view of the station.
Similar to its London counterpart, this lounge is a good place to chill and refuel a bit before your journey, but not really worth spending a lot of time in.
Hyatt: new London hotels, Asia Pacific bonus points offer
Hyatt has recently opened two new hotels in London:
They were recently converted from Holiday Inn and Staybridge Suites of the IHG brands. From what I see their room rates have almost doubled to an eye-watering level (sometimes £300+), which is insane for the location. I hope they’ve done a great renovation job!
On the other hand, if you do want to stay with them spending points appears to be a great option. I find Hyatt’s new redemption pricing confusing, but for an upcoming Saturday they only cost 9,000 points and 12,000 points respectively.
You also earn 500 bonus points per night when staying at either of them by July 31.
Also Hyatt-related, they have started a new Mid Year promotion in Asia Pacific.
- Register by July 31
- Stay between May 16 and September 2
- Earn 1,000 bonus points for every two nights stayed
- Maximum bonus awarded is 15,000 points
You can see the list of participating hotels on the promo page, which seems to cover most properties except those in mainland China.
Apply for a U.S. card without SSN/ITIN via Amex Credit Passport
U.S. no doubt has the best credit card offers in the world, and many people from overseas are very keen on applying for one. It’s tricky though, as unlike in the UK you usually need to provide a tax number (SSN or ITIN) when submitting an application, and you may not have one if you still live abroad or have recently moved.
There’s a well-known workaround though – if you are an Amex cardholder overseas, you could apply for a U.S. Amex card via its Global Transfer service. You don’t need an SSN / ITIN or any credit history in the U.S. – all you need is a U.S. residential address and a phone number, and Amex will use your internal credit record with them to evaluate the application.
It’s usually a very smooth process, and everyone I know who’ve tried succeeded, although some of them were asked for some sort of bank verification.
It’s not until recently that I became aware of another service that Amex U.S. offers – Credit Passport, provided by Nova Credit.
The idea is quite similar to Global Transfer, which aims to facilitate the application for people who don’t have a tax number yet in the country. However,
- You don’t need to be an existing Amex customer
- Your credit history in the current residential country will be used for the application
Currently nine countries are supported: United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, India, Kenya, Nigeria and Dominican Republic.
Note that the application only triggers a soft pull in the United Kingdom as well as in Canada, Australia, India and Dominican Republic, which means it doesn’t negatively impact your credit score.
To be honest I don’t think it’s a very useful feature, as all listed countries issue their own Amex cards, with the exception of Dominican Republic. My speculation is that having an Amex card and doing the Global Transfer would have a much higher success rate.
However, if somehow you don’t have an Amex card, or the Global Transfer doesn’t work out, you may want to try Credit Passport to apply for your first U.S. credit card. A reader from Canada has just reported success so it’s a viable route.
Free breakfast for Accor Gold members in China
Accor has announced a benefit boost for members staying at its hotels in Mainland China. You can read more here (in Chinese).
Amongst exclusive room rate and dining discount, the most impressive enhancement is one free breakfast for Accor Gold members. Accor’s breakfast benefit now looks like this:
- Gold: one free breakfast in mainland China
- Platinum: two free breakfast in Asia Pacific
- Diamond: two free breakfast in Asia Pacific, or only on weekends elsewhere
The gap is now huge between China / Asia Pacific and the other regions, and breakfast only on weekends for the top tier is very mean.
It’s not rare for hotel programs to offer enhanced benefits in Asia Pacific or China, for example IHG has similar arrangements too. However, the timing of this announcement is a bit weird given that many cities in China are still undergoing lockdowns and travels are not yet resuming.
My review of InterContinental Paris Le Grand
My IHG free night voucher from the Creation card was expiring in December, and there was no high-end hotel left in the UK for me to try. For practical reasons I redeemed it at the InterContinental Paris Le Grand, although at hindsight I probably should have chosen the Kimpton instead, which is a new hotel with a swimming pool.
The hotel is next to the Opera metro station, and just five minutes’ walk to the La Fayette department store. The proximity to the Opera is one selling point of the hotel.
The moment I entered the hotel, I was stunned by its beauty.
I’ve seen other properties of the same genres, e.g. Hotel Bristol in Vienna, but it’s the very first time I find one that demonstrates its abundant history and elegance, but doesn’t show a single sign of age.
The hotel is so huge that you can barely see the end of the corridor.
I’m upgraded to a King Premium Room, which is the largest non-suite rooms. However there are so many rooms at this hotel, and they vary a lot in shape and size even when belonging to the same category.
Entering the room, the first thing I see is the waldrobe.
Bathroom is on the right, with both a shower and a tub.
Bedroom is on the left.
The room is neat, but unfortunately after seeing the other areas of the hotel my expectations were very high. Although probably quite big in size, it feels like a lot of the space is just wasted.
As an Ambassador welcome gift, I’m offered a box of biscuits and some strawberries. There are three large bottles of mineral water to keep me hydrated!
There’s no espresso machine and I was just going to make peace with instant coffee, but then I couldn’t find anywhere a kettle…
I finished my toothpaste so requested one in the afternoon. It wasn’t in the room when I came back in the evening so I asked again, and still nothing arrived after one hour. I called again, and this time they finally sent someone.
At €45 per person, the breakfast price is very steep so I gave it a pass. For Ambassador members, Club Lounge access is sold at €120 per room (2pp) which I think is more than reasonable, as it includes breakfast, afternoon tea and happy hour (they’ve been serving oysters and prawns recently :)).
Spire members can choose between 600 points and a drink voucher. I asked for the latter and had a beer at the bar of Cafe de la Paix, which is the hotel restaurant.
Ambassador members also have €15 credit to use towards the bill. Before check-out I came again for a cup of coffee and a coke zero, which worked out perfectly at €15.
The hotel doesn’t have a swimming pool, and shockingly its gym is simply two interconnecting rooms put together…
Besides the toothpaste incident mentioned above, the front desk agent also made no mention of welcome drink, €15 credit or late check-out, and they very often had to confirm with colleagues to know how to do something. The staff don’t seem properly trained to me, at least not for the IHG program.
Quality of the guest room also doesn’t reflect the hotel rate. I do admire the beauty of InterContinental Paris Le Grand, but purely from an accommodation perspective I like the Renaissance Republique hotel more, evening before factoring in the price difference.