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!
Marriott Flexible Point Redemption is now live, and you may want to rebook some reward nights
If you have searched for any Marriott point bookings today, you may have seen some odd prices like this:
This is because Marriott’s Flexible Point Redemption Rates, a.k.a dynamic reward night pricing has just kicked in.
As a reminder, here’s what happened:
- Marriott hotels no longer have redemption categories
- For reward stays in 2022:
- Globally 217 hotels have adjusted redemption rates, which means they may require more points than the previous cap imposed by the respective category
- Other hotels won’t cost more than what its peak pricing used to be
- For reward stays in 2023: there won’t be any caps for redemption rates
For example, a Category 1 hotel used to cost 4,500/7,500/10,000 points on off-peak/standard/peak dates, and now it can cost anywhere between 4,500 and 10,000 points. However, unlike previously when there’s some sort of pre-defined distribution, you may see the most popular hotels constantly cost 10,000 points, whereas the least desired ones hover around 5,000 points throughout the year.
Let’s have a look at London. The Marriott County Hall which I really loved is now priced near the top mark (100K) almost all the time:
Renaissance St Pancras on the hand, still have some 40K dates in April, which is close to the original off-peak pricing (36K).
Marriott’s pricing algorithm is more similar to IHG than Hilton, or in other words the redemption rate is somehow linked to the cash price but there isn’t a fixed formula. This is good news, but obviously things can change in the long run.
From the data points I’ve seen in various forums, the trend is popular hotels are priced towards the top end whereas other hotels have actually become cheaper, which could be a welcome change. Maldives has suffered greatly, but W Koh Samui and Tokyo (e.g. The Prince Gallery hotel) are less expensive now.
My friend who’s developed a tool for monitoring IHG reward prices has come up with some interesting stats:
- Summing up the redemption rates of all Marriott hotels in China, the total has dropped 6.35% on March 30 compared to March 29
- Out of the 30 most-searched hotels, only 6 have increased in average redemption rates
If you currently hold any point bookings, check the rates again as you may save some points by rebooking. And in the new system prices may change regularly for the same hotel / date, so you may need to monitor them closely.
Virgin Atlantic Points Booster 40% bonus promotion (0.71p)
Virgin Atlantic has brought back its Points Booster promotion, which is a cheap way to bag some Virgin points.
You could check out the offer here. If you partake by April 22, you’ll earn up to 40% bonus on top of your usual points.
Points Booster is a special feature of Virgin Atlantic which allows you to purchase points when you have a past or upcoming booking with them. They are normally priced at 1p per point, and you can purchase either 1x, 2x or 3x of the flight distance (in miles).
For example, London Heathrow to New York JFK is 3,458 miles in distance, which means if you have a one-way flight booked, you can purchase either 3,458 points (£34.58), 6,916 points (£69.16) or 10,374 points (£103.74) under the usual circumstances. You will receive 20%, 30% or 40% bonus respectively, and with 40% bonus it works out at 0.71p per point, which is an excellent deal.
Beware that Virgin Atlantic (and BA) has recently increased their surcharges on award tickets though, so make sure you are still happy about the total cost before jumping on board.
For upcoming flights you could simply do it online, but for retroactive flights flown within the last six months you need to call the customer service. Both revenue and award tickets are eligible, and despite what the terms say, from my previous experience you could boost flights operated by partner airlines too, or for award tickets issued by Virgin Atlantic at least.
You should receive the bonus points soon-ish, but the original booster points won’t be credited until after the flight’s flown. Note that Points Booster purchases are final and non-refundable – the points will hit your account even if you cancel the flight ticket.
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.
IHG targeted offer: earn up to 50k bonus points
IHG has launched a new targeted offer which is called Step Up To Rewards.
You could check your eligibility here.
- Stay from April 1 to May 17
- Earn bonus points after staying 2/4/6/10/20 nights
- Maximum award is 50,000 points
- Paid stay only
You could see the bonus ladder in the image above. This offer is similar to the Accelerate promotions that IHG used to run in the past, although not as generous. If you are not targeted, unfortunately it may mean no offer for you until May 17 at least…
On a different subject but still IHG-related, we named a few hotels where you could buy IHG points at as low as 0.46c during the current reward night sale. Unsurprisingly such deals are usually short-lived and they have all gone now.
If you are short of IHG points however, you could still buy them at 0.5c per point at the Londoner and Venetian hotels in Macau.
This is as good as the 100%-bonus-point promotion that IHG runs regularly, which is worth a go if you need some points right now – make sure you check the cancellation policy though.
Live: Up to 20% off ALL IHG reward nights, and buy IHG points at 0.46c
IHG had a reward night sale in January, where you were entitled to up to 20% discount on all award bookings. We knew that it’s coming back on March 22, but what we didn’t know is that it’s actually open to public from the very beginning this time.
Here are the offer details:
- Book by April 5
- Stay by May 25
- Targeted members enjoy up to 20% off all reward-night bookings
You either have 20% off, 10% off or nothing, and it appears to be totally random, or at least we can’t easily figure out the criteria.
The discount kicks in on March 22, hotel’s local time. It’s not live in the UK yet, but you should be able to see it if searching for hotels in China and Japan etc.
IHG’s dynamic redemption system is nowhere near as bad as Hilton’s, and it event has arguably more good deals than it did previously. 20% off on top of that is spectacular.
If you fancy visiting Edinburgh next Month, the Kimpton hotel has many dates priced at sub-40k or even sub-30k points. Note that it’s BEFORE the 20% discount kicks in.
Such promotions are also known as a cheap way to “buy” points indirectly from IHG, as you can make cash & point bookings and then cancel them. You won’t get your cash back, but you get the full amount of points instead.
Here are a few examples in Asia. (Update: they all appear to have gone)
InterContinental Shenzhen Dameisha, May 7, 0.46c
InterContinental Beijing Sanlitun, April 9, 0.46c
Regent Taipei, April 24, 0.49c
I’m sure there are plenty more hotels / dates available. Be sure to check the cancellation policy though – cash & point bookings have the same cancellation policy with best flexible rates, which under rare circumstances may be non-refundable.
Hilton buy points 100% bonus offer
Hilton has brought back its (very frequent) sale on point purchase.
You could read more about the offer here. By May 6, if you buy at least 5,000 points you’ll get 100% bonus on top. It works out at 0.5 cent per point which is as far as it gets, and the maximum amount you can purchase in a calendar year is 160,000 points (excluding bonus).
I don’t usually talk about Hilton’s points sale, since 99% of the time it makes little sense to buy them even with the bonus, given how their points have turned next to useless under the current dynamic redemption system.
However, as more and more countries are opening up to tourists, and people are probably very keen on getting back to travel again, their points can be good value at some of the top-end luxury hotels. Note that Hilton has stealthily increased the redemption cost at a few properties recently, for example:
- Conrad Maldives Rangali Island 95,000 -> 120,000
- Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi 120,000 -> 150,000
- Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam 95,000 -> 110,000
Which is a pity, but redeeming points on these hotels is still a bargain. If you fancy visiting these destinations, you may consider purchasing some points now.
To minimise the cost you should take advantage of Hilton’s 5-for-4 benefit. You won’t have enough points from this sale alone though, but you could use Points Pooling to combine the balance of multiple accounts.
Book high-end Mr & Mrs Smith hotels with your IHG free night certificate
My Creation IHG card account, amongst many others, were closed last year. The biggest loss is the annual free night reward certificate, which is valid on almost all IHG properties, and unlike the one that comes with the US card it’s not capped.
If you still have an unredeemed certificate, or if your Creation card is still active, you may want to have a look at Mr & Mrs Smith properties. I knew that the certificates weren’t valid on Six Senses properties, and I just took it for granted that Mr & Mrs Smith hotels were excluded too given that they weren’t owned by IHG. But it turns out I was wrong.
You can actually redeem the free night at any IHG-participating Mr & Mrs Smith hotels (directory here), as long as there is reward availability. The UK list is already quite long, and new hotels are constantly being added.
The most expensive UK hotel is probably Heckfield Place, which is priced at around £1,000 night:
Chewton Glen, Cliveden and Linthwaite House are a few other great options in this country.
If you fancy something more exotic, The Retreat at Blue Lagoon is a very high-end hotel in Iceland.
I was quite annoyed as there’s no hotel for me to use the last free night on in the UK, since I’ve already stayed at every single InterContinental and Kimpton hotels in England and Scotland. Looks like I have plenty of options now 🙂
When you spend your free night certificate or points at Mr & Mrs Smith hotels, IHG pays cash to the properties so you’ll just be treated the same as any other paying guests, and you should also enjoy SilverSmith or GoldSmith Extras depending on your IHG status. Remember the 30-day cancellation window though, and don’t let it bite you.