World of Hyatt status challenge relaunches – 20 nights to Globalist
Compared to other major hotel groups Hyatt rarely provides status match or fast track opportunities. Something new has just come out though, and you should take a look if you have any upcoming Hyatt stays.
The following poster has been shared on FlyerT (a Chinese FFP forum), and looks very credible:
In short:
- You need to register by November 30
- You receive an instant upgrade to Explorist upon registration, which is valid through 2021
- Stay 10 nights by December 31 to extend the status to February 2023
- Stay an additional 10 nights by December 31 for an upgrade to Globalist
If you are already an Explorist, you could also register and fast track to Globalist for 20 nights. Given that the standard qualification criteria have been halved for the current year, this offer isn’t actually hugely generous, as you’d otherwise need to stay 15 and 30 nights to qualify for Explorist and Globalist respectively.
Hyatt Explorist enjoys bonus points, room upgrade and late check-out. Globalist receives the enhanced version of them plus free breakfast and club lounge access.
The offer doesn’t look targeted or regional to me, however you can’t register yourself – you must contact the sales representative of a Hyatt hotel and ask if they could sign you up. According to the discussions on FlyerT, some hotels’ sales departments are indeed aware of the offer and happy to help.
Amazon offer: £5 or £10 off a £25 order
I was going to write about a new generous Amazon Fresh offer but somehow the landing page isn’t showing for me anymore so no idea if it’s still working. Just now I found another two offers which may be more interesting.
There are two variants of the offer:
- £10 off £25 spend promo code DISCOUNT10P
- £5 off £25 spend promo code DISCOUNT5P
If eligible, enter the promo code at checkout for a basket value of at least £25 to enjoy the discount. Usual rules apply which means only items sold and fulfilled by Amazon count and Amazon devices are excluded.
It says I’m not eligible on the £5 offer page and nothing on the £10 offer page. I tried to add something to my basket, and DISCOUNT10P indeed works:
Act fast though – the offer only runs until July 13 and there appears to be a limit of 5,000 uses per code.
My review of Andaz London Liverpool Street
I’ve never set foot in any Hyatt hotel in my life, largely due to their poor footprint in UK and Europe. However I spotted an awesome deal from the Andaz London hotel, and decided to have a staycation in east London for a few days!
The rate I booked was Hyatt Prive with complimentary third night. For three nights in a King Deluxe room I paid a more-than-reasonable £340, reduced further to £240 thanks to the Amex Hyatt cashback deal. The rate also comes with free breakfast, $100 dining credit and room upgrade, which is very useful since I obviously have no status with Hyatt.
Being the first Andaz hotel in the world, the property is formerly the Great Eastern hotel dated back to 1884. It is just around of the corner of the Liverpool Street station, so transport connection is not a problem. There are also many dining options and shopping outlets in proximity, although the location may be not ideal for tourist purposes.
At check-in I’m told that room upgrade is not included in the rate, which is definitely a lie but I don’t really bother that much. In the meantime they actually honour a credit of £100 instead of $100, which is to our advantage.
I’ve had great troubles with the rooms though. This is the first room I’m given:
The room is in perfect cubic shape, of a very decent size by London standard. It feels more business than leisure for sure, but not necessarily cold or monochrome. The floor lamp is very funky.
Mini-bar is free to all hotel guests. Its content include mineral water, juice and Coca-Cola.
But so much for the good things. Long story short, I had change room twice because:
- Many rooms have no drape, but only blinds. It’s impossible not to be waken up by the early sun.
- The air conditioning unit outside my first room has water leak which leads to noises that prevents me from sleeping
There are some other teething issues but I’m not going to dwell upon them.
This is a floor plan of the building:
As you can see, there are more rooms on the outer circle which also tend to be larger. However the noise level is also higher, plus due to design one wall inclines inward which can be a big nuisance if it’s next to your shower.
I finally got a room on the inner circle, which is larger than the original and features a sofa and a bathtub.
Let’ talk about food then. I was amazed to learn that the hotel has as many as five eating outlets, all of which have opened with the exception of Wine 1901. Average dining cost is about £20 to £25 per person, and during my stay I’ve got a chance to try them all.
Eastway Brasserie
It was the only open one on Sunday evening, which is a pub next to the hotel’s main hall. I ordered a Wagyu steak which has a surprisingly low price tag of £13, and it’s ok.
Lady Abercorn’s Pub & Kitchen
A smaller pub which specialises in drinks and nibbles, with exotic recipes from South Korea, Indonesia and India. My chorizo rolls and buffalo wings are very tasty, and I really like the service and vibes here.
Miyako
A Japanese restaurant, and I generally prefer Asian cuisine. Unfortunately my sushi and ramen are well below expectations, and Miyako has to be my least favourite on-site restaurants.
Rake’s Café Bar
I didn’t dine in this Italian restaurant, but had breakfast here every day. I have to say that breakfast is the biggest highlight of my entire stay.
It’s fully a-la-carte with an extensive menu, varying from Full English and its vegan version, Eggs Benedict, Shakshuka Eggs (very rarely seen in a UK hotel), pancakes and porridges etc. You could easily eat here for a week without repeating the same breakfast.
Both presentation and food quality are great.
There is a daily social hour between 7pm and 8pm. All hotel guests can enjoy a free glass of wine with some snacks from the Miyako restaurant.
I was given a bottle of red wine to say sorry about the troubles I had with my rooms. All hotel staff I interacted with after the incident were already informed about it, and I was made sure that the preferences had been added to my profile to prevent such things from happening should I stay in the future.
I can’t say it’s a great stay, and I will stick to IHG, Marriott and Hilton for my future stays unless there’s another great deal with Hyatt.
Bid for cheap travel deals with Luxury Travel Diary
Luxury Travel Diary is a UK-based company that offers luxury travel reviews and tips, and most importantly charity auctions on travel-related items. Most of them are for hotel stays, completed with travel bags, travel pillows, sunglasses and suitcases etc.
Maybe some of you are already smelling bargains when I mentioned auction. Even better, although the company is UK-based the participating hotels really spread across the world. Asia for example, has been dominating the auctions recently probably as a result of their sooner recovery from the pandemic.
Some of the current auction items, as well as the current highest bids are (view here):
- Park Hyatt Istanbul, 2 nights – £160
- InterContinental Davos, 2 nights – £46
- Sheraton Grand Doha, 3 nights – £44
- InterContinental Marseille, 1 night – £63
- InterContinental Bordeaux, 1 night – £101
- Movenpick Bangkok, 3 nights – £151
Most of such packages are for premium rooms or suites, and inclusive of daily breakfast if not more. If you are the lucky winner, remember that you can only pay via Paypal, not credit card or anything else.
I’ve been a keen bidder in the past and won a few lots, and the experience has been overwhelmingly awesome. I won two nights in a duplex at a luxury Riad in Fez, Morocco and paid only around £100; and for roughly the same price I stayed three nights at the brand new Al Najada hotel in Doha – they even upgraded me to a massive suite courtesy of my GHA Black status.
You can now walk in for the second Covid vaccine dose
I just had my second covid jab today and think it’d be useful to many if I share the new information here. Well it’s not strictly travel-related, but as we believe that fully-vaccinated travellers will not need to self-isolate upon returning from Amber countries soon, you may want to get the second dose as soon as possible if you are keen on international travel.
Firstly, you can now book your second appointment with 7-week gap on NHS’s website, as opposed to the original 10-weekish. If you have a previous booking, you may want to cancel and rebook for a nearer appointment.
Secondly, a lot of the mass vaccination centres are now accepting walk-ins. From the experience of myself and some friends:
- Wembley Park Olympic Way As it is very close to where I live, I’ve been visiting and asking from time to time. Last week I was still told they were appointment-only, but when I tried again today they said yes. Anyone who’s had their first AstraZenica or Pfizer vaccine with a minimum gap of 4 weeks is now welcome.
- Central Middlesex Hospital Another vaccine centre in my proximity. A friend of mine had his second shot last week, and it seems that they take walk-ins every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
- Novotel Hammersmith A friend walked in last night.
- Ealing CP House A friend walked in this morning, although the receptionist wasn’t very happy and asked them multiple questions before letting them in finally.
- Marble Arch It seems that they’ve begun the walk-in trial since a while ago, and a friend had his jab on Saturday. I tried on Tuesday though and was told for second dose they could only do AstraZeneca.
Hope it helps. The situation can change every day of course, so if there’s a vaccination centre near you it may be worth asking around.
Apart from the mass vaccination centres, there are also mass vaccination event days from time to time, where they aim to accommodate many walk-ins on a single day. There was such an event in Brent last Saturday for example, therefore you should also watch the space on your council’s website.
My review of Hotel Indigo Manchester and a very good £69 deal
I have just finished my one-night stay at Hotel Indigo Manchester earlier this week. I wasn’t too sure about writing a review as it’s probably not of great interest, but after seeing a very good deal on Groupon I’ve decided to do a brief one.
Situated next to the Manchester Victoria station, the hotel is in an original Grade-II listed Victorian building. You may have seen its photo:
But actually it’s slightly misleading. The majority of rooms are actually in the new annex building, which is as high as 13 floors. The reception, restaurant and limited number of superior rooms and suites are in the Victorian building.
I booked an IHG Lifestyle rate plan as I’ve explained before. At BFR (£80) it comes with 2pm late checkout, room upgrade, welcome fruits and most importantly, $50 credit to spend in hotel. I do expect a lot of confusions though, as I suspect I might be the first guest who books this rate at this hotel!
My Double Standard room is upgraded to a King Standard on the 11th floor in the new rotunda. As you can see the shape is a bit unusual:
Its design meets my expectation for an Indigo: modern cosy style with warm colours, and limited furnishing to make the room look more spacious. It’s not gonna be comfortable if you need to spend a lot of time on the work desk.
The floor-to-ceiling window is very nice. Despite of its proximity to Victoria station, I heard literally zero noise throughout my stay.
Here is the free minibar…
Breakfast is £14.95 and all food is cooked to order.
To use my credit I also had a burger for dinner.
Unsurprisingly none of the front desk staff knew anything about IHG Lifestyle, and it took a lot of explanation and I had to send them the screenshot of my reservation details. Apart from that it’s been a pleasant stay.
If you also want to visit this hotel, there’s a very good deal on Groupon which you could access here. It’s for a “Top Secret Hotel in Manchester”, but from the photos I’m 100% sure it’s the Indigo.
You could book and get confirmation right away. There are three room types available: Standard Double, Standard King and Superior. For most dates the rates are £69, £89 and £99 respectively, and on Saturdays they increase to £99, £109 and £129. All rates are inclusive of breakfast.
£69 plus breakfast is roughly the same value as my IHG Lifestyle package. I don’t recommend booking Standard King as the only difference is a larger bed. If you prefer to stay in the old Victorian building you could consider going for the Superior Room.
Travel until end of 2021 and bookings are refundable 48 hours before arrival.
Enjoy room upgrade, breakfast, $25 credit and more with Visa Luxury Hotel Collection
As a frequent traveller I’m sure you have heard of Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Impresario and Hyatt Prive etc. They are all dedicated VIP hotel booking programs which provide special channels for you to book high-end hotels with additional benefits.
However, these programs are not open to everyone – Amex FHR requires you to have an Amex Platinum or Centurion card, and for the others you must book via a qualified travel agent which is a bit of a hassle. Also such hotels aren’t usually cheap.
There is actually an alternative provided by Visa, which is much more widely accessible. The program is called Visa Luxury Hotel Collection, and you could try it out here.
You can expect the following benefits when booking via VLHC:
- Free breakfast daily
- $25 in hotel credit per stay
- Free wi-fi
- Room upgrade subject to availability
- 3pm late checkout subject to availability
They are not as good as FHR, since the credit is only $25 (v.s. $100), and late checkout is not guaranteed. VLHC also offers Best Rate Guarantee which is currently suspended – the rate usually is just the Best Flexible Rate though so I doubt you’ll need it.
First of all, as long as you have a Visa card you should be able to book, unlike Amex FHR. Although VLHC is supposed to be reserved for Visa premium cardholders, I tried my pleb Barclays debit card and it worked.
Secondly, VLHC covers many hotels that are relatively cheaper. Have a look at some hotels in London:
- The May Fair / £217
- The Stratford Hotel / £135
- Andaz London Liverpool Street / £199
- Conrad London St James / £225
You don’t typically see London FHR hotels going for under £300. You should always check all portals though as the hotel may offer significantly lower rate for booking direct (albeit without breakfast and $25 credit).
The main sweet spots are in Asia. Some Conrad / InterContinental / Hyatt hotels in China can be had for sub-£100, and if you head to Indonesia and Thailand, even under £50. These hotels are way too cheap to be placed in FHR, Impresario, LuxLife or Prive, thus booking a one-night stay with VLHC represents true value especially if you don’t have elite status with the hotel chain.
Similar to FHR, VLHC also runs complimentary-night offers. Some the current offers include:
- Shangri-la the Shard, London / Complimentary 4th night
- Mandarin Oriental, Barcelona / Complimentary 3rd night
- Park Hyatt, New York / Complimentary 3rd night
- Shangri-la, Singapore / Complimentary 3rd night
Compared to FHR, VLHC doesn’t provide as substantial benefits if you already hold elite status with the hotel chain. However, if you don’t have the elite status, have no access to FHR or are travelling in Asia, it can still provide you with some good value.
Has IHG Ambassador’s reward night rebate benefit come back?
If you have only joined IHG Ambassador’s program within the last two years, you may not know that it used to have a less-known perk: if you choose the cash option to renew your Ambassador membership, you’ll earn 10% rebate on all your reward night redemptions in the next 12 months, capped at 100k.
Unfortunately this benefit was quietly terminated by IHG last year, as was confirmed by their customer representative when I inquired via email. The actual situation has been quite weird though – albeit belated all the rebate still posted at some point for me, and I think it happened to at least some other people too.
Reader Jon has just got in touch with his new findings. When he was booking an InterContinental hotel earlier he was presented with an option to renew his Ambassador membership – this is a known feature and not new.
However, when he proceeded to renew, he noticed a paragraph below the two usual options:
Interestingly, description about the 10% rebate is seemingly back. I have no idea whether the text is a recent thing or has been there forever. I renewed my membership last week by going through the normal link, and I didn’t notice anything like this in the process.
Has the 10% rebate benefit officially made its way back, has it never gone, or is the text simply an IT glitch? I really have no idea. However, if you are about to renewing your Ambassador membership, I’d recommend do it the way Jon suggested and take a screenshot. If the rebate doesn’t post you have evidence to make a solid case with IHG.