NEW: You can now prepay Amex FHR bookings
Amex has recently added a new feature to its travel services quietly: you can now prepay your FHR bookings. You will see both options appear when attempting to make an FHR reservation:
Historically Amex doesn’t charge you at all and you just pay at hotel checkout. So what’s point of prepaying for the stay? There can be two possible reasons:
- The payment is taken by Amex Travel, which means if you hold an Amex Gold card at the same time, paying with it earns you triple membership rewards points
- It will also trigger any Amex Travel cashback offers your card may have
A friend of mine has just booked an FHR hotel and prepaid, and he received an email instantly confirming that the current Amex Travel £50 off £200 offer has been triggered.
One thing I’m a bit sceptical is, are such bookings still treated as direct and earn points etc with the hotel’s loyalty program? Hopefully the answer is yes, but we will find out. If you are booking an independent hotel however, it doesn’t make any difference.
My review of the Glasgow Marriott Hotel
After spending two nights at the Kimpton, I ran out of money and had to move to the Marriott hotel instead. The front desk staff couldn’t stop rolling his eyes when I told him so, and I can’t blame him after finding out how distasteful the Marriott actually is!
The hotel itself isn’t too far from the city centre, which is about 15 minutes’ walk. However the neighbourhood is dire, as the only view you can expect is the equally ugly Hilton hotel next door and a few high roads. There’s no shop or restaurant within easy reach.
The hotel is very tired and I didn’t bother to take many photos. Here’s how my Executive Room looks like:
Its only difference to a standard room, as suggested by some frequent guests on Flyertalk, is this fancy cactus plant:
Even by (the low) UK standard the hotel is way past its glory and in terrible need of refurbishment. It’s said that its management team has started promising a refurb ten years ago, but obviously nothing has happened at all since then.
Breakfast service is resumed in the Cast Iron restaurant starting on my second day.
Scottish breakfast buffet is served by the staff. I like haggis but hate black pudding.
The club lounge is closed and I got a few drink vouchers as a compensation.
This was the first weekend after lockdown was eased in Scotland. Whereas the Kimpton was selling for almost £300 and later sold out, the Marriott cost me only about £80 a night and the hotel is pretty empty throughout my stay. Can’t say I’m surprised and I’m sure that I’m not going to return, however it’s unfortunate that not many hotels from Marriott are present at Glasgow.
Marriott status challenge offer is back
Historically Marriott has offered status challenge opportunities to its members as a way to achieve higher status faster. The route was shut after the SPG merger, and a status match initiative was alive for a short while as an alternative last year. It appears though, that the status challenge has finally made its way back.
Marriott has an official service account on Wechat in China, which has shared the following information (HT @Invic)：
To participate, you must call Marriott’s customer service to enrol. Upon registration, you have 90 days to complete the status challenge.
- The promotion started on May 18
- You must have had at least one eligible stay with Marriott in the past
- You need 8 qualifying nights within the 90 days to upgrade to Gold, or 16 nights for Platinum
- Only paid nights count; Homes & Villas and Marriott Executive Apartments are excluded
Note that your status won’t be upgraded until you have completed the challenge, and if successful, it will be valid through February 2023.
It usually requires 50 nights to achieve Marriott’s Platinum status, and 16 nights is a good discount. Considering the substantial benefits that come with it, don’t forget to sign up if you have upcoming stays with Marriott.
LNER Perks, save on your train ticket bookings
If you travel between London / North England / Scotland often, you should probably join LNER’s new rewards scheme – Perks.
Perks membership is available via LNER’s mobile app.
- You are gifted £5 credit upon sign-up
- You can earn 2% back in credit for each LNER (part of full) journey taken
- Credit can be used towards LNER advance ticket purchase
Interestingly, you don’t need to book via LNER to earn the 2% credit. For third-party bookings you can upload your ticket within the last 7 days in the app to claim the credit. You can also earn credit on LNER season tickets but only if you book with them directly.
Even if you only travel on LNER once, it may be worth downloading their app for the £5 saving. I decided to give them a try for an upcoming trip and noticed that they’ve got something called Smart Save:
It’s basically Split Ticketing, but as LNER is doing it directly I assume it’s executed better than other retailer platforms. And in this case, Smart Save stacked with the £5 credit did save me a decent amount!
Purchase Melia points and save on your staycation
Melia points is on sale again, and you may benefit from it if you are looking for a staycation, or can travel abroad soon.
The offer link is here. You need to log in first, then go to Your Points -> Buy Points to make the purchase. Until June 30, any purchase you make comes with an additional 25% bonus, which will be deposited to your account within 24 hours.
It’s weird that there’s no mention of the offer on the point purchase page. However all the details are available in the email I received, and one reader has already confirmed to me that he received the bonus. Still, I’d suggest you to just buy 1,000 points first and see if the bonus hits as expected.
Under this promotion, you are paying €40 for 10,000 points, or £34.5 in pound sterling. This is far from the best discount that Melia has offered, buy given the strong £ at the moment, and Melia’s generous redemption system, there are still good deals to be had.
There are seven hotels in the UK, and let me show you the lowest price v.s. redemption cost for Sat, May 29:
- ME London £525 / 48,945 points = £169
- Melia London Kensington £230 / 72,400 points = £250
- Melia Whitehouse £138 / 28,551 = £99
- Melia Whitehouse Apartments (N/A for points)
- Innside Manchester (N/A)
- Innside Liverpool (N/A)
- Innside Newcastle £112 / 19,514 points = £68
Out of the four hotels which are available, three fare very well against the cash price – £525 sounds extortionate for the ME to be honest, but £169 is for sure a steal. For Melia London Kensington, the pricing does look weird: I think it may not offer standard award availability at all due to it being a Melia Collection hotel only.
If you think you can stay at any of these hotels soon, or even better if you could visit Spain, it may be worth taking advantage of the 25% bonus now.
Extend your GHA status by staying just once
If you currently hold GHA Black or Platinum status, there may be an unpublicised perk to easily extend its validity.
There was some sort of fast track campaign from GHA with a Chinese bank last year, and many people attained Black status through it which is valid through the end of 2021. Surprisingly, I’ve been informed by quite a few of them that their status is extended by another year, after just one eligible stay at a GHA hotel.
Not all of them got the status via the bank promotion, so it appears to be working on everyone who holds status. It’s definitely non-official and I’m not sure what’s happening here. One thing we know though, is that GHA doesn’t have any announcement regarding status extension or lowering the requirement for this year yet, so this might just be something they are secretively doing at the backstage.
If you currently hold GHA status (especially Black), you should probably consider staying at one of their hotels for a potential one-year extension. There are xix hotels in the UK:
- Corinthia London
- The Bloomsbury
- The Kensington
- The Marylebone
- The Bristol
- The Machrie Hotel & Golf Links
If you don’t currently hold status with them but are pondering a stay soon, you could always status match or get Platinum status by purchasing a magazine – read more here.
WorldHotels status match campaign
I’m sure you’ve heard of the Best Western hotel chain, but you may not realise that they have a sister chain WorldHotels which is offering status match opportunities.
You can access the offer page here. If you hold elite status with another hotel group, you can send an email to the designated address with relevant information to apply for a match. It’s funny as when the campaign was first launched, you only needed to select your hotel program and status from a dropdown list without showing any proof, and they obviously decided to close that loophole.
The highest status, Diamond Select, presumably requires 50 nights or 40 stays in the competitor’s program. Note that WorldHotels shares the same membership database with Best Western, so there’s no need to participate if you already hold status with the latter.
The matched status is valid through January 2022, and here is the benefit list for different tiers:
Don’t expect much though, as the top-tier gets you no more than priority check-in, late check-out and room upgrade subject to availability. Judging from the stories I’ve heard about Best Western, I doubt these hotels will be very good at recognising elite benefits either.
There are only five participating hotels in the UK, all of which are in London:
- Courthouse Hotel London
- Courthouse Hotel Shoreditch
- Royal Garden Hotel
- The Caesar Hotel
- The Washington Mayfair Hotel
There is a better spread in China, Japan and Germany. I have no idea what sort of qualify you should expect from their hotels, but I do know there are some excellent ones in their portfolio. The White Swan in Guangzhou for example, is well-received and deemed one of the best hotels in this Chinese city.
My review of Kimpton Glasgow Blythswood Square
When the lockdown was over(-ish) in Scotland and Wales, I couldn’t wait to get out of London and have a change of scenary in Glasgow!
There are a few hotels to pick from in Glasgow, and Kimpton Blythswood Square appears to be the outstanding choice, seeing its eye-watering high rate! Thanks to the Ambassador BOGOF voucher that’s still sitting in my IHG account, I paid half price for the two-night stay, which drags the rate down to the level of the Marriott, Hilton and Crowne Plaza.
The hotel is conveniently located in the city centre, only five-minute’s walk away from the busiest areas, although admittedly the streets can be quite hilly sometimes.
The hotel has a very classy interior design. Compare to Kimpton Edinburgh, the hotel reminds me of the Principal York more due to it being larger, although my stay at the latter was a real disaster.
As a Spire elite member, I’m upgraded to a Deluxe Room with Garden view, which is the best non-suite room category of the hotel. Not a bad result for IHG, as they are usually less generous compared to Marriott or Hilton.
Measuring 40 sqm the room is quite spacious, but apparently worn in many parts.
I like the big bath tub.
Two bottles of water and shortbread as a welcome gift:
Nice view of the Blythswood Garden from my room. Unfortunately it’s a private garden and you can’t get in.
Hotel guests can book the hotel’s spa (“thermal experience”) for free either via the website or front desk. So far it is the BEST spa I’ve ever experienced in Europe. My phone’s camera is too bad for this so here are some stock photos from the hotel’s website:
Sauna and steam rooms are still closed due to restrictions. The Jacuzzi is amazing though:
Breakfast is £14 pp and I didn’t go for it.
Although a bit dated, the hotel is still pretty decent and I don’t doubt it being the best accommodation option in the city of Glasgow. Try to come here on a weekday though, as weekend rates are very expensive and it may be hard to get a spa slot when the occupancy is high.