IHG Q2 promotion, earn up to triple points
It’s been a while since IHG’s first-quarter global promotion ended, and the next one is finally revealed.
You can sign up to the offer here.
- Valid for stays from May 15 to August 16
- Double points on your second stay
- Triple points on your third stay onwards
- The maximum bonus points is capped at 100K during the promotion period
Award stays don’t count for the sake of earning bonus. If your first stay is booked on points, then the following paid stay won’t trigger double points as I understand it.
Similar to Hilton’s promotion, the offer is not too bad if you have paid stays in line for the next months especially if the bill is going to be big. It’s useless if you only intend to redeem points though, unfortunately.
Keep the staircase conditions in mind and make sure you plan your stays wisely – if you have an expensive stay coming up, stay at least twice beforehand to maximise the bonus points.
Save on train tickets with Trainpal
It’s a bit confusing how you can buy train tickets in the UK: the national rail network is operated by many different companies who have their own online booking sites, and there are a few third-party websites that sell train tickets too.
In fact, the inventory and prices are, most of the time, identical across all these platforms, so you could really just use any of the rail company’s websites as they don’t charge any booking fee or credit card fee. Some of them also offer a small incentive such as Nectar points.
An alternative has emerged in the last couple of years though, namely Trainpal, which is owned by the giant Chinese travel agency Ctrip. It has access to the same inventory with other ticket selling services, and also has a few advantages:
- No additional fee charged
- Split ticketing offered for free – if the journey can be cheaper by booking two separate tickets, it will show up in the search results as an option
- Frequent promotions for vouchers
For example they have been selling gift vouchers recently:
You can pay 49p for two £3 vouchers (minimum spend applies). It’s a pretty good deal, and you even get automatically refunded if you have no use for them and let the vouchers expire.
If you take the train regularly it may be a good idea to download the app as a new option. Feel free to use my referral code a25d5733 which should give you a £3 voucher to start with (£40 minimum spend applies).
£10 off Morrisons on Amazon Grocery promotion
If you haven’t placed a Morrisons order on Amazon Grocery before, it looks like their promotion has been extended.
You could view the offer here. Place your first Morrisons order of £60 or more and apply promo code NEWSAVE10 at checkout for a £10 discount. This offer ends 14th May and should be available as long as you haven’t used this service before.
Stay twice with IHG and earn a free night voucher (targeted)
IHG appears to be back on the track to rolling out targeted offers as we are seeing more and more of them recently. @hypnos has just shared a new ludicrous offer and you could see if you are eligible.
The link to register for the offer is here, but I suspect that for most of us it will just return an error message suggesting that it’s not available to us.
If you get lucky, you need to stay twice by July 29 at any IHG hotel to win a free night voucher, and I believe they must be paid stays. It is a very good offer really, although not many people can really benefit.
3x Avios or 9x Emirates Miles on Your Bicester Village Shopping
Thing are looking brighter in the UK and all shops are re-opening sooner than later. If you fancy a trip to Bicester Village for some luxury shopping, you may also want to bag some extra miles along the way as both British Airways and Emirates have ludicrous offers at the moment.
BA’s offer is here. You are entitled to triple Avios during the promotion period, which is 15 Avios per £4 spent.
Emirates’ offer is here, which is more generous. You earn a 8-time Skywards miles bonus, and that’s a whopping 9 miles per GBP spent! However it’s only valid once on the highest spend during the offer period, so be careful if you plan to make multiple visits.
Both offers run until 31 May. You need to bring your receipts to the customer service desk at the end of your visit, and remember to keep them in case the miles don’t post.
Free 12-Month Mr & Mrs Smith GoldSmith Membership (Usually £400)
You probably have heard of Mr & Mrs Smith – Similar to Small Luxury Hotels they are a loose hotel alliance, or rather marketing platform for boutique hotels, with exceptionally strong presence in the UK and also good footprint in many other countries.
They have recently tied up with IHG, and many Mr & Mrs Smith hotels are now already bookable via IHG either with cash or points. If you hold a Vitality health insurance policy, you may qualify for up to 25% discount when booking their hotels.
Apart from their partnership with IHG, Mr & Mrs Smith actually has their own membership program:
- BlackSmith Free to join, 1% cashback on bookings and Smith Extras
- SilverSmith £100 annual fee, 2% cashback on bookings, Smith Extras and Priority Pass membership
- GoldSmith £400 annual fee, 3% cashback on bookings, Smith Extras, Priority Pass & Onda membership, room upgrade subject to availability and travel concierge service
Smith Extras is a complimentary add-on to your stay, which may be a welcome fruit platter, free breakfast, room upgrade or free set meals. SilverSmith and GoldSmith members may qualify for better Smith Extras at certain properties.
The Priority Pass membership offered doesn’t come with any free visits, which means you have to pay for each entry to airport lounges (£20 in the UK).
I’m not sure how the travel concierge or room upgrade works out in reality, but at the first look the GoldSmith benefits are quite underwhelming to me considering the whopping £400 annual fee.
But wait, didn’t I say free? Mr & Mrs Smith is running a promotion with American Express, where Centurion / Platinum cardmembers enjoy a free upgrade to GoldSmith and the remaining to SilverSmith. You can access the offer page here and enter the first 6 digits of your Amex card to see if you are eligible.
The thing is, it’s unclear what markets the offer is targeted at. The terms say that UK-issued cards are not eligible for the promotion and indeed my cards don’t work. However many of my friends tried their US- or China-issued cards and also no avail.
And after many trials and errors, I’ve found a BIN code – 371595 – which is eligible for the GoldSmith upgrade. You should be able to fill out your personal information on the next page to apply for your membership.
It may take a few minutes for the welcome email to arrive, and if not you could also try resetting your password which should also activate your account.
And here are the Smith Extras you can expect at certain UK hotels:
- London, Ham Yard Hotel – A cocktail each at the bar
- London, 11 Cadogan Gardens – Full English breakfast for the two
- London, The Franklin – £50 hotel credit
- London, The Portobello Hotel – A free room upgrade and bottle of hand sanitiser (!)
- Cornwall, St Mawes Hotel – A bottle of Prosecco and tickets to local attractions
- Cotwolds, Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa – Traditional afternoon tea for two
Remember that you can also book some of the hotels via IHG or even Amex FHR / Virtuoso, and here are some pros and cons:
- Amex FHR / Virtuoso Very limited selection of hotels; Priced at Best Flexible Rate so relatively expensive; Very good benefits (free breakfast / room upgrade / £100 hotel credit etc)
- IHG Good selection of hotels; Priced at Best Flexible Rate so relatively expensive; Smith Extras benefits; Earn & redeem IHG points
- Mr & Mrs Smith Direct Booking All hotels; Many (cheaper) rates available; Potentially better Smith Extras benefits thanks to GoldSmith
The membership is valid for 12 months. If you think you may set foot in one of the hotels in the near future, why not grab a free tier upgrade now?
Triple Your Points in Hilton’s Q2 Promotion (and Current Status Challenges)
Hilton has launched a new promotion for Q2, which will start immediately after the current promotion expires.
You can sign up here. From May 3 to September 6, every stay of two nights earns double points, or triple when it’s of at least three nights. Note that it is based on the checkout date – if your stay starts prior to May 3, but ends after, it will be eligible for this promotion; otherwise the current promotion applies.
For Diamond members, it means that you earn 40 points per $ spent (excluding taxes and fees), which is a decent return; and now you can even earn points on up to four rooms booked under your name. Unfortunately with the ongoing devaluation since the introduction of dynamic pricing, Hilton points aren’t worth much nowadays.
A reminder of current status match or challenge opportunities (read more here):
Status Challenge If you hold elite status with another hotel program, you could enrol in this challenge where you kick start with Gold status immediately. Stay 5 nights within 90 days to keep the Gold, or 9 nights to elevate to Diamond.
MVP Gold Complete 4 stays after registration to get Gold status. This challenge is meant for athletes and those affiliated with sport organisations, although there doesn’t seem to be any enforced checks.
Corporate Travellers If you work for a large corporation, get Silver status right away, and then stay 8 / 16 nights within 90 days to upgrade to Gold or Diamond. Work email address is needed for verification – replace dell in the URL with your company’s name to see if you are eligible.
Amazon Music Unlimited 4-Month Trial via HSBC
A good deal is just out for HSBC Visa cardholders to enjoy some free music streaming. You can see the details on HSBC’s page here.
To be eligible, you need to:
- Have an HSBC Visa card
- Haven’t used Amazon Music Unlimited service before (trial or paid)
Just head to this page on Amazon Music, change your payment method to the Visa card and then sign up. You’ll receive a 30-day free trial first, and then promotional credit equal to the following three months’ fee will be applied to your subscription. Remember to cancel your subscription in time if you don’t want to pay.
First Direct and M&S bank are HSBC subsidiaries, so their Visa cards have a decent chance of being eligible too. If it’s been a while since you last used Amazon Music Unlimited, you may also find yourself lucky.
If you do not have any of these Visa cards, you can still enjoy a free trial of three months by signing up here. Note that it is also for new customers only.