Amazon sells heavily discounted Melia points (cheap 5-star hotels / Avios!)
We’ve written about Melia quite a few times on this blog. Melia Rewards is a low-key yet valuable hotel loyalty scheme. It runs frequently sales for points purchase which can represent great value.
It’s running another excellent deal on Amazon UK at the moment, which if I remember correctly is the first time. There are two options:
- 55,000 points – £161
- 35,000 points – £103
The 55,000 points one works out slightly better, although at the time of writing it’s temporarily sold out (UPDATE: still available on Amazon DE at the same price). You are paying roughly £30 for 10,000 Melia points, which is close to the record low. In last-month’s points sale on Melia’s website, the price was €35.7 (~£32) per 10,000 points.
As we’ve discussed before (here and here), it’s very easy to outsmart Melia when redeeming your points on hotels. Usually a five-star Melia hotel costs 22,000 points per night whereas a Gran Melia would cost 28,000 points, with few exceptions.
In the worst case, you could spend your points directly at the hotel venue, on food, drinks and spa services etc. The rate is fixed at €5 per 1000 points which is still significantly better than what you are paying now.
Melia is also a transfer partner with British Airways too, so you can transfer your Melia points into Avios at the rate of 10:3. It’s not a great rate, but if BA decides to run 30% conversion bonus in the future, then you are now “buying” Avios at roughly 0.77p.
Note that these are physical paper vouchers shipped to your address and you need to visit Melia’s website to redeem them. Once redeemed, they function as normal Melia points and have the same expiry rules.
Historically Amazon Spain also runs (even better) deals on the same Melia voucher. Although it’s not the case now, as Black Friday in approaching I’ll keep an eye on the relevant page in case it comes back.
Marriott offering free photo books?!
Just received an email from Marriott, with A Thank You Gift in the title. I thought it’s a targeted offer (finally!) and got very excited for a second, but after I clicked through…
It’s a campaign from a company called Shutterfly. You are provided with an offer code that entitles you to a complimentary 20-page photo book when signing up as a new member. I didn’t proceed, but I’m not convinced it’s really “free” either, as I guess you’ll need to pay at least the postage in the end.
Speaking of targeted promotions, I received one from Marriott in February 2019, which was the first and, thus far the last too… I’ve seen different variants that people have received in the last couple of months:
- Stay twice earn 22,500 points
- Stay three times earn 9,000 points
- Stay three times earn 18,000 points
- Stay once (including weekend) earn 18,000 points
- Double points on weekend stays
- Double points on two-night stays
- Stay twice earn two free night awards
You can check if you’re targeted by any of them by visiting the Promotion Centre. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to have them manually added to your account.
£5 voucher for creating an Amazon wish list
A new Amazon freebie deal.
You could check your eligibility here. If eligible, simply create a wish list for the first time and add three items, and you’ll receive a £5 voucher by email within two weeks.
The offer ends 20th January, 2021. Note that the voucher can only be used when the purchase value is at least £25.
In addition, you can now buy an Echo Dot (4th generation) and get six-month Amazon Music Unlimited membership for free. If you don’t need an Echo Dot, and are new to Amazon Music, you can still enjoy three-month free Unlimited trial by signing up here.
10,000 bonus points for booking Hilton’s day room
Hilton is the pioneer in opening day-use bookings – their system has long supported booking day rooms directly. As the competition in this market is heated, Hilton has revamped this idea and come up with something new.
The new scheme around day rooms is called WorkSpaces, and you can access its page here. The idea is nothing new – you have a room from 9am to 5pm, earn points and stay credits, and elite benefits such as room upgrade / lounge access also apply.
Until the end of March 2021, you’ll be awarded 10,000 bonus points for the first day-use booking completed during the promotion period. Note that only hotels in the UK, USA and Canada are participating.
Here are some cheap London hotels:
- Hampton by Hilton London Waterloo £48
- Hart Shoreditch Hotel London £56
- Hilton London Hyde Park £52
- Hilton London Olympia £40
- Hampton by Hilton London Ealing £42
And I expect hotels in other regions to offer even lower rates.
To book, simply visit Hilton’s website and select the same check-in and check-out date. Note that some hotels call the rate simply “Day Use” and others “Workspaces – Day Use”. To be safe I’d recommend to book the latter.
Promotions such as the current double-up should also apply. In theory you won’t get night credit though, but it depends how the hotel logs your stay.
According to the terms – “you must have received this offer directly from Hilton Honors”. It might be a targeted offer, but I’ll book a stay anyway and see how it goes.
Jumeirah One double tier points & complimentary night enrolment offer
Jumeirah is a hotel group bases in the UAE. Maybe you haven’t heard of its name, but you must have seen their iconic “sailboat” hotel in Dubai: Burj Al Arab:
Jumeirah has three properties in London:
They also have a loyalty programme named Jumeirah One, which honestly isn’t super exciting. However, if you intend to book any Jumeirah hotels in the next month there’s a promotion worth noting:
- Booking dates: 1 November – 15 December
- Stay by: 30 September 2021
- All stays earn double tier points
You usually earn two tier points for each US dollar spent. With this offer you need an expense of $1,250 to reach Silver (5,000 points), which still isn’t cheap. However Silver tier comes with welcome amenity, free breakfast for two and 2pm late check-out.
Jumeirah One also has a long-running enrolment offer. New members earn a “complimentary one-night voucher” after the first eligible stay. It sounds very generous until you read the terms——
You must book a minimum three consecutive nights (or four nights at resort hotels) to use the voucher, at best flexible rate. So it’s not really a complimentary night, but more of a “Buy two get one free” discount voucher.
Anyway, the voucher may still save you some money if you stay at Jumeirah a fair bit. It’s valid for six months from the date of issue.
1,000 Nectar points for using the Sainburys App
According to Houkdeals, Sainsburys is running a freebie deal to promote its SmartShop app.
- New SmartShop app users only (Android or iOS)
- Need to download and use the app by 20 November
- Shop in-store, and pay with the app once at a self-checkout counter to earn the bonus
1,000 Nectar points is usually worth £5 (or £10 with the current Double Up promotion), which is a considerable gain given the participation sounds effortless!
GHA membership and offers extension
Earlier this year GHA (quietly) extended all elite members’ status through 2020. It appears that they’ve done it again – when logging into my account I see that my Black status is now valid till the end of 2021:
This is good news, and I expect an official announcement to follow soon.
Two ongoing offers are also extended to the end of 2020:
My Review of The Westbury Mayfair, London
Thanks to American Express I could have a free £400 stay at Marriott hotels. My original plan was to enjoy some sun at Ritz Carlton Abama, which unfortunately ended up being cancelled due to England’s lockdown rules. So I booked a Luxury Collection hotel – the Westbury Mayfair in London for a staycation instead.
Amongst the UK hotels on the offer’s participant list, The Westbury is probably the lowest-rated one, but also the cheapest – it can be had for £200 a night, which means you could stay two nights for free.
The hotel is fairly centrally located, and right at the centroid of four tube stations – on the other hand it means it’s not very close to any of them, and you should expect a 10 minutes’ walk to the stations.
I was given a Luxury Room on the top floor – it’s said to be one of the best in this category.
For a non-suite it’s a very spacious room. And with the small living area many hotels will probably call it a Junior Suite.
The key design is intriguing. They look like traditional keys but are digitally encoded. There’s no key hole on the door, but you insert your key into a panel on the wall to open the door.
Due to Covid most in-room facilities are removed. You could request them to be sent to the room though.
The bathroom looks very nice with those marble walls.
The best part, of course, is the balcony. It’s large enough to accommodate a group of 5 to 8 people, and it’s not a common privilege to have such a big balcony overlooking Mayfair!
Breakfast is served in the Polo Bar but you could also have it sent to the room for free. Apart from the usual Continental / Full English sets there are also cooked-to-order options such as Eggs Benedict and waffles, however I’m not sure if they are included in Platinum’s free allowance.
Food qualify is ok, and service could definitely be improved. My avocado was missing on the first morning, then orange juice and scrambled eggs on the second…
Note that 5% optional service charge will be added to your final room bill, which is the first time I see it in Europe. I find the stay very acceptable, especially considering my low expectations after seeing its mediocre TripAdvisor / Booking ratings. I’m hoping that hotels are allowed to re-open from early December, so that I could still try the other luxury Marriott hotels in London with the Amex offers…