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Last chance to buy Accor Gold & Oneworld Ruby for only £65!
We wrote about fast track opportunities for Accor a while ago, and one major shortcut was to purchase the ibis Business card, as you are granted Gold status for as long as you have a valid membership. Sadly it is coming to an end soon, and you need to jump onboard before it is too late!
As explained by Accor, the ibis Business program will discontinue on March 22nd and be replaced by a new program called ALL PLUS ibis, which will continue to offer some sort of discount for ibis stays. The new membership doesn’t gift Gold status anymore, but offers ten night credits annually instead.
If you join ibis Business now, you are still gifted Gold and it will be valid throughout your subscription period. So the best strategy would be:
- Buy ibis Business now – reports suggest that the Gold status is valid through 2024
- You will earn additional ten night credits on March 22nd
For the UK, a one-year subscription costs £65 whereas it’s £119 for two years, and it’s usually €90 / €159 for most other countries. I’m not sure if the two-year subscription comes with a longer Gold validity.
Accor Gold isn’t hugely useful outside China where they offer daily breakfast for one, but room upgrade and late check-out are still something. Beware that buying ibis Business will create a new Accor account, so if you have an existing account you might need to merge them.
Qatar Airways has an ongoing promotion with Accor, which allows Accor Gold members to fast track to Qatar Airways Silver after only one flight. Silver status (Oneworld Ruby) offers extra baggage allowance and free seat selection when flying Qatar Airways and its partners (BA, AA, Cathay etc.), plus you can access the dedicated Silver Lounge at Doha.
There will also be a new ALL PLUS Voyageur membership (converted from the old Business Plus program) which offers 20 night credits annually.
IHG fast track: Diamond after only 8 nights!
IHG had an Instant Diamond offer last year, and we were one of the very first to cover it. It looks like another fast track offer has just landed, although it is less interesting this time.
You can access the Private Diamond Offer here.
- Sign up and stay by March 31st
- Earn Diamond status after staying 8 paid nights
- Status is valid through 2024
The Register Now link has a promo code attached to it, so if you fail to register you are ineligible. However the offer seems premature to me – the terms still mistakenly refer to Platinum a lot, so it may be that the offer isn’t really live yet, and you may want to try again later if it doesn’t work.
(Update: there are many reports of receiving an offer email, so it is live.)
IHG Diamond comes with very good benefits, and although it is harder to earn it under the current offer compared to the last one, it is still much better than the normal / hard way.
2023 Tier Last Call – Stay once to maintain your Hilton Diamond / Gold status (live)
Hilton quietly released their 2023 Tier Last Call promotion one week ago, which makes it super easy to maintain your Hilton status for another year. I’m still waiting for more details to come through, but in the meantime it’s worth sharing what I already know.
First of all, the offer is by-invitation only. It was made crystal clear at the beginning that only residents of Greater China could participate (based on your account address on 01/01/2023), however such wording no longer appears on the official FAQ.
I’m not sure if the eligibility criterion has changed, but it’s possible. I changed my account address to China last year, hoping that there might be special extension policies for their residents, but then changed it back to the UK in December thinking that all dust had settled. When I learned of the news last week I changed it back to China again (!!), which should have been too late per the original terms.
However, I can see the promotion in My Offers now:
Which means that they’ve automatically enrolled me, yay!
Eligible members need to stay once, twice or three times by March 31 to maintain their Diamond or Gold status through Feb 2024. The registration links are as follows:
- One stay to maintain Gold
- Two stays to maintain Gold
- Three stays to maintain Gold
- One stay to maintain Diamond
- Two stays to maintain Diamond
- Three stays to maintain Diamond
In theory the more you have stayed in 2022, the less you need to stay in this challenge. An email has just sent out clarifying how many nights are required from each individual:
Remember that you have until March 31st to complete the challenge, and reward nights should count.
Buy British Airways Silver Card for £600 in their sale
British Airways has announced yet another sale, and as usual it offers an opportunity to earn cheap tier points and thus elite statuses.
The easiest way to view all rates is via their Low Fare Finder. From the tier-point perspective, it’s most cost-efficient to fly Club Europe (short-haul European flights in business class) and here are some headline prices (return trip):
- Belfast £156
- Catania £264
- Dublin £166
- Edinburgh £152
- Glasgow £146
- Istanbul £300
- Luxembourg £136
- Reykjavik £292
- Sofia £240
- Tirana £278
Destinations in bold earn you 80 TP per way, otherwise it’s 40 TP only. Note that there will no longer be any qualification discount in 2023, plus airfares are getting more expensive now so it’s not as cheap to earn status as in the last two years. You can earn BA Silver (Oneworld Sapphire), which requires 600 TP, in four trips to Sofia which will cost you almost a thousand pound.
There’s a way to reduce your cost though, as BA Holidays has extended their double tier points offer till the end of 2023. All flight+hotel and flight+rental bookings earn double tier points, which means you only need two return trips (instead of four) to earn your Silver card.
For a two-night trip to Sofia, the minimum cost is just over £300 pp for two people, which is a great deal. (EDIT: apologies that my calculations were wrong. You need 5 nights minimum to earn double tier points – car rental should be cheaper).
My Gold card is expiring soon but thanks to the soft landing policy I’ll remain Silver for one more year, so I’m not rushing to any mileage run right now. But if you are interested you should considering booking some flights or holidays.
(Expired) Sign-up now: Instant IHG Diamond upgrade!
(This offer has gone viral now and has appeared on multiple blogs worldwide. I have to stress that it’s a targeted corporate offer so there are certain risks. I strongly discouraged you from registering if you are already Diamond.)
(Give it a try still, but the loophole might have been closed, or be closed any minute from now.)
I wrote about IHG’s targeted Diamond trial offer recently, and I’m back today with an exciting update!
You can sign up to the Straight To Diamond offer here.
- Upon registration you’ll be upgraded to Diamond instantly
- The trial lasts 90 days
- Stay 10 paid nights by December 31, 2022 to extend your status throughout 2023
- Members / hotels in Greater China are excluded
After registration you should receive a confirmation email that looks like below, although probably not in Chinese :p
There are many success reports from my friends and online, so I’m pretty confident that it works. It is supposed to be a corporate offer, but IHG seems to be really relaxed, not enforcing any eligibility check.
So that means a minimum 90-day Diamond trial that comes with free breakfast etc which is great. If you are unable to hit the 10-day challenge, consider the Ambassador trick although I can’t guarantee it works.
IHG Gold / Platinum fast track offer and instant Diamond upgrade
IHG’s fast track route to its elite status is back for a limited time – check it out if you are interested in getting their Gold or Platinum status.
- Register and stay by December 31, 2022
- Stay two nights to earn Gold Elite status
- Stay five nights to earn Platinum Elite status
- Only paid stays count
Unlike the usual corporate offers that target select companies’ employees, this offer is open to everyone. I’ve seen two different registration links for the offer, so if the link above fails, try promo code 57159 instead.
IHG’s Platinum status comes with bonus points, room upgrade and late check-out, which isn’t hugely valuable but is worth something. You can earn an instant Platinum upgrade when joining the Ambassador program (and there’s an ongoing offer), but if you don’t feel like paying for it, the fast track offer might work better.
Meanwhile, someone from China’s FlyerT forum has shared a similar but more attractive deal.
Employees from certain IHG’s corporate partners can request an instant upgrade to Diamond Elite that lasts 90 days, and then keep the status if staying at least 10 nights during the trial. I didn’t get hold of the registration link (UPDATE: I do now), but you should check with HR if your company does a lot of business with IHG.
Free Red by Dufry Platinum status (10% off duty free shopping)
Red by Dufry is the membership program for the Dufry company, who owns duty free shops such as World Duty Free, Nuance, Reg Staer and Hudson. Red by Dufry has multiple tiers and the higher up you are, the more discount and benefits you are entitled to.
We wrote about a promotion by Plaza Premium in 2020 which has expired, however a similar offer has just emerged from Aegean Airlines. You can read more details here.
Basically, sign up using this link or enter promo code AegeanMilesPlatinum, and you’ll be upgraded to Platinum (the top tier) right away. If I remember correctly your status is maintained as long as you make one purchase every year.
The most straightforward benefit is 10% off all your purchases at participating airport stores, which is a free win. There are certain restrictions though, and the following apply to the UK:
- Max £250 discount per transaction
- Two transactions per day
- Not to be used in conjunction with any other promotions
- Not to be used on any tobacco products
One other benefit is a special Dragonpass account which allows you to purchase $27 lounge passes, which isn’t really a great deal. However some airports may have better offers – Dufry used to give away free lounge access at Madrid if you spend a couple of hundred euro.
Convert you Marriott / HSBC points into Etihad miles and earn 40% bonus
Etihad is no stranger to the game of selling miles or offering point conversion bonuses. A very good offer was just made available if you are a member of Etihad Guest.
- Deadline is April 30
- Convert points from participating partners into Etihad miles to earn 40% bonus
- If you convert into between 10,000 and 20,000 miles, you also earn 40% tier miles on top
- The maximum tier miles you can earn is 20,000
Here are the most relevant participating partners:
- Marriott: 3 points = 1 mile
- Hyatt: 2.5 points = 1 mile
- Accor: 4,000 points = 2,000 miles
- Shangri-la: 1 point = 1 mile
- HSBC UK: 2 points = 1 mile
40% is the best bonus that Etihad has ever offered. If you convert 60,000 Marriott points in one go, you should receive (20,000 + 5,000) * 1.4 = 35,000 miles, which isn’t a bad deal at all. We have an article on how to redeem Etihad miles, but I’m not sure how easy the redemption process is in real life.
For those who are already active Etihad Guest members, the tier miles bonus is a great addition too. However, as you need 25,000 tier miles for Silver upgrade, it’s not possible to take advantage of this offer to become an elite member from scratch.