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Mispriced promotion: Hyatt points 36%-off sale
(Update: deal dead)
Hyatt launched a promotion on buying points, but they’ve mispriced the offer, to your benefit.
You can view the buy points page here. Until April 9th, you’re entitled to 20% discount when buying at least 3,000 Hyatt points. The regular price is 2.4c per point so the sale price should be 1.92c per point.
Hyatt has however, applied the discount twice in their system. At the time being you are paying only 1.536c (1.22p) per point. This is effectively 36% off, the best offer Hyatt has ever had.
There are many successful data points where the points were deposited instantly after purchase. Hyatt might withdraw (correct) the offer soon, but I doubt they could claw back the points if they’ve already arrived into your account.
30% bonus on buying Melia points
Melia is celebrating its 30th anniversary, and they’ve launched a bonus on points purchase.
Until March 3rd, all purchases will come with a 30% bonus. It usually costs a flat €5 to purchase 1,000 points, and with this promotion the cost is reduced to €3.84. On the buy points page I don’t see the bonus reflected, but I trust Melia for not lying…
Bad news is, Melia quietly devalued their program one or two years ago and it’s near impossible to find standard reward availability now, so redeeming points for hotel stays fully rarely makes sense. Good news is, cash + points (paying 2,000 points only) is still very good value.
As you can see, 2,000 points (costing €7.69) can usually offset €10+, sometimes €20+ of the hotel bill. Stacked with the app discount and Gold 20%-off vouchers, it’s easy to find very attractive deals. I just stayed at a Melia hotel at Madrid last night – it’s priced at around €100 on third-party websites, and I paid €58.
If you have Melia Gold membership (through Amex Platinum), you might want to buy a handful of points for cash + points on occasional Melia stays.
Buy IHG points to maintain your Diamond status
IHG tightened its web this year by closing the Ambassador-Diamond loophole. They have however added a few initiatives, such as double elite qualifying nights to help certain members requalify for their Diamond status faster.
They have now launched a new and quite unique promotion, named Lock in Diamond Status.
If you are targeted you should have received an email. You can also log in here to see if you have an offer. My Diamond status is already through 2024 and I couldn’t even log in on that page.
In short you are invited to buy points – these points are elite qualifying so can help you retain your Diamond status, and they are also redeemable as normal on hotel stays etc.
You can buy increments of 10,000 points. The most prevalent offer looks like this:
- 10,000 points – $300
- 20,000 points – $550
- 50,000 points – $850
- 120,000 points – $1,800
One reader however has got a much cheaper deal:
At the top end, you pay $1,200 for 120,000 points (which usually costs $600), and that guarantees Diamond status for the next year. If you have an IHG credit card you are entitled to 20% discount.
The offer may make sense to some, although I don’t think that many people qualify through points, as 120,000 base points can be quite a lot compared to 70 nights, and the latter also gives you milestone rewards including lounge access.
Up to 100% buy points bonus with IHG, Choice and LHW
[IHG]
IHG has brought back its mysterious bonus for buying points, and you can reveal your targeted bonus here.
The best bonus available is 100%, which means buying the points at half price effectively. If you buy at least 26,000 points, you will be paying $50 per 1K points. It is the best price that IHG has ever offers (although regularly), and IHG has been very good at preserving the value of their points, so it may make sense to buy if you stay with them at times.
[Choice]
Choice Privileges is running a Black Friday sale on points purchase which offers you 50% bonus until December 3rd. It is also the best bonus that Choice ever (and rarely) offers and you pay $68.67 per thousand points if you buy at least 10,000 of them.
The annual Daily Getaways can beat this price, but that’s much more difficult to come by, so I recommend you to seriously consider this deal.
The best Choice redemptions are in Japan (budget hotels starting at 8,000 points) and Northern Europe (starting at 10,000 points). I’m writing a detailed guide on how to spend Choice points.
[LHW]
Leading Hotels of the World, one of the niche alliances for high-end hotels, introduced the buying points feature recently, followed by an interesting bonus promotion.
You can view the offer here. Until December 26th you get a tiered bonus when buying LHW points:
- 2,000 – 11,000: 50%
- 12,000 – 29,000: 75%
- 30,000 – 50,000: 100%
At the top of the ladder you’ll still be paying $60 per 1K points, which sounds a lot. Let’s have a look at how LHW’s redemption works first.
LHW has a revenue-based redemption system and there’s no fixed price for hotels, which is why you’ll always see odd number of points as the price. Unlike Accor or Hilton though, that exchange rate from the cash price can fluctuate quite a lot.
I’ve taken a closer look at some hotels:
- Tokyo – The Imperial Hotel $591.79 / 3,886 points ($152.3)
- Bali – The Legian Seminyak $555.74 / 5,887 points ($94.4)
- Kuala Lumpur – The RuMa Hotel and Residences $159.46 / 1,738 points ($91.7)
- Shanghai – J Hotel – $751.55 / 8,144 points ($92.3)
- Berlin – Hotel Palace Berlin $171.03 / 2,040 points ($83.8)
- Paris – Ritz Paris $2,225.02 / 28,494 points ($78.1)
- Porto – Maison Albar Le Monumental Palace $232.26 / 2,817 points ($82.4)
The cash price I’ve taken is the member-exclusive flexible rate, or the closest alternative if unavailable. The number in brackets is how much value you are getting per 1K points for that hotel.
As you can see, the value proposition is in the range of $78 – $95. The Imperial Tokyo is a weird one that sticks out, as you are getting an outstanding $152.3 per thousand points. I double checked the number and my math is correct – not sure if it’s a system error or not.
So it could make sense to buy at the current 100% bonus, but there are things to be mindful of:
- You must pay at least $3,600 to secure the 100% bonus, which is a big spend
- LHW doesn’t have that many hotels in its portfolio
- As far as I can see there’s no part-pay-with-point option, so if there are orphan points left in your account it might be tricky to spend them
LHW points don’t expire as long as you earn or redeem every 24 months. It’s free to sign up as a member, which gives you benefit including continental breakfast, upgrade priority, early check-in and late check-out. After the first stay you’ll also earn a room-upgrade voucher.
Black Friday: buy Aeroplan points with up to 125% bonus
Air Canada has launched their campaign for Black Friday, and there’s an interesting buy points offer which is worth checking out especially if you are UK- or Europe-based.
The offer runs between November 13th and 29th, and all Aeroplan members receive a targeted mysterious offer. You can reveal the offer here after logging in.
I received only a 100% bonus, equating to C$17.5 / £10.22 per 1,000 points. If you are lucky enough to have the 125% bonus, you will pay C$15.6 / £9.1 per 1,000 points.
The highest bonus Aeroplan had offered recently was 115%, and that was targeted too, so 125% very generous. Even with 100% bonus it’s still not bad deal.
I wrote about Aeroplan recently specifically about their Europe – Middle East redemptions. Here is a guideline of how much certain itineraries cost (per way):
- Europe – Middle East (business): 45,000 points
- Europe – Middle East (first): 60,000 points
- Asia – Middle East (business): 60,000 points
- Asia – Europe (first): 100,000 points
To put it into perspective, a one-way first class ticket from Abu Dhabi to London on Etihad will cost you just around £600!
Aeroplan points can be accrued through Amex and Chase credit cards in North America, but otherwise difficult to collect. If you have plans to visit the Middle East, you should seriously consider jumping on this deal.
Nectar / Avios bonus via Daily Mail subscription
MyMail, the membership program of Daily Mail, is to cease its partnership with Nectar on September 14. Interestingly however, they’ll still be running Nectar promotions, and there’s currently a very good incentive.
If you purchase a Digital Annual subscription now for £20, you will earn 4,000 Nectar points as a bonus, which is equivalent to £20 in return.
The 4,000 points can be spent at Sainsbury’s, Argos and Ebay amongst other shops. You can also convert them to 2,500 Avios, which effectively means buying Avios at 0.8p.
It’s unclear when the promotion ends. There doesn’t seem to any restriction on how many times you can avail the offer either.
Rare deal: buy Lufthansa miles at 0.94p
Dating back about a decade, Lufthansa faced a few lawsuits where people tried to claim compensation based on the price at which they sold their miles. At this point Lufthansa decided it was causing them too much trouble, and withdrew all related functionality suddenly. To date it is still the only mainstream airline that doesn’t allow point transfer from Marriott Bonvoy.
Whereas you still cannot purchase Lufthansa miles, they introduced something called Bundle & Go recently which is basically points package in disguise. The bundle includes some other discount and bonus, but I suspect people just buy it for the points.
Until September 30, you earn 60% bonus when purchasing any of the three bundles:
- S: €250 – 10,000 + 6,000 miles
- M: €1,000 – 50,000 + 30,000 miles
- L: €1,750 – 100,000 + 60,000 miles
You can buy up to 500,000 miles per calendar year excluding the bonus. Once you’ve purchased a bundle the miles should be deposited into your account within 5 business days.
If you are interested, the L package works best at 1.09 euro cent or 0.94p per mile. This is a very good price, especially considering how difficult it is to acquire Lufthansa miles.
Lufthansa doesn’t have the most generous award chart, and like all other European airlines their carrier-imposed surcharge is high, so you may be better off redeeming via Aeroplan or United instead. There are some exceptions though:
- One stopover is allowed each way on a roundtrip award
- Partner programs have access to Lufthansa’s first class award space only within 15 days prior to departure
- Lufthansa run frequent Mileage Bargain offers. At the moment a return trip in business class from Europe to certain North America destinations cost only 55,000 miles
- Their redemption chart has some sweet spots (price is for one-way)
- Europe – Middle East: 35,000 miles (B)
- Europe – North America / Africa: 56,000 miles (B)
- Asia – Hawaii: 35,000 miles (B)
- Any Domestic: 20,000 miles (B) or 25,000 miles (F)
One funny restriction is, Lufthansa doesn’t allow you to search award tickets unless you have at least 7,000 miles in your account. Therefore I have no idea how the availability and fuel surcharges are like nowadays.
Important note: Lufthansa miles expire after 36 months and nothing stops it unless you hold elite status or a Lufthansa credit card.
Buy Avios at 0.89p with The Economist’s promotion
The Economist has brought back its promotional offer with British Airways, which allows you to earn bonus Avios for purchasing an annual subscription.
The offer page is here. Two types of subscription are available, and here’s the UK pricing:
- Digital Only: £199 with 15,000 bonus Avios
- Digital + Print: £265 with 18,000 bonus Avios
In terms of “buying Avios” the prices aren’t hugely competitive, so it doesn’t make much sense unless you are actually interested in the subscription. If you have a UK Amex card though, you may have a “spend £199 get £65 back” offer, reducing the cost substantially to 0.89p per Avios only which is excellent!
If not, you can still change the webpage’s country to Canada, where the Digital Only subscription costs only C$235 (~£140).
British Airways added a new feature called Balance Boost recently, and the introductory 10% bonus in July makes this deal even more attractive, as it allows you to buy another 45K Avios at a low cost. The 15,000 Avios should hit your BA account roughly two weeks after purchase.
If you only receive the digital copies, country of residence doesn’t make a difference anyway. However make sure you provide a plausible billing address in the selected country (e.g. Canada), as otherwise your subscription may be cancelled.