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Hilton buy points 100% bonus offer
Hilton has brought back its (very frequent) sale on point purchase.
You could read more about the offer here. By May 6, if you buy at least 5,000 points you’ll get 100% bonus on top. It works out at 0.5 cent per point which is as far as it gets, and the maximum amount you can purchase in a calendar year is 160,000 points (excluding bonus).
I don’t usually talk about Hilton’s points sale, since 99% of the time it makes little sense to buy them even with the bonus, given how their points have turned next to useless under the current dynamic redemption system.
However, as more and more countries are opening up to tourists, and people are probably very keen on getting back to travel again, their points can be good value at some of the top-end luxury hotels. Note that Hilton has stealthily increased the redemption cost at a few properties recently, for example:
- Conrad Maldives Rangali Island 95,000 -> 120,000
- Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi 120,000 -> 150,000
- Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam 95,000 -> 110,000
Which is a pity, but redeeming points on these hotels is still a bargain. If you fancy visiting these destinations, you may consider purchasing some points now.
To minimise the cost you should take advantage of Hilton’s 5-for-4 benefit. You won’t have enough points from this sale alone though, but you could use Points Pooling to combine the balance of multiple accounts.
IHG buy points 100% bonus sale
The (frequent) sale of IHG points is back, with the same 100% bonus offer.
You can access the offer page here.
- The offer runs until June 10
- You need to buy an minimum amount to qualify for the bonus, ranging from 15,000 to 30,000
- The annual limit has also been doubled to 250,000 points (pre-bonus)
To get the best price, you need to buy at least 26,000 points. It works out as $50 per 10,000 points, or £35. GBP staying strong recently has done us a favour!
IHG has been aggressively experimenting with its dynamic pricing system in the last year, and we’ve observed multiple fluctuations (or devaluations) since. That said, It’s still very easy to make great use of points purchased at £35 per 10K, in the UK and abroad.
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.
50% Bonus When Buying Ascott Points, Plus Free Upgrade to Silver
Ascott’s points sale is back, this time with an enhanced bonus.
You can access the offer page here. This is to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of Ascott Star Rewards, the loyalty program of the hotel chain. Note that the bonus awarded is tiered, and you need to purchase the maximum amount – 1000 SGD for 400K points – to get the 50% bonus.
In other words, you benefit from a 33.3% discount for the point purchase. Ascott’s redemption system is similar to that of Accor’s, where points have a fixed value and can be directly redeemed against most rates found on their website. This means, purchasing points now and use them on your future stays will save you 33.3% whatever the listed rate is.
However, there was an even better offer last year where points were sold for half price. Surely we have no idea whether or when it’s going to return, yet I wouldn’t encourage you to hoard the points now unless you have immediate use.
There are a few other promotions in addition. For example, Classic members can earn Silver status after completing only one stay – although there’s actually a route for instant Platinum.
Flash Sale – 20% off Ascott Hotel Points
If you have any longer-stay planned in the near future, you may want to consider buying some points in Ascott’s newest sale.
The offer page is here. Until March 4th, you can get a 25% bonus when buying any amount of Ascott points, which is equivalent to 20% discount.
Ascott has a similar redemption system to Accor – points have a fixed value when redeeming for hotel stays, which is the same as to when you buy them. So buying points now essentially means a 20% discount on your future Ascott hotel stays, which is on top of any promotional rate hotels already offer on Ascott’s booking portal.
Remember that there was a 50%-off sale last year, and we don’t know whether or when it’s going to return. Ascott owns many serviced apartments around the world, with a few in London, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
You can also sign up to Ascott Rewards via a special link, which grants you instant Platinum status with them.
40% Bonus When You Buy Marriott Points
Marriott’s points sale is back, although not as good as the offers from last year.
You can access the offer here. Now through March 22, you can benefit from 40% bonus when you purchase at least 2,000 Marriott points, which is equivalent to 28% off. The purchase limit has also been doubled for 2021, which means you can buy up to 100,000 points (excluding bonus).
The unit price is the same no matter how many points you buy, and on the top end you can pay $1,250 for 140,000 points. This equates to $8.9 or £6.4 per 1,000 points.
The discount isn’t great, as we saw 50% and 60% bonus towards the end of the last year. It may still make sense to buy a few points though if you have immediate use of them, especially since the category change is taking place on March 3 soon.
Back in stock – Heavily discounted Melia points vouchers
We wrote about the dirt-cheap Melia points vouchers on Amazon a couple of weeks ago, which sold out very quickly. They are back online finally, at the same very reasonable price.
The link on Amazon UK is here. You can buy 55,000 points for £161 (0.29p per point) and delivery will take place in approximately two weeks.
The link on Amazon DE is here. You can buy 55,000 points for €179 (0.29p per points) and it’s currently in stock so shipping will be faster. However there’s a four euro charge to post to a UK address.
There points behave like normal Melia points (12-month rolling expiry, convertible to miles / Avios). I’ve written a lot about the valuation of Melia points so won’t elaborate here, but I genuinely think it’s a great deal.
Marriott and Choice selling points with a bonus
Both Marriott Bonvoy and Choice Privileges are selling points with a (decent) bonus at the moment.
For Marriott, the offer’s page is here. It runs only for a week until 25 November. You get a 60% bonus (37.5% discount) when purchasing at least 2,000 points, and the annual purchase limit triples to 150,000 points (pre-bonus).
Factoring in the the bonus you are paying $78.125, or £59 per 10,000 Marriott points, which is a fair trade. This is the best price that Marriott has ever offered, however I’d expect similar promotions to re-appear in the near future, so unless you have a massive demand for Marriott points you don’t have to buy them now.
The second offer is by Choice Privileges, with a decent 40% bonus (28.5% off). This is also one of the better deals you can expect from them.
As discussed here, Choice points can be of great value when redeeming high-end hotel stays in Northern Europe. They are also great for budget hotels in Japan – although it’s less likely for you to be able to travel there anytime soon.