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Reminder: London NYE hotel bookable now on points
Just a quick reminder that, if you need a hotel for the New Year’s Eve, they have already been loaded into the system and bookable using points now.
If you are looking to watch the fireworks, the most convenient option is Marriott Country Hall. It is located in the White zone and all hotel guests receive wristbands prior to their stay. You could walk down literally 15 minutes before midnight to watch the show.
My friend who went last year had some troubles though as the staff insisted they must have tickets to get on the bridge. It was confusing and horrible, but luckily they got in eventually. You may also see (some of) the fireworks from inside the club lounge and certain guest rooms.
Availability of Marriott County Hall hasn’t been loaded yet but I expect it to be soon. It will be priced at around 120,000 points, and unlikely to sell out even close to the date.
Another similar option is Great Scotland Yard. It is not as close to the show as the Marriott, and you cannot see anything from inside the hotel. But it is in the Blue zone which has an arguably much better viewing angle.
Also it costs only 29,000 Hyatt points per night. Reward night is currently not available but a friend of mine managed to book it a few days ago.
Fireworks aside, here are some hotels that are good value on points:
- InterContinental London Park Lane – 84,000 points
- Holiday Inn London Oxford Circus – 42,000 points
- Holiday Inn Express London Limehouse – 36,000 points
- Bankside Hotel (Marriott) – 92,000 points
- London Hilton Park Lane – 80,000 points
- Hyatt Regency Blackfriars – 23,000 points
- Hyatt Regency Embankment – 23,000 points
Use BA’s companion voucher on Iberia flights
I was never a fan of the British Airways Premium Plus Amex card, mainly because I was, for the most time, a solo traveller. Its companion voucher went through a major overhaul in 2022 though which made it much more appealing, and I will take a close look it today.
The Travel Together Ticket issued by the Chase British Airways Visa Signature card is, as far as I know, exactly the same, so the following discussions hold for both.
To earn the companion voucher, you need to spend £10,000 in a card year. The voucher is issued right after you’ve met the spending criteria, and valid for two years from that date.
- Applies to redemption tickets on BA, EI and IB metal
- The cardholder must travel
- The origin can be anywhere
- Works on one-way, return and open-jaw itineraries
- Works on all cabin classes
- Save 50% in Avios for one or two persons
- Full taxes and charges are still payable
There are two major improvements: firstly, solo travellers can use it for 50% discount; secondly, it’s extended to Iberia and Aer Lingus flights too.
Unfortunately due to the constant efforts of BA to devalue Avios, long-haul redemptions are, very often, no longer very good in value even when the voucher is applied. For short-haul redemptions the math works out better, but in absolute terms you aren’t saving a lot.
The best way to use this voucher lies with Iberia, as they have a very generous redemption chart.
A one-way flight from Madrid to New York, in business class, costs only 34,000 Avios. For South America it’s 42,500 or 51,000 Avios. This is incredibly cheap compared to BA.
Taxes and fees are also very reasonable. For Madrid – Buenos Aires return it costs 102,000 Avios + £236.30 – superb value! Note that the chart above is for off-peak dates, and it will cost more in peak season.
With the companion voucher applied, departing from Madrid in off-peak season, you will pay the following figures for a return trip per person:
- New York – 34,000 Avios + £215.60
- Bogota – 42,500 Avios + £224.20
- Buenos Aires – 51,000 Avios + £236.30
Note that you need to book on ba.com rather than iberia.com to use the voucher. You could add your positioning flight to / from Madrid in the same booking with the 50% discount applied too. However:
- Don’t add London – Madrid to the same booking, otherwise it incurs the hefty APD
- Don’t mix with BA flights, otherwise it increases the cost significantly
My recommendation is to book e.g. Madrid – New York – Madrid – London using the voucher, and then sort out London – Madrid separately. Here’s my trip to Bogota:
It costs 48,875 Avios + £244. As it’s an open-jaw booking, it’s not possible to do it online – confirm online that there’s availability and then call BA to book it, mentioning that you want to use the companion voucher.
Guide on redeeming Choice Privilege Points
Choice Hotels is an American hospitality company owning a few hotel brands such as Clarion, Comfort and Quality. They are not as popular in the frequent traveller world as many of their competitors, probably because:
- Their presence is very limited outside North America
- They mainly focus on the midscale and economy consumer markets
They do however, have a loyalty program called Choice Privileges which could be interesting to anyone even if you don’t travel to North America. Many aspects of the Choice Privileges aren’t relevant to most of us, so today we’ll specifically look into free night redemptions only.
[Buying Points]
If you are not US-based, then the easiest and most practical way of acquiring Choice points is through purchasing. The best deal would be the annual Daily Getaways event, through which you pay only $5.2 per thousand points. But there are some gotchas:
- It is intended for U.S. residents only, although in reality you just need a credit card that can pass with a U.S. billing address
- Stock is limited so you need to be fast
- You have only one chance per year
Failing that, Choice Privileges also runs frequent bonus offers on points sale, and the bonus usually ranges between 25% and 50%. The best rate you’ll get is maybe $6.8 per 1K points, which is a far cry from Daily Getaways but could still make a lot of sense if you read on.
[Japan]
Choice has a few hotels in the following Japanese cities: Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima, Fukuoka and Nagasaki. Many of these hotels cost only 8,000 points a night, including the ones at Tokyo.
All hotels in Japan fall under the Comfort brand, which as you may have guessed is a no-frills economy brand. If you are on budget and just want a place to sleep, this is the way to go.
We’ve received feedback from readers which speak very highly of the Comfort hotel in Tokyo – convenient location, free breakfast and nice tea lounge.
[Europe]
Choice Privileges has some footprint in Europe, mainly at the most popular tourist destinations. You can expect to pay between 16,000 and 30,000 points for a Comfort or Quality hotel, which is not terrible but I’d stick with say Marriott and IHG instead.
The only sweet spot I’ve found is at Venice. This Ascend hotel has a 9.3 rating on Booking.com and can be frequently seen at €300 a night.
On the low-budget end, there are also a few 8,000-point hotels at Vienna and Prague.
[Strawberry]
This is in my opinion the highlight of the Choice Privilege program. Strawberry, formerly Nordic Choice, is a hotel group in Northern Europe that has had a franchise agreement with the Choice Hotel Group since 1994. Although they are different companies, Strawberry also uses brand names such as Clarion, Comfort and Ascend.
Even better, you can redeem Choice points on Strawberry hotels too, and they have a much more exciting portfolio. Strawberry operates some of the best hotels in Scandinavia, including The Thief in Oslo and At Six in Stockholm.
You can book reward nights at such properties directly on Choice’s website as usual. Many of them cost as few as 10,000 points, and many luxury properties cost only 20,000 points.
Needless to say there’s fantastic value to be had here. Reward availability is generally good, and there’s no peak or dynamic pricing so the cost remains the same.
Choice Privilege elite benefits don’t apply at Strawberry hotels. However there’s a way to claim Strawberry Platinum status right now, and you can add your booking to Strawberry’s system manually on their website.
[Premium Rooms]
One last thing: you can sometimes book room types beyond the standard room at the same cost. Here is the room availability of Aquarius Hotel in Venice:
You can book a suite for the same 20,000 points. A few other examples:
- Stockholm, Clarion Hotel Sign – Family Room & Superior Room
- Stockholm, Nordic Light Hotel – 1 Bedroom Suite
- Oslo, Comfort Hotel Grand Central – Superior Room
- Oslo, Clarion Collection Hotel Bastion – Family Room & Superior Room
- Helsinki, F6 – Deluxe Room
- Helsinki, GLO Hotel Art – Superior Room
Choice Privileges is a hidden gem and you can get great value out of it especially when travelling to Northern Europe. I don’t think you need to spend a lot of time on the program itself – just accrue some points when there’s a promotion and spend them towards your next adventure.
Search reward flights with ChatGPT & Seats.aero
If you haven never heard of Seats.aero, they are an online search engine for award flight availability, kind of like Seatspy except that they have data of many frequent flyer programs, including United MileagePlus, AAdvantage, Delta Skymiles, Air Canada Aeroplan and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club etc.
Most importantly Seats.aero is free as long as your search date is within the next two months. However they don’t have the best UI – you need to switch between programs, and the Excel-inspired interface is a pain when you need to search for multiple dates and cities.
Good news is, Seats.aero has now developed a plugin that is available on ChatGPT’s plugin store. Note that you must pay $24 per month for ChatGPT Plus to use that feature, although the plugin itself is free.
GPT’s backend has full access to Seats.aero’s data, and you can query using natural language.
- You can name a city, country or region
- You can specify a date or a date range
- You can specify the airline or alliance
- You can narrow down the search results by adding restrictions
It appears that you can’t specify the frequent flyer program though (e.g. Aeroplan). Here are some examples:
It is a very powerful feature that makes finding reward flight availability much easier. ChatGPT Plus doesn’t have a free trial so you must pay the $24 though, which is not cheap unless you use it regularly.
Two-bedroom villa in Danang for 40K Marriott points only!
Marriott is to open a new villa-only hotel in Danang, Vietnam. Like the Singapore Edition hotel we mentioned a few days ago, there’s a pricing oddity which creates a very good deal.
The entry-level room type, 2 Bedroom Garden Villa, is priced at around $600 per night. If you pay by Marriott points however, as few as 40,000 points are needed.
Even more oddly, the Cash & Points option is even better as you save 20,500 points by paying $75.
Such redemption sweet spots are commonly seen when a new hotel is loaded into the system, and it’s not unique to Marriott Bonvoy. The redemption price might be adjusted soon to reflect the cash price (in fact it was only 30,000 points yesterday), so act fast if you may need it.
Book The Singapore Edition for only 40K points!
Marriott Bonvoy’s Edition brand is launching another location in Singapore, and they’ve now started to accept bookings from December onwards. It is a great opportunity to burn your Marriott points!
As you can see from the rate calendar, award nights in December starts at only 40,000 points.
Unfortunately the price climbs up quick from January to up to 70,000 points. However, as its cash price hovers around the 800 SGD mark (~$600), it still yields outsized value.
For the date I checked in December, the Edition costs only marginally more points than the Aloft and Courtyard. As Marriott has a dynamic pricing system in place, I’d suggest you to lock in the redemptions sooner than later if you have any travel plans.
Avios Balance Booster offer ending and a useful trick
British Airways launched a new feature called Balance Booster in June that introduced a new way of purchasing Avios at a lower cost. There is an ongoing 10% bonus that will end on Monday, so don’t miss out if you need to top up your account.
The annoying part is that you can only purchase maximum triple the amount that you’ve earned in the last 30 days, which may not be enough. Interestingly, a reader has shared a trick / loophole that allows you to work around that cap and buy more.
When you land on the Balance Booster page, the frontend will only load past transactions that haven’t been boosted. When you complete a purchase, the backend will update the record to mark that transaction as “boosted”.
However, there’s a delay before the frontend is notified of that change. It means that you have a short time window to boost the transaction again (and more) if you are quick enough.
I tried it once and it worked out. The delay was approximately five minutes.
Beware that it is a loophole so there’s some risk associated, although I think it’s fairly low. At the end of day you are paying money to BA, and there’s the 250,000 Avios cap which prevents unlimited boosting, so it should be fine.
Guide on redeeming Virgin Voyages and maximising your benefits
(Thanks to @Luca for providing me with the photos!)
The Virgin Group welcomed a new member to its family, Virgin Voyages, which in my opinion is a game-changer to collectors of Virgin points. For as low as 80,000 points you can treat yourself (and one companion) to a 7-day all-inclusive cruise in the Mediterranean or the Caribbean, which is probably more fun and valuable than ten hours in the sky.
I have finally decided to jump onboard, and booked myself a Mediterranean (departing from Barcelona) trip this August. I did my fair share of research and hopefully this post will help you understand the booking process and maximise your benefits.
The redemption is still live on Virgin Red but is “ending soon”. Coincidentally, Virgin has a points sale and you can buy just over 80,000 points for £945, which is enough to cover the cost.
[Redeem your voyage]
Once you’ve made the redemption on Virgin Red, an access key (code) should arrive at your mailbox within three days. With the access key you can pick your voyage on Virgin Voyages’ website and book. Virgin Voyages is still quite new to the market so availability tends to be pretty good. I strongly encourage you to redeem an access key as soon as possible and then you can chill and plan.
Due to airfare and other factors I opted for the Barcelona route. The Greek one is considerably more expensive, and is possibly more interesting due to it being a new route. With your access key you can book any of the three Sea Terrace cabins:
Value-wise you are getting ~5p per Virgin point which is incredible!
[Link Accounts]
Once you’ve booked you’ll be given a referral link, and if your family and friends book with it your accounts will be linked. You’ll both receive some “celebration perks” on board, which is anecdotally a bottle of bubbly.
You can also ask their customer service to link existing bookings. Note that it only works on the same cruise. If you are travelling on the August 13th Mediterranean route, feel free to use my referral link.
[Solo Sailor Promotion]
If you are travelling solo there’s a special promotion if you book by June 30th, which entitles you to a whopping $600 bonus credit!
It is an all-inclusive cruise but you can pay extra for things such as cocktails, specialty coffee and specialty menu. According to my friends though you don’t have to as the inclusive meals and drinks are already very good.
According to its terms and conditions free access key bookings are excluded from this offer. However a friend of mine was told by customer service that his redemption booking is eligible for the bonus credit. Well you never know…
[Sailing Club]
Most importantly, don’t forget to join the Sailing Club before your trip. If you qualify as a Sea Rover you are entitled to the following perks:
- Priority boarding
- $100 bonus credit
- $10 daily specialty coffee credit
- Free premium wifi
- Free laundry and pressing service
- $100 bonus credit if you top up $300
Becoming a Sea Rover is easier than you think through their status match initiative. If you already have Virgin Atlantic’s Gold status you can submit your application right away. Otherwise you need to status match to MSC Cruises first.
1. Make sure you have a qualifying membership from an airline or a hotel program. I used my Hilton Diamond card but there are many other options including Hyatt, Accor, Marriott and IHG.
2. Submit your application to MSC. I tried MSC’s UK site first but it wouldn’t let me enter the correct postcode, so eventually I had to use their US site instead.
3. Wait for the approval email to arrive in a couple of days. With the provided membership number you can log on and obtain a snapshot of your Diamond membership card.
4. Submit a status match request on Virgin Voyages’ website with your booking reference and MSC membership.
You’ll soon be notified of the outcome. My request passed very quickly and I could immediately see the perks added to my booking.
I hope you find this post useful, and I’ll report back once I’ve completed my trip!