What are the cheapest UK Hilton Honors hotel redemptions?

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• pauldb says:

  20 Mar20 March 09:13

  OT/ discussion points and duplicating from FT:

  There seems to be a new (more official) policy from BA that you can book the inbound leg of a 241 online at midnight then call the next day to have it repriced with half the avios recredited. Useful to know.

  Less clear but more interesting: it appears you retain 2 bookings and the cash element of the inbound is not adjusted into a return. This would matter if you’re returning from somewhere East: no YQ to pay ex-HKG (nearly £300pp saved) and less YQ from NRT, SYD and others. Even useful if you used it to some RFS destinations.

  • pauldb says:

    20 Mar20 March 09:17

    Sorry, saving ex-HKG £320 for 2.

  • Rob says:

    20 Mar20 March 09:18

    That would be massively expensive heading to the US though where 2 x oneway taxes are vastly more than a return.

    • pauldb says:

      20 Mar20 March 09:21

      Yes, and unhelpful for EMEA too, but used wisely…

  • roberto says:

    20 Mar20 March 16:29

    Virgin adopted this last year. My Vegas and Barbados rewards trips were both priced as singles. The flexibility of this is nice as it would allow you to change (or cancel) the return even if the outbound has flow. The extra cost was not too steep but I was surprised that it had been Deltafied when I did them.

    However my last BA 241 booking on the 24th of Feb was priced as a return even though both legs were booked 13 days apart. Both legs are on the same booking reference so it appears that this rule has either only just come in or is a non-rule rule.

    • pauldb says:

      21 Mar21 March 11:08

      The BA bit depends how you book it: if you didn’t use the new option presumably you called in and then, yes, your one-way was changed into a return. But you now supposedly have the option of booking online a oneway inbound and then sorting out the half-avios rebate the next morning … only under that option might you be left with 2 booking and a different cash cost.

• Genghis says:

  20 Mar20 March 09:35

  Thanks Andrew. That seems much easier to use.

• Cate ⛱️ says:

  20 Mar20 March 09:45

  It was inevitable Hilton’s awards would rise given their amex’s earnings per dollar.

• James says:

  20 Mar20 March 09:45

  I was looking forward to trying the Salalah property.
  I won’t bother now it has doubled in price.

• Stu says:

  20 Mar20 March 09:49

  OT. Any recommendations for the best lounge in Singapore T1 accessible with lounge club?
  Many thanks

• Save East Coast Rewards says:

  20 Mar20 March 09:52

  Did anyone else have any difficulty booking with Hilton yesterday? I tried booking a hotel last night and got an error every time.

• Scottydoggiom says:

  20 Mar20 March 10:41

  With regards to IHG points . I need an extra 12,000 points to book a 35,000 points reward room in a city where the hotel prices have shot up as there is horse racing on there that day .
  To buy 12,000 in the current sale will cost $81 so roughly £57
  Im thinking of using a ‘hack’ that i read about , booking a cheap cash room , then cancelling and getting the points as a refund . Ive found rooms for £49 , that when cancelled will get me 15,000 .
  Anyone have experience doing this and any hotels / countries / dates i should be looking at to make this as profittable as possible ?

  • Rob says:

    20 Mar20 March 11:15

    You can do a ‘cash and points’ and cancel it. Pricing should be the same across all hotels although IHG has occasionally experimented with elasticity by running different options in different cities.

  • JamesB says:

    20 Mar20 March 15:59

    I think you misunderstand how it works, you are part paying with points you have and buying the remainder you need in chunks of 5k, 10k or 15k points for $40, $70 or $90 the last time I checked. When you cancel, youhet those chunks of points back instead of the cash you paid for them. To cover 12k points you need you need to do one 15k at $90 or two stays one each at 5k and 10k. Regardless of all that IIRC the 100% bonus works out slightly cheaper than the hack.

• Sam says:

  20 Mar20 March 11:12

  Since self referring to different cards now seems to be possible, has anyone actually tried working it into their churning? I currently have BAPP and Platinum having done the PRG-Plat upgrade. Before I cancel Platinum, is it worth doing a self referral to SPG and getting 18k referral plus the 10k sign up on SPG? Afterwards then cancelling Plat and SPG for pro rata refund?

  • Matt says:

    20 Mar20 March 14:25

    I’ve done it once so far successfully (BAPP to SPG) and have just referred myself for a Gold card from my BAPP today, so hopefully that will work as well.

  • roberto says:

    20 Mar20 March 16:38

    Someone mentioned in the comments earlier this week that the self refering from plat was their preferred option to gaining points. I can see that loop hole being closed PDQ as all you need to do is refer whoever, take the 18k reward , cancel the new card a week later and repeat. The sign up bonus becomes a non entity and your just pocketing an easy 18k for a BA and/or a SPG every time you churn.

    90K MR could be racked up very quickly ,however not something I would recommend for your credit score and a sure fire way to getting blacklisted from Amex.

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