Frankfurt Airport gains a Marriott hotel but loses part of a Sheraton

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• Polly says:

  6 Feb6 February 04:57

  What a super prize. Good luck everyone. It’s such a great experience in those J cabins, all but one older plane anyway! Closest cabin to BA F you will find….

  • John W says:

    6 Feb6 February 05:04

    + 1. Great Qatar Airways prize 👍

  • Patrycja says:

    6 Feb6 February 06:09

    Awesome prize! Would love to go to Auckland…

    • LewisB says:

      6 Feb6 February 07:23

      I mean if you win two free Qatar business class seats to anywhere in the world where else would you go, right?

      Surprised nobody has asked, will tier points and avios be awarded for these flghts? 😉

    • Matt Bailey says:

      6 Feb6 February 07:53

      I need to win, for the sake of my honeymoon! AKL is £12503 in Jan in Business for 2 persons!

    • Alex M says:

      6 Feb6 February 08:38

      make sure you don’t end up in Iran, in several pieces, if you see what I mean… 😉

  • Nick says:

    6 Feb6 February 07:06

    It’s so rare, and therefore brilliant, to have any competition with business class seats as a prize! Qatar clearly understand the readership of HfP and offer accordingly! Nice one guys!

    • Shoestring says:

      6 Feb6 February 08:19

      yep great prize but risks getting picked up by the comp sites

      • BSI1978 says:

        6 Feb6 February 09:22

        ?

        How so @shoestring

        • Rob says:

          6 Feb6 February 09:25

          We see the numbers, it is relatively modest – around 10%.

      • Polly says:

        7 Feb7 February 04:50

        Hope not, otherwise they will be recommending 1000s sign up for hfp to enter…

  • Al Pal says:

    6 Feb6 February 08:56

    I’ll fly to Auckland just to get the maximum benefit, lol 😛

    • Lady London says:

      6 Feb6 February 09:17

      I’ll fly to see my Mum.

  • Lady London says:

    6 Feb6 February 09:16

    +1. When I found I was travelling BA First Transatlantic and asked a question here, you described BA First as comparable to QR in Business.

    That was about right. Slightly nicer drinks selection on QR than BA, but BA crew very nice and operating a bit less robotically than QR.

    QR seating and planes with good air probably better overall.

    • Polly says:

      7 Feb7 February 04:51

      Always have maintained that point about to equalling BA F as close as possible, with even bigger space around you.

• Anna says:

  6 Feb6 February 06:04

  +1 for the awesome prize.

  OT – I may go to Nice for a few days in the autumn and would need a suite or family room fairly central for exploring on foot. I am HH and Bonvoy gold and IHG Platinum but options seem pretty limited – any suggestions? There actually seems to be more choice near Nice airport (a new CP opening soon, apparently, but this would mean a lot of toing and froing on public transport).

  • The Original David says:

    6 Feb6 February 06:26

    Don’t forget how close Nice airport is to town – I walked it once, just for fun…

    • David D says:

      6 Feb6 February 06:34

      And from the airport there is the tram to take you into the centre of the city.

    • Anna says:

      6 Feb6 February 06:35

      I’d considered that but will have a teenager with me who likes to move as little as possible!

      • Doug M says:

        6 Feb6 February 10:15

        Leave them on the sofa so you both win.

      • Polly says:

        7 Feb7 February 04:52

        Bus stops right outside airport. We always take that back and forth to hotels along the way..v easy.

  • paul says:

    6 Feb6 February 06:36

    There’s Boscolo Excedra Nice and Le Meridian for your Bonvoy. Both are within blocks of each other in the Carre d’Or neighborhood. Both properties are super center and tons of things nearby. Le Meridian is seafront.

    There’s also a new tramline to the airport (if you wanted an airport hotel) so if you find an airport hotel walkable to Grand Arenas, then it’s 11 easy stops to Jean Medecin (center)

    • TGLoyalty says:

      6 Feb6 February 08:41

      Boscolo has been bought by NH/Anantara group and will be rebranded soon.

      You would hope to an Anantara after extensive refurbishment due to it being in Nice.

    • RussellH says:

      6 Feb6 February 09:46

      Le Meridien has a nice rooftop bar and restaurant. Forgeot to take my Starwood card with me last time we were there, though.

  • Michael C says:

    6 Feb6 February 07:00

    Stayed at the Boscolo last Feb. for carnival, Anna – lovely place. Admittedly v white! but impressive design, v nice b/fast, a random bottle of champagne left out in reception all day (I seemed to be the only one using it – hope it was meant for the public!).

    Location fabulous, everywhere so close. 10 mins to train for daytrips, 2 mins to shopping area.
    Don’t know if you’ve been, but the Chagall museum is fabulous. And Friday is the big market day in Ventimiglia, just over the border (direct train).

    My fave short family break in recent years!

  • ali says:

    6 Feb6 February 08:31

    as it happens I’m waiting for a delayed flight to nice this morning.

    any more suggestions for must sees or must dos would be much appreciated!

    • Michael C says:

      6 Feb6 February 08:38

      I was surprised by how lovely Cannes was! (30 mins direct train).
      Lavender ice cream at Fenocchio in the old part of Nice.
      If you have time/are interested, Grasse is easily doable by public transport (centre of entire Fr. perfume industry).
      Have fun!

      • RussellH says:

        6 Feb6 February 09:48

        Totally agree about Cannes. The super posh Ab-Fab bit is only part of the coastal strip. The rest is real small town France, and the old town, on a rock served by tiny electric buses is very nice.

        • Polly says:

          7 Feb7 February 04:54

          Cannes, a nicer grander version of Nice, and really easy to get to. Agree Grasse a very nice place to visit, lovely lunch there once.

    • Brighton Belle says:

      6 Feb6 February 08:52

      Take the 100 bus that goes to Monaco or Menton. Get off at Beaulieu Baie des Fourmis Take the coastal path around Cap Ferrat. … it’s on all the map tools. Short walk 90 mins, long walk 3 hours. Stop for coffee in Cap Ferrat village. Take the no 15 local bus from Cap Ferrat port back to Nice. Bus tickets allow free transfer within 74 mins. The walk is well signposted and Google will find it.

    • Brighton Belle says:

      6 Feb6 February 08:54

      No buses or trans in Nice today 6 Feb as it’s the regular strike. Trains ok and you can get to Nice on the train from the Gare St Augustin near the airport. Well marked from Terminal 1

      • Brighton Belle says:

        6 Feb6 February 08:55

        Trams

    • Rob says:

      6 Feb6 February 09:28

      Antibes and the Picasso Museum there

      • The Savage Squirrel says:

        6 Feb6 February 19:37

        +1 to this; museum pretty good – rest of Antibes lovely 🙂

        Any of the hilltop villages inland such as Vence or Gourdon are worth a visit too if you have a car.

    • ali says:

      6 Feb6 February 09:43

      Thank you!

    • Darren says:

      6 Feb6 February 10:30

      Villefranche sur Mer.

      Villa de Rothschild.

  • RussellH says:

    6 Feb6 February 09:40

    We stayed at the Holiday Inn in Nice on a points break two years ago. Nothing special, of course, but nicer than many HIs in the UK and much more comfortable. Given that they were digging up the road outside at the time for the tram, there should be a very convenient tram stop too.
    Problem was that after our first night the room was not properly done, just skimmed over and I had to complain and it did get sorted out.
    It is about 5 mins walk from the Promenade des Anglais, there are any number of cafes and restaurants in between where you can get breakfast at a reasonable price. Our only experience of the hotel bar was the free beer on arrival!

  • Andi says:

    6 Feb6 February 10:20

    Hi Anna

    Are you set specifically on Nice? As a regular visitor to the Cote D’Azur I can recommend basing yourself in Cannes. Hotel wise there’s a decent JW Mariott which is next to the ever impressive Intercontinental Carlton – both of which I can recommend. There are also a number of other very good options including the reccomended-by-a-friend 5* Radisson Blu (if you have Amex Plat, you can get status) – in many ways a bigger choice than Nice.

    The train to Nice is very easy for a day trip or two but there is also the option to visit Juan les Pains and Antibes. It is also worth noting that the beaches south of Antibes are sandy whereas Nice has pebble beaches. I have stayed before towards the end of September as the peak season is finishing and have been able to secure some really decent rates at the IC but especially at the JW which has some nice suites (but is not in the same league as the IC).

    • Anna says:

      6 Feb6 February 11:47

      Hi Andi, I’ve previously spent a week in the Esterel area but am looking for an opportunity to speak French as I’m doing the A level to keep my brain ticking over in retirement! I thought that basing myself in a city would give the best chance of interacting with as many French speakers as possible. I don’t fancy Paris again at the moment.

  • Brian says:

    6 Feb6 February 10:59

    You really should look at Airbnb. Lots of lovely central apartments. You will get much more for your money than from a hotel. Nice is one of the places, like Paris, where Airbnb comes into its own, due to the discrepancy between what you pay and what you get when it comes to hotels.

    • Anna says:

      6 Feb6 February 11:48

      Good idea, I need to get into Airbnb. I just worry that they will cancel just before I get there!

      • Rhys says:

        6 Feb6 February 13:14

        Airbnb is great – I’ve used it probably 10-15 times now, only had good experiences.

      • Polly says:

        7 Feb7 February 04:57

        Or chose a smaller pension back from the front, more people to speak french to…even in some of the little restaurants, minimal English spoken so you have to practice. Well done on doing a french A level too..

• Tom says:

  6 Feb6 February 07:09

  What does
  BA Consumer Base -9809 points
  BA CON partner point -1540 points
  Avios Bonus 2 -34 points
  mean?

  These are on my points on the BAPP

  • MattB says:

    6 Feb6 February 08:01

    In no particular order……BA spend, non BA spend, bonus spend From the spend £4 get 1 bonus point offer

    I think

    • Tom says:

      6 Feb6 February 08:32

      Thanks. But as negative amounts?

      • MattB says:

        6 Feb6 February 08:34

        Because they have been removed from your BAPP amex account and credited to your BA account?

        • Anna says:

          6 Feb6 February 11:49

          Yes, amounts with a minus sign means that is how many have been transferred to BA.

• Sussex bantam says:

  6 Feb6 February 07:20

  “Dull middle management types”. Cheers Rob !

  • Rob says:

    6 Feb6 February 07:54

    As someone on Flyertalk posted about the Bonvoy launch video:

    “I like the video – it’s very Starwood, with no Utah-based Tumi-tugging Accenture consultants in poor fitting suits sitting in a lounge drinking Bud Light out of plastic cups in sight.”

    I have stayed, twice, at Sheraton Frankfurt Airport so it was clearly tongue in cheek. Once I got the Presidential Suite complete with a fully functioning kitchen and dining table for 10, which was a bit OTT given that we were leaving about 8 hours after we checked in!

  • Shoestring says:

    6 Feb6 February 08:15

    @Sussex bantam – heh heh 🙂

    I don’t think having the Marriott and Sheraton brands side by side is surprising at all. Surely they are the 2 best brands to choose for the target market – high % of blue chip salarymen using the most dependable quality hotel chains where you absolutely know what to expect in terms of offering. MB must also be very proud of the success of Marriott (the hotel brand) and this looks like a very safe choice. There must be vast numbers of users who are ‘wedded’ to Marriott and will always seek out a Marriott wherever they go, so this taps into that business, providing something that is very different to Sheraton for users IMV, even if you drill down and conclude they end up being like two peas from the same pod. Going back to safe choice: nobody is going to get sacked for this if in a year or so the y-o-y comparatives end up worse for the Marriott bit compared to the Sheraton bit – and if this is the first location offering both Sheraton & Marriott (or first big location), and the numbers look good in a year’s time, mgt will of course be patting themselves on the back that they made the FA site attractive to Marriott loyalists and increased usage. Whereas if it were Sheraton + ANOther more esoteric brand from the MB stable, and the numbers weren’t so good later on, that would be seen as resulting from poor targeting ie a bad brand choice.

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    6 Feb6 February 09:18

    *glances at hfp while checking out of Durham Marriott*
    heeeey!

    • Anna says:

      6 Feb6 February 11:50

      I’m staying there in a couple of weeks, how did you find it?

• Phatbear says:

  6 Feb6 February 07:40

  Totally OT, sorry.

  I have to cancel some avios flights which i used a 2 for 1 lloyds voucher.

  When i cancel do they give me a new voucher, which would have expired if i hadnt used it or do they give me the points which the voucher represents also do i get the tax back etc?

  • Neil Donoghue says:

    6 Feb6 February 07:46

    Nope! You lose the voucher and get the points you paid back.

    • Phatbear says:

      6 Feb6 February 08:00

      So if my flights cost 10000 in eco and im flying premium, but therefore only paying 10000 points due to the upgrade voucher i only get 10000 points back?

      • Rob says:

        6 Feb6 February 08:06

        Yes. The Lloyds vouchers, unlike the Amex vouchers, are ‘use it or lose it’. If you cancel, tough luck.

        • Brighton Belle says:

          6 Feb6 February 08:58

          Sob, ….I lost a flight to Moscow in Biz by cancelling and not understanding the rules. There is no merit in being a newbie.

      • Peter K says:

        6 Feb6 February 08:07

        Yes. And it’s an upgrade voucher, not a 2-4-1 voucher.

        • Rich says:

          6 Feb6 February 11:43

          Actually, even though they call it an upgrade voucher, it’s better to think of it as a discount voucher.

          Dispel any notion of booking one class and using the voucher to upgrade. You search for, and book the cabin you want to travel in, and use the voucher to reduce to cost to what the lower cabin would have been.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        6 Feb6 February 08:45

        You can change the date to the same or even another destination within the same band though.

        • Phatbear says:

          6 Feb6 February 08:52

          Thanks changing date may be an option currently sitting on a ward and been diagnosed with blood clots on my lungs and been advised against long distance travel for a while and sposed to be off to japan in 3 weeks.

        • Neil Donoghue says:

          6 Feb6 February 08:56

          They will charge you £35 per person to date change and there is also limitations on how far you can change the date. It’s a little complicated but essentially if your voucher was due to expire in June 2019 then the latest date change you can do is July 2020. Hopefully this rule doesn’t apply to you.

        • BJ says:

          6 Feb6 February 08:59

          Also has to be the same cabin.

        • Peter K says:

          6 Feb6 February 09:01

          @phatbear hope you recover fully soon.

        • Lady London says:

          6 Feb6 February 09:27

          Hope you get better soon @Phatbear. Glad it wasnt discovered while you were on a plane.

          I suggest you look into changing rather than cancelling. If you are a bit busy to think about options right now I suggest you call and push the date ahead as far as possible then bring it back to route/date you want when you’ be had time to think about it. Guessing 2*£35 change fees worth it to have the option.

          Good luck.

  • Phatbear says:

    6 Feb6 February 09:59

    Thanks everyone for your input once ive escaped the NHS’ finest i’ll give them a ring and see wot they can do

  • AndyGWP says:

    6 Feb6 February 11:12

    Does anyone know how it works and if it’s BA forcing the flight cancellation and you can’t reschedule?

  • Charlieface says:

    6 Feb6 February 13:39

    Airlines are often lenient when major medical issues come up, so maybe it’s worth asking nicely.

• FS says:

  6 Feb6 February 08:12

  Morning. Sorry if I’m just not looking properly but I cannot see the link to enter the Qatar competition. 🤦🏼‍♀️

  • Nick says:

    6 Feb6 February 08:21

    Win a FANTASTIC prize on Head for Points on Friday!

    Tomorrow morning we are launching a great new competition on Head for Points

    Perhaps you are ahead of yourself?

    • FS says:

      6 Feb6 February 08:32

      Oh no! Sadly, you are right, today is only Thursday! Haha.
      Thanks 😊

  • LB says:

    6 Feb6 February 10:03

    Slightly OT but regarding Avois redemptions…I recently booked the outward journey (online) on my BA 241 voucher and waited for the return journey (from a different airport) to become available. When I phoned BA to add the return journey to the 241 I was told I would have to pay the £70 fee (two people) for amending the booking. I thought this only applied if I could have made the return reservation online but I didn’t think I could do this with a 241 voucher. I am wrong?

    • Neil Donoghue says:

      6 Feb6 February 10:34

      You are correct! Speak to another agent

    • Trickydic says:

      6 Feb6 February 10:34

      BA will waive the £35 pp fee if you phone them to make a new booking which could not be completed on-line. You have already made a booking and are choosing to amend it so they are quite correct to charge the fee. At least you managed to get the return flights which is good.

      • MattB says:

        6 Feb6 February 11:33

        That’s incorrct

      • LB says:

        6 Feb6 February 11:34

        Thanks for the replies.

        • LB says:

          6 Feb6 February 12:29

          Now I am confused…I’ll phone BA and see what happens.

        • Polly says:

          7 Feb7 February 05:11

          Thee should be no charge, end of, keep trying till you get an agent who understands.

      • the_real_a says:

        6 Feb6 February 17:16

        They waive the fee for things you COULD do online, but for some reason could not due to system failures… Of course an agent might not know what can and cant be done etc…

• Shoestring says:

  6 Feb6 February 08:16

  Still Thursday

  • FS says:

    6 Feb6 February 08:33

    Haha. That would explain it. 🤦🏼‍♀️ I’m clearly far too keen! Thanks. 😊

• jamie says:

  6 Feb6 February 08:53

  ANy reason why no IHG properties in the USA taking part? That’s a major drawback

  • BJ says:

    6 Feb6 February 09:04

    Only if you’re going to the USA.

    • The Original David says:

      6 Feb6 February 11:40

      The entirety of mainland China, Hong Kong and Taipei are missing too. Don’t take it personally…

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