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Need advice on a very expensive purchase for next February. Reward flights already booked. Just got silver status.
I can book the Hotel through Avios with a 20% discount and 108,000 Avios or can book through BA and get 10,000 bonus Avios points, solo traveller. Paying either on BA Amex card.What am I missing regarding BA?? Is it better to go with them for tier points/status? At the moment the Avios route looks better but Susie t I’m missing something?
Oops – sure I’m missing something?
It depends whether you want to earn or burn avios, and what value you’d get for using 108k avios to book the hotel. If you’ve decided you’re going to renew Silver status at £7,500 BA spend, would this booking be crucial for getting there? As with a lot of these things, it depends on your personal circumstances.
I’m confused about how this works. Do you mean booking via BA Holidays? But you’ve already booked the flights.
I thought you had to have a flight+hotel/car package for it to be a “holiday” but it looks like BA Holidays gives you 1 Avios per £ when you just book a hotel on its own. Does this mean you can get BA Silver by merely booking a £7500 hotel stay?
If it earns 10k avios it’s a £10k stay? Then by “20% discount and 108,000 Avios” are you saying that it will charge you £8k + 108k avios – which sounds like a very good deal compared to paying £10k, provided you don’t want to use those avios on a flight.
But how much is the hotel on a direct booking, and at this price level going via Bon Vivant or similar may get you more perks or a better price.
I thought you had to have a flight+hotel/car package for it to be a “holiday” but it looks like BA Holidays gives you 1 Avios per £ when you just book a hotel on its own. Does this mean you can get BA Silver by merely booking a £7500 hotel stay?
Correct to the first part, so you do not earn TP’s on standalone hotels. Only the 1 per £ bonus Avios.
Therefore no to the final question.
I thought hotel bookings (and car hire) are now going to earn TPs under the new system?
I thought I’d read in the changes is that on a BAH, all spend counts, whereas with other booking types, there will be some deduction of taxes before TPs are calculated?
From the FAQ:
Yes. Club Members will continue to earn Tier Points on British Airways Holidays “Flight + Hotel” and “Flight + Car” bookings.
We’re also removing the minimum stay requirement, so more of your holidays can count towards your Tier Point balance.You must book through the Flight + Hotel or Flight + Car option and add the individual British Airways Club number for each Member prior to travel to earn Tier Points for your British Airways Holidays package.
So, no TP for hotel only bookings
Yes for a BAH you earn TP on the total spend, so including car or hotel and the taxes, but it has to include a flight to be a BAH.
Sorry – clarification on my post. Booking through Avios gives me 20% discount (not spending any Avios) AND also gives me 108,000 points.
BA gives me a dearer price but 10,000 bonus Avios and whatever else???
Hotel booking direct similar price to BA.Just not sure re status etc. what would you do???
You say this is for next Feb, and very expensive. That’s a long way away, and whilst I hope everything goes to plan, a lot can happen in that time.
Are the rates you are looking at flexible or non refundable? I’ve noticed a lot of hotels through Avios are non refundable, which i wouldn’t go for so far in advance.
Ignoring the points aspect what would the hotel cost if you booked direct?
And I’m with @freckles and only book refundaable rates this far out. Allows ot only for any changes you may need to make to the trip but also allows you to cancel and rebook if the price drops.
If the avios hotel price mirrors the hotel then you could always switch to booking via avios at a later date.
Refundabilty varies by hotel but is normally same on BA, Avios or say booking.com. Normally they offer similar terms to hotel direct. I personally would check all options, but agree this far out a small premium for refunabilty is worth it.
If it’s same terms then Avios is by far better deal, but I’d also check other options as well including specialist travel agents. But 20% cheaper and 108000 Avios can’t be scoffed at.
My bad for thinking hotel/car bookings earn TPs under the new system! However, I have a couple of BAH’s this year which don’t include flights, so I’ll make sure to check whether any earnings are awarded on these …
Definitely only book refundable rates. I (uncharacteristically) booked a few non-refundable stays when the last Amex offers were live then ended up not being able to make a couple of them. Some begging and grovelling resulted in the hotels agreeing to change the dates, but I’m not going to do it again, it’s not worth the aggravation.
Being naughty, i often book refundable far out , then as date approaches and it’s pretty certain, check for cheaper non refundable book and cancel
What’s naughty about that?! Hotels wouldn’t offer these terms if they didn’t expect people to take advantage of them.
I don’t feel at all guilty about cancelling and rebooking!
I do regular checks and cancel and rebook as appropriate.
I even swap cash for points and vice versa depending on what works best.
Good grief, I will cancel and rebook to save a tenner. If people won’t do that, can I come to their house and set fire to cash?
Good grief, I will cancel and rebook to save a tenner. If people won’t do that, can I come to their house and set fire to cash?
I’m talking hundreds
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