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After a year of business travel/stays, I’m a Melia Platinum member. It’s unlikely that I will travel as much these next 12 months and therefore unlikely I’ll maintain this membership level. Instead of seeing my member level go to waste, can anyone recommend any creative ways I can use my platinum membership to its fullest, i.e. are there any specific Melia hotels that you recommend or other ways I can use/transfer my points (not even sure if it’s possible for Melia)? Thank you.
I have transferred Melia points to Avios via Iberia in the past.
That’s great to know, thank you.
Melia points spending even a few months ago was very interesting and there were some real bargains. I’ve explained this elsewhere in the forum but the points prices for usually the lowest category rooms used to be set by hotel brand/class. Once sold out of those fixed rates, the points rates are based on cash price. The fixed prices (not based on cash) could be phenomenal value like eg palacio de los duques in Madrid being 35,000 points (would cost €175 to buy) vs £300 cash prices.
Now that seems pretty dead and the set rates now differ for hotels and are similar to the cash equivalent. The devaluation was unannounced and absolutely massive and probably would have had more coverage if Melia wasn’t still a bit niche. With the fact you have 20% off codes and get points for cash bookings, it is now fairly unlikely that I would use the hotel points for stays. But you should do the calculation if it’s a good use of points though.
The points are still very easy to use and I think you still get 0.5 euro cents per point at many hotels (so at the same rate you purchase at) when used on spend at the hotel for food/spa etc. This is where I’ll likely use up my balance.
For use of MeliáRewards Platinum status, you want to take advantage of the lounge/VIP area access this gives as well as the upgrades. Probably some of the places you see the most benefit are the cheaper 4 star Meliá hotels with Level lounges. I’ve stayed on some pretty cheap rates (£50-£60 a night) with decent room upgrade and lounge access, which is great.
I would also recommend Gran Melia Palacio de Los Duques. While it is a very expensive hotel, you are getting RedLevel benefits without paying for them and they come at an expensive premium. It is a wonderful hotel and the lounge has self service champagne. Makes for a lovely weekend break.Wow, thank you so much for the info and recommendation – much appreciated. I’ll definitely check out the GM Palacio. It looks superb.
Any time! I have stayed in a lot of the Meliás and most of the Gran Meliás so can probably give some info on what to expect in each.
Do be sure to check Palacio de los Duques in Madrid though. Confusingly another Gran Meliá (which is rumoured to be being rebranded to another Melia brand) is Palacio de Isora in Tenerife. It is also a nice hotel which was mentioned in another thread, but it is one I would say is poor use of platinum status as their upgrades seem to have been reduced and their lounge is the poorest I’ve seen in a Melia, offering only water/tea/coffee most of the time. Access to the RedLevel pool may be beneficial there in peak times, but in the 3 non peak times I have been it was always busier than other areas in their massive main pool.
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