Club Eurostar, which replaced Eurostar Frequent Traveller and Eurostar Plus Points, is now approaching its second birthday.

We don’t give it much coverage on Head for Points, mainly because it doesn’t run many promotions and we are generally news-driven.  It remains a good scheme, however, and I will occasionally make Membership Rewards transfers from American Express in order to redeem for a ticket.

Remember that free tickets with Club Eurostar are genuinely free – there are no taxes or charges!

Club Eurostar was formed from the merger of the two existing loyalty programmes.  Eurostar Frequent Traveller was theoretically aimed at frequent business travellers whilst Eurostar Plus Points (which only offered train gift vouchers as rewards) was aimed at the leisure market.

This was eventually seen as being too confusing, and a new hybrid scheme was put together.  Overall, they got it right.

How do you earn Club Eurostar points?

Club Eurostar is fully revenue based for earning, but not for redeeming.

For every £1 spent you earn 1 point.  Tickets priced in € are converted to £.

This is, in all cases, more generous than the previous Eurostar Frequent Traveller earning chart, especially for people on cheaper tickets.

How do you spend Club Eurostar points?

Whilst the earning rate went up, the cost of redemptions also went up.  The changes were modest, however, and there was one major improvement – the launch of ‘anytime’ redemptions.

Historically, Eurostar redemption availability was good unless you wanted to travel on peak time trains on a Friday night or at the weekend.

‘Anytime’ rewards get around this.  You can now redeem additional points to guarantee yourself a seat.  The additional premium is fairly modest, if you remember that British Airways wants a 100% premium to open up an Avios seat, and only Gold members can do that.

Club Eurostar also increased the number of seats available for standard rewards by giving everyone access to the extra tier of redemption seats which were reserved for Carte Blanche top tier members.

Upgrades and discounts

Club Eurostar allows you to upgrade your ticket with points.  This is only available between Standard and Standard Premier – you cannot upgrade from Standard Premier to Business Premier.

Upgrading a cash economy ticket costs just 500 points each way.  It can be done online, using the ‘upgrade journey’ function under ‘use points’.

I have been told by Eurostar, although I have never tested this, that there does NOT need to be redemption availability in Standard Premier in order to do this.  As long as there are cash tickets for sale, you can upgrade.

‘Points Pooling’ is now available

Whilst Club Eurostar does not have family accounts, it has something even more flexible – points pooling.  You can transfer points to anyone you want, although transfers inwards do not count towards status.

Here are the rules:

• You can share a maximum of 3,000 points in one go
• You can share a maximum of 6,000 points in each calendar year
• You can share a maximum of 3,000 points with one member in each calendar year
• You can share points with a maximum of four people in each calendar year
• You can receive a maximum of 3,000 points in each calendar year
• Points have to be shared in multiples of 100

What are the Club Eurostar tier levels?

Club Eurostar has three membership tiers instead of the two tiers on the Frequent Traveller programme.

Classique – your status when first joining

Avantage – after 400 points earned or 5 return trips in a membership year

Carte Blanche – after 1,800 points earned or 24 return trips in a membership year

Avantage lets you spend points with other railway partners (TGV, Thalys, Lyria) and the Club Eurostar shop.

Carte Blanche members can use the Business Premier and Rail Team lounges, get fast track access, have a dedicated Club Eurostar support team, can use the Business Premier ticket office and have a cab waiting at arrival.

American Express is a Club Eurostar transfer partner

You can transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Club Eurostar at the rate of 15:1.

You would need (1,500 x 15) 22,500 Amex points for an ‘anytime’ Standard return ticket.  At peak times (Friday nights out, Sunday nights back) this is potentially very good value.

Using 15,000 Membership Rewards for a ‘value’ return ticket looks like a weaker deal as – if you have complete freedom to pick and choose your trains – you can get return tickets for well under £100.  However, you should still be able to get around 0.65p or above per Amex point.

The sweet spot remains Standard Premier.  This gets you the same seat as Business Premier but a lower quality meal and no lounge access.  At 30,000 Amex points for a return ticket, this is good value.

Holders of The Platinum Card from American Express get FREE access to all Eurostar lounges, irrespective of ticket type.  This is restricted to UK-issued Platinum cards.  No guests are allowed, but if your partner has a free supplementary Platinum card then this will get them access.  At quiet times you may find the lounge staff allow you to bring in young children – we have got away with this in the past.

There are no taxes to pay on Club Eurostar redemptions.  Free means free.

Club Eurostar has an earn and burn partnership with Accor

Club Eurostar has a two-way partnership with Le Club AccorHotels, the hotel loyalty chain covering Ibis, Novotel, Mercure, Sofitel, Pullman etc.

You can transfer Accor points into Club Eurostar, as well as transferring Club Eurostar points into Le Club AccorHotels points.  The exchange rates are not fantastic, however – this article explains the Eurostar / Accor partnership in detail.

How is Club Eurostar looking, almost two years on?

Merging the two schemes into one was a sensible move, and it was done in a way which kept most people happy.

(To be fair, there were some issues over tier points when the scheme launched, with some people losing out due to the way points were carried over.  Anyone who contacted Eurostar had their case looked at and, in most cases, a status adjustment made.)

The current scheme is free to join (Eurostar Frequent Traveller previously required you to spend £250 / €285 on tickets before you could join) and earning points is straightforward.  More importantly, the ability to redeem for any train, any time – if cash seats are available – gives members a lot of confidence that they will be able to redeem for the seats they want.

Full details can be found on the Eurostar website here.

News in brief:

100 prizes to be won by British Airways American Express cardholders for #BA100

British Airways has launched a competition for all British Airways American Express cardholders to promote #BA100.

There are 100 prizes to be won – the full list is here – including two BA economy flights to anywhere you want to go.

Entering is easy:

You need to register for the competition via this link on ba.com

(Last night, registration was not working unless you were already logged in – otherwise you simply got looped back to the BA home page. Oddly no personal information is requested during registration even though the rules imply it is needed.)

After registering, you need to book a British Airways flight via ba.com by 30th September

You only get one entry per person

Before anyone asks, it is not clear if an Avios redemption, booked via ba.com, will count.

The prizes are being provided by British Airways, Marriott, The Wine Flyer, England Rugby, The Langham, ATG, Brewdog, Avis, Union Coffee and Avios Group. Nothing from American Express itself, oddly!

The text says that you need to use a BA Amex to pay for your qualifying BA flight, but this is NOT in the official rules – although for safety I would do it anyway.

The link to register is here.  I would do it now, just in case you do end up booking a flight in the next six weeks.

Club Eurostar makes it harder to qualify for top tier Carte Blanche status

Club Eurostar is announcing a change to its top-tier Carte Blanche status today.

From 23rd October, you will need to earn 2,400 points or make 32 return journeys in a membership year to qualify or requalify for Carte Blanche.

For comparison, the current figure is 1,800 points or 24 return journeys.  This represents a 33% increase in the travel or spend required to reach Carte Blanche status.

This change is seen as a way of reducing waiting time at the fast-track ticket gates and reducing overcrowding in the Business Premier lounges.  There will be no changes to tier benefits and no change to the qualification requirements for mid-tier Avantage status.

Whilst frustrating for members, you need to remember that as a revenue based programme (1 point per £1 spent) Club Eurostar needs to reset its qualification tiers on a regular basis to keep up with ticket price inflation.  I admit that this increase is substantially steeper than RPI, however.

I am guessing that this kicks in from your next full membership year although it is not clear at the moment.  You can find out more about how Club Eurostar works in this lengthy article we ran last week.

If you don’t think that you can make Carte Blanche under the new requirements, remember that you get free access to Eurostar lounges with The Platinum Card from American Express.  No guests are allowed but every Platinum cardholder is allowed to give out one free supplementary Platinum card and that person also qualifies for access.

You can also convert the 30,000 American Express Membership Rewards points you get for signing up into 2,000 Club Eurostar points – although they will not count for status.  On day to day spend, you will earn the equivalent of 1 Club Eurostar point for every £15 you spend.

Our full review of Amex Platinum is here if you want to find out more.

Following the huge success of the cocktail bar in its new Paris lounge (see our review here), Eurostar has opened another on the upper level of the London St Pancras lounge.

A press photo is below.

The menu has been designed by the London Cocktail Club and includes Lavender Dusk, a signature Eurostar cocktail created by the Business Premier culinary director Raymond Blanc.

Remember that Eurostar lounge access is a benefit of the American Express Platinum card, irrespective of your class of travel.  You cannot bring a guest although obviously your nominated supplementary Platinum cardholder can come in with you by showing that.

How to earn Club Eurostar points via UK credit cards

As a reminder, Club Eurostar does not have its own UK credit card.  However, you can earn Club Eurostar points by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.  These are:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold – 10,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

The Platinum Card from American Express – 30,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

American Express Rewards credit card – up to 5,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

Membership Rewards points convert at 15:1 into Club Eurostar points.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, so you earn the equivalent of 1 Club Eurostar point for every £15 you spend.

American Express Platinum also comes with a great Eurostar benefit – lounge access!  You can enter any Eurostar lounge, irrespective of your ticket type, simply by showing The Platinum Card at the desk.  No guests are allowed but you can get entry for your partner by issuing them with a FREE supplementary Amex Platinum card on your account.

News in brief:

Get double points on Eurostar trips

Club Eurostar launched a double points promotion yesterday as part of its partnership with Le Club AccorHotels.

As we covered here, you can transfer Accor points into Club Eurostar, and Club Eurostar points into Le Club AccorHotels.  I don’t recommend it, because you lose value, but the option is there.

As part of this partnership, Club Eurostar is offering double points on future trips to Le Club AccorHotels members.

Here are the rules:

You need to register here before 21st October

You need to book your Eurostar tickets between 7th October and 7th November

Your need to travel between 1st November and 31st December

There is no limit to the number of trips on which you can earn double Club Eurostar points.  For clarity, there is no requirement to convert the points you receive into Accor points.

You must be a Le Club AccorHotels member to take part – although you are not asked for your number – so you should sign up via the Accor website here if not already a member.

(PS.  There is a parallel version of this promotion, whereby members of Club Eurostar can earn triple points on upcoming Accor stays.  As it is only valid when you credit hotel stays to Club Eurostar it is very niche, but you can find out more on the Accor website here.)

Hyatt opens its first hotel in Ireland

Hyatt has opened the 234-room Hyatt Centric The Liberties Dublin, which is the first Hyatt branded hotel in Ireland.

It is based in The Liberties, which is apparently one of Dublin’s most historic and vibrant areas dating back to the 10th century.  It is within 10 minutes walk of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, St Patrick’s Cathedral, the Dublin Liberties Distillery and the Guinness Storehouse.

I was pleasantly impressed by the new Hyatt Centric in Madrid where I stayed last year (review), so I would have high hopes for this hotel.  For top-tier World of Hyatt members, the hotel has nine suites for potential upgrades including a Terrace View Suite overlooking the Dublin Mountains.

There is no swimming pool but there is a 24/7 fitness centre.

World of Hyatt members can earn 500 bonus points on stays until 31st December 2019.  No registration is required – full details are on the ‘new hotel bonuses’ page of hyatt.com here.

You can find out more about Hyatt Centric The Liberties Dublin on the website here.  As a redemption, it is 12,000 World of Hyatt points per night which is fair to decent value given the room rates – you should get more than my target value of 1p per Hyatt point.

Get an 80% bonus when you buy IHG Rewards Club points

Until 18th October, you can buy IHG Rewards Club – the InterContinental, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza etc scheme – points with a bonus of up to 80%.

The page to buy points is here.

This is not the most generous offer IHG has had, but on the positive side it kicks in with a purchase of just 7,000 points.  These offers sometimes have a higher threshold

I wouldn’t buy speculatively with an 80% bonus as I am fairly sure that a 100% bonus will be along in a few months.  If you need to top up your account in advance of a planned short-term redemption, however, you might as well do it whilst the bonus is on.

Club Eurostar launched a double points promotion yesterday as part of its partnership with Le Club AccorHotels.

As we covered here, you can transfer Accor points into Club Eurostar, and Club Eurostar points into Le Club AccorHotels.  I don’t recommend it, because you lose value, but the option is there.

As part of this partnership, Club Eurostar is offering double points on future trips to Le Club AccorHotels members.

Here are the rules:

You need to register here before 21st October

You need to book your Eurostar tickets between 7th October and 7th November

Your need to travel between 1st November and 31st December

There is no limit to the number of trips on which you can earn double Club Eurostar points.  For clarity, there is no requirement to convert the points you receive into Accor points.

You must be a Le Club AccorHotels member to take part – although you are not asked for your number – so you should sign up via the Accor website here if not already a member.

(PS.  There is a parallel version of this promotion, whereby members of Club Eurostar can earn triple points on upcoming Accor stays.  As it is only valid when you credit hotel stays to Club Eurostar it is very niche, but you can find out more on the Accor website here.)

How to earn Club Eurostar points via UK credit cards

As a reminder, Club Eurostar does not have its own UK credit card.  However, you can earn Club Eurostar points by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.  These are:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold – 10,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

The Platinum Card from American Express – 30,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

American Express Rewards credit card – 5,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

Membership Rewards points convert at 15:1 into Club Eurostar points.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, so you earn the equivalent of 1 Club Eurostar point for every £15 you spend.

American Express Platinum also comes with a great Eurostar benefit – lounge access!  You can enter any Eurostar lounge, irrespective of your ticket type, simply by showing The Platinum Card at the desk.  No guests are allowed but you can get entry for your partner by issuing them with a FREE supplementary Amex Platinum card on your account.

I have written numerous articles before about using American Express Membership Rewards points and a few pieces on how I value airline miles and hotel points.

I have pulled together both of these strands in this updated 2019 article on how to make the best use of your Amex Membership Rewards points.  It does NOT cover every Membership Rewards redemption but it does cover the bulk of the pseudo-cash, cash and travel options.

Membership Rewards sensibly chose to discontinue ‘physical’ redemptions this year.  You can no longer redeem your points for a toaster.  This is good news because the toaster was, unsurprisingly, poor value for your points.  If you still want a free toaster, redeem your points for an Amazon gift card!

The Amex Membership Rewards website is here if you want to look for yourself at what is available.

The three main ways to earn Membership Rewards points in the UK from a personal payment card are:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold – 10,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus, 1 point per £1 spent (double points on foreign and airline spend), no fee in Year 1

The Platinum Card from American Express – 30,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus, 1 point per £1 spent, £575 fee

American Express Rewards credit card – 5,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus, 1 point per £1 spent, no fee

The two most common business payment cards are American Express Business Gold (20,000 points sign-up bonus and 1 point per £1 spent) and American Express Business Platinum (40,000 points sign-up bonus and 1 point per £1 spent).

The complex new rules on whether you qualify for a sign-up bonus are explained in my article here.  Fundamentally, it is fairly easy to qualify for the bonus on Business Gold and Business Platinum (you cannot have held any Membership Rewards card for six months) and personal Platinum (you cannot have held a personal Green, Gold or Platinum for 24 months).  It is a lot harder to qualify for personal Gold or American Express Rewards (you cannot have held ANY personal Amex card for 24 months).

How I value Amex Membership Rewards points:

0.75p – 1.5p per point (my target value)

Airline miles.  My last piece on valuing Avios points is here and Amex points transfer into Avios at 1:1.  This is why the sign-up bonuses, such as 10,000 points for taking out the free (in Year 1) Amex Gold, are so valuable.

It is impossible to tie down a tighter range because of the number of different airline partners and the various ways (upgrade, long-haul, short-haul, economy, premium) you can redeem.  Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 to Avios, Virgin Atlantic, Emirates, Etihad, Singapore Airlines, Alitalia, Cathay Pacific, Delta, Finnair, Flying Blue and SAS.

My personal spreadsheet of the last 7.6m Avios I have redeemed shows that I got an average value of 1.2p.  This is based on what I would personally have been prepared to pay for the flights I took, however, which may be far different from what you would have been prepared to pay.  My best redemptions – such a recent 35,000 Miles & More miles business class one-way redemption on Lufthansa from the UK to Dubai – far exceeded this.

1p per point (my target value)

Radisson Rewards hotel transfers.  Radisson Rewards is probably the least understood of the American Express hotel partners, but their points can have real value.

I explain my valuation in this 2018 article and the conversion rate is a generous 1 Amex point to 3 Radisson Rewards points.  You need (70,000 / 3) 23,333 Amex points for the most expensive hotels and if you assume a £250 per night cash cost then 1p per point is realistic.  Radisson points are poorer value at the bottom end, with the cheapest UK Park Inn hotels now requiring 28,000 points.  Radisson Rewards in the UK covers Radisson Blu, Radisson RED, Radisson Edwardian, Park Inn and Park Plaza.

0.75p per point (my target)

Marriott Bonvoy hotel transfers.  Amex points convert at 2:3 into the new Marriott Bonvoy programme.  It is currently very easy to get 0.5p per Marriott Bonvoy point although, now that peak pricing has been introduced, I am keeping an eye on my valuation.

0.5p per Marriott Bonvoy point means, at a 2:3 exchange rate from Membership Rewards, you should be getting 0.75p per Membership Rewards point.  You now have a whopping 30 hotel brands inside the new combined Marriott / Starwood business to redeem at, including Le Meridien, Sheraton, Westin, W, Marriott, Autograph, Design Hotels, The Luxury Collection, The Ritz-Carlton, St Regis etc etc.

I have had some exceptionally good returns this year which have got me far more than 0.5p per Bonvoy point.  These include St Regis New York for 60,000 Bonvoy points (40,000 Amex points) when cash rates were $1,100 + tax, and the new The Langley country house hotel for just 35,000 points (23,300 Amex points).

0.66p per point (my target)

Hilton Honors hotel transfers.  Hilton has moved closer to a revenue-based redemption model in recent years, although you can get still outsized value at times.  Over time I have come to believe that 0.33p per point is a fair valuation for a Hilton Honors point.  The conversion rate is 1:2 to Hilton which is how I get to 0.66p per Amex point.  Hilton brands include Conrad, Waldorf Astoria and Hampton.

Club Eurostar points.  I value a Club Eurostar point at 10p, assuming you value a standard class return at £100 and a Standard Premier return at £200.  The 15:1 transfer rate into Club Eurostar means you are getting 0.66p per point.  I get a feeling that I undervalue Club Eurostar points, however, because they offer guaranteed availability – if there is a seat for cash, you can book it for points – which means that you are more likely to be redeeming onto peak trains which are peak priced for cash.

0.5p per point (guaranteed, as you are getting pseudo-cash)

Retailer gift cards – Starbucks, M&S, Harrods, SpaFinder, iTunes, car hire vouchers etc.  20,000 Amex points will get you a £100 shopping voucher, for example.

0.5p per point (guaranteed, as you are getting pseudo-cash, with potential for upside)

The value of a Nectar point, given that you can redeem Amex points for Nectar points at a 1:1 ratio.  Occasional Nectar redemptions offer better value than this, eg during a ‘double up’ promotion at Sainsbury you would get 1p.  Occasional targeted eBay promotions have let you convert Nectar points to eBay credit at 1p per point.  LNER has also been offering annual ‘double up’ promotions recently which got you a guaranteed 1p per point.

0.45p per point (guaranteed, as you are getting pseudo-cash)

Linking your Amex account to amazon.co.uk and paying for your purchases directly with points (more in this article).  This is a slightly silly option, however, as you can also redeem for Amazon gift cards and get 0.5p per point!

0.45p per point (guaranteed, as you are getting cash)

Redeeming for American Express statement credit. This is fall back option – there is no excuse for redeeming for anything worse than this ratio.

I hope this gives you some ideas for using your points for maximum value.

Learn more about the credit cards mentioned above

Here is the legally required interest rate information on the credit cards mentioned above, together with links to our detailed reviews:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £3,000 in three months – apply here – our American Express Gold review is here – representative APR 57.6% variable including fee (free in year 1) based on a notional £1200 credit limit, interest rate on purchases 22.9% variable

The Platinum Card from American Express – sign-up bonus of 30,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £4,000 in three months – apply here – our American Express Platinum review is here – this is a charge card which must be repaid in full each month

American Express Rewards – sign-up bonus of 5,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £2,000 in three months – apply here – our Amex Rewards review is here – representative APR 22.9% variable

American Express Gold Business – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £3,000 in three months – apply here – our Amex Gold Business review is here – this is a charge card which must be repaid in full each month

American Express Platinum Business – sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £6,000 in three months – apply here – our Amex Platinum Business review is here – this is a charge card which must be repaid in full each month

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points and do not consider interest rates, service levels or any impact on your credit history.  By recommending credit cards on this site, I am – technically – acting as a credit broker.  Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a credit broker.

What are Club Eurostar points worth?

I have pondered this question – without answering it – in a couple of recent articles, including this one from two weeks ago on which is the best American Express Membership Rewards points redemption.

Whenever I write about Club Eurostar I say that I value a point at 10p.  With my Eurostar travel picking up over the last couple of years, I started to wonder whether I was undervaluing them.

10p per point was fair, in my mind, based on my personal Eurostar travel.  However, my use of Eurostar is NOT typical.  When I go to Paris it is usually to review a hotel for HFP, and I take off-peak mid-morning trains out and mid-afternoon trains home.  These trains tend to be relatively cheap, even if booked at 2-3 weeks notice.

Most Head for Points readers do not use Eurostar like this.  Even if they take the same trains that I do when working – which will normally be a cash trip paid for by their employer – they are likely to want to redeem for a weekend break.

Here is the key point – Club Eurostar lets you redeem on ANY train.  You need more points for peak services, but as long as seats are bookable for cash you can book them for points.  There are also no taxes or charges to pay.  Free, for once, really means free.

Here is the pricing:

Standard class – 1,000 Club Eurostar points off-peak and 1,500 points peak, return

Standard Premier – 2,000 Club Eurostar points off-peak and 2,500 points peak, return

Business Premier – 3,000 Club Eurostar points at all times, return

Peak and off-peak is NOT driven by date.  There are a fixed number of tickets available for each service at off-peak pricing and then it switches to peak.

For the purposes of this analysis:

I am only looking at London to Paris, the most popular redemption option

I am only looking at Standard and Standard Premier.  In my mind, Standard Premier is the ‘sweet spot’ in terms of value – you get the same Business Premier seat and a three course meal with wine, but you don’t get fast track security, lounge access or a ‘premium meal’.  Many people are perfectly happy with Standard, however, especially if travelling as a couple (I think that there are no solo seats in Standard).

I looked at pricing for a weekend break to Paris booked one month, two months and four months ahead of travel.  As it is currently December, I would expect my prices to be lower than what you would find if I did the same exercise in May.  I am tempted to repeat it then to see the difference.

I took the same trains on each occasion, which I thought were the ideal ‘weekend break’ services:

18.01 from London St Pancras on Friday, arriving at 21.15 in Gare du Nord

19.13 from Paris Gare du Nord on Sunday, arriving at 19.39 in St Pancras

Here were the prices:

Standard:

One month ahead: £239 return

Two months ahead:  £151 return

Four months ahead:  £134 return

Standard Premier:

One month ahead: £239 return (not a typo – it was the same price as Standard!)

Two months ahead:  £299 return

Four months ahead:  £219 return

Let’s look at the value you are getting for your points on this basis, turning the prices above into ‘pence per Club Eurostar point’.

Standard:

One month ahead: 15.9p per Club Eurostar point (peak pricing)

Two months ahead:  15.1p per Club Eurostar point (off-peak pricing)

Four months ahead:  13.4p per Club Eurostar point (off-peak pricing)

Standard Premier:

One month ahead: 12.0p per Club Eurostar point (off-peak pricing)

Two months ahead:  13.3p per Club Eurostar point (off-peak out, peak return)

Four months ahead:  10.1p per Club Eurostar point (off-peak pricing)

Looking at these numbers, it looks like I could safely increase my Club Eurostar valuation to at least 12.5p for anyone happy to redeem in Standard for a long weekend in Paris.  For anyone who prefers Standard Premier, 10p still looks fair.

Assuming that you will get your Club Eurostar points by transferring American Express Membership Rewards points at 15:1, I should increase my ‘value of an Amex point when used for Eurostar’ from 0.66p to a range of 0.66p to 0.85p.

Of course, you need to factor in the fact that cash tickets would earn valuable Club Eurostar points back.

As with airline miles, you will find that your points have substantially more value if your lifestyle means that you are likely to need to travel at short notice.

How to earn Club Eurostar points via UK credit cards

As a reminder, Club Eurostar does not have its own UK credit card.  However, you can earn Club Eurostar points by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.  These are:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold – 10,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

The Platinum Card from American Express – 30,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

American Express Rewards credit card – 5,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

Membership Rewards points convert at 15:1 into Club Eurostar points.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, so you earn the equivalent of 1 Club Eurostar point for every £15 you spend.

American Express Platinum also comes with a great Eurostar benefit – lounge access!  You can enter any Eurostar lounge, irrespective of your ticket type, simply by showing The Platinum Card at the desk.  No guests are allowed but you can get entry for your partner by issuing them with a FREE supplementary Amex Platinum card on your account.  Note that this benefit only applies to personal Platinum cards issued in the UK (and possibly France, Belgium and the Netherlands).  It is not a benefit of the Business Platinum card.

News in brief:

Last call for Hilton’s 100% ‘buy points’ bonus … which I took up

There are a few hotel programme ‘buy points’ bonuses running at the moment.

The one finishing soon is Hilton Honors, which ends on Wednesday 19th.

You get a 100% bonus when you purchase 10,000+ points.

The Hilton ‘buy points’ page is here.

Regular readers of Head for Points will know that I value Hilton points at 0.33p each.  You are paying 0.40p (0.5 cents) here so the maths in general doesn’t work.

HOWEVER ….. there ARE real bargains to be had at peak periods.  I recently bought 140,000 points for my trip to the ITB travel show in Berlin in March.  Hotel rates in Berlin go through the roof during ITB.  I have always fancied giving the relatively new Waldorf Astoria Berlin a try – picture below – but €400 per night (£344, non-refundable) for my dates is a little steep.  $350 (£271, refundable), which is what it costs to buy 70,000 points, is also not a bargain but brings the cost down to the level of a very average 5-star during ITB.

You can buy Hilton Honors points via this link.  The offer ends on 19th February.

And with IHG Rewards Club …..

IHG Rewards Club is currently offering a bonus of 75% when you buy 20,000+ points.  The offer ends on 27th February. The page to buy points is here.

And Hyatt …..

World of Hyatt is currently offering a 25% discount when you buy World of Hyatt points.  The offer ends on 29th February.  You can buy via this link.

Hyatt is about to reduce the points cost of some key European hotels such as Park Hyatt Mallorca, Grand Hyatt Athens and Park Hyatt Hamburg.  I will cover this in more detail before the ‘buy points’ bonus ends.

British Airways slot sitting in action ….

Heathrow Airport has a ‘use it or lose it’ system for take off and landing slots.  This is, arguably, a sensible approach to take – with such huge demand for Heathrow slots, it wouldn’t be acceptable if airlines were allowed to sit on valuable slots without running flights.

In simple terms, an airline has to use a slot on 80% of dates during an airline ‘season’, which typically runs from March to October or October to March.  Failure to do so means an automatic surrender of the slot to be reallocated to another airline.

This means that British Airways has a problem.  As we covered last week, one of the two daily Hong Kong flights – the one which lands at Heathrow at 4.45am in a hugely valuable ‘curfew breaking’ landing slot – has been cancelled due to a collapse in demand.

Because the Government is still recommending travel to Hong Kong, unlike China, there are no extenuating circumstances.  The flight was cancelled purely for commercial reasons.  BA needs to land a flight at 4.45am on enough days to keep up the 80% average or the slot will be lost.

This is unfortunate news if you live in Athens.  The first daily flight from Athens usually departs Greece at 8am:

In early March, it now departs at 2.40am to land exactly at 4.45am in the Hong Kong slot 🙂

The only upside here is that no person in their right mind will want to fly this, which may lead to some good deals.  As Athens is a 160 tier point route in Club Europe, it may be possible to pop down to Athens after work and be back in the office, 160 tier points better off, by 7am the next day!

To be fair to BA, this is a better solution than flying a totally empty plane between, say, Gatwick and Heathrow at 4.30am just to fill the 4.45am landing slot.

Hat-tip to Flyertalk.

Earn double Club Eurostar points to the Netherlands

The good news for anyone travelling between London and Amsterdam or Rotterdam is that DIRECT Eurostar return trains are about to start running.

Eurostar has been running from London TO Amsterdam and Rotterdam for a while now.

However, due to on-going work constructing immigration facilities, you could not travel TO London directly.  Passengers from Amsterdam needed to get off the train in Brussels, clear passport control and get back onto a different train to complete their trip.  Passengers from Rotterdam had to take a Thalys train to Brussels and change.

This nonsense is about to end!

From 30th April, trains will run directly from Amsterdam to St Pancras.  From 18th May, you will also be able to travel directly from Rotterdam to St Pancras.

If you book a ticket THIS WEEK (the final date to book is 25th February) for travel to Amsterdam between 30th April and 30th June, or Rotterdam between 18th May and 30th June, you will receive double Club Eurostar points.

I value a Club Eurostar point at 10p-12.5p as this article explains.   With this offer, you will be earning 2 points per £1 spent which means a rebate of 20p-25p per £1.

You can also transfer Eurostar points to the Accor Live Limitless hotel loyalty scheme at 1:3 (minimum transfer of 500 Eurostar points).  As Accor points transfer 1:1 to Avios in Iberia Plus, you could earn 6 Avios per £1 spent on Eurostar via this offer.  We explained how the Accor / Eurostar partnership works in this article.

News in brief:

British Airways delays Boeing 787-10 introduction – again

As we covered here, British Airways is soon to receive its first Boeing 787-10 aircraft.  It is the larger but shorter-range version of the Boeing 787-9 and Boeing 787-8 which are already in the BA fleet.

The key difference for passengers is that the 787-10 is being delivered with the new Club Suite business class seat.  The rest of the Boeing 787 fleet is well down the list of aircraft to be refurbished because they are, of course, still relatively new.

The first 787-10 will go onto the Atlanta route.

This was originally timetabled for 25th February.   It then moved to 10th March, as we covered a few weeks ago.  This date has also been missed and, according to AirlineRoute, the aircraft is now due to enter service on 14th April.

This means that anyone who was expecting the new Club Suite on their 787-10 to Atlanta will now be stuck with the old Club World seat and a Boeing 787-9.  There is no change for First Class passengers as the same seat is being used on the 787-10 and 787-9.

The Thistle Heathrow puts up the cost of pod use to £6

One of the lesser known secrets of Heathrow Airport is that guests of the Thistle Heathrow hotel can use the driverless pods to get to Terminal 5.

The hotel backs on to the pod parking car park.  The Thistle has added a door into the car park, and for a fee they will give you the PIN code!  Once you’re in the car park, you can hop into a pod and be in Terminal 5 within a couple of minutes.  It also works in reverse, making the Thistle an easy hotel to reach if landing at Terminal 5.

We reviewd Thistle Heathrow here.  This is not a great hotel BUT using the driverless pods in the car park to take you directly to Terminal 5 is pretty cool.

We reviewed the driverless pods here, because we’re a bit sad.

I’m not sure when this happened, but the fee for using the pods has gone up from £5 to £6 per person.  The hotel claims that it passes the money on to Heathrow, so don’t blame them.

Full details of the Thistle Heathrow’s pod access can be found on the hotel website here.

Earn double or triple Club Eurostar points on all routes

Eurostar has launched a new bonus Club Eurostar points offer which could prove very lucrative.

If you book between 21st and 29th February, for travel in March, you will receive:

double Club Eurostar points in Standard Class and

triple Club Eurostar points in Standard Premier

I value a Club Eurostar point at 10p-12.5p as this article explains.   With this offer, you will be earning 3 points per £1 spent on Standard Premier which means a rebate of 30p-37.5p per £1.

This is VERY generous, of course.

You can also transfer Eurostar points to the Accor Live Limitless hotel loyalty scheme at 1:3 (minimum transfer of 500 Eurostar points).  As Accor points transfer 1:1 to Avios in Iberia Plus, you could earn 9 Avios per £1 spent on Eurostar Standard Premier tickets via this offer.  We explained how the Accor / Eurostar partnership works in this article.

This offer was circulated by email last week.  It does not appear to be targetted even though it is not showing on the Eurostar website.  Here are the rules:

You must be registered as a member of Club Eurostar to be eligible for this promotion

Bonus points can be earned on any Eurostar direct journey, “Any Belgian Station” tickets or combined Eurostar and TGV tickets on Eurostar routes, booked between 00:01 (GMT) on 21 February 2020 and 23:59 (GMT) on 29 February 2020 (“Booking Period”).

The promotion is valid for travel between 00:01 (GMT) on 1 March 2020 and 23:59 (GMT) on 31 March 2020 inclusive (“Travel Period”).

During the Booking Period, you will receive bonus points equal to the number of Club Eurostar points awarded for each journey booked in Standard class and bonus points equal to twice the number of Club Eurostar points awarded for each journey booked in Standard Premier class on any Eurostar service.

Bonus points earned as part of the promotion do not count towards your Club Eurostar club level.

Bonus points can be earned during the Booking Period by either providing your Club Eurostar membership number at the time of booking, or by adding your Club Eurostar membership number to your booking via your Club Eurostar account prior to travel (subject to your booking being within the Travel Period).

Bonus points will automatically be credited to your membership account and become redeemable for rewards when you check in.

You may only accumulate one set of points for any journey, regardless of the number of seats you have purchased.

Club Eurostar membership is for individuals, therefore you may only earn points for your own travel.

Eurostar has launched a new bonus Club Eurostar points offer which could prove very lucrative.

If you book between 21st and 29th February, for travel in March, you will receive:

double Club Eurostar points in Standard Class and

triple Club Eurostar points in Standard Premier

I value a Club Eurostar point at 10p-12.5p as this article explains.   With this offer, you will be earning 3 points per £1 spent on Standard Premier which means a rebate of 30p-37.5p per £1.

This is VERY generous, of course.

You can also transfer Eurostar points to the Accor Live Limitless hotel loyalty scheme at 1:3 (minimum transfer of 500 Eurostar points).  As Accor points transfer 1:1 to Avios in Iberia Plus, you could earn 9 Avios per £1 spent on Eurostar Standard Premier tickets via this offer.  We explained how the Accor / Eurostar partnership works in this article.

This offer was circulated by email last week.  It does not appear to be targetted even though it is not showing on the Eurostar website.  Here are the rules:

You must be registered as a member of Club Eurostar to be eligible for this promotion

Bonus points can be earned on any Eurostar direct journey, “Any Belgian Station” tickets or combined Eurostar and TGV tickets on Eurostar routes, booked between 00:01 (GMT) on 21 February 2020 and 23:59 (GMT) on 29 February 2020 (“Booking Period”).

The promotion is valid for travel between 00:01 (GMT) on 1 March 2020 and 23:59 (GMT) on 31 March 2020 inclusive (“Travel Period”).

During the Booking Period, you will receive bonus points equal to the number of Club Eurostar points awarded for each journey booked in Standard class and bonus points equal to twice the number of Club Eurostar points awarded for each journey booked in Standard Premier class on any Eurostar service.

Bonus points earned as part of the promotion do not count towards your Club Eurostar club level.

Bonus points can be earned during the Booking Period by either providing your Club Eurostar membership number at the time of booking, or by adding your Club Eurostar membership number to your booking via your Club Eurostar account prior to travel (subject to your booking being within the Travel Period).

Bonus points will automatically be credited to your membership account and become redeemable for rewards when you check in.

You may only accumulate one set of points for any journey, regardless of the number of seats you have purchased.

Club Eurostar membership is for individuals, therefore you may only earn points for your own travel.

How to earn Club Eurostar points via UK credit cards

As a reminder, Club Eurostar does not have its own UK credit card.  However, you can earn Club Eurostar points by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.  These are:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold – 10,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

The Platinum Card from American Express – 30,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

American Express Rewards credit card – 5,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

Membership Rewards points convert at 15:1 into Club Eurostar points.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, so you earn the equivalent of 1 Club Eurostar point for every £15 you spend.

American Express Platinum also comes with a great Eurostar benefit – lounge access!  You can enter any Eurostar lounge, irrespective of your ticket type, simply by showing The Platinum Card at the desk.  No guests are allowed but you can get entry for your partner by issuing them with a FREE supplementary Amex Platinum card on your account.

I get the occasional reader email asking if you can convert Club Eurostar points into British Airways Avios points.

The answer is yes, you can, but there are two snags:

it is a bit fiddly, and more importantly …..

you will lose a lot of value

How do you convert Eurostar points to Avios?

You won’t find anything on the Eurostar website about converting points to Avios.  This is because you need to move your points via an intermediary.

Eurostar only has one points partnership which allows direct transfers.  This is with Accor Live Limitless, the loyalty scheme for the Accor hotel group.  Accor owns Ibis, Novotel, Sofitel, Fairmont, Mercure and various other brands.

Full details are on the Accor website here.

Accor Live Limitless is a partner with British Airways Executive Club and Iberia Plus, so you can move points from Club Eurostar to Accor Live Limitless to Avios.

What are the transfer rates between Accor Live Limitless and Club Eurostar?

The snag with these transfer deals is that they are never generous.  Accor Live Limitless is a revenue based loyalty scheme, with 1 Accor point worth 2 Eurocents off a hotel room.  There is no redemption chart – the number of points needed for a free night is based on the cash cost of the room you want.

Because it is revenue based, it is hard for the Accor scheme to be too generous on transfers because it needs to make a profit on transfers in.

The transfer rate between Eurostar and Accor is:

500 Club Eurostar points gets you 1,500 Accor Live Limitless points

You need a minimum of 1,000 Club Eurostar points to convert them to Avios because of the Accor rules we explain below.

What are the transfer rates between Accor Live Limitless and Avios?

Here’s the interesting thing.

For weird historical reasons, Accor has a different deal with Iberia Plus and British Airways.

Accor Live Limitless points transfer at 1:1 into Iberia Plus (3,000 point minimum) – see the Accor website here 

Accor Live Limitless points transfer at 2:1 into British Airways Executive Club (4,000 point minimum) – see the Accor website here 

Only an idiot would transfer from Accor to British Airways instead of using Iberia Plus.

The smart thing to do is to open an Iberia Plus account, transfer your Accor points into Iberia Plus, and then use ‘Combine My Avios’ to move your Avios from Iberia Plus to British Airways Executive Club.

This HFP article explains how ‘Combine My Avios’ works.

Is it worth moving Club Eurostar points to Avios?

On the face of it, no.

I value a Club Eurostar point at 10p-12p as this article explains.

I value an Avios point at 1p, although you can often do better as this article explains.

So …. this is how it goes:

1,000 Eurostar points (value £100) gets you 3,000 Accor points (worth €60 of hotel rooms) gets you 3,000 Avios in Iberia Plus (worth £30)

The value gets worse at each level:

You get more value for your Eurostar points using them for train tickets than for Accor hotel rooms

You get more value for your Accor points using them for hotel rooms than for Avios points in Iberia Plus

Of course, life isn’t always that simple.

Perhaps you have Club Eurostar points you won’t use and will expire?   In this case, 3,000 Accor or Avios points is better than nothing.  You can always stop Club Eurostar points expiring by transfering a small number of American Express Membership Rewards points though.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, it is always good to have more redemption options.  This one involves a noticeable loss of value, on my valuations, but you may have a different view than me on what your Eurostar points are worth.

You can find out more about the Accor / Eurostar partnership on the Accor Live Limitless website here.

How to earn Club Eurostar points via UK credit cards

As a reminder, Club Eurostar does not have its own UK credit card.  However, you can earn Club Eurostar points by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.  These are:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold – 10,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

The Platinum Card from American Express – 30,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

American Express Rewards credit card – 5,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

Membership Rewards points convert at 15:1 into Club Eurostar points.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, so you earn the equivalent of 1 Club Eurostar point for every £15 you spend.

American Express Platinum also comes with a great Eurostar benefit – lounge access!  You can enter any Eurostar lounge, irrespective of your ticket type, simply by showing The Platinum Card at the desk.  No guests are allowed but you can get entry for your partner by issuing them with a FREE supplementary Amex Platinum card on your account.

Accor Live Limitless has a little known partnership with Club Eurostar.

As there are very few ways of earning Club Eurostar points apart from using their services, I thought it was worth a closer look.  You can convert American Express Membership Rewards points to Club Eurostar at the rate of 15:1 but this is pretty much it in terms of partner earning options.

How do you earn Club Eurostar points with Accor Live Limitless?

As the biggest hotel group in France and with a big UK presence, Accor was a natural fit for Club Eurostar’s first major travel partnership.

You can move Accor Live Limitless points to Club Eurostar, and Club Eurostar points to Accor Live Limitless.

Full details are on the Accor website here.

But should you do it?

Accor is the only airline or hotel group which is really pushing the concept of two-way transfer partnerships.  You have been able to transfer Finnair points to and from Accor for years, and Qatar Airways was added more recently.

In a roundabout way, this is a way of converting Finnair or Qatar Airways miles into Avios or many other airlines, using Accor Live Limitless as an intermediary.  You lose a LOT of value doing this though – it would make more sense to move the points into Accor and spend them on a hotel.

The snag with these transfer deals is that they are never generous.  Accor Live Limitless is a revenue based loyalty scheme, with 1 Accor point worth 2 Eurocents off a hotel room.  There is no redemption chart – the number of points needed for a free night is based on the cash cost of the room you want.

Because it is revenue based, it is hard for the scheme to be too generous on transfers because it needs to make a profit both on transfers in and transfers out.

What are the transfer rates between Accor Live Limitless and Club Eurostar?

You can see what I mean by looking at the asymmetrical Accor rates to and from Club Eurostar:

500 Club Eurostar points gets you 1,500 Accor Live Limitless points

4,000 Accor Live Limitless points gets you 350 Club Eurostar points

Point transfers do NOT count towards status in either scheme.

Let’s try to put a cash value on this.  I decided in this article that Club Eurostar points are worth 10p – 12p.  Let’s stick with 10p to be safe, although on a short-notice trip you can do a lot better.

Going back to our original trade:

500 Eurostar points (value £50) gets you 1,500 Accor points (value €30)

4,000 Accor points (value €80) gets you 350 Eurostar points (value £35)

This is clearly a bad trade whichever way you do it.

Of course, life isn’t always that simple.

Perhaps you have a handful of Club Eurostar points you won’t use and will expire?   In this case, 1,500 Accor points is better than nothing.  You can always stop Club Eurostar points expiring by transfering a small number of American Express Membership Rewards points though.

If you have 4,000 Accor Live Limitless points sitting around you could convert to 4,000 Avios in Iberia Plus (NOT in BA Executive Club, which has a worse rate).  Even better, you would get €80 off a hotel room.  Converting to Eurostar is probably equally as good as moving to Avios in Iberia Plus, but you are losing almost 50% of the value compared to booking a room.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, it is always good to have more redemption options.  This one involves a noticeable loss of value, on my valuations, but you may have a different view than me on what your Eurostar points are worth.

You can find out more about this new partnership on the Accor Live Limitless website here.

How to earn Club Eurostar points via UK credit cards

As a reminder, Club Eurostar does not have its own UK credit card.  However, you can earn Club Eurostar points by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.  These are:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold – 10,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

The Platinum Card from American Express – 30,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

American Express Rewards credit card – 5,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

Membership Rewards points convert at 15:1 into Club Eurostar points.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, so you earn the equivalent of 1 Club Eurostar point for every £15 you spend.

American Express Platinum also comes with a great Eurostar benefit – lounge access!  You can enter any Eurostar lounge, irrespective of your ticket type, simply by showing The Platinum Card at the desk.  No guests are allowed but you can get entry for your partner by issuing them with a FREE supplementary Amex Platinum card on your account.

Whilst Club Eurostar does not have family accounts, it has something even more flexible – points pooling.  You can transfer points to anyone you want, although transfers inwards do not count towards status.

Here are the rules:

• You can share a maximum of 3,000 points in one go
• You can share a maximum of 6,000 points in each calendar year
• You can share a maximum of 3,000 points with one member in each calendar year
• You can share points with a maximum of four people in each calendar year
• You can receive a maximum of 3,000 points in each calendar year
• Points have to be shared in multiples of 100

To transfer your points, simple log in at the Eurostar website and look for ‘points pooling’ in the Club Eurostar section.

How to earn Club Eurostar points via UK credit cards

As a reminder, Club Eurostar does not have its own UK credit card.  However, you can earn Club Eurostar points by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.  These are:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold – 20,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus (20,000 points is a special offer until 29th June 2020)

The Platinum Card from American Express – 30,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

American Express Rewards credit card – 5,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

Membership Rewards points convert at 15:1 into Club Eurostar points.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, so you earn the equivalent of 1 Club Eurostar point for every £15 you spend.

American Express Platinum also comes with a great Eurostar benefit – lounge access!  You can enter any Eurostar lounge, irrespective of your ticket type, simply by showing The Platinum Card at the desk.  No guests are allowed but you can get entry for your partner by issuing them with a FREE supplementary Amex Platinum card on your account.

Is it possible to transfer hotel loyalty points to a friend or partner?  Can you transfer the points for free?  In most cases, the answer is ‘Yes’.

Airline schemes are not like this.  Most frequent flyer schemes allow you to pay to transfer miles to a friend but it is usually a terrible deal.

The price is often only modestly cheaper than buying miles outright but no new miles are being created. You are paying a high fee simply for the loyalty programme to move them from one account to another!

Here is British Airways pricing for Avios transfers.  Transferring 13,000 Avios points from yourself to a friend will cost a crazy £100 unless you are a Gold member.  This is especially crazy given that:

a) you can issue a reward ticket for someone else from your account, and

b) you could create a Household Account for free and pool your miles that way

In general, you should think long and hard before paying to transfer airline miles to someone else.

With the hotel loyalty schemes, it is a totally different game.

How can you transfer hotel loyalty points to someone else?

Most of the hotel schemes make it very easy to transfer points around – and you often don’t need to pay.  Here are some examples:

Accor Live Limitless

Accor points cannot be transferred.

Best Western Rewards

The FAQ on the UK website says:

“Yes. Points can be transferred between accounts that share the same physical address. To arrange a point transfer, please contact our Rewards Team at rewards@bestwestern.co.uk”

Hilton Honors

Hilton used to make a nominal charge ($12.50 per 5,000 points) to make transfers.  This has now changed – points pooling, as they call it, is now FREE.  You can send up to 500,000 points, albeit across no more than six transactions, and receive up to 2 million points per calendar year.

It works well.  Every time that my wife has a Hilton stay I sweep the points across to my account.  You can find out more on this page of the Hilton Honors website.

IHG Rewards Club

You can transfer points to anyone else for a flat fee of $5 per 1,000.  I did this once to top up my Mum’s account when she was 1,000 points short of a redemption – in this scenario it was $5 well spent (buying 1,000 would have been $13.50).  The link to arrange transfers is here.

Marriott Bonvoy

Marriott Bonvoy allows you to transfer your points to anyone.  Full details are here.

There is a cap of 100,000 points per year.  There is no fee for the transfer but you need to call Marriott to get it done.  It cannot be done online.

Radisson Rewards

Radisson Rewards used to be very generous – you could make any transfer, to anyone, for free. Whilst that is no longer the case, it is still pretty good.

If you do NOT have elite status (remember that Amex Platinum comes with free Radisson Rewards Gold status) you can transfer points to anyone who has shared your address for at least 30 days, as long as both accounts are at least a year old.  Details are on the website here (see 3d).

If you have status, you can still transfer points to anyone for free.

World of Hyatt

Hyatt points can be transferred to any other member for FREE by filling in this PDF form. You can only make a transfer once every 30 days. In theory you are meant to redeem them as soon as the transfer is complete but my understanding is that this is not enforced.

There is one unpublished rule, which I came a cropper with a couple of years ago.  Both the giving and receiving accounts must have had a qualifying Hyatt stay during the previous 12 months.  This is what it means when the PDF form says that both accounts must be ‘active’.

PS.  It is worth knowing that Club Eurostar also lets you transfer points to anyone for free within annual limits.  We wrote this article on how to transfer Club Eurostar points to another person.

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Promos’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Eurostar has announced that it is dropping its direct Summer service to Lyon, Avignon and Marseille.

What was more surprising is that, as well as cancelling all trips for 2020, it has also wiped the schedule for Summer 2021.

It’s obviously not the end of the world if you had planned to visit any of these cities by train.  TGV connections are available in both Lille and Paris, albeit with additional travel time required, and your connection is protected if you book a through-ticket from the Eurostar website.

Existing ticket holders can be rebooked, for free, onto a TGV connection for no additional fare.  You will need to pay any fare difference if you want to change your travel date during rebooking, however.  Refunds and Eurostar vouchers are also available.

You can find out more on the Eurostar travel agents website here.

How to earn Club Eurostar points via UK credit cards

As a reminder, Club Eurostar does not have its own UK credit card.  However, you can earn Club Eurostar points by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.  These are:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold – 10,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

The Platinum Card from American Express – 30,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

American Express Rewards credit card – 5,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

Membership Rewards points convert at 15:1 into Club Eurostar points.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, so you earn the equivalent of 1 Club Eurostar point for every £15 you spend.

American Express Platinum also comes with a great Eurostar benefit – lounge access!  You can enter any Eurostar lounge, irrespective of your ticket type, simply by showing The Platinum Card at the desk.  No guests are allowed but you can get entry for your partner by issuing them with a FREE supplementary Amex Platinum card on your account.

News in brief:

American Express launches luxury shopping offers

A raft of American Express cashback offers for high-end retailers have appeared on cards. 

Some, all or none of these offers will appear in the ‘Offers’ section of your online American Express statement.  Remember that you need to click ‘Save to Card’ to register – participation is not automatic.

These are what we have across the cards in our house:

£30 back on £150 spend at Harrods, valid to 23rd August

£200 back on £1,000 spend at Burberry, valid to 22nd September

£100 back on £400 spend at luxury City of London restaurant and hotel complex The Ned, valid to 13th September

£20 back on £100 spend at Gordon Ramsay Restaurants (Plane Food at T5 pictured below), valid to 10th October

£40 back on £160 spend at Averys Wine Merchants, valid to 16th August 

£25 back on £100 spend at Clos 19 (champagne and fine wine), valid to 9th August

£200 back on £500 spend at Anoushka jewellery, valid to 24th August

Hilton launches hotel discounts for UK ‘key workers’

Hilton has joined the list of companies offering discounts for ‘key workers’ during coronavirus.

You need to book via this special link.

For bookings in Europe, Middle East and Africa, it is valid for:

“professionals within Health and Social care, Education and Childcare, Key Public Services, Local and National Government, Military, Food and other necessary goods, Public safety and National security, Transport, Utilities, Communication and Financial Services. You must be a Hilton Honors member to book this rate.”

ID will be required at check in.

I’m not sure when Financial Services workers became ‘key workers’, but it does mean our City of London readership can jump in – as indeed can my wife!

Thanks to Phil for this.

Eurostar cancels its dedicated ski services

Last month, we reported that Eurostar has cancelled its services to the south of France.  These were the trains heading to Lyon, Avignon and Marseille.

As well as cancelling the services for 2020, Eurostar has already cancelled them for 2021 too.

The axe has now fallen on the Winter ski services too.

The Eurostar website now says:

“IMPORTANT: We unfortunately won’t be running our ski trains during the 2020-21 winter season. It’s been an absolute pleasure to take thousands of travellers direct from St Pancras to the Alps over the years. But in the wake of the coronavirus and a challenging travel market, we’ve had to make some changes to our services, focusing on our main routes with the highest demand.

You’ll be able to book an indirect trip to the Alps on our website from October. This would mean taking a Eurostar train to France and changing onto an SNCF train for the rest of the journey.

Eurostar is a member of Railteam, which means travellers can benefit from the ‘Hop on the next available train’ feature should they experience any delays or cancellations on their journey, providing peace of mind when connecting between trains.”

News in brief:

Aspire’s Luton Airport lounge due to open on 4th August

The Aspire lounge as London Luton Airport is due to re-open on 4th August.

The good news is that the lounge has been completely refurbished.  It originally closed in late January, with a view to re-opening in mid-March.  Clearly that wasn’t going to happen.

Scattered throughout this ‘Bits’ article are a few ‘artist impressions’ of how it is meant to look.  We can hopefully take a look over the next few weeks.

It will be accessible with Priority Pass (buy one here, or get one free with American Express Platinum) or Lounge Club (get two free passes with American Express Gold).

Eurostar lounge at London St Pancras due to re-open on 3rd August

Meanwhile, Eurostar has confirmed to a HFP reader that it is re-opening its lounges on Monday 3rd August.

Our review of the London St Pancras Eurostar lounge is here – it has since gained a cocktail bar on the upper level.  Our latest review of the Paris Eurostar lounge is here.  There are also lounges at Brussels and Ebsfleet.

Access is available to Business Premier passengers, Eurostar Carte Blanche cardholders or anyone holding an American Express Platinum charge card (no guests allowed, although your supplementary Platinum cardholder can get in by showing their own card).

Thanks to Ryan for this.

Aer Lingus to open six ex-Flybe routes from Belfast City Airport

Aer Lingus Regional, operated via a Stobart Air franchise, has announced six new routes from Belfast City Airport.

Starting on a phased basis from 27th August, Aer Lingus will fly from Belfast City to:

• Edinburgh (27th August)
• Exeter (28th August)
• Manchester (14th September)
• Birmingham (14th September)
• East Midlands (1st October)
• Leeds Bradford (1st October)

These new routes will pick up most of the slack left by the demise of Flybe.

Aer Lingus will eventually operate over 200 weekly flights to and from Belfast City.  Stobart Air will base five ATR72-600 turboprop aircraft at the airport.

All flights will earn Avios and will also be available for redemption.  The slightly confusing ways of spending Avios on Aer Lingus are outlined in this HFP article.

Separately, KLM is due to restart Belfast City to Amsterdam on 3rd August.

Club Eurostar is making some changes to how it operates in response to the hit to the business caused by coronavirus.

The good news, from a loyalty perspective, is that Club Eurostar will be extending your status by five months.  Your new end date should already be showing on your Eurostar account.  Five months is oddly specific but I imagine that Eurostar doesn’t want to be too generous now that travel between the UK and France is beginning to re-open.

The bad news – no more truly free redemptions

The other big change affects the cost of redemption trips.

One key selling point of Club Eurostar is that a free ticket is GENUINELY a free ticket.  There are no taxes and no charges to pay.  As long as you have enough points, your trip won’t cost you a penny.

(You can imagine airline loyalty executives shaking their heads here and saying ‘these people are crazy’!)

Those days are now numbered.

From 6th October, you will be charged a ‘network charge’ of £16 per person, per one-way journey, on any booking paid in full with points.  This is – clearly – a devaluation, as the points necessary for a redemption remain the same.

The ‘network charge’ is a flat-rate and not tied to your class of travel, status or destination.  The fee is the same whether you are in Standard or Business Premier, and whether you are travelling to Paris or Amsterdam.  There is no discount for children.

On a round-trip, you are looking at a fee of £32 per person.  This is roughly in line with the taxes and fees British Airways charges on a Reward Flight Saver redemption in Euro Traveller.

Regarding the changes, Club Eurostar writes:

“We know it’s disappointing news and hope you understand that we’ve had to make some tough decisions recently. The introduction of this fee is a necessary change that will allow us to continue offering tickets in exchange for points. It’s also an approach that is in keeping with the rest of the travel industry.”

One small compensatory measure is that Club Eurostar will be introducing a regular prize draw for Avantage and Carte Blanche members.  It’s not clear how this will work or how many prizes will be available, but Club Eurostar says that it will include ‘free trips and upgrades’.

Lounges, fast-track and onboard catering developments

Club Eurostar used its email to members today to update them on other announcements too.

As we reported earlier this week, the Eurostar lounges have now re-opened.  Don’t forget you get free access if you have the American Express Platinum card.  Alternatively, you need to be travelling in Business Premier or have Carte Blanche status.

Fast-track lanes are due to re-open “soon”.

Onboard catering will resume from 7th September.

Onboard wifi will be limited to Business Premier and Standard Premier passengers.  It is not clear why it is blocked for Standard Class passengers.

Conclusion

It’s hard to spin these changes positively – the introduction of a ‘network charge’ is a clear devaluation of Club Eurostar.

It is an odd time to introduce these changes and it will come as a blow to some of Club Eurostar’s most loyal members.  At a time when travel is low, it is not as if Club Eurostar members are costing the company money by displacing potential cash customers.

A few months ago, Club Eurostar removed ‘merchandise’ redemptions from its site.  The only external partner is now Accor Live Limitless, where 500 Club Eurostar points gets you 1,500 Accor hotel points, worth €30.  The lack of good third party redemptions means that Club Eurostar can impose its ‘network fee’ without the risk of seeing points redeemed on expensive (for Eurostar) partners.

We will take a look at how these changes impact our valuation of Club Eurostar points over the next few days.  It is likely that Club Eurostar transfers from American Express Membership Rewards – done at a 15:1 conversion rate – will now look poor value in Standard, but let’s see how the maths looks.

What are Club Eurostar points worth?

I had pondered this question – without answering it – in various articles, including this one on which is the best American Express Membership Rewards points redemption.

Back in December 2019, I finally sat down and looked – objectively – at a number of different Club Eurostar redemptions in an attempt to accurately work out what a point was worth.  Last week, however, Club Eurostar announced that all return redemptions booked from October 2020 would incur a fee of £32.

I decided to rework my calculations to reflect the new £32 fee.

Because Eurostar is not currently running a normal service, with normal pricing, I have used the same sample prices that I used back in December 2019.  I am expecting that Eurostar reverts back to this pricing as coronavirus eases.

How much are Club Eurostar points worth?

Whenever I write about Club Eurostar I have said, historically, that I value a point at 10p.

10p per point always seemed fair, in my mind, based on my personal Eurostar travel.  However, my use of Eurostar is NOT typical.  When I go to Paris it is usually to review a hotel for HFP, and I take off-peak mid-morning trains out and mid-afternoon trains home.  These trains tend to be relatively cheap, even if booked at 2-3 weeks notice.

Most Head for Points readers do not use Eurostar like this.  Even if they take the same trains that I do when working – which will normally be a cash trip paid for by their employer – they are likely to want to redeem for a weekend break.

Here is the key point – Club Eurostar lets you redeem on ANY train.  You need more points for peak services, but as long as seats are bookable for cash you can book them for points.  

Here is the pricing:

Standard class – 1,000 Club Eurostar points off-peak and 1,500 points peak, return

Standard Premier – 2,000 Club Eurostar points off-peak and 2,500 points peak, return

Business Premier – 3,000 Club Eurostar points at all times, return

Peak and off-peak is NOT driven by date.  There are a fixed number of tickets available for each service at off-peak pricing and then it switches to peak.

For the purposes of this analysis:

I am only looking at London to Paris, the most popular redemption option

I am only looking at Standard and Standard Premier.  In my mind, Standard Premier is the ‘sweet spot’ in terms of value – you get the same Business Premier seat and a three course meal with wine, but you don’t get fast track security, lounge access or a ‘premium meal’.  Many people are perfectly happy with Standard, however, especially if travelling as a couple (I think that there are no solo seats in Standard).

Last December, I looked at pricing for a weekend break to Paris booked one month, two months and four months ahead of travel.  As the exercise was done in December, prices may have been lower than what you would find if I did the same exercise in another month.  I have not used current pricing as I am not sure that this is reflective of ‘normal’ rates.

I took the same trains on each occasion, which I thought were the ideal ‘weekend break’ services:

18.01 from London St Pancras on Friday, arriving at 21.15 in Gare du Nord

19.13 from Paris Gare du Nord on Sunday, arriving at 19.39 in St Pancras

Here were the prices:

Standard:

One month ahead: £239 return

Two months ahead:  £151 return

Four months ahead:  £134 return

Standard Premier:

One month ahead: £239 return (not a typo – it was the same price as Standard!)

Two months ahead:  £299 return

Four months ahead:  £219 return

Let’s look at the value you are getting for your points on this basis, turning the prices above into ‘pence per Club Eurostar point’.  I have adjusted the pricing by £32 to reflect the new redemption fee, which begins in October 2020.

Standard:

One month ahead: 13.8p per Club Eurostar point (peak pricing)

Two months ahead:  11.9p per Club Eurostar point (off-peak pricing)

Four months ahead:  10.2p per Club Eurostar point (off-peak pricing)

Standard Premier:

One month ahead: 10.3p per Club Eurostar point (off-peak pricing)

Two months ahead:  11.9p per Club Eurostar point (off-peak out, peak return)

Four months ahead:  9.4p per Club Eurostar point (off-peak pricing)

Here is how the value per Club Eurostar point has changed due to the £32 redemption fee:

Standard:

One month ahead: was 15.9p, now 13.8p

Two months ahead:  was 15.1p, now 11.9p

Four months ahead:  was 13.4p, now 10.2p

Standard Premier:

One month ahead:  was 12.0p, now 10.3p

Two months ahead:  was 13.3p, now 11.9p

Four months ahead:  was 10.1p, now 9.4p

As you can see, the value of Standard redemptions has fallen more sharply than the value of Standard Premier redemptions.  This isn’t surprising, since the £32 fee is proportionately smaller when compared to the cash cost of Standard Premier.

It used to be that Standard redemptions were better value Club Eurostar redemptions than Standard Premier.  This has now changed.

Whilst there is still a small difference in our sample, I would now value Club Eurostar points at 10p irrespective of whether you redeem in Standard or Standard Premier.

In the past, I valued Standard Premier at 10p and Standard at 12.5p.  I know that, strictly speaking, the Standard Premier valuation should come down but there was a bit of flab in this number before.  I am happy to keep it at 10p per point but with the caveat that the opportunity to outperform is lower than it was.

Assuming that you will get your Club Eurostar points by transferring American Express Membership Rewards points at 15:1, I should reduce my ‘value of an Amex point when used for Eurostar’ from 0.66p to 0.85p to a flat 0.66p.

Of course, you need to factor in the fact that cash tickets would earn valuable Club Eurostar points back.

As with airline miles, you will find that your points have substantially more value if your lifestyle means that you are likely to need to travel at short notice.

How to earn Club Eurostar points via UK credit cards

As a reminder, Club Eurostar does not have its own UK credit card.  However, you can earn Club Eurostar points by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.  These are:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold – 10,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

The Platinum Card from American Express – 30,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

American Express Rewards credit card – 5,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

Membership Rewards points convert at 15:1 into Club Eurostar points.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, so you earn the equivalent of 1 Club Eurostar point for every £15 you spend.

American Express Platinum also comes with a great Eurostar benefit – lounge access!  You can enter any Eurostar lounge, irrespective of your ticket type, simply by showing The Platinum Card at the desk.  No guests are allowed but you can get entry for your partner by issuing them with a FREE supplementary Amex Platinum card on your account.  Note that this benefit only applies to personal Platinum cards issued in the UK (and possibly France, Belgium and the Netherlands).  It is not a benefit of the Business Platinum card.

What are Club Eurostar points worth?

I have pondered this question – without answering it – in a couple of recent articles, including this one from two weeks ago on which is the best American Express Membership Rewards points redemption.

Whenever I write about Club Eurostar I say that I value a point at 10p.  With my Eurostar travel picking up over the last couple of years, I started to wonder whether I was undervaluing them.

10p per point was fair, in my mind, based on my personal Eurostar travel.  However, my use of Eurostar is NOT typical.  When I go to Paris it is usually to review a hotel for HFP, and I take off-peak mid-morning trains out and mid-afternoon trains home.  These trains tend to be relatively cheap, even if booked at 2-3 weeks notice.

Most Head for Points readers do not use Eurostar like this.  Even if they take the same trains that I do when working – which will normally be a cash trip paid for by their employer – they are likely to want to redeem for a weekend break.

Here is the key point – Club Eurostar lets you redeem on ANY train.  You need more points for peak services, but as long as seats are bookable for cash you can book them for points.  There are also no taxes or charges to pay.  Free, for once, really means free.

Here is the pricing:

Standard class – 1,000 Club Eurostar points off-peak and 1,500 points peak, return

Standard Premier – 2,000 Club Eurostar points off-peak and 2,500 points peak, return

Business Premier – 3,000 Club Eurostar points at all times, return

Peak and off-peak is NOT driven by date.  There are a fixed number of tickets available for each service at off-peak pricing and then it switches to peak.

For the purposes of this analysis:

I am only looking at London to Paris, the most popular redemption option

I am only looking at Standard and Standard Premier.  In my mind, Standard Premier is the ‘sweet spot’ in terms of value – you get the same Business Premier seat and a three course meal with wine, but you don’t get fast track security, lounge access or a ‘premium meal’.  Many people are perfectly happy with Standard, however, especially if travelling as a couple (I think that there are no solo seats in Standard).

I looked at pricing for a weekend break to Paris booked one month, two months and four months ahead of travel.  As it is currently December, I would expect my prices to be lower than what you would find if I did the same exercise in May.  I am tempted to repeat it then to see the difference.

I took the same trains on each occasion, which I thought were the ideal ‘weekend break’ services:

18.01 from London St Pancras on Friday, arriving at 21.15 in Gare du Nord

19.13 from Paris Gare du Nord on Sunday, arriving at 19.39 in St Pancras

Here were the prices:

Standard:

One month ahead: £239 return

Two months ahead:  £151 return

Four months ahead:  £134 return

Standard Premier:

One month ahead: £239 return (not a typo – it was the same price as Standard!)

Two months ahead:  £299 return

Four months ahead:  £219 return

Let’s look at the value you are getting for your points on this basis, turning the prices above into ‘pence per Club Eurostar point’.

Standard:

One month ahead: 15.9p per Club Eurostar point (peak pricing)

Two months ahead:  15.1p per Club Eurostar point (off-peak pricing)

Four months ahead:  13.4p per Club Eurostar point (off-peak pricing)

Standard Premier:

One month ahead: 12.0p per Club Eurostar point (off-peak pricing)

Two months ahead:  13.3p per Club Eurostar point (off-peak out, peak return)

Four months ahead:  10.1p per Club Eurostar point (off-peak pricing)

Looking at these numbers, it looks like I can increase my Club Eurostar valuation to at least 12.5p for anyone happy to redeem in Standard for a long weekend in Paris.  For anyone who prefers Standard Premier, 10p still looks fair.

Assuming that you will get your Club Eurostar points by transferring American Express Membership Rewards points at 15:1, I should increase my ‘value of an Amex point when used for Eurostar’ from 0.66p to a range of 0.66p to 0.85p.

Of course, you need to factor in the fact that cash tickets would earn valuable Club Eurostar points back.

As with airline miles, you will find that your points have substantially more value if your lifestyle means that you are likely to need to travel at short notice.

How to earn Club Eurostar points via UK credit cards

As a reminder, Club Eurostar does not have its own UK credit card.  However, you can earn Club Eurostar points by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.  These are:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold – 10,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

The Platinum Card from American Express – 30,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

American Express Rewards credit card – 5,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

Membership Rewards points convert at 15:1 into Club Eurostar points.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, so you earn the equivalent of 1 Club Eurostar point for every £15 you spend.

American Express Platinum also comes with a great Eurostar benefit – lounge access!  You can enter any Eurostar lounge, irrespective of your ticket type, simply by showing The Platinum Card at the desk.  No guests are allowed but you can get entry for your partner by issuing them with a FREE supplementary Amex Platinum card on your account.  Note that this benefit only applies to personal Platinum cards issued in the UK (and possibly France, Belgium and the Netherlands).  It is not a benefit of the Business Platinum card.