News in brief:
Accor brings back its excellent Taste of London redemptions
Long in the tooth HfP readers may remember when British Airways was lead sponsor of the annual Taste of London food festival. BA would operate its own ‘lounge’ for elite members of the Executive Club, where you would find free-flowing (and free) champagne and food all day. It was an excellent albeit inebriating day out.
For the second year running, Accor Live Limitless has popped up as a lead sponsor.
Accor has invited chefs from some of its top London hotels to create meals in a pop-up restaurant which it is running onsite.
Tables for these pop-up meals are now bookable with Accor points via this page of the Accor Experiences website.
The event runs from Wednesday 15th to Sunday 19th June.
There are some EXCELLENT deals here. For 3,000 Accor Live Limitless points per COUPLE, you will get:
- a set menu meal for two people, with wine pairings, in a private dining room at Taste of London
- tickets for fast track entry into Taste of London
- a goody bag
There are up to four sittings per day, at 12.30pm, 2.30pm, 6pm and 8pm. Each day will see different Accor chefs present different menus, so there is no reason why you can’t go twice.
Given that 3,000 Accor points is usually worth €60 off a hotel stay or 3,000 Avios, this is clearly excellent value.
Whilst you can now convert Avios into Accor hotel points (4,500 Avios = 1,000 Accor points, so these events would be 13,500 Avios per couple), there is no guarantee that the points arrive in your Accor account before the packages sell out – a prospect far more likely following this article.
If you want to join us, Rhys and I will be at the Friday 12.30pm session – not a freebie, we’ve bought our tickets!
Eurostar reopens its cocktail bars – and Rhys names a drink!
Eurostar reopened the cocktail bars in its London and Paris lounges this week, as well as bringing back its lounge canape collection. Both bars had been closed since the pandemic broke out although the lounges themselves have been open for some time.
The bars will be open for longer. From 6am to noon, Monday to Friday, they will operate as smoothie bars. From 3pm, the cocktail service begins which runs until the last train departs.
Rhys and I went down to the St Pancras lounge on Tuesday night to celebrate, and Rhys won an unusual competition – he got to name a cocktail!
A new drink, blending vodka with orgeat, amaretto, absinthe, egg white and fresh lemon, has been added to the cocktail menu but was in need of a name. The assembled guests were asked for suggestions and Rhys won, with ‘Snow Bird’.
The name was used in the official press release for the reopening which was sent out yesterday, so they were serious about using it.
Rhys will be celebrating his win by drinking his prize of Toujours 21, Eurostar’s very own gin. (He is also trying to get a Eurostar ticket thrown in, as he has never actually been on it!) This comprises ‘a delightful fusion of French botanicals and honey from the Kent countryside.
You can see Rhys with his prize in the first picture above, and immediately above is Raymond Blanc modelling the gin – which he used to design his own signature Eurostar cocktails – with our very own Anika back in 2017.
In terms of service levels, it was great to hear that Eurostar will be back to 15 daily services to Paris from mid-May (it is already back to 13). This is a step change from when I last travelled in November. There will also be seven daily services to Brussels and three daily services to Amsterdam. A fourth daily Amsterdam service is being pencilled in for the Autumn.