Thanks for your reply, it is much appreciated
I thought about starting this thread with "Dear Raffles", as I have seen you are pretty much the only other FT'er who talks about Jumeirah
I could have just PM'd you or posted it to the Tesco and BA thread, but hey ho
Originally Posted by
Raffles
If you book via Amex, you get full points. I did this last year at Dar al Masyaf. This is very attractive - it is the equivalent of getting about 7.5% of your stay back in freebies. We tend to use ours for free meals or spa treatments at the Jumeirah hotels in London. You can also top up your Sirius points by transferring Amex Membership Rewards points at a 15:1 ratio.
Wow - That is absolutely fantastic news, you don't know how happy that has made me
The points gods are smiling on me this week as I just found out I am also going to benefit from triple points on a 8 night Starwood booking in March.
Originally Posted by
Raffles
For all of 2011, Amex was also offering '2 nights for 3' or '3 for 4' at all Jumeirah properties. Not sure if this is running for 2012 as well. We had an 8 night stay at Madinat booked (which we ended up cancelling) with 2 lots of '3 for 4' deals back-to-back.
I'm on the "summer flavors" package. Not sure if I have been given a 3 for 4 or not, it wasn't mentioned.
Originally Posted by
Raffles
You are right about agents having aggressively lower prices, although there tend to be cancellation fees involved. We found an agent who would give us the agent rates on the hotels without having to book a flight with them, which was attractive as we use Avios or DC miles to get down there. However, we have not yet booked via this guy.
I did find cheaper rates than Amex too, but I think the upgrade and extra free meal is more than worth the extra £200 they charged.
Originally Posted by
Raffles
It is also worth noting that if you stay at Emirates Towers in Dubai or the new one on the creek, you get full free access to Madinat Jumeirah, including the beaches and pool. Obviously you are running around in a taxi every day to get over to Madinat, but Emirates Towers is very cheap, especially for a suite - Al Qasr is about £1,200 a night in a suite, Emirates Towers is £400. On a 10-day stay you're looking at £8,000 + taxes saving for the sake of a few taxi rides!!
That does sound good value actually, although with little miss it's nice to have the kids club so close by.
Originally Posted by
Raffles
We did, by the way, get a decent upgrade on our Amex stay - they gave us an Ocean View instead of Canal View at Dar Al Masyaf. However, the hotel did owe us a favour after a problem with our previous stay, which probably contributed as well.
I have paid for the Premium Ocean View Executive, so if we get the next room up from that which is the Ocean suite, it's worth over 1/3 more according to the Jumeirah direct prices.
Originally Posted by
Raffles
Frankly, the current rates at Madinat are scary. £1,200 for a suite, per night, is not good. Worth noting that, whilst suites are usually excluded from the Amex '2 for 3' / '3 for 4' deals, all standard rooms at Madinat inter-connect via the hallway so you can take 2 of those on a '3 for 4' deal for the same price, but with the discount, as a suite.
Take a look at mid June, people say it's not the best time to go, but if you can take the heat, you will find cheap deals and the place generally pretty empty which is a bonus to us.
Originally Posted by
Raffles
Whilst I may be simply tight, I also find - depending on flight times - it is worth spending the first and/or last nights in a resort near the airport, eg the Park Hyatt, or the Crowne Plaza / Interconti complex. If I am flying at 8am or landing at 1am, I don't want to pay for a full night at Madinat when I could crash nearer the airport for literally 15% of the price and then transfer at leisure the next day.
It's not being tight, you just dont like wasting it.
For me this was a newbie mistake, too late before I realised.
My inbound flight means we will arrive at the hotel around midnight and loose the first day, although we will get an extra pair of H/B vouchers which can be used for lunches since we paid of the night.
However at £320 per night, compared to £60 a night for the Hilton, I'll definately look into that next time, although the hotel transfers from DXB in the 7 series were a major highlight of our last trip so I wouldn't want to jeopardise that in anyway.
I wonder how Jumeirah would feel about us asking to use the free transfer to take us to the Hilton and then we would just pay then for another 7 series transfer from the Hilton->Jumeirah transfer the next day.