I'm a recent inductee to Le Club Accor's loyalty program, managing to jump straight to their top (platinum) tier courtesy of one of the security-by-obscurity promotional links that surface fairly regularly. I am in two minds about the program: upgrades only happen at a few of their (pricier) brands, and the points earning seems terrible. For instance, even with double points as a plat, I collected a grand 67 avios from this stay; whereas a night at a Hilton will get me at least 500, on top of the Hhonors points. However, it's easy to get distracted by loyalty trinkets and forget that the ultimate goal in all this is saving some money, and that's why I was here today. A 50% off sale for Le Club members (40% for non-members) meant that this room ran me just £32.50. I'll forgive the stingy miles in exchange for an extra £30 or so in my pocket compared to staying loyal to Hilton.
Despite both computer difficulties and a queue (there was an elite desk, but it was unstaffed- to their credit, by the time I'd checked in they'd drafted in two extra people to speed things up), lobby to room took all of five minutes. Given the price, there's no need to be blown away by the quality of the room. But it was a reasonable size for the UK, with a sofa and a desk, and the impression that you could use both at once, plus the bathroom sported a bath and separate shower. The A/C was cheerfully supplying 24C, positively tropical after my bracing walk, so I dialled that down to something more seasonally appropriate and settled in for some undemanding television. I've certainly paid more to stay at worse places!
Hotel 1: Novotel London Heathrow, 1 night.
Le Club Accorhotels points collected: 134 (autotransfer to BA as 67 avios).
Novotel London Heathrow standard room.
Reverse-angle showing bathroom / hallway.
Bathroom with shower and bath.
Having stayed up for New Year's Eve, sleep proved elusive – or rather, it did at first, as although 1:30am saw me making some preliminary notes for this report, it took a pair of alarms to rouse me at 10am. I could well imagine sleeping through the midday checkout; perhaps my body was just pre-empting westcoast time?
Breakfast pricing was an entertainingly ambitious £15.95 for continental, £18.95 cooked, but I had planned ahead and brought provisions from home. Thus I spent a leisurely morning in the room before checking out and confirming details for transport to Heathrow. Hotels aren't allowed to run their own shuttles (except the T5-Hilton), but National Express has a network of 'Hotel Hoppa' routes, and a ticket for the 51 to T5 can be had for £4 using a convenient machine in the lobby. The bus actually left ahead of schedule, then spent a while meandering through a series of generally unappealing airport hotels, the ugliest of which was surely the Thistle. For all I know it's lovely inside, and on a business trip you might never see the exterior in daylight. Still. Such places wear at the soul.
Including a driver change, but without any particularly heavy traffic, it took 25 minutes to reach Terminal 5 from the Novotel. Rather than dealing with the stress of making a 120 mile train journey on the same day as the flight, in a season not known to be kind to the rail network, I arrived at check-in with plenty of spare time, having travelled in first class then had a decent night's sleep and a shower. All for less than the price of a standard class walk-up train fare- I'm doubtless preaching to the converted here, but it really does pay to plan!