MeliaRewards [formerly Sol Melia MAS] program
Nov 24, 2018, 4:48 pm
#211
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Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Montreux CH
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Did anyone make use of the slightly unusual and lucrative Melia Rewards points offer sold as a Black Friday deal? The offer was on the Spanish version of amazon and offered 55,000 points for EUR165 or 35,000 points for EUR105. Unusual, because Melia is selling services (including these points packages) via amazon and it is the first time a hotel chain has sold things using amazon. I decided to give it a miss when I saw that the points had to be used within a year of activation.
Nov 24, 2018, 10:53 pm
#212
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Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Barcelona, London, on a plane
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Did anyone make use of the slightly unusual and lucrative Melia Rewards points offer sold as a Black Friday deal? The offer was on the Spanish version of amazon and offered 55,000 points for EUR165 or 35,000 points for EUR105. Unusual, because Melia is selling services (including these points packages) via amazon and it is the first time a hotel chain has sold things using amazon. I decided to give it a miss when I saw that the points had to be used within a year of activation.
Not sure whether using 35K as a hotel stay would actually provide particularly good value, unless I need a night somewhere where the major chains aren't present...
Nov 25, 2018, 12:59 am
#213
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Canary Islands, Spain
Posts: 84
I ordered, but won't get the card until I'm back home from a trip. I'm hoping to convert to IB+ Avios and tick off a partner from the 7-partner promo...
Not sure whether using 35K as a hotel stay would actually provide particularly good value, unless I need a night somewhere where the major chains aren't present...
Not sure whether using 35K as a hotel stay would actually provide particularly good value, unless I need a night somewhere where the major chains aren't present...
Nov 25, 2018, 3:46 am
#214
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Barcelona, London, on a plane
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Posts: 13,045
Nov 25, 2018, 8:25 am
#215
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Canary Islands, Spain
Posts: 84
Nov 25, 2018, 11:13 am
#216
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Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Montreux CH
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Posts: 11,621
I ordered, but won't get the card until I'm back home from a trip. I'm hoping to convert to IB+ Avios and tick off a partner from the 7-partner promo...
Not sure whether using 35K as a hotel stay would actually provide particularly good value, unless I need a night somewhere where the major chains aren't present...
Not sure whether using 35K as a hotel stay would actually provide particularly good value, unless I need a night somewhere where the major chains aren't present...
The fact that the use of the points are time restricted kept me away from this promotion. Concerning the value of 35,000 points, I used 38,000 for a redemption in a lovely boutique hotel in Mallorca, which I thought was great value for the quality of what I got. It was about 1,500 points cheaper to book a standard room, so I booked a junior suite with breakfast included. The mosquitoes were so bad you could hardly use the swimming pool. Two days later came the extreme violent storm that partly wiped away the nearby town of St. Lorenc.
Nov 25, 2018, 8:22 pm
#217
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Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Barcelona, London, on a plane
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Ah, you’re playing the partner promotion with Iberia. I think you have to be more or less based in Spain to get the best out of it. I think indeed they can only be used for hotel stays. If you keep your eye on HeadForPoints, they will keep you right with details like that.
As for HfP, I don't usually read it, because I don't want to be accused of stealing blog ideas. But I did happen upon this offer via HfP and Rob was pitching it as an Avios conversion opportunity, although he did say that he didn't actually know whether it would work. So "keep you right" isn't true in this case. (not blaming him though, I understand the risks with these things...)
Nov 26, 2018, 8:26 am
#218
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Location: Montreux CH
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I guess I tend to swing away from converting hotel points to airline miles in my thinking because that usually represents a very bad rate or is a poor conversion opportunity at best. I’m still glad I didn’t get on the wagon with this promotion, because my use of Melia hotels and Rewards is haphazard at best. Suppose I could have used them for an upcoming trip to Berlin but there are so many hotel options in Berlin, many of them really cheap.
Nov 26, 2018, 11:18 pm
#219
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Barcelona, London, on a plane
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Posts: 13,045
I guess I tend to swing away from converting hotel points to airline miles in my thinking because that usually represents a very bad rate or is a poor conversion opportunity at best. I’m still glad I didn’t get on the wagon with this promotion, because my use of Melia hotels and Rewards is haphazard at best. Suppose I could have used them for an upcoming trip to Berlin but there are so many hotel options in Berlin, many of them really cheap.
In theory it won't be hard to get more than 105 euros of value out of 35K Melia points, but you'd have to stay at a Melia for a night, and there are few Melias where I wouldn't have better options for a 1-nighter...
Nov 27, 2018, 3:46 am
#220
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Location: Montreux CH
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Well that’s the thing. I was, though, truly delighted with my overnight at the Melia Boutique Hotel in Mallorca. According to Rob on HfP, this offer’s going to come around again, a statement I think was based on feeling and experience in this milieu rather than a hard fact. So we need to keep a lookout!
Dec 1, 2018, 10:07 am
#221
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Barcelona, London, on a plane
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Posts: 13,045
My conversion of 35K points to Avios seems to have gone through fine. Not sure why I seem to be a special case, but no complaints...
Dec 15, 2018, 3:36 pm
#222
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Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Montreux CH
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Apparently the Melia Rewards points offer of 55,000 points resurfaced for one day last Friday, but at the higher price of GBP205. There was some talk (on HfP) that instead of the points from that offer being valid for just one year, that they are valid indefinitely as long as you complete a stay within a 12 month period. But I suspect the points are somehow ringfenced, as you can't turn those particular points in for airline miles. That would suggest they are marked, somehow.
But my question is, what has happened to the buy points feature on Melia Rewards, once signed in? I couldn't find it anywhere, despite being signed in for a considerable length of time this evening and searching around for it. Withdrawn, maybe?
But my question is, what has happened to the buy points feature on Melia Rewards, once signed in? I couldn't find it anywhere, despite being signed in for a considerable length of time this evening and searching around for it. Withdrawn, maybe?
Last edited by Concerto; Dec 19, 2018 at 3:29 pm Reason: typo
Dec 18, 2018, 10:26 am
#224
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Barcelona, London, on a plane
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Posts: 13,045
Dec 19, 2018, 9:40 am
#225
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Barcelona, London, Moscow
Programs: Melia Planium, IB+, BAEC
Posts: 157
Actually, there is no algorithm and everything is quite clear. This is what one can find on Melia.com website (link below):
Approximate prices in points for a one-night stay in each brand:
Once the number of rooms allocated to lowest points bucket is exhausted, the prices in points go up. In my experience it is worth booking in advance. I managed to book a week in New York's Innside for 17k points per night, Glan Melia Fenix in Madrid also for the lowest price quoted above (28,000 points), same goes for Gran Melia Palacio de Isora, Me Miami, Melia Nassau (Bahamas), etc. I often make a speculative refundable cash booking and then monitor price in points - it fluctuate. When it goes down, I cancel cash booking and book with points. Risky strategy, but worked for me
Approximate prices in points for a one-night stay in each brand:
- Sol 3* from 11,000
- Sol 4* from 14,000
- Sol All inclusive Hotels from 25,000
- TRYP by Wyndham 3* from 11,000
- TRYP by Wyndham 4* from 17,000
- INNSIDE by Meliá from 17,000
- Meliá Hotels & Resorts 4* from 17,000
- Meliá Hotels & Resorts 5* from 22,000
- Meliá Hotels & Resorts All Inclusive from 34,000
- ME by Meliá from 28,000
- Gran Meliá Hotels & Resorts from 28,000
- ME All Inclusive from 42,000
- Paradisus Resorts from 42,000
- Meliá hotels in Paris from 26,000
- TRYP by Wyndham hotels in Paris from 23,000
- Meliá White House from 21,538
- ME London from 45,500
- Gran Meliá Rome from 37,000
- Meliá Recoleta from 23,400
Once the number of rooms allocated to lowest points bucket is exhausted, the prices in points go up. In my experience it is worth booking in advance. I managed to book a week in New York's Innside for 17k points per night, Glan Melia Fenix in Madrid also for the lowest price quoted above (28,000 points), same goes for Gran Melia Palacio de Isora, Me Miami, Melia Nassau (Bahamas), etc. I often make a speculative refundable cash booking and then monitor price in points - it fluctuate. When it goes down, I cancel cash booking and book with points. Risky strategy, but worked for me
Last edited by dumba; Dec 19, 2018 at 9:50 am