I would be interested in maybe booking the Melia hotel in Athens with points, but I have forgotten the details of my Melia account here where I am having Christmas! So it will have to wait until I get home in January. Is it a good deal with points, or is it better to go for a cash rate?

EDIT - actually, just looking at cash rates, there seems to be a 45% off sale at the moment, giving rates of €74-88 for a double room. Not sure how long the sale is on for, might go ahead and book. Is this hotel reasonably well placed for a first time visit to Athens?

Melia Athens isn't the best election in that city, take a look for example to Coco-mat Athens BC , better location, better hotel, new hotel and the prize is similar than Melia.

Thank you, I will have a look. I presume that Melia is located away from the center or far from the main areas to visit. interestingly, the Coco Mat is indicated by Lonely Planet in their guide (which dates from 2018, new edition out in 2020). Having said that, the rates in the Melia are really good.

EDIT - just seen, and the one you're recommending is COCO-MAT Athens BC (as you wrote), whereas in Lonely Planet, it is the COCO-MAT Hotel Athens that is recommended. Your one is coming out at €114, not too bad for the quality, and the Lonely Planet recommended one is showing €128.

Melia's main problem is the area in which it is located, Omnia is full of homeless people and drug addicts, and you will have to cross there if you plan to travel on foot to the center sometime.

With either coco-mat (Athens or Athens BC) you avoid this problem, and are really good hotels, both 5* boutique hotels. I think that BC location is still better than Athens, and the reason it is slightly cheaper is simply because it is a newly opened hotel and has promotional rates.

If you have an amex you can probably find them around € 100 per night in http://whitelabels.hotelopia.com/amexclientes , sorry but I am from Spain and this is spanish link, I don't know if there is another one in English

Actually, I'm seeing the COCO-MAT Athens BC down to €85 on most of the dates I am interested in. The other one is down to €105, still a good reduction of €23. I wonder if your site will accept a German based AMEX card. I suppose there must be a German site for AMEX hotel deals, will have a look.

EDIT - certainly don't get the same rates looking at the German AMEX travel site. That's why I didn't bother with AMEX years ago and never looked again. I will give your site a try.

The reservation center is not amex travel, it is hotelopia, which makes a special discount for amex customers, it is likely that your German amex is worth perfectly on the Spanish site.

Your website that you recommended above is excellent. It has all the Lonely Planet suggested hotels on it at very healthy discounts. However, these all seem to be non refundable rates, although I will have a closer look to see if I can add extra options like breakfast (hotels.com prices mostly include breakfast at the Lonely Planet suggested places). And I think I will indeed add a couple of nights in the Melia despite the drawbacks. The sale prices a really great and it will keep my Melia account alive for the next year.

The conditions of hotelopia can be seen if you advance in the reservation process, many times the cheapest rates are non-cancellable but there are other rates in that same hotel that are cancelable without cost until a few days before check-in.

I will be a weekend in February at the Coco-mat Athens BC, despite being a platinum melia and the additional 20% discount of platinum members, I am not convinced with the Melia Athens compared to the Coco-mat.

Hi flood,
I was browsing Melia website and found these rates still published there. The only thing is that you need to be logged in to your Melia Rewards account in order to see them. But apart from that, the rates I mention in my previous post are still applicable.
In order to see this info on Melia website you need to:
1. Log in to your Melia Rewards account.
2. Click on 'My points'.
3. Click on the first tile from the list - which is called 'HOTELS'.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...704e716c21.png
Melia Rewards redemption 'starting from' rates.

Ok, these are mostly for room only rates I think. In the case of the Meliá Hotels 17,000 points rate, something like 3,500 points extra will guarantee breakfast for two people.

Hey Concerto,

Yes, these are the starting prices in points, and usually it's a room only. The cancellation conditions also differ from one hotel/brand to another: some will have cheapest rooms refundable, some - non-refundable, etc. But of course, higher price in points will give you free breakfast, free cancellation and even lounge access, if you book Level room, or even suite! :) If you have free lounge access with Melia Rewards Platinum, then you can book the cheapest room and have all your meals and drinks in the lounge :)

Melia just started its January sale: up to 45% off in select destinations. Book from 2nd till 20th of January! Head over to Melia.com for more details.

Thanks dumba!

It also seems they were having a sale on points. Not quite as cheap as black friday, but was EUR4.20 per 1000 points the other day vs regular price of EUR8 per 1000 points. Now it looks like it's gone up to EUR5 per 1000 points. For reference, black friday was EUR3.60 per 1000 points.

Has anyone had experience in transferring Melia Rewards points to Avios?

I signed up for a Melia Rewards account 7 days ago, and was given a free introductory bonus of 2,000 points credited to my a/c.

So, I thought I’d try a simple transfer of these points into Avios... tried BA 4/5 times, keep getting an error message. I’ve just tried Iberia and the same thing.

Figured it could be a cheaper way of buying Avios at the moment than directly through the airlines/points.com.

It might be because I’ve had no financial activity with the Melia program yet and they don’t want to just give away free airmiles? But doesn’t bode well for confidence when you’re considering spending £1,500 + on points... (although to be fair I can’t remember the maximum purchase limit at this point, so could fall short anyway!)