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IHG Fourth night free promotion
IHG has a good value promotion starting today, offering the 4th night free in Southeast Asia, South Korea, Europe, Middle East, South West Asia, Africa, Japan, Australasia, and South Pacific Islands. Book from 22 August – 6 September 2023 for stays from 6 September 2023 to 31 January 2024 for this offer.
The offer is for Club rooms and Suites only. However, it may mean you can upgrade to a Club room for free in effect, when you take into account the free night.
You can find the list of participating hotels here. There are plenty of high end hotels such as InterContinental Maldives Maamunagau Resort, InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort (review here) and InterContinental London Park Lane (review)
Bookings must be made at least fifteen days in advance of your check-in date. The catch is that all reservations are final and require full prepayment for the entire stay at the time of booking. The payment is non-refundable
You can find the offer page here.
Is Monarch coming back?
I was always a bit of a Monarch fan as it seemed a step above the low-cost airlines and apart from towards the end I had always had good experience with them. At the weekend, social media teasers started appearing about Monarch returning.
We’re working harder than ever to let you introduce yourself to the sun again. It’s time to celebrate a new Monarch. pic.twitter.com/2ZEDtuYv9G
— Monarch Airlines (@letsmonarch) August 20, 2023
It’s six years since the airline collapsed in October 2017, but it has now been confirmed that ownership of the Monarch Airlines and Monarch Holidays brands “passed into new ownership” last week.
Daniel Ellingham was named as a director of both businesses and was appointed chair of Monarch last month.
In an interview with Airways, Ellingham promised to “launch a new and strong company for the UK tourism sector”. He said Monarch would seek to fill gaps in the market created by the pandemic. “There is an opportunity for newcomers such as ourselves to step up and meet demand.”
Although BA is not really a low-cost airline at Gatwick it is not really a full-service operator in economy either. Monarch was always a step above the low costs for me, so with BA struggling to find enough aircraft and crew to restart some of its former Gatwick leisure short-haul routes, this could be the customer base Monarch is aiming for.
Monarch was previously based in Luton and operated from four UK bases – Birmingham, Gatwick, Leeds Bradford and Manchester. It was hinted that they are planning to resurrect their previous bases, although we don’t know which of them. So far, they have not applied for an operator licence, so it is unlikely to happen any time soon.
Summer sales start – New York from £1025
With the bank holiday approaching, the travel company’s summer sales are starting. I’ll cover what is live, and what I know is definitely coming. I would also expect BA to have a sale as well at some point in the next few weeks, although they can be hard to predict. However, with Virgin launching one, I’d say it’s pretty likely.
When the sales go live, I’ll write up the full details and best deals, so make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss out!
- Expedia – 20% off from August 21 to September 24, with thousands of hotels worldwide offering discounts of 20% or higher for members and app users. Offer page is here.
- Hotels.com – 20% off from August 21 to September 24, with thousands of hotels worldwide offering discounts of 20% or higher for members and app users. Offer page is here.
- La Companie all business class flights from £1025 from Milan or Paris to New York. Book by 31 August from travel October to March 24. I really enjoyed my flight with them. You can read my review here.
- Virgin Atlantic Holidays sale – From 24 August, save up to £150.
- Booking.com – Save 15% or more on stays between 1 October 2023 and 3 January 2024. Late Escape Deals are bookable from 5 September 2023 until 3 January 2024.
5 comments
I would not recommend anyone using Booking.com. They are a pure digital operation run from Belgium with absolutely no customer service when a problem arises. We much prefer to book direct with hotels but often hotels themselves make that difficult by using an agent for booking through the hotel website, as recently happened to us in Porto
I’ve used Booking.com frequently over the years and have never had a problem with any hotels that I have booked – that said, I’ve probably jinxed it now for my stay in Fethiye next month!!
I’ve used booking.com many many times and never had an issue. If you use them regularly the discounts are often cheaper than booking direct. If it’s a chain with a loyalty scheme I book direct. Otherwise I’ll look at whether it’s a luxury one that GTC cover. If it’s not I’ll just go with the best deal.
All OTA’s come with a warning that if something goes wrong they are less easy to deal with than direct with a hotel and I generally don’t advice booking flights through them. I also always advise using a credit card to pay in case of any issues.
I use Booking.com all the time and only had one issue when in Rome last year. The hotel’s digital check in service wasn’t working – I contacted BC and spoke to someone in The Netherlands – they contacted the owner direct and he appeared within 15 minutes to sort. I went to the cafe next door while I waited. Like most things travel related, some people have good experiences, some bad. Just back yesterday from 3 days in Florence booked with BC. No issues.
It’s always worth checking with a travel advisor where there are additional perks. A special offer or even the cheapest rate is not always the best value.
I’m biased but I see this all the time.
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