Seriously need your advice on this holiday booking package!

[ozjuice]

I have been looking over all options for a trip in November but am totally confused as to why I can't seem to find the best deal by booking direct and reaping the benefits. However, the benefits don't seem worth the cost. Hopefully this makes sense and any advice would be welcome.

November 2017 – Seychelles 5 nights
VA Platinum / Hilton Diamond
Brisbane Airport, Australia (BNE) / Abu Dhabi Airport, UAE (AUH) / Mahe Airport, Seychelles (SEZ)

3 options

Book separate / direct
Etihad - Economy Classic (Upgradeable) 2 persons Return TOTAL AUD $5154.80
VA FF points & SC’s – No bonus points
Hilton Seychelles Labriz Resort & Spa / Direct booking Hilton (Possible upgrade room / Breakfast)
KING BEACHFRONT VILLA / No board AUD $3931.00 Plus HH points
Total AUD $9085.00

Book separate / direct
Virgin Australia - Economy Elevate only (NOT Upgradeable) 2 persons Return TOTAL AUD $ 5054.80
operated by Etihad Airways
VA FF points & SC’s – Plus Plat & Silver bonus points
Hilton Seychelles Labriz Resort & Spa / Direct booking Hilton (Possible upgrade room / Breakfast)
KING BEACHFRONT VILLA / No board AUD $3931.00 Plus HH points
Total AUD $8985.00

Expedia Booking Package deal
Virgin Australia - Economy Deal (NOT Upgradeable) 2 persons Return
operated by Etihad Airways
VA FF points & SC’s – No Bonus points
Hilton Seychelles Labriz Resort & Spa
KING BEACHFRONT VILLA - No HH points or upgrades but not required
Total AUD $6,756.55 Room only – Comparable to above prices less bonuses but $2229.00 cheaper
Total AUD $7250.00 With Half Board bonuses maybe not needed $1735.00 Cheaper

So save money and forfeit?

Thanks

 

[serfty]

Have you checked the cost of booking the flights then adding accomodation with Expedia. (This is different from a specific "package deal".

 

[ozjuice]

Yes, just room via Expedia was $4250 - Room only.

Bring that up to approx $9K

 

[Haplo]

Have you thought about buying Hilton Points (there is a 80% promo going on) and use that to redeem under the 5 nights get 1 night free?

 

[ozjuice]

Bit risky if there's no rooms available for points. Plus it's Catergory 9

 

[mingzie]

which dates are you booking exactly?

i see a lot of $3000 for 2 person return fares flying emirates, qantas, cathay. no need to fly virgin if you're gonna be in economy. and no point upgrading if you are going to pay a huge premium (you seem to have a budget in the first place).

theres no risk whatsoever with buying points as there are rooms available (and will be for a trip that far in advance) and points post instantly (at least when i buy them on my fee free debit card which is what you SHOULD be doing)

the points cost for a villa side is 3269 aud after tax, the beachfront is $4331 after tax. not sure where you are getting prices from (or maybe different dates - dates matter so people cant help if you are leaving that out). even though its not at its most beneficial (only 80% bonus), the points cost only comes to $2470 AUD at max bonus and $2717 with current bonus.

with the $1200-$2000 you save you could message them and pay the upgrade or nor1 (or check in up sell) or buy your own infinity pool. you get 70k points back for the $3900 stay but thats only worth $455.

on top of that you have time to wait until there is a sale since bookings are refundable.

use iwantthatflight.com.au and search up your dates. who cares if there are more/less layovers, its $2000.

then buy those points and stop being scared. silver/gold are piss easy to get to get the 5th night free benefit.

category 9 hotels are also the best hotels to be using points on.

you definitely can get this same trip for $5.5k~ right now

 

[ozjuice]

Thanks for your detailed reply Mingzie

Dates i was looking at for flights were 4th - 10th Nov (Hotel 5th - 10th Nov - 5 nights)

Would prefer flying VA as i am Plat and wanted baggage / lounge / priority etc plus points & SC's.

Would also prefer just the 1 stop as the time of flights is ungodly at best already.

I will have a good look at the points comparison and the options you have offered and work out the costs.

Thanks

 

[ozjuice]

05 Nov 2017 - 10 Nov 2017 1 room for 2 adults	Change
KING BEACHFRONT VILLA
Price (5 nights x 567.45):	2,837.25
Room Subtotal:	2,837.25
HONORS DISCOUNT	Change
Total for stay: 2,837.25 € EUR

That is $3934 AUD if booked direct.

Buying points will only get me a basic garden room although the cost to buy is $2228 AUD.

So question is, do Hilton give Diamond benefits to Reward rooms? Free upgrades / breakfast etc?

 

[Deleted member 29185]

You'll get breakfast and lounge (if they have one) however room upgrades depends on the hotel.

 

[mingzie]

ok, in that case with those dates, then booking direct with the hotel is one of the ways to go. if you can do advance purchase then it will come to 2075 EURO/ 2873 AUD for king beachfront villa (look for semi hidden hhonors early saver rate by expanding the packages for 415 euro a night). you will get back minimum $291 AUD in points (44893 points back). If you book through the app (this is important, always book through hilton app for upcoming promos) and there also happens to be a promotion for double or triple points at the time, you can get up to $575 AUD in points back. if there are also extra promos on top of that for app bookings, you can get even more than that.

this option is better than buying with points as it comes to effectively $2582 AUD for your 5 night stay after points rebate for the beach front. you also get the best opportunity for diamond upgrade

for the garden villa at 80% points bonus, it will be $2045 AUD cost in points. 100% points bonus will make the garden villa cost $1820 AUD.

if you can wait for a 100% points bonus and rather have a refundable booking, you can get the garden villa for $1800, which is $1000 AUD below the prepaid early saver rate, minus $291 in points, so effectively $709 cheaper. however, you lose the chance to get a better diamond upgrade from a slightly higher room category, you have to wait for a 100% bonus, and you also are one room category below (which already may be worth the $709 for 5 nights to you). buying points is not advisable in this situation

thus, the best option is to take hhonors early saver for $2873 AUD for the 5 nights for a king beachfront villa.

i wouldn't book the flexible rate and pay $1100 more. you can always buy premium travel insurance to cover for something bad happening.

im calculating points worth as 100% bonus with a fee free card

 

[mingzie]

bestjet is a third party website selling your exact etihad flights for $3400. they claim they are australian owned and operated

you can probably argue this and try price matching with flight centre

however even if not, bestjet is actually quite reliable. you don't get the multitude of horror stories like on other third party sites. in fact a lot of people on ozbargain and whirlpool seem to have gone on their flights fine. iwantthatflight.com.au has also allowed them to stay on that site as they dont seem to be getting complaints.

for a $1600 saving this is definitely worth it - screw the VA benefits. you can even try the flight centre option first if you're scared as they have australian ABN.

unless you have a way to get an upgrade on etihad free, then i would book through bestjet. if you cant find the link on their site directly search through iwantthatflight.com.au and then look for the same flights that you were taking either on page 1 or 2.

the only thing you probably cant do is make changes to your flight, but that is still hard doing directly. use your travel insurance for any bad things happening

 

[ozjuice]

Seem to have lost my last reply......

Anyway, thanks for the detailed reply. I hadn't even noticed that hidden room rate. Shame it includes breakfast which i guess is already free but still a decent rate.

Unable to find a flight though under $4700 on Etihad even on bestjet.

Also, sadly no Hilton app bonus booking offers currently running. I will have to keep monitoring.

 

[mingzie]

Seem to have lost my last reply......

Anyway, thanks for the detailed reply. I hadn't even noticed that hidden room rate. Shame it includes breakfast which i guess is already free but still a decent rate.

Unable to find a flight though under $4700 on Etihad even on bestjet.

Also, sadly no Hilton app bonus booking offers currently running. I will have to keep monitoring.

yeah but not that important it includes breakfast, there are many advanced room rates that are lowest that include breakfast. you shouldn't see it as something that is bad or a waste, it is what it is. you still get the diamond benefits of lounge + breakfast + upgrade. hilton usually does this with advance purchase rates.

you might have to go through iwantthatflight.com.au - its a really popular oz site and 100% legit. search for your dates, then go to page 2, your flight from etihad with the same times should be there. it will give you a direct link.

they sometimes do this to segregate pricing between those who are looking for discount since they have a partnership with iwantthatflight

your etihad flights are still avail for $3400 return 2 adults. as long as you don't have to do any major changes to the flights, you are set. bestjet will also allow you to record a frequent flyer number at time of booking.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Also, sadly no Hilton app bonus booking offers currently running. I will have to keep monitoring.

Don't panic too much about that for as long as you book with the app, any future deals are normally honoured provided they happen to coincide with your booked dates.

 

[mingzie]

Don't panic too much about that for as long as you book with the app, any future deals are normally honoured provided they happen to coincide with your booked dates.

yep. this!

this is why i am saying to book in the app in advance, not because there are offers at the moment

because there might be in the future.

if a double / triple points happens to land in november you'll be a 25 - 50k points richer. thats why plan in advance and book through the app

you don't even have to monitor until a day before your flight. dont overthink it. you still get the bonus if you sign up for the offer after booking.

 

[ozjuice]

Wow......For the life of me i can't see a better Bestjet price than $4800 unless booking through Cheapoair...which i really don't like the reviews on. Might have to wait for a while to see what come up.

 

[mingzie]

Wow......For the life of me i can't see a better Bestjet price than $4800 unless booking through Cheapoair...which i really don't like the reviews on. Might have to wait for a while to see what come up.

no, you're right, the prices have changed to $2400. and yeah cheapoair doesnt seem reliable.

 

[ozjuice]

*UPDATE*

after seeing that all saver flights seemed to have gone when checking directly on VA / EY i was assuming that certain agents had some of these tucked away as special fares and hence, advertising the kind of cheap fares you had seen. Not really wanting to book via an unknown and possibly dodgy 3rd party i just kept spamming the search keys. Anyway, finally found that EY had now released saver fares. So from $5100 for both of us i managed to get it booked directly with EY for $3600. A bit more that you'd seen but with peace of mind and seat options.
When putting that together with the Hilton beachfront villa saver rate i can get for $2800 the whole thing is just a little over $6400 with Breakfast.
Plus i get to earn points from all aspects of the trip and possibly upgrades.
So a bit of perseverance and a lot of assistance and it can be quite a saving.

So thanks for all your help....i just have to find some spending money now.