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Fairmont & Palazzo Versace UAE hotel offers
If you are planning to head to the UAE you may want to check out a couple of interesting offers, especially since they are available for the high season, not just the scorching summer months!
Fairmont Fujairah
Fairmont Fujairah only opened at the end of 2016 and is a modern luxury hotel set on the beach. The hotel offers 5 different bars & restaurants and the Willow Stream spa. Prices start from £55 per room per night on the offer.
Bear in mind that Fujairah is 90 minutes from Dubai and that it is very different to Dubai. It is much quieter but for most people that is a bonus after the traffic and skyscrapers of Dubai. Fujairah offers miles of unspoilt beaches on the Gulf of Oman and is good for watersports. The Fairmont is rated 4.5/5 on TripAdvisor.
The offer is for a minimum stay of 3 nights and includes breakfast in an ocean view room. There is also a half board option for £113 a night per room. The offer is available for travel until 22 December but rates are higher in the winter months up to £123 a night. I had a look at the 1-4 November, an ideal time to go when it’s warm but not too hot. Secret Escapes wanted £291 + £10 booking fee. The cheapest I could find from the main online sites was £802 for the same room with breakfast included (which was cancelable unlike Secret Escapes). That is definitely a fantastic saving! If you are not sure, you can reserve your hotel with Secret Escapes for £25 until the end of the sale and if you decide not to go ahead you can use the £25 as a discount on your next booking with Secret Escapes.
Secret Escapes is a members only website with hand-picked hotels, holidays and exclusive offers. They guarantee to offer the best rates online during a sale. Every week they run up to 140 short ‘flash sales’ lasting around ten days each. It is free to join and if you use this link to sign up you will receive £15 credit off your first booking.
Palazzo Versace
Reminiscent of a 16th century Italian Palace, The Palazzo Versace is set in the heart of the Culture Village, less than 15 minutes away from Dubai International Airport and 8 minutes away from Burj Khalifa and Downtown Dubai. It has a lovely location on the Dubai Creek.
Every single piece of furniture and fabric in the hotel’s 215 hotel rooms and suites is designed and tailor-made by the House of Versace exclusively for the Palazzo Versace Hotel in Dubai. Each of the hotel’s 8 restaurants and bars is designed to have an al fresco terrace to reflect the heritage of Palazzos, where the internal courtyard was the informal space to meet, dine and enjoy the weather. The three outdoor pools are decorated with mosaic tiles and surrounded by palm trees and flowers. It is rated 4.5/5 on TripAdvisor too.
The offer is for a Premier room with breakfast and starts at £267 per person for 3 nights (top price of £484 per person for 3 nights in December). You can travel until 28 December with a minimum of 3 nights’ stay. You also get a 20% discount of spa treatments too plus there is an option to upgrade to half board including 2 alcoholic drinks each per meal for an additional cost. Looking at the same dates 1-4 November the cost would be £968 +£25 booking fee on Voyage Prive. The next cheapest I could find it elsewhere was £1015 on Expedia but this did not include breakfast which was an extra £60 a night for 2 people. This brings the Expedia cost to £1195 so there is a saving to be made although not a huge one.
The offer is with Voyage Privé who are a very similar company to Secret Escapes. VP concentrates on luxury hotels and holidays as well. They offer discounted rates in sales that generally last for a week or less. As usual, it is always worth checking the rates for the hotels elsewhere as sometimes they are not always the cheapest when you take into account discounts such as using TopCashback. To use Voyage Prive you will need to join here to access their offers but it’s free to join here.
Etihad 20% bonus miles
If you have been saving up for an Etihad flight on miles, they have launched an offer for buying miles. If you buy at least 5000 Miles before 20 May 2018 you will receive a 20% bonus. This could give you the opportunity to top up your American Express membership rewards and get the flights you want. With no premium economy, the price for upgrading from economy to business class can work out quite reasonably if you don’t have enough miles for a full return on miles in business class. It is also worth bearing in mind that if you only use 80% of the miles to buy your miles ticket, you will be offered the chance to pay for the rest of the miles at a substantially reduced price.
You can read more about my Etihad First and business class flights and how I got them on miles here.
The page to buy Etihad miles is here.
British Airways news
New routes for new Club World dining rolled out
The roll out of the new Club World dining and bedding is finally gathering pace and some more routes have just officially started with the new dining :
- Denver
- Atlanta
- Seattle
- Austin
- Vancouver
- Calgary
- Nassau
- Grand Cayman
Nashville now has new bedding and dining. Here is the full list:
| Rollout | New Dining | New Bedding |
| Atlanta | Accra | |
| Austin | Atlanta | |
| Baltimore | Bahrain | |
| Complete | Boston | Beijing |
| Calgary | Bombay | |
| Chicago | Boston | |
| Dallas | Cape Town | |
| Denver | Chicago | |
| Dubai | Dallas | |
| Grand Cayman | Delhi | |
| Hong Kong | Denver | |
| Houston | Dubai | |
| Las Vegas | Hong Kong | |
| Los Angeles | Houston | |
| Miami | Johannesburg | |
| Montreal | Kuwait | |
| Nashville | Lagos | |
| Nassau | Las Vegas | |
| New Orleans | London City to JFK | |
| New York JFK | Los Angeles | |
| New York Newark | Luanda | |
| Philadelphia | Mexico City | |
| Phoenix | Miami | |
| San Diego | Muscat | |
| San Francisco | Nairobi | |
| San Jose (US) | Nashville | |
| Seattle | New York JFK | |
| Seychelles | New York Newark | |
| Toronto | Phoenix | |
| Vancouver | Rio de Janeiro | |
| Washington | Riyadh | |
| San Diego | ||
| San Francisco | ||
| San Jose (US) | ||
| Sao Paulo | ||
| Seattle | ||
| Seychelles | ||
| Shanghai | ||
| Singapore | ||
| Sydney | ||
| Tokyo (NRT +HND) | ||
| Toronto | ||
| Vancouver | ||
| Washington | ||
| December- January 19 | Singapore | |
| Sydney |
BA – Boeing or we’re not going?
IAG, BA’s parent company has hinted has that Boeing is the front-runner for a new order of wide-body aircraft. Last week IAG reported strong results, with profits well ahead of predictions which caused the share price to rise by 4%.
Willie Walsh revealed that BA would continue its expenditure on new aircraft at about the current rate and that they were in discussions with both Boeing and Airbus on new wide-body aircraft. His comments seemed to suggest that a deal with Boeing may be imminent “we have had very constructive dialogue with Boeing on wide-body aircraft. We will be meeting them in the next few days,” he said.
Norwegian offer rejected
IAG had previously purchased a small share in Norwegian with a view to making a take-over bid. IAG confirmed that it did have discussions with Norwegian to make a full offer but no agreement was reached. IAG said they were now ‘considering their options’ on how to proceed with Norwegian. Norwegian confirmed that they had rejected two separate bids from IAG on the grounds that they undervalued the company.
