No one likes the word devaluation, but it is kind of unavoidable in the world of frequent travellers. It has just happened to two schemes which we introduced very recently.
As posted by Travel-Dealz, a few Strawberry hotels have become more pricey when redeeming Choice points. It seems that Strawberry hotels now cost a minimum of 16,000 points, and the adjustment is in line with such guidance. The Clarion Sign Hotel in Stockholm when I reviewed here for example, is no longer as cheap as 10,000 points.
However, I wouldn’t make too much a deal out of it. The best value of Choice points lie within the high-end Strawberry hotels. These properties, including At Six (Stockholm) and The Thief (Oslo), still cost only 20,000 points which is a steal.
A much harder hit comes from AirHelp Plus, an insurance program I spoke very highly of in a recent post. My baggage was delayed by BA just three weeks ago and I got the €150 payout very quickly, which more than triples what I paid for the insurance.
A reader reached out a few days ago regarding a negative change to the Complete plan as shown on their website. At that time the phrasing changed from “unlimited trips” to “12 trips”. As of now it got even worse, down to just “7 trips”.
I’m still awaiting a response from AirHelp after requesting more details of the change. However as far as I’m concerned, the new limit shouldn’t affect existing customers who had signed up previously.
The original terms of the Complete plan was, without any doubt, way too generous and too good to be true. I can’t say I’m surprised at the cut, but it’s much more difficult to justify its value given the new stingy limit now.
As a “trip” could be a return with connections it covers (many) more than only 7 flights in a plan year. It might still make sense to sign up, but only register your trips with most flights or that are more likely to be disrupted.
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