FEBRUARY 2022
Discount & Promo Codes
$25 or €20 HotelTonight Credit (use promo code BALAPERS)
$5 or €5 off your first Uber ride
Hotels
Reminder: Always use HotelsCombined.com to compare hotel rates!
5 tricks to get the best hotel deals
Airlines
How to Book Cheap Flights
Brussels Airlines American Express: 20.000 bonus miles!
Other
Bart Lapers 
Hi Bart! ZIt ondertussen aaan 50.00 miles van brussels airlines. Dankzij je link en amex. Nu… tips om hoe ze te gebruiken?
Hi Stefaan, best value is to use them on Business or First Class flights. Keep an eye on the Miles & More Mileage bargains https://www.meilenschnaeppchen.de/index.php?lang=en
Any specific destination you would like to fly to?
Hoe lang is de actie van Booking nog geldig? Weet je waar ik de voorwaarden kan vinden?
Hi Joesmoothy, the pop-up which appears at the bottom of the page when you click on the link, has a reference link to the T&C. No indication on when this promo will end, but it can disappear any moment.
Dag Bart,
De links van booking.com werken niet. De eerste keer dat ik erop had geclickt had ik een pop up (leek toen wel te werken, maar moest toen niets boeken). Echter een paar dagen later werkte de link niet meer. Weet u hoe dit komt? Kan u mij eventueel een nieuwe werkende link doorsturen?
Alvast bedankt,
Hi Alex, thanks for the heads-up. Some links were indeed no longer working. I have remove them.
Dag Bart
Ik heb deze blog via een vriend van mij leren kennen. Ik reis heel graag en liefst naar warme bestemmingen. Als ik een goede deal voor Mexico of Dominicaans wil vinden hoe ga ik dan best te werk? Wij zouden graag vertrekken midden februari.
Hallo Davy, je kan Best starten met het lezen van de artikels bovenaan in de menubalk: ‘Cheap flights’ en ‘Cheap Hotels’. Succes!
Bart,
I tried booking an AirBnb room via your referral, but deed not succeed (could not log in, already had made an account). I did complete the booking, since I didn’t want to loose the available room.
Do you think there is a way to recuperate the 20€ reward?
Stijn
Hi Stijn, not sure what when wrong here. Did you already have an Airbnb account before you used my sign-up link? The 20EUR discount (current sign-up bonus) is only awarded to brand new accounts for first time bookers. If this was your first time booking with Airbnb using a brand new account, you can contact their support department to receive you credits. They are generally very helpful. Enjoy your Airbnb stay!
Bart, I already had an account, but never made a booking…
In that case, it would have been better to make a new account with different email address. The sign-up credit is for new accounts only as far as I’m aware.
Hallo Bart
Ben nieuw in het spel.
Ik denk dat ik graag met qatar, emiraten, klm zou willen vliegen (vanaf november/december en als dat kan met de finan ……). Maar de ene zit in ‘one world’, de andere in nog andere allianties.
Ik weet op dit moment nog niet hoeveel ik zal reizen (maandelijks 2-maandelijks….)
Help mij aub de bomen in het bos te zien en welke credit credit card zou u mij aanraden?
Hi Bart. i’m searching for the right credit card to earn miles. Since I have no experience on this, I thought that maybe you could help. I live in Belgium but I take flights from different airports such as Germany and the Netherlands, as the distance is not that far for me. Hope to hear from you
Hi Shenna, there are two options:
1) Brussels Airlines American Express card to earn miles for Star Alliance flights https://travel.bart.la/2014/06/09/brussels-airlines-american-express-12000-welcome-bonus-miles-and-more/
2) Beobank Air France / KLM Flying Blue card to earn miles for SkyTeam flights https://www.beobank.be/nl/Kredietkaarten/Beobank-Premium-Flying-Blue-World-MasterCard.aspx
The mistake was corrected on Expedia quite soon after booking (about 20 minutes). It was a very specific one actually, only when booking in July coming summer, in weekends, for 1 night only, in a room for 3 adults, did the error occur. I used Trivago to check hotel rates. Expedia and Hotels.com offered this rate, the other agents offered much higher rates (starting from about €180).
Fingers crossed, I guess! Thank you for your quick reply.
Maxim
Yesterday, Expedia sent me a mail to cancel my booking.
The reason they said it was cancelled was “without a doubt the payment method that has been used to make the reservation”.
I made the reservation with my Visa card so that seems strange. Contacted Expedia asking what this was about, they said the hotel indeed cancelled my reservation, because it probably couldn’t charge my credit card. This is of course some random excuse, there’s nothing wrong with my Visa card and if they wanted, they could have charged it.
Expedia tell me to rebook the hotel at current rates (which is about €150/night higher than what I’ve actually booked). I’ve replied that I don’t want to rebook because I had a confirmed booking, and asked what would have happened if I had booked last-minute (current booking isn’t due for a few months).
Also mentioned that there’s nothing wrong with my Visa card. I’ve double checked, the hotel in fact hasn’t charged anything (yet) to my creditcard.
I’m afraid this will thus be a valid reason for them to cancel. I will try to get some result via Expedia, and keep you guys posted!
Maxim
Hi Maxim,
what worked for me was contacting the hotel directly (preferably the management) by phone.
I also sent them the confirmed booking which i received from booking.com, to prove the mistake that was made.
They must have room for negotiation, since the commission booking.com, expedia, or any other OTA charges them for every booking is quite a bit.
Never know..
Good luck!
Hi Bart,
This morning i managed to book a room via Expedia for a bargain price.
I think something went wrong with price settings because I booked the room (paid with Visa) for €21, normal rate for this type of room is about €200.
I’ve googled a bit and found that sometimes, hotels call customers who made their reservation via expedia (and related websites), to increase the price, in case of wrong price setting.
What do you think are my odds to stay in this hotel for the price that was listed (and confirmed by Expedia)? The reservation I made is for coming summer, so I have quite a lot of time left, in case something would go wrong (read: the hotel would increase price or cancel my reservation).
Thank you for your answer.
Regards,
Maxim
Hi Maxim, you managed to book yourself a hotel error rate, nice! You’ll have to wait it out for a few weeks now to see what happens. Might be the hotel notices the mistake and has Expedia contact you in a few days to correct it. If only a few people booked it, your chances are higher they honour the booking. No guarantees here, you basically need to wait it out. Did they already correct the mistake on Expedia? Did you use hotelscombined.com to check if other Online Travel Agents offer a similar low rate?
I experienced the same thing, a year ago i booked Hotel Arts in BCN for €130/night instead of €500/night through booking.com
Seemed that booking.com made a mistake, they tried to make me pay the full amount but i refused and they kept it at €130, and the hotel even offered us the breakfast (€70/night/pp) for free to compensate for the inconvenience!
Awesome, thanks for sharing your experience Xavier! You must be a damn good negotiator, as booking.com almost never honors their ‘mistake’ rates.
Thank you Bart.
Negotiating is part of my job, so I know a few tricks 🙂
And I must admit I also contacted Hotel Arts directly and spoke with their hospitality manager about the unacceptable way of communicating with their customers that booking.com applies, even when they clearly made a big mistake.
Ok, I exagerated a little bit to them but at least it provided me with what I wanted. And it got me the free breakfast.
Hi Xavier, thanks for your story. I’ll stick to my booked rate and hope for the best!
You can read their terms&conditions. It must state that the hotel can correct its rates at any time when a mistake was made. If it is not in their t&c’s you have a strong case, fingers crossed 😉
hi bart!
great site
you helped my out once in trying to get a hold of the Miles A More team in brussels in march last year , for which i thank you.
in the past you had a trick of swapping miles from LH to Turkish, when being Miles and More gold member which resulted in much more mileage gain.
Is this process still valid and can you share that link again?
regards
kurt mechelen
Hi Kurt, thank you for your feedback. I assume you’re talking about status matching with Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles to obtain Star Alliance Gold status?
Correct, where is the link to the process again?
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/turkish-airlines-miles-smiles/1735868-tk-status-match-2016-a.html
hi bart
i was refering to your explanation you did on this site( which was more clearer then the FT link
Hé Bart, leuke site heb je! Ik vroeg me af hoe ik goede deals voor hotels in Berlijn vind in de eerste week van februari. Ik heb me al suf gezocht op booking.com, maar een betaalbare kamer (voor 2 studenten), zonder een badkamer te moeten delen blijkt een onmogelijke vraag te zijn. Heb jij tips voor mij?
Hi Hanne, Berlin is normally very affordable, even for students! What budget do you want to spend?
Around 200 euro for 4 days. But it’s often with shared bathrooms or far away from the citycentre. Maybe I just have bad luck 🙂
Did you try a search with hotelscombined.com?
If you want to use the €18 Free Airbnb Credit you have to make sure the reservation has a total value of at least €67. See link: http://bit.ly/1PjHdda
Thanks for your feedback Kelly.
Hi Bart,
I fly mostly to JFK, LAX, LHR, SIN, HKG, NRT.
So my understanding is that you can’t reserve the service in advance. Just on demand basis when you reach the destination. Is this a convenient way to business travelers to arrange airport transportation upon arrival at their destination?
George, you should determine for each individual airport what the best way is to get to your hotel. e.g. For LHR the Heathrow Express might be faster, once at Paddington you can use Uber or the underground.
How can I reserve UBER limo pick ups for overseas airports when I am not in the same town and I need to arrange my airport pick up in advance?
Hi George, you cannot make advance reservations for Uber. It isn’t necessary anyway, just open the app once you arrive at the airport and request a car. It’s as easy as that! Which city are you traveling to?
Hello Bart
I find return tickets Brussels – Malaga for €154 in December at the moment (economy), do you think this could get better?
Kind regards
Hi Yoni, that’s still too expensive. Don’t pay more than €99. Read my tips on booking flights here: https://travel.bart.la/2013/12/28/how-to-book-cheap-flights/
Just used your link Uber. Just a quick update : it is 20€ free instead of 10€. Even better !
Cheers
Hi Romuald, thanks for your feedback. Uber extended their €20 offer until the end of January.
Hello Bart. First of all, congratulations with your blog! It’s really a cool hobby, especially for people like me who travel rather often. One question: what if I get a miles and more card and I pay as much as I can ( gas, electricity, groceries) with that card. What profit can I expect with the earned miles. Considering the 120 dollars fee for one year? Or do i have to travel really a lot to get some profit with the miles card? In short: what discounts can I expect once I have collected a nice amount of miles by flying or buying as much as possible with the credit card?
Hi Willem, thank you for your feedback. I recommend the Brussels Airlines Premium American Express card which has a yearly fee of 150 EUR and comes with 12,000 bonus miles. Best value is using your miles for First Class flights, which can easily cost more than 6000 EUR when paid using cash. For 62500 miles you can already fly First Class to Dubai. Here’s an example of a nice First Class flight with Lufthansa https://travel.bart.la/2015/07/12/lufthansa-a330-300-first-class-vancouver-to-munich-lh477/