Prize-stacking in London

Sometimes winning a prize isn’t quite as exciting as you’d hoped, particularly if it involves travel expenses to use it! Tickets to a football match, an overnight stay in a London Hotel, a £50 bar tab in a cocktail bar… all these prizes can cost you money to use. But use your competition wins together by prize-stacking (you might call it prize combining or prize pooling!) and you could end up with a jam-packed day – or weekend – of fun!

Last summer I won a stay in London on Magic FM, and we finally got it booked for last weekend. The prize included travel for the three of us from Brighton to London, transfers from the station, and a night’s accommodation in a studio room at the Park Plaza County Hall. In addition we were given £100 of restaurant vouchers and a £90 Odeon gift card. As with many radio competitions, this was a great package to start with!

One of my favourite things to do as a comper is to combine prizes where I can to ensure a free – or cheap! – day out, or holiday. In December I won a £50 gift card to spend in Tunbridge Wells, so immediately started searching for ‘Win Tunbridge Wells’ on Twitter and Google – the following week I won a family ice skating ticket, so we were able to combine both prizes in one visit. When I won an overnight stay and tickets to London Fashion Week, I also used a £50 bar tab I won on Twitter, and a free meal from a Facebook win.

Back in November I won tickets to see Goya – The Portraits at the National Gallery so after arriving in London we decided to walk to Trafalgar Square from our hotel (fighting our way through the selfie sticks in front of Big Ben!).

To my surprise, Ryland really enjoyed the exhibition – it’s not my kind of art, but was wonderful to see up close and the portraits of children were particularly fascinating. Ry spent half an hour running after sticky bubbles afterwards…. look at the state of those boots!

Back at the hotel, Ry was delighted to find he had his own double bed and TV, so the teddies immediately felt comfy. Fancy being able to watch Sunday morning Match of the Day on two tellys… living the dream!

Last spring I won family Premium Merlin Passes with Specsavers, so we took the opportunity to visit the London Eye, Shrek’s Adventure and the Sea Life Centre for free – all conveniently located near the hotel at County Hall.

It was my first time on the London Eye at night and it was great – reminiscent of Tokyo with lights as far as the eye could see.

We spent our restaurant voucher at Yo! Sushi – Ryland’s favourite restaurant – and later used a £50 prize Costa card (from a Tate & Lyle Facebook competition) for coffee and cake.

We were so busy we didn’t have time to spend our cinema voucher, which I’ll save to use in Brighton. I also have a prize family ticket to the Florence Nightingale Museum to save for our next London visit.

Tips on prize-stacking

If you win a night or weekend away, don’t take it too quickly – book it for a few months away so you can search for free meals., vouchers or entertainment tickets you can use at the same time. Use my Google search tips and check Twitter for the location key words – check local listings websites, shopping centres, magazines and radio websites for prizes too. Prize stacking is probably easiest in London because of the number of different places to visit!

You could also look out for prize swaps from other compers – often people can’t use tickets or meals and are looking to swap them or give away for free! Join a Facebook swaps group (try Friendly Compers Swap Group or your local Facebook comping group, although you’ll have to wait for approval from the admin team) in case there’s anything suitable for your trip.

Have you managed to combine prizes for a free day out or weekend? Let me know in the comments!