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Bits: 75% bonus for buying Hilton points, see the pilot and crew rest areas of a 777

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News in brief:

Up to 75% bonus when you buy Hilton HHonors points

This offer is poorer than the 100% and 80% bonuses which Hilton HHonors has offered in recent months so I am not focussing on it strongly.

The full bonus is not even given on all purchases.  10,000 – 29,000 points only gets you a 25% bonus whilst 30,000 – 39,000 gets 50%.  Only at purchases of 40,000 points or more do you get a 75% bonus.  At the top end, you can buy 140,000 Hilton points (80,000 plus 60,000 free) for $800. That is 0.57 cents each.

Regular readers of Head for Points will know that I tend to value Hilton points at 0.3p each which is LESS than you are paying here.  However, Hilton HHonors IS a decent deal at cheaper point levels. The Hampton by Hilton in Sheffield is 10,000 points per night. At 0.57c per point you would be paying roughly £35 per night if you bought the points. That is a 65% discount on the typical nightly rate of £100. Hampton properties include free breakfast as well.

If you just buying a handful of points to top off your account, the price per point doesn’t matter anyway. If you a few thousand short of a redemption then this is a cheap opportunity to buy them.  The offer closes on October 5th.  The link to buy is here.

The pilot and crew rest areas of a Boeing 777-300

Here is a little oddment which doesn’t really fit into one of the Air New Zealand profile pieces that I am running throughout September.  When I was touring their 777-300 at Heathrow, I was allowed to go into the pilot rest area.  It was fascinating.

Inside the cockpit is a set of stairs.  Climb up and this is what you see:

Boeing 777-300 pilot rest area

Each pilot has their own relaxation seat.  Out of shot is a TV monitor for each seat so they can watch the IFE.

Also out of shot, behind the curtain, is a mattress for each pilot where they can choose to sleep.  I found it a little claustrophobic, to be honest!

Meanwhile, this is where the off duty cabin crew get to sleep:

Boeing 777-300 crew rest area

A bunk bed in an equally dark corridor in the belly of the aircraft!

Boeing 777-300 crew rest area

Comments (11)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • James67 says:

    Crew rest area does look a little gloomy, perhaps depends on airline. I have seen pics of crew rest areas on 773ER and 787 which I would happily trade for any F seat, claustrophobic or not.

  • Jake says:

    I once discovered the Virgin crew rest area on a 747 by accident, looking for the toilet! I thoguht it was a bit strange going downstairs to the loo on an airplane!

    • TimS says:

      On a cargo 747 the crew rest area is the entire upper deck. That said, the upper deck on freighters is smaller than on pax. And IFE is BYO!

    • James67 says:

      Toilets were downstairs on one aircraft I flew IIRC, maybe a340.

  • Sussex Bantam says:

    Massively OT – (so I put it in Bits) – how do I credit an Avis rental to BAEC ? I have to book through my work travel agency so can’t use the avisba.com site itself. I can however see the booking under my Avis Preferred membership.

    (Sorry if this is a silly question – I don’t hire cars very often !)

  • adam says:

    I used to go out with a girl who was Cabin Crew for Virgin Atlantic and as such flew a lot via a standby ticket. on most flights I used to get to fly Upper class – PE at worst. However, on a couple of flights there were no seats and as they had no obligation to get me home I had to sit on a cabin crew jump seat. On one trip I had the pilots rest seat and ended up spending the whole flight from LAX sitting up there on my own. Very surreal experience.

    • Nick says:

      Is this still possible today? The old fly standby for a nominal amount for family of crew?

  • cheekychappie says:

    Various Debs offers turning up, a/c specific

    £20 back
    DEBENHAMS
    Spend £45 or more twice, get £20 back
    Save this offer to your Card to get a £20 statement credit when you spend £45 or more in two separate transaction, on different days on your Card at Debenhams in-store or online between 11 September 2015 and 8 November 2015.
    EXPIRES
    08/11/2015

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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