Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Bits: excellent BA Holidays deals, get £100 for listing on HomeAway, new Virgin NYC flight

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News in brief:

EXCELLENT new BA Holidays flash sale launched

BA Holidays is running another of its ‘luxury flash sale’ events this weekend.  You have until Monday 2nd to book.

Here are the headline deals they are using to promote the event, based on two sharing:

  • London to Muscat – Flights + 3 nights luxury hotel from £1,039 in June
  • London to Abu Dhabi – Flights + 3 nights in a luxury hotel from £1,188 in May
  • London to Dubai – Flights + 3 nights luxury hotel form £1,379 in November
  • London to Hong Kong – Flights + 4 nights luxury hotel from £2,519 in January
  • London to Seychelles – Flights + 7 nights luxury hotel from £3,119 in May

Whilst it is getting a little hot in Muscat by June, £1,039 for Club World flights and a hotel is exceptional value, however you look at it.  Similarly, November – peak season in the Middle East – is not the sort of time of year that you expect to be able to pick up Club World flights to Dubai and a pricey hotel for just £1,379 per person.

These are not tatty hotels either.  In Abu Dhabi you will get the InterContinental for £1,190 next May (not too hot) which – whilst dated – does have its own private beach club.  In Dubai, £1,410 is the lowest price in November for a beachside hotel – in this case the Ajman Saray, part of Starwood’s Luxury Collection (which is not actually in Dubai, of course!).

You don’t need to pay now.  You can just pay a deposit from as little as £150 per booking.  The balance is not due until five weeks before departure.

For clarity, flights booked via BA Holidays earn full Avios and tier points.  The only thing you cannot earn are British Airways On Business points.

Full details are on this special page of the BA Holidays website.

Get a £100 Amazon voucher for listing on HomeAway

If you currently list a holiday property on Airbnb, you may have considered extending your reach by also advertising on competitor HomeAway.

Whilst far smaller than Airbnb, HomeAway is now owned by Expedia and the company has big plans for expansions.

If you list your holiday rental on HomeAway before 15th November, you will receive a £100 Amazon.co.uk gift card when you receive your first booking for £300+ within 90 days.

Full details of the Amazon offer, and the sign-up page, are here.

If you are not a property owner but are interested in renting a holiday home via HomeAway, the main booking page is here.

6th Virgin Atlantic daily flight to New York

Virgin Atlantic and its 49% shareholder Delta have announced some changes to their joint UK / US flying schedule.

The main change is that Virgin Atlantic will take over one of the existing three daily Delta services between Heathrow and New York.  This will leave Virgin Atlantic with six daily services and Delta with two.

Other changes include:

Delta moving to A330 operation on its Heathrow to New York JFK, Atlanta and Detroit routes, adding capacity and bringing the new fully flat Delta One seat

Virgin Atlantic moving to Boeing 747 operation on the Manchester to New York and Manchester to Atlanta routes.  This will help improve capacity following the withdrawal of American Airlines from Manchester.

These changes will take effect from the launch of the Summer timetable on 24th March.


How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, the Reward+ card has a bonus of 15,000 Virgin Points):

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

A generous earning rate for a free card at 0.75 points per £1 Read our full review

You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 40,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 40,000 Virgin Points.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points

(Want to earn more Virgin Points?  Click here to see our recent articles on Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club and click here for our home page with the latest news on earning and spending other airline and hotel points.)

Comments (80)

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

  • Boi says:

    OT:
    Booked Hilton villamoura taking advice here and has worked well. Hfp are so knowledgeable. Much appreciated. Hubby and I had 2 Hilton certs so we booked a std room and contacted hotel directly who upgraded us to a 2 bed apartment so we can bring our 3 kids.
    Then the hotel allowed us to book 4 std rooms using cash and free upgrade to the apartment again-result! This was €156 vs €294 per night!

    My question is will my 4 night cash booking still earn points or will it be merged with the free night cert and earn nothing?

  • Peter K says:

    OT
    I tried to use billhop to pay money into my own account (£100 as a trial) and had an email saying basically it can only be used for paying bills and not for remittance. It’s not an expensive manufactured spend option it seems therefore.

    • Anna says:

      I did the same to our joint account, but put my husband as the recipient and it went through fine.

  • Andrew says:

    OT and possibly reaching a bit/a dumb question: I’m just about to upgrade the BA blue to the BAPP to trigger the 2-4-1. I’ve seen some discussion on here about the possibility of some Avios for upgrading and also that the fee sometimes doesn’t post. I’m wondering whether anyone has any hunch which option I should use to upgrade (web or phone) to a) get the fee to post late and/or b) to possibly get some Avios. eg is it a case of getting the right call centre agent, or is the online system doing it automatically? Appreciate data points are probably few and far between! Or that I may be completely wrong about either of these things happening at all

    • AndyR says:

      Never heard of Avios being offered for upgrading. Not sure about fee not posting sorry.

  • BA-Flyer says:

    Regarding the ‘spend £250 or more, earn 3000 MR points’ Amex offer for Hilton. Has anyone triggered this from multiple stays, or does it need to be £250 in one go?

    • N says:

      Will be able to report on this next week. Ask again Thurs/Fri and I’ll give you a for-sure answer.

      Previous experience says these are cumulative though.

  • Ross says:

    Except Ajman isn’t Dubai.
    And May is hot. Roughly 40+ degrees.

  • CV3V says:

    yet another OT, anyone got a mytaxi referral code?

    • Rob says:

      I saw one on their home page last week, look at the Twitter page too.

    • Zixuan says:

      Use my code Zixuan.hua and I get £10 credit as well. Thank you

      • CV3V says:

        added, plan is to use the app in Germany, there is a note in TnCs about being valid in selected UK regions, including Germany (!), lost in translation i think.

  • Barry Cutters says:

    Tonight we are in the trafalgar St. James , courtesy of spending £800 on my Hilton honours card. last month.
    Haven’t stayed in a Hilton for years but used the status match on here a few weeks ago to match to diamond from my spire elite IHG status. giving me free breakfast. i have also just called and asked for a nice room, to be told i had already been upgraded to a junior suite – and late check out confirmed for 4pm tomorrow.
    Will be cancelling the HH card on Monday , but i may do the 9 stays required to make my status match permanent.
    Would just like to say a big thanks to Rob and Anika for all their great articles. hope to be able to buy you both a drink at the (hopefully soon to be announced) xmas party.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      Why not keep it and get the 2500 points for your next 3 stays and double earning for your Hilton bookings.

      It’s one of the better free non-amex too

      • CV3V says:

        also, wasn’t there a stay bonus on the HH card, when staying on a redemption buying something at the bar with the card still triggered the bonus points?

        Stayed in the Conrad St James with the free night voucher, whilst diamond, had a great stay, great lounge and great breakfast.

        • Axel says:

          Sounds better than my Waldorf Astoria Aldwych stay last night. Exec. lounge reasonable. Asked for location of toilet and told to wait 15 minutes.

          Breakfast pedestrian and very busy with what seemed to be a coach party.

          Toiletries were actually better in my previous nights stay at Luton Holiday Inn.

          • Rob says:

            It’s not a Waldorf Astoria, it is the Hilton Waldorf …. and there is the difference!

        • CV3V says:

          I really can’t overstate how good the Conrad lounge was, as part of the evening service they had a waiter service and you could order the canapés to your table, backed up with fizz. Was quite an eclectic audience, there was us (jeans t shirts), one chap who i think was jet lagged in his shorts n t shirt and sneaking cans of coke out in his shorts (!) and a few couples who looked dressed for the opera!

          The breakfast in the morning was very nice quality, but it was the service that was really good, our waiter was really attentive and always checking on us. The whole experience was what you might expect in a 5 star asian hotel. Perhaps it felt so good because it was all free!

  • Jim says:

    Agree with Ant’s comments, all our long haul flights in club or first thanks to HFP
    Recently tried to book holiday using avios and 241 voucher. Offer on hotel in Dubai was not available because I had to book separately due to use of avios etc If had been paying then not a problem, has anyone else has an issue with this?

    • Anna says:

      It’s normal for them to only include these offers with paid bookings, as they want your cash, not your avios! You’ll have to book your flights with avios then shop around for the best hotel deal, which won’t necessarily be with BA.

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

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