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Bits: Use Avios to Lapland, new White Company bedding, 2000 Virgin miles with PointsHound

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News in brief:

Finnair’s UK services to Lapland launching soon

If you’ve ever had a secret wish to visit Lapland, Finnair can help this winter.  Even better, you can use Avios to make it happen.  This is an opportunity to try winter activities such as ice fishing, seeing the Northern Lights, skiing, husky safaris and reindeer sleigh rides.

The airline will be running two Lapland routes this year, one between London Gatwick and Kittilä and one between London Gatwick and Ivalo.

Flights will operate weekly between 12th December and 20th March.  If there are reward seats left (these services were originally announced and featured on HfP a few months ago), an economy return to Kittilä will cost 20,000 Avios plus £96 tax.  This feels a little pricey so do compare cash prices.  Business class is not available.

New Finnair long-haul route launches include Goa, India on 1st November, to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on 5th November, to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic on 30th November and to Havana, Cuba on 1st December.  These are all bookable with Avios.

The White Company bedding and amenity kits now launched

Following a delay after the original failed safety tests due to its colour, The White Company bedding has finally been introduced into Club World on the New York JFK route.

This comprises a duvet, mattress cover, blanket, day cushion and pillow.  I am cautiously hopeful, given the reputation of The White Company, that this will be good quality stuff.

There is also a new amenity kit featuring lots of White Company items you will end up palming off on your aunt for Christmas:

  • Spa Relax Pulse Point Oil
  • Treatment oil
  • Spa Restore Gentle Moisturiser
  • Skin-conditioning cream with Vitamin E and jojoba oil
  • Spa lip balm

The bedding will be slowly rolled out across the network with the aim of having it everywhere by Summer 2018.  It isn’t clear if it will be linked to the roll out of the new Club World dining service or not.

Earn 2,000 Virgin Atlantic miles with PointsHound

This offer slipped through the net when it launched but you still have a few days to take advantage.

Hotel booking site PointsHound is offering up to 2,000 bonus Virgin Flying Club miles if you book a hotel with them before 31st October.  The stay date can be further out.

You need to spend over £250 to get the 2,000 miles bonus, which is on top of the base miles you will get from PointsHound.  Transactions between £150 and £249 will earn 1,000 bonus Virgin miles.

Note that bookings via PointsHound will NOT earn points in any hotel loyalty programme.  Apart from Marriott, you probably won’t receive status benefits either.

You can only earn the bonus once but it IS available to existing PointsHound customers.

Full details can be found here.

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.)

Category

British Airways and Avios, Finnair and Finnair Plus, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (40)

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

  • W says:
    26 Oct26 October 08:12

    Chances the new BA kit will be rolled out for the early March Singapore service?

    Is the trolley service now live?

  • Rob MC says:
    26 Oct26 October 08:17

    OT. Did I read somewhere that you can get bonus avios for referring someone to open an Iberia account?

  • Gavin says:
    26 Oct26 October 08:18

    The BA amenity bag looks a considerable improvement.

  • the real harry1 says:
    26 Oct26 October 08:42

    Rolling Luggage 1000 points – in case you missed it over the last couple of days, the 1000 bonus Avios points have now dropped into BAEC & avios.com points

    if you didn’t get yours, you might want to chase

    • Crafty says:
      26 Oct26 October 17:25

      Mine on Avios.com have posted. Despite being what was agreed, now feels like a nice surprise!

  • Sarah says:
    26 Oct26 October 09:47

    Wow – nine months to roll out the new bedding – how can it seriously take that long?

    • Rob says:
      26 Oct26 October 10:17

      Yes it’s a money-saving joke, obviously. I don’t know how often they buy new sheets but you assume it is less than every six months, so they will still be buying the old ones now.

      Of course …. it is probably a good job, because when they were told to scrap the blue ones for health and safety reasons they wouldn’t have had a very large stockpile to dump.

  • James says:
    26 Oct26 October 10:27

    Will the White Company bedding help with the bedbugs ?!

  • Anthony says:
    26 Oct26 October 11:12

    Off topic! First time poster, long time reader.

    I used Avios and 2 x AMEX 241 vouchers for a flight to Cairo for my family of 4 last week.

    The plane was delayed due to a technical issue – and we arrived 4 hours and 3 minutes late. Cairo is just over 3500 miles from Heathrow.

    Should I expecting full EU compensation for all 4 tickets or just two of them?

    • Rob says:
      26 Oct26 October 12:40

      Everyone. Delay compensation is paid in cash regardless of how you booked.

    • Anna says:
      26 Oct26 October 17:23

      Hi Anthony, I’ve been considering doing a redemption to Cairo. What kind of plane do they use, nit sure if it’s classed as short or long haul?

      • Anthony says:
        26 Oct26 October 19:03

        Heya! it’s a wide body newish 787 – really nice, with the movies and USB ports to charge phones. We were in economy and that was fine for the 5 hours – well would have been if not for the delay! The kids just watched Lego Batman Movie 3 times on the way home.

        Cairo was crazy, and the Pyramids were incredible. Something I’ve always wanted to see and really glad we did 🙂

        Anyway I’m still buzzing – it was a great trip!

  • MisterM says:
    26 Oct26 October 11:32

    O/T Just about to cancel my Amex Platinum card that I’ve just held for a month. I got Avis Presidents Club as a benefit, will this also cancel as soon at the Amex is cancelled or do I retain this benefit for longer and if so when does it expire?

    • Radiata says:
      26 Oct26 October 13:52

      When did AVIS Presidents Club become an AMEX Plat benefit?

      I have the former but did not receive it as a function of being an AMEX Plat holder previously.

      • MisterM says:
        26 Oct26 October 16:18

        Not sure if it’s been a benefit for long as I’m a bit of a newbie to this. The Amex Platinum welcome pack says “You can enjoy up to 15% off the published rates by being elevated to a higher tier when you enroll in these programmes: Avis Preferred, Hertz Gold Plus Rewards”.

        When I enrolled I’d assumed it would be low or mid tier membership with Avis Preferred but the card that comes through is the top tier Presidents Club. Very nice it was too – used it last week and got the free upgrade in Bologna airport and was able to jump the (rather long) queue by using the separate preferred customer window. It would be a pity if it cancelled when Amex Platinum is cancelled.

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

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