Cheaper foreign currency for Heathrow Rewards cardholders

Heathrow Rewards, the loyalty scheme for the shops at Heathrow Airport, has announced a new partnership with Travelex.

Heathrow Rewards members (joining is free) will receive a rate which is 0.5% better than the standard Travelex online rate.  This saves you £5 on a £1,000 transaction which, whilst not a fortune, is worth having.

Remember that you will also receive 1 Heathrow Rewards point for every £10 you exchange which can be converted into 1 Avios (albeit in multiples of 250).

A minimum of four hours notice is required for pre-ordered currency collections.

As I wrote back in August, you can no longer earn Avios with any currency pre-order at Terminal 5.  The American Express Currency Exchange branches were recently replaced by Moneycorp.  Moneycorp will ONLY award Avios if you order at the counter, and the rates are so dire that anyone who does so – assuming they are using their own money – should be locked up for their own safety.

For comparison, I checked Moneycorp vs the Heathrow Rewards / Travelex special rate.  For $1,000, Travelex wanted £631.51, but this reduced to £628.35 using the ‘Reward111’ promotional code.  Moneycorp wanted £628.14.  An order for Dh 5,000 of Dubai currency gave a similar result.

This promotion is therefore a decent deal, albeit that you are not making a major saving.  Both Moneycorp and Travelex presumably give Heathrow Rewards points as well.