As I wrote last month, the July / August edition of National Geographic Traveller (UK edition, £3.95) has a three page article on frequent flyer miles. It starts on page 164.
For better or worse, I feature heavily in the article.
The article is now available online, for free. You can read it here.
Unfortunately, the article is inaccurate in a couple of places as glossy magazines have a very long lead time. The interview I did with the magazine was done in December 2014. When I talk about taking an airberlin flight ‘last year’, I mean 2013. As this was before the Avios devaluation was announced, some of the numbers quoted in the article regarding the miles needed are now out of date.
There is also an element of hyperbole to the piece that is not really my normal style but which I did for impact ….!
There are nuggets of information which the general reader who happens to have a few Avios will find useful. I cover little-known facts (outside of our circle) such as converting American Express points to Avios and that airberlin and Aer Lingus offer long-haul Avios redemptions with minimal tax.
About Head for Points
Disappointing absolutely no points earned for reading the article. I don’t get out of bed for less than a thousand Avios these days. 😉
Lol . Was a great read though!
Hi Rob,
The article mentions you can earn 6 virgin flying club miles for hotels.com bookings. Is that true? If so how is it done? It is not listed under the hotels section of the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club website… Thanks!
You need to log into your Virgin account and then via the shopping portal (‘shop now’).
Yes, 6 flying club miles per £ spent, plus 10% rebate with their rewards programme, plus pay on Amex to receive membership rewards……
Haha I liked the opening line re ‘do you take Amex’ – sooo true! 🙂
The article mentions at the bottom that business class/Upper long-haul is the same between BA and Virgin. But on a lot of routes, virgin are significantly cheaper. e.g. LHR – SFO is 150000 + £556 on BA, 100000+£528 on Virgin. Virgin don’t seem to have a defined structure between there class prices like BA, so must differ by route?
Nice one Rob! Great read