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Bits: more daft BA PR with the ‘moon’ BAEC Gold card, lastminute ‘Top Secret’ London hotel sale

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News in brief:

More BA PR silliness ….

It is that time of year when the newspapers are desperate for coverage to fill their pages during a quiet Summer.  British Airways is doing its bit with this story – one which involved creating a brand new British Airways Executive Club Gold card design from scratch.

To celebrate 46 years since Neil Armstrong landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, British Airways has surprised one of its most loyal customers who has already flown enough miles to get there and back.

​Sandra Reid from Kingston-upon-Thames, who was the most recent member of the airline’s loyalty programme, the Executive Club, to fly the 477,710 miles, was presented with the equivalent number of Avios points at Heathrow Terminal 5 ahead of the anniversary of the landing this week. 

The 55-year-old marketing executive clocked up the miles visiting destinations ranging from Corfu, to Cape Town to Amsterdam.

Mrs Reid said: “I know I fly a lot, but I was really quite shocked when British Airways contacted me to say I’d reached the moon and back. It’s a really lovely way to be thanked for my loyalty and I’m now deciding where to go next with the Avios they gave me – they tell me I can get a first class return ticket to Australia or take the whole family to New York. Either way, I’ll be staying on this planet!”

James Hillier, from British Airways’ Executive Club, said: “We are always looking at ways in which we can thank our most loyal members and personalise their travel experience, so we’re delighted to surprise Mrs Reid. It’s no mean feat given that you need to spend 40 days or 955 hours in the sky to hit this landmark.”

However, Mrs Reid still has a long way to go to catch up with one very local BA jetsetter who has flown 6,741,868 miles alone – the equivalent to 23 return trips to Australia.

lastminute.com ‘Top Secret’ hotels sale for London

Until 10am today, lastminute.com is having another sale on its ‘Top Secret’ hotels in London.  It is not as good as the last deal, where they had rooms for £29, but there may be value to be had.

The offer page is here.  You can often work out the hotel by pasting parts of the description into Google.  Alternatively, do a dummy booking – options for booking restaurant tables etc are often given during the booking process which give the game away.


Hotel offers update – April 2024:

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points?

  • Hilton Honors is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 14th May 2024. Click here.

Comments (23)

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

  • tony says:

    Has Australia got further away?

    “However, Mrs Reid still has a long way to go to catch up with one very local BA jetsetter who has flown 6,741,868 miles alone – the equivalent to 23 return trips to Australia.”

    • RICO says:

      Presumably Mrs Reid is a pilot as most airlines will not let you fly “alone” with them without a pilot on the plane

  • Martimchediad says:

    Journalism nowadays…….pretty sure 6+ million miles takes more than 23 returns to Oz!!

    • PaulH says:

      Yep – my flight planning software says that routing via HKG is 9,590 miles one way; so 19,180 return; which suggests that 6,741,868 miles is more like 351 return trips plus enough for one more one way trip…

  • James Ward says:

    Re LM sale, “All day today and until 10am on Thursday”.

    Today *is* Thursday so do you mean Thursday next week, or Friday, or was “today” actually yesterday?

    🙂

    • Rob says:

      I screwed up. I moved the order of the articles around earlier in the week and this slipped through! At least most people will have seen it before 10am.

  • JQ says:

    More like 320 return trips.

    Since my parents and I went to Australia roughly twice a year, I probably flew 23 return trips by the age of 12. Not much of an “achievement”.

  • Oliver says:

    Wait till she see how much the taxes are to take the family to NY 😀

  • Gavin says:

    Good luck finding the elusive says redemption. Also nice of BAEC to recognise a gold customer – funny, they’ve never recognised me in the 5months I’ve been gold having flown with them approx 10 times, no welcome, no thanks for your custom, nada! Well done BA

  • The Lady says:

    What a total coincidence Ms Reid was a Marketing Exec and spoke so eloquently about the promotion.

    Better that BA spend time steam cleaning the loud in the First Lounge, which are decidedly farmyardy…!

    Creating a Gold Card of a Silver Moon does take some deep thought, though.

  • Waribai says:

    Can’t see much worth having on LM!

    • Hilly says:

      Looking forward to our £29/room stay at Threadneedles this weekend to celebrate the start of the school holidays. Many thanks to you Rob for your earlier last minute.com article which got me in on the deal 🙂

      • Waribai says:

        Yes, that was one Saturday morning worth getting out of bed early for!

      • Rob says:

        Result. Haven’t been in for years but it is very nice. It is now affiliated with Marriott so you might get a few Marriott Rewards points for incidental spend. Not sure how many cafes near it are open at the weekend.

        Unfortunately, the Bank of England museum which is very close is closed at the weekend but if you are at the hotel early on Friday you might have time to pop in. No charge.

        • Waribai says:

          ” It is now affiliated with Marriott so you might get a few Marriott Rewards points for incidental spend. ”

          Better than that, they seem to be taking a leaf out of Club Carlson’s book..:) Well at least, they did for my first stay LM stay. My second one has not seen any points posting yet.

        • Jonathan says:

          Highly recommend the afternoon tea served in the lobby!

      • Jordan D says:

        Can’t claim as good value, but £69 for a stay there through Hotel Tonight app, Gold upgrade to Penthouse Suite, late check-out and free breakfast (worth c. £40) all honoured. Happy days.

        • Hilly says:

          Bank of England museum scheduled for Monday. Bike tour booked with Tesco boost :). Rail travel via RSH via clubcard. Natural history museum Monday, no charge. Dinner at Ask, again on Tesco boost. Boots meal deal Monday lunch £1 with O2. 🙂

        • Rob says:

          If they offer that midweek during August I might book it as office space – sitting on quite a bit of HT credit!

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