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Bits: BA ‘Upgrade to First’ promo returns, Accor buys onefinestay, triple PPB points on Air Canada

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News in brief:

British Airways ‘Upgrade to First’ promotion returns

British Airways has brought back its regular ‘Upgrade To First’ promotion.  This allows anyone purchasing a flexible or semi-flexible Club World ticket in J, C, D or R classes (this excludes the cheapest I-class fares) to receive a one-way upgrade to First at the time of booking.

This deal only applies to full fare tickets.  If your employer has a negotiated deal then you can not take part.

American Airlines flights can be upgraded if booked as a BA codeshare.  You need to book via a travel agent or by telephone, not online.  The number of seats available for upgrade is restricted.

You must book by 14th June for outbound travel by 28th August.  All travel must be completed by 8th September.

The following routes are excluded: Bermuda, Chengdu, Bangkok, Seoul, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Full details can be found at ba.com here.

British Airways First Class seat

Accor acquires onefinestay

French hotel group Accor, owner of the Sofitel, Novotel, Ibis, Pullman etc hotel brands, bought ‘posh Airbnb’ company onefinestay yesterday.

Based in London, onefinestay lets “leisure and business guests stay in hand-picked distinctive private homes with made-to-measure, personal service from a personal welcome on arrival to a team on call 24/7”.  It currently has 2,600 properties under management in  London, New York, Paris, Los Angeles and Rome.

Accor paid £117m for the company and has committed a further £50m to speed up its expansion.

This may well be a good long-term investment for Accor.  Marriott, whose $14bn revised bid for Starwood is now looking excessive, may be wondering if this wouldn’t have been a better bet.

Whilst there are no plans to test out onefinestay on HfP at the moment, there will be some coverage of Airbnb on Head for Points soon.  Anika is currently out in LA and I challenged her – as someone who has never done anything like this before – to download the app and give it a go.

Triple PartnerPlusBenefit BenefitPoints with Air Canada flights

PartnerPlusBenefit is the Star Alliance equivalent of the British Airways ‘On Business’ programme for small companies in the UK and Ireland.  I wrote a full introduction to the scheme here.

If you fly with any of the 11 Star Alliance airlines who take part – Air Canada, LOT, Lufthansa, germanwings, Eurowings, Austrian, ANA, SWISS, Brussels Airlines, United and TAP Portugal  – you would be crazy not to sign up your business, large or small.

If you are heading to Canada before 31st July, you will earn triple BenefitPoints on all Air Canada or Air Canada rouge (the AC leisure arm) operated flights from the UK and Ireland to Canada.  This applies to all bookings in International Business Class, Premium Economy and Premium rouge.

You need to pre-register for this offer via the ‘Special Promotions’ page of your PartnerPlusBenefit account.

If you want to join PartnerPlusBenefit, details are in this HfP article.  There is a sign-up bonus available which is good for 3 x one-way Heathrow Express tickets or various other benefits.


How to earn Star Alliance miles from UK credit cards

How to earn Star Alliance miles from UK credit cards (April 2025)

None of the Star Alliance airlines currently have a UK credit card.

There is, however, still a way to earn Star Alliance miles from a UK credit card

The route is via Marriott Bonvoy. Marriott Bonvoy hotel loyalty points convert to over 40 airlines at the rate of 3:1.

The best way to earn Marriott Bonvoy points is via the official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card. It comes with 20,000 points for signing up and 2 points for every £1 you spend. At 2 Bonvoy points per £1, you are earning (at 3:1) 0.66 airline miles per £1 spent on the card.

There is a preferential conversion rate to United Airlines – which is a Star Alliance member – of 2 : 1 if you convert 60,000 Bonvoy points at once.

The Star Alliance members which are Marriott Bonvoy transfer partners are: Aegean, Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Avianca, Copa Airlines, Singapore Airlines, TAP Air Portugal, Thai Airways, Turkish Airlines and United Airlines.

You can apply here.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

20,000 points for signing up and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

Comments (33)

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

  • Hfp reader says:

    Hate to start with an OT question, but when checking in for a recent BA flight in world traveller I was offered an upgrade to world traveller plus for 140 pounds one way at check in. I would like upgrade an upcoming flight to world traveller plus, the BA website is currently asking me to pay 350 pounds one way for this upgrade. Does anyone know whether this is likely to go down to 140 quid again if I wait until check-in? Anyone know how popular the world traveller plus cabin is? Is it worth waiting or is the cabin likely to be full?

    • John says:

      Check out the AUP/POUG threads on the BA forum on flyertalk

    • Rob says:

      Luck of the draw on the day, depending on how full WTP is and when you check in. £350 is the price to be sure!

    • Alex W says:

      My theory is if they are still offering you POUGs at the last minute, there’s a chance you could get a free upgrade anyway.

  • David H says:

    Challenge Anika!

  • James says:

    A bit cheeky but can the upgrade to first be used on the ex-London leg of an ex-Europe fare? (i.e. upgrade LHR-HKG on an AMS-HKG ticket)

  • Paul says:

    Would be interesting to know how many of these are bought. The fare classes are quite expensive and as a leisure passengers certainly not something I am going to do.not for a seat in CW+

    • Andrew says:

      I know of someone who did buy one of these. They needed to book LHR-KUL for a last minute unplanned trip with three days’ notice. Assuming you want to fly J, at three days out on an ex-UK flight, only D class is made available, so a free upgrade is a no brainier.

      Unless you have the time to start in Europe where, seemingly, R class is made available on some routes – in this case time was of the essence.

  • luke says:

    question raffles- why are those routes excluded, when only Bermuda has a first cabin?

  • Kipto says:

    Looking forward to Anika’s article on Airbnb. I looked at prices in Los Angeles for a forthcoming stay. When you add in the excessively high ‘cleaning’ costs I didn’t find them that competitive compared to hotels.

  • Matthew says:

    Worth mentioning that I’m still seeing double membership reward points (i.e. 100% bonus points) on Airbnb trips booked on my 18 month old Amex Gold card. Airbnb is closer to hotel rates on the States for the most part, but we swear by it now in Europe for getting much better value than hotels, mostly based on being able to book entire apartments (so getting much more square footage for base hotel prices) or more interesting locations. This is leisure travel though admittedly.

  • zaza says:

    Aren’t the ads from google ad services, ie Google scans your internet browser cookies and then shows ads based on sites previously visited….? No idea what “russians.com-2015” is, and I’m not clicking that link to find out, but you might want to try cleaning your browser. And maybe get a virus scanner. And a malware scanner. And validate who’s using your computer.

    • xcalx says:

      Or cut out the late night babe viewing LOL

    • Genghis says:

      Does Mrs H know your about your other ‘hobby’?

      • harry says:

        heh heh no chance of cookies remaining, I’d just CCleaner’ed it to get the Telegraph back up (see my post a few mins previous).

        To answer Raffles’ question, it was right hand box about a page or so down.

        It might have used my geography, I guess, as I am still on my hols at our place in the sun, 27C today & clear skies, since you ask 🙂

        • Nick M says:

          I’ve found the ads to be very bizarre when using a new phone/after using CCleaner – can’t remember exactly what I was targeted for, but it really highlights how targeted adverts can be!

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

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