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Bits: excellent BA Holidays deals, get £100 for listing on HomeAway, new Virgin NYC flight

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News in brief:

EXCELLENT new BA Holidays flash sale launched

BA Holidays is running another of its ‘luxury flash sale’ events this weekend.  You have until Monday 2nd to book.

Here are the headline deals they are using to promote the event, based on two sharing:

  • London to Muscat – Flights + 3 nights luxury hotel from £1,039 in June
  • London to Abu Dhabi – Flights + 3 nights in a luxury hotel from £1,188 in May
  • London to Dubai – Flights + 3 nights luxury hotel form £1,379 in November
  • London to Hong Kong – Flights + 4 nights luxury hotel from £2,519 in January
  • London to Seychelles – Flights + 7 nights luxury hotel from £3,119 in May

Whilst it is getting a little hot in Muscat by June, £1,039 for Club World flights and a hotel is exceptional value, however you look at it.  Similarly, November – peak season in the Middle East – is not the sort of time of year that you expect to be able to pick up Club World flights to Dubai and a pricey hotel for just £1,379 per person.

These are not tatty hotels either.  In Abu Dhabi you will get the InterContinental for £1,190 next May (not too hot) which – whilst dated – does have its own private beach club.  In Dubai, £1,410 is the lowest price in November for a beachside hotel – in this case the Ajman Saray, part of Starwood’s Luxury Collection (which is not actually in Dubai, of course!).

You don’t need to pay now.  You can just pay a deposit from as little as £150 per booking.  The balance is not due until five weeks before departure.

For clarity, flights booked via BA Holidays earn full Avios and tier points.  The only thing you cannot earn are British Airways On Business points.

Full details are on this special page of the BA Holidays website.

Get a £100 Amazon voucher for listing on HomeAway

If you currently list a holiday property on Airbnb, you may have considered extending your reach by also advertising on competitor HomeAway.

Whilst far smaller than Airbnb, HomeAway is now owned by Expedia and the company has big plans for expansions.

If you list your holiday rental on HomeAway before 15th November, you will receive a £100 Amazon.co.uk gift card when you receive your first booking for £300+ within 90 days.

Full details of the Amazon offer, and the sign-up page, are here.

If you are not a property owner but are interested in renting a holiday home via HomeAway, the main booking page is here.

6th Virgin Atlantic daily flight to New York

Virgin Atlantic and its 49% shareholder Delta have announced some changes to their joint UK / US flying schedule.

The main change is that Virgin Atlantic will take over one of the existing three daily Delta services between Heathrow and New York.  This will leave Virgin Atlantic with six daily services and Delta with two.

Other changes include:

Delta moving to A330 operation on its Heathrow to New York JFK, Atlanta and Detroit routes, adding capacity and bringing the new fully flat Delta One seat

Virgin Atlantic moving to Boeing 747 operation on the Manchester to New York and Manchester to Atlanta routes.  This will help improve capacity following the withdrawal of American Airlines from Manchester.

These changes will take effect from the launch of the Summer timetable on 24th March.

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, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (80)

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

  • Leon says:
    30 Sep30 September 06:44

    Brilliant news about VA taking an additional flight from Delta. Do we know which one it will be?

  • Roger says:
    30 Sep30 September 06:59

    OT- Genghis, did you receive your 5000 VS miles from MBNA for £1K spend?
    I am still waiting for mine, £1k was spent good 6 weeks or so ago.
    They say to wait for 6/8 weeks but just checking if you already received your bonus miles.

    • Genghis says:
      30 Sep30 September 07:47

      Not yet. Another statement should be generated in the next couple of days. I’ll let you know.

    • Grimz says:
      30 Sep30 September 08:10

      I’m still waiting for mine as well.

      • Michael Jennings says:
        30 Sep30 September 08:51

        This is the 5000 points retention incentive that they offer when you try to cancel the card. They gave that to me a few days ago, too. (I haven’t spent the £1000 yet, so I don’t know if it has been set up correctly)

        • BA-Flyer says:
          30 Sep30 September 10:23

          I hit the spend target a week before my statement was generated, but no bonus miles. I queried it with MBNA, and now have it in writing that the points will be on the next statement.

        • Alan says:
          2 Oct2 October 23:54

          They certainly sent me a letter confirming offer added to my account – waiting to pass £1k threshold then will see if they post OK!

    • Nick M says:
      30 Sep30 September 09:04

      Did you have to officially ask them to close the account before you were offered the miles? – I asked theoretically as expecting a refund and nothing was mentioned to encourage me to keep the account open

      • Peter K says:
        30 Sep30 September 09:36

        When I cancelled the black card a couple of months ago they only offered a 0% transfer offer (but 5% fee!). No bonus for spend, and that was only a month before the new year’s fee was due.

        • JamesB says:
          30 Sep30 September 11:27

          Same dull offer for me, declined, no further offer made. I wasn’t planning to acceot anyway as I’m about to apply for SPG, however, in the ullikely event mbna up the bonus again before virgin money take over I’ll try my luck with another white card application.

        • Nick M says:
          30 Sep30 September 21:35

          Thanks all!

      • Louise says:
        30 Sep30 September 15:53

        Yes ring up to cancel and then they offer 5000 points.

        Send letter out confirming offer and date to spend by.

        • Kathy says:
          30 Sep30 September 17:09

          I told them I was closing the card because I had one with a better on-going earning rate for Avios I was using instead. That might help you get the miles offer.

      • Alan says:
        3 Oct3 October 00:03

        I sent a secure message requesting a/c closure. They replied saying they could close it but would I like 5k for £1k spend offer – I replied saying yes and they sent me message (and formal letter in the post) confirming it had been added to my a/c.

    • Lev441 says:
      30 Sep30 September 22:07

      They said to me it could take up to 90 days for the points to post..

  • Roger says:
    30 Sep30 September 07:05

    Another OT_

    Rob, do you still give out Award Wallet upgrade codes?
    I am looking for a second time upgrade.

  • Davef says:
    30 Sep30 September 07:43

    Looking at my existing booking for Man-ATL next June still shows an A330. How long do you think they take to update the website so I can alter my seat? Wanting to get top deck on the 747 for the 1st time
    (every time I’ve been scheduled to fly on one with BA they’ve either cancelled my ticket, delayed and re-routed me on a non-747 or changed the metal).

    • Davef says:
      30 Sep30 September 07:46

      Oh drat, foiled again. Looked at seat guru to find UC is main deck and they’ve put PE and EC PAX on the Upper desk. Grrrrrr

    • Rob says:
      30 Sep30 September 09:29

      Not every single Manchester flight is going to be a 747, just ‘the majority’, so you may be unlucky.

      • Davef says:
        30 Sep30 September 13:34

        I’m actually more concerned now because there are considerably fewer UC seats on the 747 than the 330.
        My timetable is fixed with non-ref/non-chg connecting flights on a different booking, and the Virgin legs were booked in the miles sale in July so I hope I don’t get bumped.

        • Lynne says:
          1 Oct1 October 09:23

          We’re exactly the same as you, reward flights to Atlanta and onward to MCO in June. But according to another flyer site it’s depending on which day you fly. It’s a A333 Tuesday, Wed, Fri, Sunday and B744 Mon, Thurs and Sat.

        • Davef says:
          1 Oct1 October 20:35

          Thanks Lynne, flying Friday and back sunday so fingers crossed that info is accurate

  • Paul says:
    30 Sep30 September 07:50

    HomeAway is owned by Expedia I believe and also includes VRBO. I used VRBO extensively and they are were great however a 9 % fee was added earlier this year and since then I have MovedAway. The owners pay significant fees to advertise but I see no reason for consumers to pay such fees and would urge owners to vote with their feet and WalkAway.

    • Worzel says:
      30 Sep30 September 08:55

      We’ve had two consecutive HomeAway bookings this month. Both properties found as advertised and it was easy to get hold of both owners/agents-a lovely holiday in two properties about 15mins drive between. We also booked with HomeAway last year-different place/similar experience.

      I’ve looked through invoices and HomeAway have charged a Service Fee(about 9%):

      ‘This helps HomeAway provide a safer and more secure booking experience’.

      I’m sure there are some hard-luck stories out there, however we’ve only had positive experiences, including secure payments/prompt refunds for damage deposits.

      • Paul says:
        30 Sep30 September 16:20

        How do? It was safe before….10 years of bookings behind me. This is simply a rip off fee and property owners need to be aware it’s drivingvaway business.

    • Adrian says:
      30 Sep30 September 09:08

      As an owner, i cannot rate HomeAway high enough, they used to charge high fees to advertise (1k+ for the highest tier), they have since significantly reduced this to a flat fee of £249. The guest now has to pay a fee but his is no different to the way AirBnb operate.

      I have no shortage of bookings and i’ve even ditched advertising on AirBnb as the quality of customer is better 🙂

      • EwanG says:
        30 Sep30 September 10:15

        Interesting bits of small print on the HomeAway offer:
        1. You need to accept your first booking within 90 days of signing up and that eligible bookings must be over £300 (inc fees)
        2. You must submit a claim within 90 days of signing up.
        I am sure #2 will trip up a few folks!

      • Paul says:
        30 Sep30 September 16:19

        But I don’t pay fees! To air BNB or anyone else. Sell you property for a fair rate and pay you for advertising. VRBO worked well before fees and others provide this service free. I have been researching today and the fees taxes and cleaning charges are adding around a 1/3rd to the price. You don’t get this information till the very end, something which is simply outrageous.

        • Worzel says:
          30 Sep30 September 17:58

          Paul, I’ve done some research also:

          HomeAway-same place we stayed at for our 1st week earlier this month but July 2018 for one week.

          Costs for Accommodation, Cleaning, Service Fee, all transparent “before” placing a request to book- as were cancellation rights. Cancellation policy-!00% refund 2months out and 50% 1month out.

          Costs for Service Fee and Cleaning amounted to 11%

  • tony says:
    30 Sep30 September 08:57

    The middle east packages look good value, but £2519 to HKG doesn’t seem like much of a bargain. KLM are offering the route next summer for £1300 or so and you can get quite a bit of hotel in HK for £650 a night!

  • Ant says:
    30 Sep30 September 09:30

    OT: there I was stressing about our flights to West coast today being downgraded as used our 241 – and we have been upgraded to first!!! So glad we did not book a rental for when we land.

    Thanks Rob – last few years we have done all our long haul flights in club or first thanks mainly to this website!

  • Fadi says:
    30 Sep30 September 09:31

    I feel sorry for anyone who books a holiday to Dubai and ends up staying in Ajman.

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