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Bits: We won 3 BTJA awards!, BA drops three routes, 30000 Nectar points with their Amex card

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News in brief:

We won three Business Travel Journalism Awards

As you may have guessed from the picture we ran yesterday, or our social media feeds, we won three awards at the 2017 Business Travel Journalism Awards on Thursday night.

This saw us fighting it out with, depending on category, Business Traveller, the travel sections of the national press, the B2B business travel titles and in-flight magazines.

We won:

  • Business Travel Editor of the Year (Rob)
  • Best Newcomer to Business Travel or Meetings and Events Journalism (Anika)
  • Best Digital Strategy

We didn’t get Scoop of the Year, but 3/4 was way beyond our expectations.  Anika had to beat five other shortlisted writers in her category.

Here is Anika picking up ‘Best Newcomer’.  The judges said:

“The judges felt that the winner’s article was ‘interesting, engaging, on point and humorous.‘The author’s style was ‘really enjoyable’ with one judge claiming, ‘this was the one feature I remembered long after I’d read it’.”

…. and ‘Best Digital Strategy’.  The judges said:

“Of the winner, the judges were impressed with this website describing it as ‘refreshing’, ‘something I hadn’t seen before’ and ‘a website that I would use as a travel booker and as a traveller’.”

…. and ‘Editor of the Year’.  The judges said:

“Our panel of judges debated for a very, very long time about who should win this award. After much toing and froing, the winner was described as ‘a trailblazer’, someone who has ‘broken new ground’ and someone whose ‘leadership and entrepreneurship makes him a natural winner’.”

Thanks to everyone who left a comment on here or social media, we appreciate it.

British Airways cancels three short haul routes

British Airways has announced that three ‘Summer only’ routes will not be returning in 2018.

The routes impacted are:

  • Kos
  • Montpellier
  • Biarritz (photo above, the plans for Four Seasons to take over that hotel have recently collapsed)

If you are already booked to one of these cities for next summer, you should contact BA to discuss your options.

30,000 Nectar points with the Nectar American Express card

We normally leave Nectar points discussion to our sister site Shopper Points, but it is worth highlighting this limited time offer on their American Express card.

Until 1st November, the sign-up bonus is increased from 20,000 Nectar points to 30,000.  You need to apply via the Nectar website to get this deal.

30,000 Nectar points is worth at least £150 off your Sainsburys bill, and potentially £300 if you hold on to them until a ‘1p per point’ offer comes along, although they are getting rarer.

The card is FREE for the first year and you can get the bonus irrespective of what other Amex cards you currently hold.


Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

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

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

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

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

1% cashback uncapped* on all your business spending (T&C apply) Read our full review

Comments (109)

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

  • Tilly says:

    Congratulations again!

    O/T – got this email from Rolling Luggage this morning :
    Dear,
    Thank you for your e-mail.
    We are aware of the fact that there is some delay regarding the extra 1000 points,
    but our colleagues are looking into to the matter to resolve the problem as soon as possible.
    Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any other questions or concerns.
    Best regards,
    Cathy

    Wonder how long it will take them. How many HFP readers have emailed them?

    • the real harry1 says:

      now that quite a few people have emailed, I probably cba to do it myself, I’ll wait until the emailers get their 1000 (or not) then check my own a/c – only then will we see if RL is disreputable or simply incompetent

      got a feeling it is the latter, ie teething pains with setting up the system – though surprising I got my base points fine but not the 1000 – that looks deliberate

      • Tilly says:

        My thoughts exactly. Got 55 points posted on Thursday in my BAEC. They’ll have to sort it otherwise they’ll be a lot more HFP readers emailing them I suspect. What got me was they didn’t even address email to me juat said “Dear” not “Dear Mrs P” or my forename. Not impressed.

  • pointsarb says:

    Congrats guys, very well deserved indeed!

  • the_real_a says:

    The awards are very much a great achievement! Well done.

  • rams1981 says:

    Congrats both. It’s a wonderful site with so many great articles and contributions from everyone. So much to learn and already learnt.

    Unfortunately work now block me posting on websites so no posts during the day anymore so I’m more of a lurker 🙂

  • Sanjay says:

    Well done! Keep being unbiased and fair without succumbing to the “click-bait” links of almost every other travel site and you’ll continue to win! Congratulations and well deserved!

  • Stevie in Glasgow says:

    A big congratulations well deserved, Stevie

  • Dave says:

    Congrats on the rewards! Very much deserved. I’m learning so much from this site 🙂

    Quick one – does the AMEX Nectar card enable you to keep your AMEX rewards account running? Thinking of cancelling the Gold AMEX charge card and getting this instead, before cancelling all and resetting the 6 month clock…

    • Rob says:

      No, because the points go straight to Nectar and not through Membership Rewards.

  • VP says:

    Congrats Rob and Anika. Great job keep it up.

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

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