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Final HfP Christmas Party tickets sold at 10am – three new raffle prizes added

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The 2nd and final batch of tickets for the Head for Points reader Christmas party, sponsored by Qatar Airways, will go on sale at 10am today, Saturday.

The party will take place on Tuesday 12th December from 6pm to 8pm at the Dry Martini Bar at the Melia White House hotel, Regents Park (Great Portland Street tube).

The link to buy is here.

melia-white-house

The first 75 tickets sold out in a minute yesterday.  If you missed out, hopefully you can jump in today.

(It is quite clear now that not everyone who wants to come will be able to make it.  Sorry.  Last year it took us 8 hours to sell 150 tickets – and the price was cheaper – so we never expected such overwhelming demand this year.  It looks like around 1,000 people tried to get tickets yesterday.  Next year we will look at a different model, potentially a nominal entry fee with a cash bar and space for 300 instead of 150.  However, for 2017, we are where we are.)

Three new raffle prizes added

Every guest on the night will get a free raffle ticket.  We now have roughly £4,500 of prizes to give out.

Warning – the raffle could take a while, given how many prizes we now have!  The upside is that your chance of winning is better than 1 in 10.

Here are the three new prizes we are announcing today:

  • Avios Group – 20,000 Avios
  • Virgin Flying Club – 20,000 Virgin Flying Club miles
  • Vueling – a €500 flight voucher, which should be enough to get two people a return flight in ‘Excellence’ class (terms and conditions apply)

Thanks to Drew, Karen and Adam for these prizes.

As a reminder, here are the other raffle prizes that have generously been offered so far:

The main prize:

  • Qatar Airways:  1 Business Class return ticket from the UK to any Qatar Airways destination (some small print applies, but not much)

And:

  • Airportr:  Free luggage transportation from your home or office (within their service area) to Heathrow or Gatwick
  • Alan Boswell Insurance:  5,000 Avios
  • Charles Tyrwhitt:  a business suit (up to £249)
  • Eurostar: 1,000 Club Eurostar points
  • Heathrow Express: a pair of Business First tickets
  • Heathrow Rewards: 2 x 10,000 Heathrow Rewards points
  • IHG: 10,000 IHG Rewards Club points
  • Melia Hotels International: a weekend stay at any Melia hotel in Europe
  • Norwegian: 1,000 CashPoints
  • Plaza Premium: 2 x 2 lounge passes for any PP Heathrow lounge, including Terminal 5
  • REAL Transfers: a return Mercedes airport transport to Heathrow or Gatwick from anywhere inside the M25

And a goody bag!

Every guest will take home a goody bag.  We have some decent items lined up to include.

If your company would like to contribute promotional material (150 sets needed) to the goody bags in return for a contribution towards the bar bill, please email me at anika at headforpoints.com.

How do I get my ticket?

Because we need to ensure that people who ask for tickets turn up, we are charging £20 per ticket.  This price includes VAT.

However, your £20 ticket covers unlimited house wine and beer between 6pm and 8pm.  Soft drinks will also be available.  Spirits etc can be purchased for cash.  We are not making a penny from this and indeed Qatar Airways is footing the bulk of the cost.  After 8pm, the bar will remain open for cash payments for anyone who wants to stay longer.

The 2nd and final batch of tickets will go on sale TODAY at 10am via this link.  Realistically I would not expect them to last beyond 10.05.

You can buy up to two tickets per person. American Express is accepted.

Thank you to Qatar Airways

We couldn’t have put the party together without generous financial support from Qatar Airways.

Regular readers will know that we rate the Qatar Airways business class product very highly – especially the new Qsuite currently being introduced (photo below) which comes with its own door.

The fact that you can earn Avios and British Airways tier points when you fly with Qatar Airways, due to their membership of the oneworld alliance, is an extra bonus.  If the prize winner books themselves onto a Boeing 777 service from London Heathrow they have an excellent chance of being able to try Qsuite!

There will be Qatar Airways staff at the party if you want to know more about what they have to offer.

Comments (159)

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

  • DownTheBack says:

    Not sure what just happened but something didn’t seem right ????

  • John Wallace says:

    No Luck !

  • Mirp says:

    Got my ticket. See you on the 12th.

  • Dave R says:

    Added to basket and clicked checkout at exactly 10am but already sold out. 🙁

  • Dwadda says:

    This is silly. There is too much demand for too little supply and it is pretty mean to have your readers setting their alarms to buy when the tickets are sold out in seconds not minutes… More the fool us.

    Next year please institute a raffle system so that we don’t suffer this indignity again.

    • Following on behind says:

      Totally agree. Lost out on Friday. Lost out on Saturday. We want a raffle Raffles!

      • Following on behind says:

        Paid €8 to get internet access on Finnair to have a second bite of the cherry!

  • James says:

    Wow that was harder than Glastonbury. Sold out within THREE SECONDS!

    Would appear some people were using some more advanced tactics/bots which is a shame and not really in the spirit of Christmas but hey.

  • Alastair says:

    Despite waiting a ready well before 10am, two days in a row couldn’t access tickets, far from cool. What a waste of time.

    Not what one expects?

    • Lady London says:

      Sorry to be a bit short here, but you’re looking at 20,000 people chasing 35 pairs of 2 tickets (more or less) all online at the same time clickin.

      Its’s not inconceivable that each time, all those 75 tickets (or 35 odd sets of 2 tickets) all disappeared, by quite fair means, within 300 milliseconds not even 2 minutes, and without any skulduggery.

      Personally Rob next year’s demand for a one off Christmas event involving unlimited alcohol for any period, will far exceed even 300. And like you say, any bigger makes the event a completely different character that will eventually put off many people who are happy to attend a smaller event. As another poster suggested, as well as a larger venue and a tweak to drink arrangements/entry costs, a strategic thought if there is a case for events for different sets of hfp people going forward, could be worthwhile

  • Stuart says:

    Didn’t even get to 1001 before showing unavailable.

    At bang on 1000 you only showing 50…

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

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