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Exclusive HfP competition: Win two flights to New York – and YOU pick the airline

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We are running a competition on Head for Points this week to win two economy class flights between London and New York.

This is, however, a competition with a twist.

YOU get to decide which airline you fly with if you are the lucky winner!

The winner will receive two economy tickets between London Heathrow or London Gatwick to either New York JFK or Newark Liberty.  The prize can be taken at any point up to 30th June 2018, subject to availability.  If you win you must be one of the two travellers.

What is going on here?

Let me explain.

We are working with a major airline on a piece of research.  It wants to know what airline you would select for a flight if price was not an issue and airline miles or elite status benefits were not an issue.

We want to know your genuine preference.  The best way to achieve this is to not make it a hypothetical question, but a real question, with real consequences!

On the entry form, you will be asked to select between American Airlines, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, Norwegian, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic or someone else as your preferred carrier for an economy flight to New York.

You and a friend can be flying to New York in economy on the carrier you select.

Please note that:

  • You will not earn any airline miles on your tickets
  • You will not receive any status benefits
  • You will not receive lounge access even if you have status with that airline

Do not consider any airline status you have or any miles you currently collect when selecting your airline.  Your flights will not qualify for status, mileage or lounge benefits because the tickets will be issued using restrictive travel trade policies.

If you fly Norwegian, your prize will include pre-paid food and luggage so the prize is equivalent to a standard economy ticket on one of the full service airlines listed.  If you select ‘other’ you will be randomly booked onto one of the six named airlines.

Interesting, yes?  All you need to do is pick an airline and tick the main factor that influenced your decision from a list of:

  • Brand reputation
  • Crew and service
  • Food & Beverage
  • In-flight entertainment
  • On-board wifi
  • Previous experience
  • Seat comfort

How to enter

We are running this competition slightly differently because of the information we need from you.  We are using Google Forms.  Click the button below (or click here) and you will be taken to the form you need to complete.

It is only two questions long (and multiple choice), so don’t worry!  It will take less than 30 seconds to complete.

The competition will run for a week, closing at midnight on Wednesday 10th January.  The winner must travel if they win – you cannot gift the prize to anyone else.

Good luck!  Please feel free to share on social media using the buttons under the article.

Here are the rules:  You must be over 18 years, a UK resident and not an employee of any of the airlines listed on the entry form to enter. Strictly one entry per person. The winner MUST be one of the travellers. The competition will close at midnight on Wednesday 10th January. One entrant will be selected at random and will have 48 hours to confirm their details. If they do not respond, another winner will be drawn.

The prize is economy return flights for two people from a London airport to New York Newark or JFK on the airline you chose on the entry form. Flights are subject to availability and all travel must be completed by 30th June 2018. The competition is promoted by Head for Points, contact details on request. The name of the winner will be made available on request.

Your email address remains confidential and will not be passed to the sponsoring airline or used by Head for Points for any other purposes.  Your airline preference, and the reason for your decision, will be aggregated with other respondents and given to the competition sponsor.

Comments (153)

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

  • Delbert says:

    It’s worth an entry. If we won we’d probably have long weekend away and have some fun. The money saved on the flights would go towards a nice hotel or apartment.

  • JamesB says:

    Finding all the angst about economy a bit unreal. Sure it’s not luxury but it’s not all that bad, only eight hours tops. Climb, meal service, a couple of movies or a decent book, snack, washroom, descent and it’s over. Always felt I could live with economy up to around eight hours, it’s 8+ hours when I feel I need something more. However, I do appreciate seat pitch is a huge factor for taller passengers. It’s another good competition for HFP, hope somebody wins it who will enjoy and appreciate it.

  • Sharon says:

    Exciting competition! We are hoping to visit NY this year to visit our married son so fingers crossed!

  • Joel says:

    For me when flying Y, the biggest factor (status aside) is seat *configuration* – where available I’ll always pick an A330/B767 with pairs of seats rather than threes. For that reason I picked Delta here, although would happily take Virgin if I could be sure of an A330.

  • Triple B says:

    Excluding all the other factors – I pick on seat comfort.

    Assuming that you can’t pick your specific flight (i.e. say get on the VS A340 flight) and want to go by seat comfort it has to be United (767 or at a pinch the 757), Delta (767) or British Airways (747 and 777*) – the rest all (at least for some of their flights) operate 10 abreast 777s (horrible) or 9 abreast 787s (horrible on steroids) LON-NYC.

    *noting that the BA LGW based 777s are going to 10 abreast (which will cover the JFK flight) and some of the LHR 777s are going to 10 abreast (although not for the JFK run).

  • Jon says:

    I’ve not flown economy on Virgin for a long time but it used to be the case that you got a goody bag, choice of three meals and an offer of a Baileys after the meal. Everyone talks about seat configuration but sometimes having another choice other than chicken or beef is far more satisfying. Plus you got a pen and a toothbrush.

  • Nick says:

    I’ve tried to be objective with my entry so I haven’t done this but used the criteria above, but as a top status holder on one airline/alliance when you take away all those benefits my obvious choice would be to choose an airline from another alliance to give them a go.

  • Paul says:

    As others have mentioned, and being 6’6” tall, I wouldn’t fly long haul economy by choice, there’s plenty of places within a few hours which would be manageable in economy. Having said that, with a good wind, maybe 6 hours to NYC would be bearable, so let’s see. BA by choice simply for number of available departures per day, unfortunately not one of the categories….

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

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