News in brief:
Exciting changes for the Head for Points Summer Party
Last Monday we announced our first Head for Points Summer party, in the light, sunny and airy Glasshouse suite at the Holiday Inn Camden Lock.
We proposed Tuesday 3rd July. Unfortunately, as we hadn’t got our World Cup wall charts up at the time, we didn’t realise that there is a potential clash with an England football game. It isn’t guaranteed, but it could happen.
We are going to move the date to Monday 9th July. There are no games on that day at all!
The exciting news is that we have signed up a high profile sponsor – full details to be announced. This means:
every ticket will now include your first drink for free and
we are lining up a very generous raffle prize for one lucky attendee!
We will make a full announcement on Tuesday and we anticipate tickets going on sale on Thursday. Apologies for any confusion from switching the date, but it is definitely going to be worth it.
Last day to book economy Avios redemptions for 50% fewer Avios
Until midnight tonight, 17th June, over 90 British Airways long-haul routes can be redeemed at 50% off, but in Economy only.
Unfortunately taxes, fees and carrier charges are NOT reduced and will set you back around £350 per person (£275 for the Middle East).
This offer is for flights from or to London Heathrow and Gatwick between 1st September 2018 and 31st May 2019. In reality, despite what the rules say, regional departures seem to work OK too. If you live near Inverness this means that you can wipe out the Air Passenger Duty by starting from there as it is exempt.
One way redemptions are allowed.
You cannot combine this offer with a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher or a Lloyds Avios Rewards upgrade voucher.
Avios part payments are excluded from this offer, but Avios plus cash is included. The reduced Avios price will automatically be applied when booking.
Here are some typical off-peak prices for return World Traveller (economy) flights including taxes with this offer:
- Bermuda for 13,000 Avios + £367.16 (peak 20,000 Avios)
- Seychelles for 16,250 Avios + £369.61 (peak 25,000 Avios)
- Hong Kong for 19,500 Avios +£341.35 (peak 30,000 Avios).
Of course, even at half price most of these deals remain poor. Should I want to go to Dubai, for example, it will cost me 13,000 Avios + £259 on an off-peak date. Cash tickets can often be had for £295 to £325 which means that the redemption is still a bad deal unless you need the flexibility to cancel if needed.
That said, do the maths. If you are travelling in high season it may still make sense. Whilst economy redemptions are usually not great value long-haul, this offer would make sense if a cash ticket would otherwise set you back £550 – £600 or so. This would value your Avios points at 1p each which is fine by us.
You must book by tonight for travel between 1st September 2018 and 31st May 2019 to redeem for 50% fewer Avios – and 0% fewer taxes.
The special offer page for the deal is here.
(Want to earn more hotel points? Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Promos’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)
About Head for Points
I’m about to hit my intro bonus on my Gold CC. Any news or routes to upgrade to Plat and earn that bonus? Or is it a straight no go?
Just reading the T&Cs to see if you can use the GC upgrade route – doesn’t say yes, doesn’t say no so why not give it a go?
https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/content/platinum-charge/upgrade/
While I was there, I noticed the following – never knew that! 🙂
Australia: Platinum Cardmember may bring their children between the ages of 2-17 and up to 2 guests into the lounge.
Brazil: Platinum Cardmember and up 1 travel companion OR Platinum Cardmember’s immediate family may enter the airport lounges at no cost. For any additional guests, the Cardmember will be charged R$22.00 per person (exception: no additional guests allowed in Congonhas lounges).
India: Platinum Cardmember and up to one complimentary guest allowed and any additional guests will be charged INR750 per person.
Mexico: Platinum Cardmember plus 2 guests or immediate family (spouse & sons/daughter no limit)
United States: Platinum Cardmember may bring immediate family (spouse or domestic partner and their children under 18) OR up to two (2) companions into the lounge.
Several past postings with link ,but Google can bring up a link. I’ve just got my 20kMR pts for the £1000 spend, upgrade Gold to Plat . So it’s still happening.
The question is about the new gold credit card, not the old gold charge card which was an established upgrade route.
My base airport is Inverness so when I am not using my 2for1 BA voucher is there any point in using a positioning flight followed by an Aer Lingus / Iberia hub for redemptions to avoid charges if APD is already excluded for me. Perhaps other than when there are differences in peak & offpeak dates with those carriers
yes at times because the price difference isn’t solely APD, ie ex-EU could still present good savings
I think I’m in the camp that says if you really enjoy the extra opportunity of spending a night or 3 @ the positioning city (ie extra holiday experience), this can make ex-EU really enjoyable/ good value – if you don’t, then sometimes the hassle often isn’t worth the saving
Thanks, I see your logic and with 3 kids in tow that often tips the balance!
Get a great kick out of spending the APD on a mini city break
OT: is the barclaycard online service down for anyone else? I’m unable to login on both my own and my partner’s account
App working for me. Just tried.
Why not have this party in the North?
Sick of everything being so London-centric on this blog.
Money talks and bullshit walks.
London is where the money is!!
I was in Manchester this morning as it happens, on the way to Atlanta.
If your target audience is mainly in the South you concentrate on the South. Likewise, if you live in the South and are organising the party then you likely keep it in the South.
Similarly, a number of competitions are UK only as most readers of this site are.
Believe it or not it’s a lot easier from a lot of “the North” to reach London than “other North”
I predict the party sponsor is Curve. Or Virgin Atlantic.
No and No. It isn’t someone we usually work with.
Gulf Air? Creation? No, Creation would insist it be held in Solihull.
When I went to the curve offices they didn’t have any decent tea bags for a proper cuppa. V lean operation.
Other than the whole “must be losing loads of money on every customer” thing.
Believe it or not it’s a lot easier from a lot of “the North” to reach London than “other North”
OT Amex Plat referrals. Does anyone have experience of testing whether the 90k MR annual ceiling is definitely and always enforced across both the primary and supplementary cardholder? Or, in other words, has anyone on a supplementary card managed to squeeze in referrals on top of the five the primary has made? And on a finer point – does the year end according to the primary cardholder’s dates, or does the supp retain his/her own dates and is there any IT ineffectiveness here to permit >5 referrals a year across both cards?
Hi Default Amex Card Guy!
Interested to know how a supplementary card holder would make referrals – didn’t know there was such an option.
On the last point about year end, it is done by calendar year, you could potentially earn 180k points over December and January with 5 referrals each side of new year.
It is firm and is per MR account per calendar year.
You can dress a turd up all you want Rob but it is still a turd. So you might get a nicer seat and some food but it is still their frankly atrocious and despicable staff, terrible delays and frankly sadistic customer services.
Apologies wrong thread – was meant to go in the Vueling thread!
It’s a disappointing but hardly surprising dead end. I think I just got lazy. I’d seen the referral link on my plat account but never had any need to follow it. I just have, but the only cards that show are primary Amex cards.
Would you believe me if I said this was my real name?
Sometimes good things exist where you least expect them.. I just booked 2 one way economy flights to the USA and back (NYC and MCO) for next Easter with avios which gave me 3p per avios due to BA’s ludicrous price and the redemption promotion. Thanks for the information and for reminding me of the expiry date.
You can dress a turd up all you want Rob but it is still a turd. So you might get a nicer seat and some food but it is still their frankly atrocious and despicable staff, terrible delays and frankly sadistic customer services.
Gutted I missed on the Hong Kong to LHR BA economy half price avios…is there any liklihood this deal will come back again?
Thanks