Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Are you our Hilton competition winner? – and don’t forget our Kimpton De Witt exclusive offer

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Last month we ran an exclusive competition with Hilton to promote their California Road Trip package.

We were giving away two Be My Guest certificates to one lucky winner who could use the certificates at any Hilton property – including those included in the California Road Trip offer.

We can now confirm the winner:

Dave F.

Congratulations and have a fantastic stay!  We hope you stay somewhere reassuringly expensive, before handing over the certificates at check-out and getting the room cost wiped off the bill …..

Exclusive Kimpton De Witt Amsterdam offer for HFP readers

If you are heading to Amsterdam this year, please don’t forget the exclusive bonus points offer that IHG Rewards Club is currently running with us.

Until 31st July Head For Points readers will get 5,000 bonus IHG Rewards Club points when booking a stay at the Kimpton De Witt in Amsterdam for check-in dates between now and 31st December 2018.  Kimpton De Witt is the first European outpost of the very well regarded American chain that IHG acquired a few years ago, famous for its nightly free wine receptions and other quirks.

The 5,000 points are worth £20 based on our current valuation of 0.4p which makes this a lucrative deal especially for one night stays.

Kimpton De witt Amsterdam special offer

Importantly, this does NOT impact any other promotion.  You will also get your points for the current Accelerate promotion on top of the 5,000 bonus points.

Here is the Kimpton De Witt homepage if you want to take a look at the hotel, but remember that you must book on the Head For Points special offer page here.

For clarity, the bonus points do not count towards elite status.

The special booking link you need is here. Our original article about the promotion is here and, more importantly, my recent review 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.)

Category

Hilton Honors, IHG Rewards Club

Comments (83)

  • Chris L says:
    8 Jul8 July 15:41

    OT.
    My wife and I have our first baby coming in November. I’m just trying to plan some trips and working out the best way to make the whole thing bearable with a little one in tow! One place we are planning on going is Cyprus, but the thought of having a little one in a sling for a 5-hour flight does not appeal. BA say you can book a seat for an infant and have them in a car seat (if they’re over 12 months I think?) but I’m wondering whether anyone has experience taking an infant on Club Europe – can the ’empty’ middle seat be de-tabled and used for a car seat instead? Would appreciate anyone sharing their experience of this. Thanks.

    • New Card says:
      8 Jul8 July 16:21

      No experience of the specific Q but it’s not just sling v car seat – you don’t really need either on-board… we’ve always just held our infant on our lap (and passed between us).

      However taking a sling can help with carrying the baby when getting on/off the plane and when waiting around for your stroller to reappear with luggage (or at the plane door).

      As an aside I recommend buying a Doona for travelling – switches from lightweight stroller to car seat, so can easily jump in a taxi/uber when travelling.

      All the best between now and Nov!

      • the real harry1 says:
        8 Jul8 July 17:17

        more like 4hrs and a bit

        no the CE middle seat has no table these days but may not be available to a car seat (ie no belts) try asking on FT

        baby that young would rather be in parent’s arms in any case, it’s not exactly long haul 🙂

        • Anna says:
          8 Jul8 July 19:14

          As I recall you’ve got to hold them for take off and landing anyway, then you spend a big chunk of the rest of the time soothing them because the pressure change hurts their ear (feed through take off and landing is the best way of minimising this), Then they get hungry/bored/annoyed at being strapped in and you do NOT want them shattering the ear drums of your fellow travellers. When they get a bit older, entertainment is the name of the game. Stickers, Lego and their favourite programs on an iPad (with headphones!) is the way to go. And when you get to your destination, accept that activities like lying on the beach/strolling round art galleries/romantic evening meals are on hold for the next few years! Have fun ????

          • Rob says:
            8 Jul8 July 19:20

            I would go long haul, Caribbean or Middle East. They will sleep through most of the flight anyway.

    • Crafty says:
      8 Jul8 July 19:55

      Do longer flights than that where possible – maximise sleep. The worst flights with ours were to and from Malta.

    • Louise says:
      8 Jul8 July 20:48

      We have travelled lots since baby was born last May. Easiest trips were in the first 9 months, baby happy to sleep/stay still! Just done florida at a year old and was more of a challenge.
      We did a trip in Club Europe and just got them to stagger meals whilst one of us had baby

    • Jonathan says:
      8 Jul8 July 22:05

      A sling was fine on the plane, young babies can’t sit or anything and need to be held or lay down. But what is a god send around the airport was our baby bjorn . It’s unlikely the buggy will be available at the door in Cyprus or back in the UK so you need all the spare hands you can get.

  • Charlie says:
    8 Jul8 July 21:25

    OT – I’ve decided to look at the Virgin Money 1 year savings account. Initially put off as i’m a higher rate tax payer, and didn’t fancy paying 40% income tax on the value of the interest, however the miles are credited in one go (on 05/08/2019) but you work out the tax for each tax year as normal.

    If you put away £85K, at 1.19%…
    Income in the current tax year (8 months): £85K x 1.19% x 8/12 = £675
    Income in the next tax year (4 months): £85K x 1.19% x 4/12 = £337

    Personal Tax Allowance for higher rate tax payer is £500.
    In the current tax year, tax to pay is 40% x (£675 – £500) = £70
    In the next tax year, no tax to pay.

    Total miles earned would be 119,000.

    As I have no other tax to pay on savings, I think this is a pretty good deal.
    Can anyone pick any holes in the above?

    • Rob says:
      8 Jul8 July 22:00

      Yes. The way I read the rules is that Virgin physically, actually credits you with the cash interest and then deducts it from your account. This would mean that for HMRC purposes it would treat the interest as received in one go on 5/8/19 and not received over two tax years. I could be wrong though.

      • Genghis says:
        8 Jul8 July 22:27

        Correct. Interest income is earned when interest is made “available” (ie have access to it, not locked up etc). No accruals concept.

        • the real harry1 says:
          8 Jul8 July 23:05

          Pick holes? 1.19% is OK by you?

        • Charlie says:
          8 Jul8 July 23:07

          Thank you both!

        • Charlie says:
          9 Jul9 July 07:51

          The Real Harry1, on its own no as 2% cash interest is easily available. But yes when it’s part of a strategy of Virgin Money life insurance (10K), the new credit card (33K), and a small existing balance.

          Individually not much use, but the 1.19% helps get my Upper Class redemption plans over the line.

    • BJ says:
      8 Jul8 July 23:58

      The gaping hole has nothing to do with tax, it is all to do with the 1.19% as Harry points out, and income in a restrictive currency that is subject to the risk of substantial devaluation, and which requires additional taxes and fees to be paid to redeem a flight which I am guessing is your plan. All of that is simply horrendous. With over £80k to save you would be better looking to take up to 80% more interest in cash which can be spent on a miles- and status-earning premium flight with ANY airline, possibly in conjunction with codes, £ back or amex offers, and additional miles or points from using a new credit card with sign up bonus. The virgin savings offer only makes sense for those who know they will come up a few thousand miles short of a redemption in a years time and have no better way of getting them.

      • Rob says:
        9 Jul9 July 08:48

        The 1.19% is a red herring though. Better to focus on your personal value of the miles. As I said originally Virgin should have set the notional interest at 0.5% to minimise tax bills but kept the same mileage.

        • BJ says:
          9 Jul9 July 10:32

          Even so I believe Charlie’s strategy is unlikely to pay off but it does depend where and when he plans on flying. Most Virgin destinations can often be had for less than the sum of his interest and the tax and fees paid on his award flight, and certainly when the miles earned, discounts etc are factored in. I’m not saying it could not work in some cases, just that it seems a lot more hassle, a lot less certain, and a lot less flexible than the strategy I suggested.

        • Charlie says:
          9 Jul9 July 11:51

          Hi BJ / Harry1 you have given me a lot to think about thank you.

          My current plan is changed now to use both mine and my wife’s personal savings allowance. That is £500 each, so we’ll cap the amounts to about £41K per person to ensure no income tax to be paid. Achieves about 57.4K miles per person.

          In terms of redemption, we often did LHR to HKG on the old MBNA credit card PE upgrade route, off peak at a cost of about 12500 miles in Economy, then upgraded to PE, taxes about £250 (probably higher now).

          Then separately HKG to LHR as a full miles redemption in UC, off peak 57500 miles one way, about £10 in tax. The cost of this can probably be met from the savings account miles. I value this financially at about £1000 which is probably a little conservative. This works out as a 2.4% return, which to me looks OK.

  • Alex says:
    9 Jul9 July 14:34

    OT: Has anyone had any problems having Lloyds Avios Upgrade vouchers issued since the Avios scheme shutdown was mentioned? I crossed my spend threshold on my Lloyds card about 4 weeks back, but no voucher has appeared in avios.com Lloyds are denying all knowledge of the vouchers even existing, and Avios just keep bouncing me back to Lloyds!

    • Mzungu says:
      9 Jul9 July 17:16

      I guess this might be a little too early to really help, but my wife and I each triggered a voucher a few weeks ago – one at the end of April, one at the end of May. Both appeared in our respective Avios accounts long before we were notified that they had been issued!

      …and yes, I have taken screenshots 😉

      • Walty says:
        10 Jul10 July 10:06

        +1……Voucher showing on my account over the weekend. That’s 2 now to use. Hopefully moved to BAEC soon and I can use household account avios with them.

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