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Black Friday 2: 50% credit from Shangri-La, £100 off BA Holidays, £175 Air New Zealand to LA

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Some more Black Friday deals!

Get 50% cash credit at Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts

This is possibly the most original Black Friday deal we’ve covered this year.   It is well worth thinking about if you are heading to Asia or the Middle East next year, especially if you have picked up Jade status in Shangri-La Golden Circle as an American Express Platinum benefit.

The deal:  Get 50% of the cost of your room back as a credit towards food, beverage and spa purchases during your stay

Rules:  Book by 30th November for stays between 1st May and 30th September 2019

Code required:  None, but you must be a member of Shangri-La Golden Circle (free to join) and book via this page of the Shangri-La website 

Get a BA Holidays £100 discount

We ran a separate article yesterday on the British Airways ‘2 Club World tickets for £2018’ promo which is running over Christmas and New Year.

Separately to that, BA Holidays is also running its own Black Friday bonus.  For ‘flight + hotel’ or ‘flight + car ‘ holidays booked for travel between 1st December 2018 and 20 October 2019 you will:

  • Save £100 on holidays with a minimum spend of £2,500 per booking
  • Save £50 on holidays with a minimum spend of £1,250 per booking

The main BA Holidays page is here and the Club World / Club Europe luxury holidays page is here.

Air New Zealand flight bargains to Los Angeles

Air New Zealand is selling 100 economy tickets to Los Angeles at 10am today for just £175 return.  Dates are limited and, frankly, your chances of getting one are slim but feel free to try.

ANZ will also have special fares in Economy, Premium Economy and Business to Los Angeles throughout today.  I don’t know how much they will be, but you will find the details on the Air New Zealand Black Friday page here.

Two special Radisson hotel offers for Black Friday

Radisson is running two interesting offers.  First up is a 100% bonus when you buy Radisson Rewards points.  The link to buy points is here.  The offer runs until 27th November.

The maximum number of points you can purchase is 80,000 (40,000 + 40,000 bonus) for $280.  This is £219.  The key London hotels such as Park Plaza Westminster Bridge – a modern London property with a pool and next to the London Eye, London Dungeon, London Aquarium etc (photo below) – are 70,000 points per night, so £191.  I reviewed the hotel here.

The May Fair (which I reviewed here, and didn’t like much) is also 70,000 points.  The new Park Plaza Waterloo is 50,000 points which would be £137, and you don’t get much in London for £130 these days.

At the more prosaic end of the scale, there are various Park Inn budget hotels around the UK for 15,000 points per night.  Under this promo, 15,000 points would cost you just £52 based on the pro-rata price of 80,000.

The second Radisson offer is 30% off weekend stays (and all week at Easter) until 31st August 2019.  This covers Radisson Collection, Radisson Blu, Radisson RED, Radisson and Park Inn by Radisson hotels in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

The Easter period is treated as a full month, from 5th April to 6th May.  You can see the list of participating countries on this special Black Friday page of the Radisson website.  The last day to book is 27th November.

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best credit card to use when buying flights

How to maximise your miles when paying for flights (April 2025)

Some UK credit cards offer special bonuses when used for buying flights. If you spend a lot on airline tickets, using one of these cards could sharply increase the credit card points you earn.

Booking flights on any airline?

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold earns double points (2 Membership Rewards points per £1) when used to buy flights directly from an airline website.

The card comes with a sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points. These would convert to 20,000 Avios or various other airline or hotel programmes. The standard earning rate is 1 point per £1.

You can apply here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

Buying flights on British Airways?

The British Airways Premium Plus American Express card earns double Avios (3 Avios per £1) when used at ba.com.

The card comes with a sign-up bonus of 30,000 Avios. The standard earning rate is 1.5 Avios per £1.

You do not earn bonus Avios if you pay for BA flights on the free British Airways American Express card or either of the Barclaycard Avios Mastercards.

You can apply here.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

Buying flights on Virgin Atlantic?

Both the free Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard and the annual fee Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard earn double Virgin Points when used at fly.virgin.com.

This means 1.5 Virgin Points per £1 on the free card and 3 Virgin Points per £1 on the paid card.

There is a sign-up bonus of 3,000 Virgin Points on the free card and 18,000 Virgin Points on the paid card.

You can apply for either of the cards here.

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

3,000 bonus points, no fee and 1 point for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Category

British Airways and Avios, Radisson Rewards, Shangri-La Circle

Comments (24)

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

  • Sam G says:
    23 Nov23 November 03:50

    Shangri-La selection of hotels is a bit limited though!! Mainly ME over the summer

    • Sam G says:
      23 Nov23 November 04:11

      Maldives isn’t a terrible deal though, considering you can fly to Gan on Sri Lankan via Colombo and skip any ridiculous seaplane/speed boat charges. Needs a stopover outbound – conveniently Shangri-La also have hotels available in Colombo as well, could make a nice twin-centre trip

    • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
      23 Nov23 November 07:04

      Worth also bearing in mind that the Luxury Circle rate (e.g. through Bon Vivant) may work better on shorter stays. Books into the same BAR-equivalent rate but you get a fixed $100 credit and a guaranteed room upgrade.

  • Anna says:
    23 Nov23 November 05:55

    Be wary of the BA holidays offer – coincidentally I checked the price of a flight & car package I booked for my OH for next summer and it had gone up by £1000! £100 off that doesn’t really make up for the overall increase.

    • Erico1875 says:
      23 Nov23 November 06:06

      There’s too much of that happening this year. Read someone tracking TUI price to see it jump £250 the week before they offer 150 off.

  • Manya says:
    23 Nov23 November 07:22

    Shangri-La deal requires you to be a member of their GC and promo code (GCMBF) to be used whilst logged in with your GC credentials.

    The rate used for the 50% promo will be best flexible rate but in this instance bookings will be non-refundable etc.

  • Stuart Graham says:
    23 Nov23 November 08:20

    I had some fraud on my BA credit card over night – my card was part of the latest batch caught in the data breach.
    It could just be a coincidence but maybe not. I would recommend people play close attention to their statements.

    • Alan says:
      23 Nov23 November 09:14

      Creation cancelled and reissued mine a couple of weeks ago after my card number apparently being on a list they received from Mastercard. Still waiting for new card, quite a pain not to be able to spend on it – thanks, BA!

  • Mikeact says:
    23 Nov23 November 10:27

    I thought I had ‘won’ two tickets @£175 each to LAX. Set up the PC …10am, clicked on the page I had already set up with flights within the dates offered…pressed on the £175 offered flights…went through, passenger details etc.,…..upshot ?…nothing like £350 total, nearer £500 ! That might still be a ‘bargain’ , but no thanks.

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:
      23 Nov23 November 10:45

      You could reserve flights for £25 for 3 days which does not require the input of passenger details etc. I suspect that is what most (all?) successful applicants did because the seats were only confirmed once a purchase had been made.

      I had a look at this but dates didnt work for me. I hope someone on HfP grabbed a bargain.

      • Shoestring says:
        23 Nov23 November 21:29

        Sounds like you’re right.

        HfP party? That’s different, helps if you’re Genghis of course 🙂

        Still waiting for Truro

    • marcw says:
      23 Nov23 November 11:05

      With the limited dates they offered, it was useless.

    • Kian says:
      23 Nov23 November 12:08

      I got a pair of the £175 tickets as well. I did use the fare hold feature, and signed in my account with a credit card saved beforehand.

    • Lady London says:
      23 Nov23 November 15:11

      Your consolation is that tickets for last year’s HfP Christmas party apparently went even quicker than the Air New Zealand Black Friday £175 Flight to LAX offer.

      • Rob says:
        23 Nov23 November 15:23

        This one may be the same ….. should be announcing the details next Monday or Tuesday.

        • Alex Sm says:
          23 Nov23 November 18:49

          Should it be a ballot instead? Same for you in terms of cost / admin but much fairer for the readers who don’t just sit and wait to click in the first five minutes after they are put on sale at 6am or so

          • Rob says:
            23 Nov23 November 19:08

            Don’t have the time or resources, unless we make everyone pay in advance and refund the unlucky ones. Impossible to send out 250 invoices and track them all.

        • Mr(s) Entitled says:
          24 Nov24 November 01:29

          Can’t wait. Any hints about where in Manchester it will be?

          • Rob says:
            24 Nov24 November 10:45

            We’re not going to Manchester! Except for Rhys who is reviewing the new CP Oxford Road next week.

  • Oli says:
    23 Nov23 November 11:48

    Do you think we can buy 80,000 using two accounts and then transfer them into one to book a 105,000 redemption?

    • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
      23 Nov23 November 14:14

      Elite members can transfer points free of charge to an another account at the same address, I think.

  • Boris says:
    23 Nov23 November 21:16

    3 time in 4 years that I got the LHR- LAX Air New Zealand flights

    But gutted I held a price and then when I searched again my preferred dates became available

    All about paying the £25 fee

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

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