News in brief:
Upgrade to Economy Delight on Virgin Atlantic for just £30!
Starting today, and running until Saturday, Virgin Atlantic is offering upgrades from Economy Classic to Economy Delight for just £30 each way.
This is an EXCEPTIONALLY good deal and you’d be mad to turn it down. There are two good reasons – one relating to comfort and one relating to miles.
First up is comfort. Here is the difference between Economy Classic and Economy Delight:
Economy Classic: Standard Economy fare with checked luggage included, can be upgraded to Premium Economy with miles
Economy Delight: Extra legroom (34″ pitch), priority check-in and priority boarding, can be upgraded to Premium Economy with miles
So …. for £30 you are getting extra three inches of legroom, priority check-in and priority boarding. This is clearly worth doing. Both tickets types come with free seat selection.
And that’s before we get to reason two to upgrade – more miles.
Economy Classic: earns 50% of miles flown plus 25 tier points each-way
Economy Delight: earns 150% of miles flown plus 50 tier points each-way
This makes the £30 deal a no-brainer. Flying to San Francisco, for example, you’d earn an extra 5,350 Virgin Flying Club miles (which I’d value at £53.50) each way.
We reviewed Economy Delight last year on a flight to New York which you can read here.
This page of the Virgin Atlantic site shows you the differences between the fare classes.
The Virgin Atlantic booking page is here. Date restrictions apply.
IHG will let you redeem for Regent Hotels on 1st February
I wrote last week that the Regent Hotels portfolio of luxury hotels was now available for booking at ihg.com. Stays will also earn IHG Rewards Club points.
Redemptions are not currently available. IHG has now confirmed that members will be able to redeem from 1st February.
As a reminder, you can find Regent Hotels in:
- Beijing
- Berlin
- Chongqing
- Porto Montenegro (looks nice – see below)
- Singapore
- Taipei
The Regent Berlin, which used to be a Four Seasons, booking page is here. The Regent Porto Montenegro booking page is here.
IHG Rewards Club price increases take effect tomorrow
Talking of IHG Rewards Club, remember that TODAY is the last day to book before the annual round of redemption price increases.
12% of IHG hotels are increasing in cost, mainly by 5,000 points.
This HFP article explains what is going on and highlights some popular properties which are changing.
(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
OT Anyone received Curve Metal invite?
Can you drop to Standard card after using for few months?
Yes just got it. It really isn’t clear from the email as to whether you have to sign up to the metal card in order to be on the beta or if you have to be on the beta to sign up for the metal card! I’m taking it as the latter but we’ll see once the link to the beta app is sent out
Open to everyone VERY shortly.
In my experience, as I’m trialling Metal, they reissue it with a new card number (and cancel the old card number) if you trade up or down so you can’t use the Metal card without paying for it.
Well I’m glad I hadn’t got around to paying my HMRC bill yet! This should let me hit my 2-4-1 voucher much sooner than expected
Indeed – Curve Community worth joining to see latest info. Beware though if you upgrade to Metal you lose the ability to return to grandfathered Black if you decide you don’t want to stay on it.
AFAIK, you can trial new curve black and then drop down to old curve black and then pay nothing. But if you go for Curve metal, you then can’t go back to the old curve black.
Yep as long as you get Black before subscriptions launch you’ll have the option to drop back to the existing version via grandfathering. Once subscriptions launch publicly then if you sign up as a new user and opt for Black at that point then you’ll be stuck with that or dropping back down to Blue. Their plan is for existing Black users to automatically retain existing benefits.
OT Curve
Hi. apologies if something similar has been asked before.
Have been counting down the days for a while now as its my Curve anniversary today. Not been able to use the card for several months after reaching the 50k.
My 50k limit hasn’t reset however. Instead, I am now able to spend £10. I’m thinking now that this is a 365 day rolling limit? So in the coming days and weeks I will be able to spend more and more as my old transactions go past 365 days. Gutted if so.
Based on their other limits, I assume it’s rolling limit too. Great product, but the 50K limit is very restricting
They are rolling limits.
I’m got increased £100k annual and £5k per day limits last week.
How long do hilton usually take to enable status matches to diamond via ihg plat? I completed the form early tuesday but im still showing as gold, i had hoped it wouldve been completed by tomorrow as i have a stay over the weekend.
Would calling them be likely to expediate things?
You will stay gold until you have completed 8 stays. Time to respond to status match requests varies. I can be as little as two days and often as much as a week.
Not true, you get upgraded to Diamond first so you are Diamond as you complete the 8 required stays, if you fail you lose Diamond. Complete it and you keep it until the agreed date.
I completed mine in December.
Indeed. Marriott is opposite
Thanks Brian. Yes, you are correct, forgot that. Must have been thinking of Marriott where status does not come until stays are completed.
OT,anyone know if it’s possible to change your amex offers to that of another country? Also, how long out of the UK do you have to be before you are obliged to tell them you aren’t living here permanently? Will still have a residence here but have a long scheduled break starting next year and don’t want to give up my amex cards. Thanks
They don’t really care – you can keep the card unused. If you have a BA Amex do not change your BAEC account to your new address, however, as Amex won’t be allowed to send the points or voucher over.
Thanks Rob. Better get packing then 🙂
OT: request for Hilton advice. A few days ago I booked a ten night resort stay far in advance, fully with points, and it can be cancelled for a long time yet without charge. Noting the banner at the top of this site about the Hilton sale, I looked at the same stay again out of curiosity, as I was initially considering cash instead of points. I noticed though that not only is the cash rate lower, but also the points rate.
It is now over 50k points cheaper for the stay. Is it too simple/am I overlooking something, when I think to myself just cancel the stay, wait for the points to return, and re-book at the lower rate?
Points refund is almost instantaneous (you might need to log out and in again after cancellation). No reason not to cancel and rebook provide you are certain wholestsy is available for less points.
If you’ve got enough points I’d make a second booking at the new rate first, but if not then you should be fine as long as no one snags it in the time between you cancelling and your points returning (should only take a few minutes, you sometimes need to sign out and back in). I’ve done quite well in rebooking at times, always worth keeping an eye from time to time on existing reservations!
Thanks very much to both you and BJ.
The stay at both rates is between 300k and 400k total in points, net of the two free nights, and I don’t have anywhere near enough points to book again prior to cancelling. However, I will risk cancelling first as logically there must be at least two rooms available for the stay, the one it would let me book now whether points or cash, and the one I’m reserving…so here goes everything…
Cool, I’m sure it’ll be fine – let us know how you get on though 🙂
Nice one, both! 🙂
Just as good as the Virgin life insurance if you’re young enough! BTW I have screenshots of all the original Virgin life ins T&Cs if they end up being needed.
*urgh* i’m normally quite good at tapping into these things but I can’t find what you’re referring to here TRH – any pointers? 🙂
see @Alan 22.47
Was successful, saving 58k points. Value per point of 0.46p against the current cash price, which I’m happy with. Was prepared to pay cash, but this seemed like a good use of points, as not planning any other international trips this year/had possible future devaluation of points in mind.
Great result, that’s a decent saving!
Aha! Got it!
The miles earning for economy classic isn’t totally accurate as I regularly fly on expensive economy classic fare codes and receive 150% of the miles and 50 tier points.
The £30 upgrade doesn’t work if you booked with miles 🙁