Important dates for your diary – offers about to close which you shouldn’t miss (Feb ’19)

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• Jake Mcloughlin says:

  10 Feb10 February 08:51

  O/T

  No bits: Virgin have confirmed their flight to Tel Aviv. Tickets on sale from 25th feb. September 2019 begin. A330

  • Jake Mcloughlin says:

    10 Feb10 February 08:56

    The post was on twitter and Instagram. Nothing on the website as far as I can see

    • Rob says:

      10 Feb10 February 10:22

      I’ve got the press release, it is confirmed.

      • BlueHorizonUK says:

        10 Feb10 February 12:44

        Seems like a very odd destination to add (bearing in mind all the cities they have dropped).

        Wonder if the CEO being Israeli has anything to do with this (he hinted when he took over that he wanted to add this to the network).

        The timing of the return from Tel Aviv looks a little brutal.

      • Lev441 says:

        10 Feb10 February 13:42

        @bluehorizon – where are the flight time details? Not seen it on the press releases….

• Charlie says:

  10 Feb10 February 09:31

  OT – Thinking of cancelling my AMEX starwood card as struggling to put much spend through it recently with Curve no longer a possibility.
  Have the AMEX call centre tried to convince anyone not to cancel the card with double points or other incentives recently?

  • Doug M says:

    10 Feb10 February 09:56

    Recent reports of 1 extra point, so 4/£.

  • Alan says:

    10 Feb10 February 09:56

    1 pt per GBP extra is all I’ve heard of.

  • Ryan says:

    10 Feb10 February 10:09

    When it was 1pt per £ before the merger they would offer double points.

    • Genghis says:

      10 Feb10 February 10:44

      Or was it one additional point, like now, but with staff putting their own “double points” spin on it?

      • Mark2 says:

        10 Feb10 February 14:17

        surely that was one Starwood point per £ which is equal to three Bonvoy points

      • TGLoyalty says:

        10 Feb10 February 15:05

        Either way 1 Starwood = 3 bonvoy so the redemption offer has been slashed by 66%

      • New Card says:

        10 Feb10 February 16:56

        The bonus is described by telephone agents as double points. It’s described in the system as “1 additional Starpoint for 3 months” (which is 3 Marriott points). Practically it’s clear this is intended to be double points but their system allocating bonus points wasn’t amended to deal with the points change last year. Others have complained and got the double points offer applied properly manually (i.e. the extra 2 Marriott points per £1).

  • Roberto says:

    10 Feb10 February 10:29

    Prehaps one last churn. Cancel and see whats if anything is available in the summer

  • RussellH says:

    10 Feb10 February 11:47

    I got double SPG points last year, but no offer at all this year.

• Sammy says:

  10 Feb10 February 09:33

  O/T

  When can we expect to see that new writer? It feels the recruitment started months ago. Looking forward to some new reviews.

  • BJ says:

    10 Feb10 February 12:20

    I seriously hope the new appointment will not result in increased reviews. I feel these are the only weak point on HFP. Reviews of the UK lounges are good but I see little point in labour-intensive hotel or flight reviews unless they generate income for HFP (which I doubt they do). Hotel and airline reviews are both covered more comprehensively elsewhere than HFP can achieve. Would prefer to see the new appointment increase number of bits articles, in particular highlighting useful opportunities with AF/KLM, LH and TK, all of which have good regional presence in the UK and are therefore judt as useful as BA via LHR.

    • Leo says:

      10 Feb10 February 15:33

      You can’t magic up “useful opportunities” where they don’t exist alas. The bottom has dropped out of reward credit cards and the Qatar sales appear to have been a thing of the Past. Give me a review over another Curve article any day of the week.

    • Russ says:

      10 Feb10 February 19:42

      LH are reportedly considering buying some or all of Thomas Cook’s (the airline) portfolio. If that happens LH would have more access into the UK and then presumably its own bits article.

      • Rob says:

        10 Feb10 February 19:44

        Presumably Condor, which is meant to be a decent business. The Manchester operation may struggle to find a buyer.

• Trevor G says:

  10 Feb10 February 11:28

  I note that the Virgin Atlantic card bonus runs out at the end of the month. In my experience, good luck with that. I took the free card out in Nov last year and immediately spent the qualifying amount. Do you think I can get the second 5000 bonus? Absolutely no chance. The customer service is woeful and literally from one day to the next the position changes. Yesterday they had no idea where the points had gone. This morning, I didn’t qualify for them. I pointed out the dates and spend and after a 27 minute wait, they said I did qualify but they couldn’t find them. After all this time I should just tell to shove it but it’s a point of principle. I should have stuck to Amex….. ho hum.

  • Rob says:

    10 Feb10 February 11:33

    Drop me an email with all the info and I’ll send it to Sinead at VA who oversees it.

    • Trevor says:

      10 Feb10 February 15:11

      Thanks Rob. Will do.

  • Nick_C says:

    10 Feb10 February 14:19

    Rob’s response there exemplifies what makes HfP unique. Rob goes way beyond what most bloggers would do in responding helpfully to comments and emails. Long may he reign!

    • Trevor says:

      11 Feb11 February 07:46

      Absolutely! Seconded.

    • Victor says:

      11 Feb11 February 08:17

      I agree on the point about HFP.
      However it doesn’t say much for the Virgin cards.

• David says:

  10 Feb10 February 14:28

  Are there any good points-earning opportunities for airport transfers at the moment? I need a taxi to Heathrow this week with room for 6 suitcases, and Blacklane seems expensive for something that size… An Add Lee is looking like about £80, but not earning any points for that…

  • Russ says:

    10 Feb10 February 19:46

    Marriott do but I don’t know what their prices are like.

  • Grant says:

    10 Feb10 February 19:57

    Is it worth using Blacklane at JFK for a meet & greet from a late arriving flight? Don’t fancy a queue for a yellow cab and don’t mind paying a bit extra than Uber if the service is worth it.

• youngtraveller says:

  11 Feb11 February 00:14

  About Shangri-la offer, I signed up for an account today through the app. I’m still waiting to get it upgraded through Amex plat. But I didn’t receive any points after signing up. Probably takes a few days. Thanks for the list of things through the month really helps every month.

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