Black Friday deals: Avios-earning Finnair flights plus Opodo, Virgin, Uber, Radisson and more

News in brief:

Good Avios-earning Finnair deals to Asia

Finnair has launched a Black Friday sale to Asia.

What makes this sale attractive is that:

you can start from London, Manchester and Edinburgh

Finnair flights earn Avios and British Airways tier points – and because you are changing planes in Helsinki, you earn 80 tier points each way for the connection in Business Class PLUS the tier points for the long-haul leg

Finnair is flying brand a new A350 aircraft on many routes with excellent business class seats

Compared to the Club World seat the 1-2-1 configuration is a major improvement. You can read my review of the new Finnair A350 business class seat here.

Click here to see the prices out of London, Edinburgh and Manchester in both business and economy class.  Highlights, in Business Class, include:

• Beijing £1,445
• Shanghai £1,495
• Hong Kong £1,666
• Xi’an £1,298
• Krabi £1,649

Save on flight and ‘flight and hotel’ bookings with Opodo

Black Friday seems to have morphed into Black Week for 2019.  This is good news for us, as we can drip out the best deals over the week rather than having to ram them into Friday.

Next up is Opodo which is running two discount codes this week which might get you a decent saving.

The code is BLACKWEEK19.  You enter this right at the very end of the process – there is a box under the space for your credit card number saying “Add a promo code”.

It is worth:

• £20 off flight bookings over £400
• £75 off flight + hotel bookings over £940

You need to book by Thursday 28th November, which implies there may be a revised version on Black Friday itself.  Flights must depart from the UK.  The Opodo Black Friday site is here.

Other Black Friday deals ….

A lot of other Black Friday offers have dropped in this week.  There is a lot more out there but these companies contacted me directly.

Back to travel. All of these deals are bookable now – you don’t need to wait until Friday.

Most are not worth discussing in detail but I will run through a few quickly:

Uber credit – Tesco is discounting various restaurant gift cards by 20% until 1st December.  Uber Eats (£15 only) is included as part of the selection.  However, as Uber and Uber Eats share the same credit pot, buying these gift vouchers in Tesco also gets you 20% off Uber rides.

Europcar – save up to 40% on worldwide rentals, book by 2nd December for pick-ups before 31st March 2020 – book here

Radisson / Park Inn / Park Plaza hotels – save up to 30% and earn 3,000 bonus Radisson Rewards points per stay, valid for weekend stays in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the United States, Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean for all of 2020 – book by 3rd December via this link

Virgin Atlantic ‘flight and hotel’ packages – save £100 on all Caribbean (Barbados, Antigua, St Lucia, Cuba, Mexico, Jamaica, Tobago, Grenada) packages using promo code BF2019, must travel by 31st October 2020, no minimum spend – book by 2nd December via this link

Virgin Atlantic ‘flight only’ – save up to £50 on flights to Asia, including India, and 20% off flights to the Caribbean – book by 2nd December via this link (Virgin Atlantic is adding new deals daily so it is worth checking their site regardless)

Airportr at Manchester Airport – save 25% with code BLACKFRIDAY19 on Airportr’s ‘we collect your bags from your home or office and check them in’ service at Manchester – details here

Priority Pass – save 15% to 40% on a lounge pass (discount varies by product) – details here

Millennium Hotels – save up to 35% (25% for non-members of My Millennium) at 23 hotels across Europe, book by 3rd December for stays until 29th February – book via the special page here using code LOVEFRIDAY

Hotels.com – save 11% on selected hotels (usually non-chain hotels) with code BLACKFRI, book by 2nd December for stays by 31st March, code may invalidate collection of Hotels.com Rewards credit (or may not, they wouldn’t say) – book here

ebookers – up to 60% off hotel stays and up to £60 off ‘flight and hotel’ details, book by 2nd December – book and find more details here

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

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