What you missed on Head for Points last week

Welcome to our first weekly newsletter.

One new service we are offering with our relaunch is a weekly newsletter, aimed primarily at people who want to keep in touch but, frankly, not on a daily basis.

Whilst we encourage you to sign up to our daily emails so that you don’t miss out on any short-notice deals or offers, we hope this summary is useful. It will also run on the site every Saturday.

You can sign up via any of the ‘Subscribe’ buttons on the site.

We are still getting to grips with how to format emails for our new system. We know this one looks a bit messy, but we promise it will improve for next Saturday.

This week, the key news was some big changes to the Virgin Flying Club credit card vouchers, along with a world first – the issuance of tier points on REDEMPTION flights!

The Virgin Atlantic credit cards just got a lot more valuable

WORLD FIRST: Earn tier points on Virgin Atlantic redemptions!

Virgin Flying Club extends your status and vouchers by another six months

…. which means you’ll now be able to redeem your 2 for 1 or upgrade vouchers in Premium and Upper, regardless of your Virgin Flying Club status. You can read our review of the Virgin Atlantic Reward Plus credit card here (15,000 miles bonus). The review of the free Reward card is here.

This week’s top offers:

MALDIVES DEAL: overwater bungalows for 23,333 Amex points or 70,000 Radisson points

How to earn 1,750 Avios with an Avis car rental in September

Get 2,000 Avios with ANY hotel booking, however short or cheap, with our current Kaligo offer

TAP Air Portugal is still offering a status match from British Airways. You can get Star Alliance Gold status (which includes lounge access) by matching your BA Silver or Gold card.

There is also an good dinner, bed and breakfast offer at the Hotel Indigo Kensington if you’re interested in having a London staycation.

Latest travel corridors update

On Thursday, the UK Government announced an update to its travel corridors where no quarantine is required on your return to the UK. The bad news is that Austria, Croatia and Trinidad & Tobago now require 14 days self-isolation.

More positively, Portugal has been removed from the quarantine list.

easyJet confirmed it will be pulling out of Stansted, Southend and Newcastle on 31st August.

American Express changes

This week marked the end of the extended Amex sign-up bonus period, which was increased from three to six months in May. To qualify for a sign up bonus you must now spend the necessary amount in three months.

The good news is that you can now redeem your Membership Rewards for statement credit at a rate of 0.9p per point if you hold a Business Gold card. Rob does the maths in this article.

My Favourite Hotel review: LUX* Grande Gaube, Mauritius

Our latest reader review, by Alicia, is of the mid-range LUX* resort in Mauritius. A great value choice for families. You can read the full review here.

The British Airways bit

Whilst most airlines have been slow to offer refunds, BA Holidays have been too quick! Two readers said they would have preferred to have been rebooked at a later date rather than being refunded without asking, given how much prices have shot up. One reader was facing an extra £8,000 bill to rebook his cancelled holiday.

Since we published our article, BA Holidays got in touch to offer us an update on the situation. You can see what they had to say here.

What do you do if BA suspects you of selling Avios and closes your account?

How do you get a British Airways Executive Club Premier card?

What are the best seats on a British Airways Boeing 787-9?

Hotel news and offers

How to earn Avios by booking hotels via Agoda PointsMAX – is it worth it?

How does IHG Business Rewards – the small business and PA loyalty scheme – work?

I’m now on 41 Marriott Bonvoy elite nights after staying 1 night!

Offers you missed:

This 300,000 Avios ISA, pension and general investment offer with Nutmeg ended on Friday.

The bit at the end

And finally, in case you hadn’t already noticed (!) Head for Points has a whole new look. On Tuesday, we launched our new website – you can see everything that has changed in this article here.

We also have a noise-free thread in case you are experiencing technical issues. Please let us know if you spot any bugs. We have put together a list of tweaks to iron out over the next couple of weeks.