What you missed on Head for Points last week
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Welcome to the Head for Points weekly newsletter, full of the latest Avios, travel loyalty and travel credit card news, hints and tips.
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The latest travel and aviation news
This week’s big news is the retirement of BA’s 747s, with the final departure of its last two at Heathrow on Thursday morning.
Whilst the weather was poor and prevented a rare dual synchronised take-off, one 747 still managed to make a low flyover the runway before departing to its retirement home. You can see photos and video of the even in this article.
(PS. if you haven’t already, take our BA 747 quiz on our Instagram story and test your knowledge! Your starter for ten: which Bond film featured First class on a 747?
Whilst the retirement dominated headlines, British Airways also launched an incredible offer with 50% of ALL long haul Avios redemptions and 25% off shorthaul.
Latest travel corridors update
Good news! Five Greek islands removed from quarantine list with no countries added.
American Express news
We take a look at the best credit card sign up deals for October including all Amex, Visa and MasterCard options.
Take a look at your card offers. This week, Amex launched £40 cashback at Bicester Village and £5 cashback on £15 spend at Co-Op.
British Airways
We have four more photos of the new British Airways First Suite with door, and it looks great!
Hotels
Everything you need to know about how Marriott Bonvoy works is in this article which we are republishing to mark the start of Marriott’s week-long period of competitions and offers on HfP.
I reviewed The Abbey Hotel in Bath this week, which joined Marriott’s Tribute Portfolio over the summer. Image above.
Mr & Mrs Smith hotels are finally bookable with IHG Rewards Club points. Here’s our look at the redemption rate and whether it’s worth it.
Rob takes a look at which of the 19 (!) current Amex hotel cashback deals are worth using.
Looking to head to the Maldives but don’t want to spend thousands? The Holiday Inn Resort Kandooma (reviewed here) is a budget-friendly way of staying on this Indian Ocean paradise. Plus it’s bookable on IHG points!
In a similar vein, combining Hyatt’s new point bonus, three for two deal and £100 Amex cashback is the ultimate travel-hacking trick.
Miscellaneous
Listen to Rob discuss loyalty on the ‘Let’s Talk Loyalty’ podcast this week, including his view on how loyalty programmes should work with sites like HfP, what he makesof the new Pret coffee subscription scheme and whyRob became addicted to Joe & The Juice.
Uber has started offering fixed fares in London – you’ll never pay more than your original quote.
Heathrow Airport thinks it can charge £150 per Covid-19 test despite the introduction of cheaper and faster tests.
Virgin Atlantic has delayed the return of its Orlando service.
Hotels.com launches a credit card in the United States – here’s how it works.
What you get at One&Only Desaru Coast if you win our Malaysia competition!
Offers you missed:
To celebrate the retirement of its 747, BA offered seven hundred and forty seven return flights in Club World for £999. They sold out pretty quickly!
Are you a teacher? Qatar Airways gave away 21,000 free flights this week. We had LOTS of HfP winners, but it’s all over now.
