Bits: £75 off £200 at Marriott with Bonvoy Amex, Virgin Atlantic launching Delhi and Mumbai from Manchester, Vistara boosts Heathrow

News in brief:

£75 off £200 of Marriott spend for Bonvoy American Express cardholders

If you have the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card, you should be targetted for a new cashback offer.

You will receive £75 back when you spend £200 at selected Marriott properties in the UK and Europe by 31st December.

The offer appears to be on supplementary cards too. This would allow you to split larger bills and benefit from the cashback on both cards. I don’t know if you would automatically get the offer on new supplementary cards if you applied for one now.

Holders of other American Express cards may have a similar £50 off £200 deal which launched last month. If you got this on your Bonvoy Amex, it MAY double up with this new offer, getting you £125 off.

The list of participating hotels is here.

Virgin Atlantic launching Delhi and Mumbai from Manchester

Virgin Atlantic is turning its gaze to India after announcing new routes to neighbouring Pakistan in August.

It will launch two new routes from Manchester. Service to Mumbai will start on the 19th December with a thrice weekly service. Delhi follows a few weeks later on the 5th January with two weekly flights.

Launching new routes in the middle of a pandemic may seem counter-intuitive at first, but it fits into Virgin’s strategy of diversifying away from the US whilst travel bans remain in place.

Leisure travel – including visiting friends and relatives – is also one of the first segments predicted to rebound in aviation. With an Indian diaspora of over half a million in the north of England, according to Virgin, this seems like a sensible move. There are currently no direct flights between India and Manchester by any airline.

Flights will go on sale from 20th October.

Remember that Virgin Atlantic continues to offer free Covid-19 insurance cover to passengers – see their website here.

Vistara expands London Heathrow to Delhi service

Speaking of Delhi, Indian carrier Vistara will be running a daily service from Heathrow to Delhi from 1st December.

Flights currently operate four days per week, rising to five per week from 21st November. Services are operated using a modern Boeing 787-9.

You can find out more on the Vistara website here.

Tomorrow we will cover SpiceJet’s UK launch.