News: £30 of free Uber credit for NHS staff, Virgin pulls Manchester to Delhi and Mumbai

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News in brief:

Free Uber rides and Uber Eats meals for NHS staff

Uber is offer 200,000 free £10 rides to NHS and HSC staff over the Christmas period, from 23rd to 27th December.

You can see full details on this page of the Uber website. You need to change the email address on your Uber account to an NHS or HSC one by 20th December, so that on 22nd December you can be emailed a promotional code worth £10 off two rides over the following five days.

There are also 80,000 £10 free meals codes available through Uber Eats. Follow the same process in the Uber Eats app and you will be sent a £10 voucher.

You can sign up for both offers, meaning a total of £30 credit.

You can find out more on the Uber site here.

Virgin Atlantic cancels two Manchester services

Virgin Atlantic has cancelled its upcoming services from Manchester to Delhi and Mumbai. The two routes, after various bits of jiggling, were finally due to launch in January but Virgin has now pulled the plug.

On the positive side, the new Manchester to Islamabad route launched successfully last week. There were rumours that the service was struggling to get clearance from the Pakistan Government but this seems to have been unfounded.

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (March 2023)

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You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, the Reward+ card has a bonus of 15,000 Virgin Points):

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 points bonus and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

A generous earning rate for a free card at 0.75 points per £1 Read our full review

You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 30,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 30,000 Virgin Points.

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Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

Until 30th March 2023, the sign up bonus on American Express Business Platinum is increased to 120,000 Membership Rewards points – click here. The bonus on American Express Business Gold is increased to 60,000 Membership Rewards points – click here. T&C apply, see the application forms for details.

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Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points.

(Want to earn more Virgin Points? Click here to see our recent articles on Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club and click here for our home page with the latest news on earning and spending other airline and hotel points.)

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Baji Nahid says:

13 Dec13 December 05:10

Oh no, why would they drop DEL and BOM? Thought they would be able to capture the market to America through MAN? Though i wonder, has VS started their flights to America from MAN yet? (aware about the US border closure though) though MAN needs an indian link and VS could have bridged that gap.
- Rhys says:
  
  13 Dec13 December 09:44
  
  Clearly far less demand to India. I’ve been told the Pakistan routes are doing very well, though.
  - Charlieface says:
    
    13 Dec13 December 12:38
    
    Odd, because there is a massive Indian community in the North West.
    - Aston100 says:
      
      13 Dec13 December 15:25
      
      Are they definitely Indian though?
      - Peter K says:
        
        13 Dec13 December 21:08
        
        My experience of West Yorkshire was mainly Pakistani/Bangladeshi heritage, far fewer of Indian heritage.
- Bob says:
  
  14 Dec14 December 16:17
  
  2 months ago did LHR to DEL on Virgin and only 70 people in economy. Good service and flight as bearable as could be.
Jonathan says:

13 Dec13 December 07:00

VA must’ve thought that there was more demand for these routes than what there actually was. Although given the way things have been for most of 2020, it’s a tough estimate to make on how many of their seats will be filled
- Nick says:
  
  13 Dec13 December 10:39
  
  I doubt Virgin Australia gives a fig how these routes are doing. Virgin Atlantic (VS) has much more to care about.
  - RussellH says:
    
    13 Dec13 December 10:59
    
    Perhaps we should annotate – VA(abbr) / VS(iata) for you?
    It is always quite clear from the context which airline is being talked about.
    🙂
    Much more annoying (I find), is people who use LH for longhaul when (obviously) it really means Lufthansa.
    But, being intelligent, I can usually work out the meaning.
    We all have far more important things to wory about.
ben says:

13 Dec13 December 07:56

israel to start flights to morocco soon, so good stopover
- Charlieface says:
  
  13 Dec13 December 12:39
  
  Unlikely if you’re visibly Jewish
  - The real John says:
    
    13 Dec13 December 13:34
    
    What’s unlikely?
    - Charlieface says:
      
      13 Dec13 December 15:28
      
      Unlikely to be a good stopover
twoclicks says:

13 Dec13 December 10:02

Regarding Royal Air Maroc, tbh, I am a bit worried. Social media posts are just a litany of complaints about them losing luggage with less than impressive responses. Is this just a bad impression? Or any truth in it?
- David says:
  
  13 Dec13 December 11:18
  
  Isn’t most social media for airlines also always full of that.
  - Bagoly says:
    
    14 Dec14 December 09:35
    
    E.g. https://www.thesun.co.uk/travel/9776248/british-airways-lost-delayed-bags/
    
    I would suggest that the chances of luggage being lost are much higher if connecting.
    So overnight stays on the way out where one gets one’s baggage for the night do reduce the risk.
Alastair says:

15 Dec15 December 09:55

To update some of the Royal Air Maroc info in this article…

It looks like these new Agadir and Marrakech routes are being sold as Gatwick, not Heathrow. This makes a little more sense, as I would imagine they are leisure-heavy. It isn’t clear to me if there is a BA codeshare, or if BA will ever resume LGW-RAK in addition. RAM operates from North at Gatwick, which is useful as it’s the terminal that’s currently open; again, unclear if that was the reason for the decision or just a happy coincidence. Oddly, BA does list LGW-AGA in its Tier Point calculator earning (80 each way) Tier Points but zero Avios which is presumably a mistake.

The published RAM fares are still wildly uncompetitive, although I notice the welcome addition of a new fare description “Business Essential” for discounted I class. However, at £450 roundtrip they are still not remotely in Tier Point run territory. And at £160 in W class you’d be better off booking easyJet with all the trimmings. Still, a step in the right direction.

I imagine RAM is keeping some LHR slots warm for BA with is CMN-LHR and will return to LGW at some point in the future for all its routes, but who knows.
- Rob says:
  
  15 Dec15 December 10:19
  
  Thanks Alastair, will update.