News: Virgin Atlantic boosts Israel services, IHG Spire extensions, a Concorde nose moves to T5

News in brief:

Virgin Atlantic boosts its Tel Aviv services sharply

Virgin Atlantic has seen the Green List-ing of Israel as an opportunity to finally get some passengers back on its aircraft, even though it is currently only accepting tourists on organised tours.

The current ‘four flights per week’ service to Tel Aviv will increase to daily from late May.

From 1st August, based on what is currently bookable, it will increase to double daily.

Flights are currently scheduled with Boeing 787-9 aircraft, which means that you won’t be getting the new Upper Class suite which is installed on the A350 fleet.

IHG Rewards extends Spire Elite status for some to 12/22

If you have IHG Rewards Spire Elite status, you may want to take a look at your account.

Some people are reporting that their status has been pushed out to December 2022. More importantly, another 25,000 bonus points were waiting to be claimed.

You can check your expiry date by clicking on ‘View Member Materials’ at the top of your account home page.

It isn’t clear why this happened. It seems to be a gift to people who managed to requalify for Spire Elite in 2020 but found that IHG Rewards had extended their status anyway due to covid.

IHG may have decided that these people had been treated a little unfairly compared to other Spire Elite members like me who were rolled over anyway. If you fall into this category, check your account.

A Concorde nose moves to the Concorde Room

As you can see from the photograph above, a Concorde nose cone has appeared on the terrace of the Concorde Room.

The Concorde Room is the Heathrow Terminal 5 lounge used by ticketed First Class passengers. Confusingly, the Galleries First lounge is – effectively – the Gold Card lounge, and not for First Class passengers at all.

The nose cone previously sat at the Waterside head office. It isn’t clear if this is the start of a running down of Waterside in advance of permanent closure or sale.

The Concorde Room remains closed at present, so it won’t be seen by anyone for a few weeks at least.

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How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (March 2023)

As a reminder, here are the four options to get FREE airport lounge access via a credit card:

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with two free Priority Pass cards, one for you and one for a supplementary cardholder. Each card admits two so a family of four gets in free. You get access to all 1,300 lounges in the Priority Pass network – search it here.

You also get access to Plaza Premium, Delta Air Lines and Eurostar lounges.  Our American Express Platinum review is here. You can apply here.

If you have a small business, consider American Express Business Platinum instead.

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

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for the first year. It comes with a Priority Pass card loaded with four free visits to any Priority Pass lounge – see the list here.

Additional lounge visits are charged at £20.  You get four more free visits for every year you keep the card.  

There is no annual fee for Amex Gold in Year 1 and you get a 20,000 points sign-up bonus.  Full details are in our American Express Preferred Rewards Gold review here.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard gets you get a free LoungeKey card, allowing you access to the LoungeKey network.  Guests are charged at £20 although it may be cheaper to pay £60 for a supplementary credit card for your partner.

The card has a fee of £195 and there are strict financial requirements to become a HSBC Premier customer.  Full details are in my HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard review.

PS. You can find all of HfP’s UK airport lounge reviews – and we’ve been to most of them – indexed here.