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What you missed on Head for Points last week

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Avios announces extra seat availability

The biggest news story last week – by a mile – was the announcement of big changes at Avios.

British Airways now guarantees to open up at least 14 seats per long haul flight for Avios redemption (12 on short haul). This includes four seats in Club World and, for the first time, two seats in World Traveller Plus.

250,000 seats have been opened up across all BA flights for the next 11 months to reflect this availability change.

You find out more about the Avios seat availability changes here. I strongly recommend you read this article so you don’t miss out. Rob, for example, was able to snag prime October half-term seats to Barbados using the two additional Club World seats and the two World Traveller Plus seats which opened up on Thursday evening.

The latest travel and aviation news:

You can now use Avios to pay for Aer Lingus cash flights in full. You don’t need to use a single penny of cash as this article explains. Just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should, however …..

Credit card news:

If you still have the Lloyds Avios Rewards credit card it will stop earning Avios on Monday. Here are some ideas about how you should replace it.

Amex launched an offer for 1,500 bonus points for Marriott Bonvoy American Express cardholders

British Airways news:

British Airways Holidays is VERY keen to get your business this Summer. It has launched two offers:

This latter one is very interesting. As our article shows, you could earn a BA Executive Club Silver card with just ONE trip to Europe.

Other news: Get £20 when you open an online bank account with Avios banking partner Monese

Canopy Paris

Hotel news:

We looked at two new Paris hotels which are opening soon and which can be booked on points – Canopy by Hilton Trocadero and IHG’s Kimpton St Honore – the image above is Canopy Paris

Some Hilton Honors redemptions are still very cheap. These hotels are just 5,000 Hilton points per night and these hotels are just 10,000 Hilton points per night.

Get double points (and free status and £100 Amex cashback) with Leading Hotels of the World

Formula 1 ace Lando Norris wants to drive your kid to school in a supercar – and you can pay in Hilton points

Accor has launched a double points offer for June and a triple points offer for July and August

We publish an in-depth overview of Hilton Honors which covers everything you need to know about the programme

Hilton has changed its ‘free breakfast’ rules in the US – in theory just for 2021, but who knows?

Use Virgin Points for Virgin Galactic

Other interesting bits:

Get triple Nectar points at Argos this weekend

Save £100 on a Caribbean holiday with Virgin Holidays

Virgin Atlantic has extended status again

How to redeem Virgin Points for free food at Greggs – a field report!

Got 2 million Virgin Points? Go into space with Virgin Galactic (image above)

Offers you missed:

You could have booked Marriott Bonvoy redemption rooms at W Abu Dhabi (the hotel built above the Formula 1 track) for the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – but our readers booked it all quickly

The best of the extra Avios availability created by the Avios changes was snapped up by readers within hours – there were plenty of peak time seats to Cape Town, the Maldives (even over Christmas) etc etc.

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