What you missed on Head for Points last week

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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REMINDER #1 – Get a huge 40,000 Avios with the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card

The British Airways Premium Plus American Express card relaunched this month. For a limited time, the sign-up bonus is doubled to 40,000 Avios.

Whilst the annual fee is £250, this is refundable pro-rata if you cancel once you’ve banked the bonus.

Our main article on the 40,000 points bonus is here. Make sure you read the bit about whether or not you qualify for the bonus.

You can apply for British Airways Premium Plus Amex with the special bonus on this page of the Amex website.

REMINDER #2 – Got any sort of small business? Get a 60,000 Avios with the British Airways Accelerating Business card

The British Airways Accelerating Business credit card also relaunched this month. The sign-up bonus has switched from On Business points to Avios, and for a limited time the bonus is a slightly crazy 60,000 Avios.

Whilst the annual fee is £250, this is refundable pro-rata if you cancel once you’ve banked the bonus.

Our main article on the 60,000 Avios points bonus is here.

It is easy to qualify for this bonus. As long as you have some sort of small business income and have not had an American Express Business card in the past 12 months, you qualify for the 60,000 Avios.

You can apply for British Airways Accelerating Business Amex with the special bonus on this page of the Amex website.

The latest travel and aviation news:

It’s actually true – the ‘new look’ 2-4-1 vouchers with the British Airways Premium Plus Amex genuinely DO have access to extra Avios seats. BA is definitely offering additional redemption availability as this article shows.

Three has joined EE and Vodafone in re-introducing roaming charges globally, despite promising it wouldn’t on the side of a big bus in 2016 … .oops. O2 is now the last major network in the UK not to have announced a new roaming charge.

Virgin Atlantic announced it is extending Flying Club status and vouchers for a fifth time.

Credit card news:

Not sure whether you’re eligible for the increased welcome bonuses on both the British Airways American Express cards and the BA Accelerating Business Amex card? We recap the rules.

American Express Membership Rewards transfers to Radisson are back.

British Airways news:

British Airways loaded an additional Dubai flight with 14 seats up for Avios redemption on each flight.

Should the new Amex companion voucher rules change the way you redeem flights? Using two vouchers for four people on the same booking may no longer make sense.

British Airways provided a bit more clarity around its plans to launch a new subsidiary airline at Gatwick. The good news is that it will offer the standard British Airways customer experience.

BA CityFlyer is expanding at Belfast City Airport this winter, with flights to Birmingham, Exeter, Glasgow and Leeds.

British Airways has also announced a number of new CityFlyer ski flights from Southampton and London City to Salzburg.

Avios has launched a new Nectar transfer bonus for first-time transfers.

Hotel news:

If you have a non-refundable Hilton booking in the USA, Mexico or in the Caribbean you may be pleased to know it is actually fully refundable via this odd loophole.

We jet back to Spain to review a handful of hotels in Barcelona and Madrid with Marriott Bonvoy. First up: the W Barcelona, a Barcelona icon and one of the few beach-front hotels.

Almost the polar opposite to the W, the Barcelona EDITION is a sleek and sophisticated boutique hotel in a city-central location. Finally, Rhys stayed at the Aloft Madrid Gran Via to round of his trip.

You can get IHG Platinum status with just 5 nights. Yes, really.

Which airlines let you transfer miles into hotel points?

Other interesting bits:

Aer Lingus has opened its new Dublin lounge.

Which lounges are open and which are closed? We take a look at all the UK lounges that are open and accepting Priority Pass.

Qatar Airways has launched a new flash sale with sub £2,000 business class fares to Bangkok, Hong Kong, Johannesburg and the Seychelles.

Emirates has re-opened its Heathrow lounge in Terminal 3.

Offers you missed:

When our articles on the new Dubai and Salzburg flights were published, Avios availability for October half term (Dubai) and February half-term (Salzburg, for skiing) was available. It went quickly to readers, but you can still get seats for other dates.

You can see a list of other offers closing soon here.

See you next Saturday.