What you missed on Head for Points last week
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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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NEW: Receive 30,000 Virgin Points when you get the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card
Virgin Atlantic has launched a limited time offer on its Reward+ Mastercard credit card.
Until 6th June, the sign up bonus is doubled to 30,000 Virgin Points. This is paid in two chunks – 15,000 points with your first purchase and 15,000 points if you spend £3,000 within three months.
Like the British Airways and Barclaycard Avios cards, Virgin Atlantic offers an annual voucher – good for a 2-4-1 flight (cash or miles) or an upgrade – when you spend £10,000 on the Reward+ card.
(Note that there is no special offer on the free Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard. However, with a bonus this high, it makes no sense to get the free card anyway – you should get the Reward+ card and then consider downgrading to the free card after a year.)
Full details are in this HfP article. You can apply here.
TWO WEEKS ONLY: Get points worth 50,000 Avios with Capital On Tap’s small business Mastercard
If you have a Limited Company (sole traders cannot apply), Capital On Tap is offering an exclusive Head for Points sign-up deal on its small business credit card.
You receive points worth 20,000 Avios when you make your first purchase and a further 30,000 points if (admittedly a tall order) you spend £30,000 within the first three months. This is a good deal even if you only earn the initial 20,000 points – don’t get hung up over whether you can qualify for the additional 30,000 points.
Our full article on the deal is here. You can apply here – but only until 15th May.
The latest travel and aviation news:
The big news of the week is that Qantas hopes to start non-stop flights between London and Sydney in 2025. The aircraft order, for a modified A350-1000, has been placed. Here are our thoughts. A mock up of the new First Class Suite you’ll find onboard is above.
British Airways news:
A pretty convincing (for non-finance professionals) investment scam, allegedly backed by British Airways, is being emailed to people. This article shows you what you should be looking out for.
Rob flew to Venice this week and got to experience a Titan Airways Boeing 757 due to BA’s crew shortage. How was the Club Europe experience?
Avios news:
Until 11th May, Nectar Hotels is offering 1,000 bonus points per booking, even if it is just for one night. You will earn a minimum of 2,000 Nectar points (1,250 Avios when converted) per stay, however cheap.
The Wine Flyer is offering 2,000 bonus Avios and two free Dartington tumblers when you buy a discounted £54 case of mixed red wine. There is no long term commitment required.
Over the Bank Holiday we spent a lot of time looking at Barclays Premier current accounts and the Barclays Avios Rewards scheme:
- Get 43,000 Avios and an upgrade voucher with Barclays Avios Rewards
- Why Barclays Avios Rewards is great for the solo traveller
- How to earn Avios from Barclays Premier via savings WITHOUT switching banks
- What else does Barclays Premier offer apart from Avios?
Credit card news:
What is the difference between American Express Business Platinum and the personal Platinum Card? It’s worth knowing, especially as the personal card currently comes with a 60,000 points bonus.
Hotel news:
IHG One Rewards has announced its first promotion since its rebranding. Between 18th May and 31st August you’ll receive:
- double base points on your 2nd to 5th nights
- triple base points on your 6th to 14th nights
- quadruple base points from your 15th night
Our analysis of the new IHG One Rewards promotion is here. You can register here.
Accor now lets you use Suite Night Upgrade awards online, which is a major improvement over having to call to see what is available. We ran some sample pricing on Accor Suite Night Upgrades and they aren’t a bad deal.
The pricing of IHG One Rewards free nights at the Mr & Mrs Smith boutique hotel chain seems to have got about 12% cheaper. You now get over 0.5p per point.
If you have a Marriott Bonvoy free night certificate, you can now top it up by up to 15,000 points to stay in a better quality hotel than you would otherwise be able to get.
InterContinental London O2 scrapped its £30 fee to use its swimming pool after our original story made it into the national press.
Did you know that IHG has a special website for booking ‘park and fly’ deals at its airport hotels?
Other interesting articles:
Rhys has been over to Amsterdam on Eurostar. This week we published the first two articles – a review of the Business Premier lounge at London St Pancras and a review of Standard Premier between London and Amsterdam.
Have you ever tried using your mobile phone as your hotel room key? Rob decided to give it a go, after many years of ignoring it – what did he find?
Interesting threads from our forums this week:
- What are the best Star Alliance Gold lounges in Europe?
- The 5,000 Avios bonus from the HfP Barclaycard offer is posting
- Suggestions for a good hotel near Clapham Common
- What are your experiences of Chase Bank UK?
The full forum index is here.
See you next Saturday.
