Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Head for Points announces an acquisition

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

I’m pleased to announce that HfP has acquired the assets of Business Travel News from its retiring owner and editor, Malcom Ginsberg.

Business Travel News (btnews.co.uk) is almost 50 years old.  Originally Air & Business Travel News, it was founded by the late pioneering travel industry journalist John Pointer in the 1970s as a bi-weekly travel trade tabloid.

Malcolm Ginsberg, previously a public relations consultant specialising in motoring and travel and publisher of the Flight International Directory series, purchased the title in 1992. He later turned it into a weekly newsletter delivered via fax machines.

Head for Points acquires Business Travel News

With the advent of the internet, Business Travel News became an email newsletter delivered to the travel trade each Monday morning.  There is also a dedicated website.

What attracted us to Business Travel News was the strength of its email database, which contains thousands of people working in the UK travel industry.

BTN subscribers will, from October, receive a tailored version of the HfP weekly newsletter every Monday morning, linking to our content rather than BTN content. The existing HfP weekly newsletter will continue to be sent out on a Saturday.

We are hoping that Malcolm Ginsberg will continue to contribute in some form. The BTN website will be maintained as a reference resource.

Nothing will change for HfP readers and email subscribers. Our hope is that broader exposure of HfP to Malcolm’s extensive database of travel trade professionals will lead to interesting new editorial and promotional opportunities.

Head for Points is currently enjoying a record year. We will hit 25 million page views on the website in 2022 (up 25% on 2021, which was already our best ever year) with another 11-12 million articles read via email. 80% of readers are in the UK. The BTN acquisition will hopefully ensure continued growth in website views in 2023.

Note that Business Travel News (btnews.co.uk) is not related to the US publication of the same name or its UK offshoot Business Travel News Europe.

Category

General

Comments (58)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Kate Last says:
    5 Sep5 September 13:49

    Congratulations Rob!

    Off topic questions if I may:

    – could anyone recommend an option for managing business travel on UK trains? My team spends quite a lot on train tickets through Avanti. We (well I 😀) don’t get any benefits apart from the credit card points so I wonder if there are other providers who would offer points or other benefits for ordering through them. The booking for the entire team is done centrally via this provider so do you know an alternative provider that offers incentives?

    – My team also spends a lot of money on Premier Inn hotels and their business account isn’t that exciting. Do you know if booking stays with Premier Inn via booking sites makes sense? Ie not more expensive than directly and still get the booking site incentives?

    • Rob says:
      5 Sep5 September 14:37

      You rarely see them on booking sites but, oddly, Booking.com used to list a few, albeit at a premium.

    • Jonty says:
      5 Sep5 September 14:47

      Probably worth talking to one of the smaller ticketing agents or if you’re big enough becoming an affiliate of one. Trainsplit/raileasy do a lot of this sort of thing, but bear in mind the margins on tickets are pretty thin so there’s not much room for points malarkey

    • Gordon says:
      5 Sep5 September 19:22

      Unfortunately you can only book premier inn hotels directly with premier inn. I used to have a business account with premier inn when I traveled around the uk for work and they did have a book a number of nights promotion ( can’t remember the amount of nights now) and get a night free. But unfortunately they stopped that a few years back.

  • Henk says:
    5 Sep5 September 14:12

    Ah, I was wondering why I saw Malcolm at the recent HfP party 🙂

  • Lady London says:
    5 Sep5 September 14:33

    Hum. sideline in ticketing for TP runs if you can find a travel agent or two that still knows how to ticket?

  • His Holyness says:
    5 Sep5 September 14:38

    That’s good, I sometimes pick up the Magazine in a lounge.

    • Rob says:
      5 Sep5 September 15:03

      Would be a novelty, given we bought an email newsletter 🙂

      Tom Otley who runs Business Traveller will be happy though. New edition is out this week I believe.

  • apbj says:
    5 Sep5 September 15:38

    Retiring? Didn’t know Ginsberg was still around.

  • Doommonger says:
    5 Sep5 September 16:14

    I know I met him in the urinals at the HfP party. Incredible for an old chap.

    Doomster.

  • Alex Cruz says:
    5 Sep5 September 18:53

    HFP should look to buy Seatspy and make some improvements for community next!

  • Sundar says:
    5 Sep5 September 22:01

    Congratulations Rob and looking forward to more such in the future.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!