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News: new Marriott Bonvoy O2 tickets released, Millennium Hotels sale, run loyalty for Virgin

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News in brief:

New Marriott Bonvoy O2 concert tickets released

Marriott Bonvoy has released a new batch of tickets for its box at the O2 Arena in London.

A picture of the old suite, before it moved a few boxes along, is below – it doesn’t appear to have changed much since the relocation.

Here are the new concerts you can book:

  • The Temptations and Four Tops, 11th October – 30,000 points for two
  • Backstreet Boys, 6th November – 40,000 points for two
  • Kendrick Lamar, 8th November and 9th November – 50,000 points for two
  • Kid Cudi, 15th November – 30,000 points for two
  • N-Dubz, 17th November – 30,000 points for two

You can redeem your Marriott Bonvoy points on this page of the Marriott site.

If you want to learn more about the programme, our full review of Marriott Bonvoy is here.

Millennium Hotels sale now on

We wouldn’t normally cover a sale from Millennium & Copthorne Hotels. However, as we covered in this article, there is currently a very generous American Express cashback offer available – £70 back when you spend £200.

The sale, covering European hotels, has a headline discount of ‘up to 27% off’ and comes with early check in and late check out as extra benefits. You will also save 20% on dining.

You need to book by 14th October for stays until 2nd April 2023.

The situation with the Amex cashback is slightly tricky. For some hotels, the sale rates do not require prepayment. This means that they will definitely trigger the Amex cashback. For hotels which do want prepayment, the cashback isn’t guaranteed. It is very likely to work, as long as the hotel processes your payment, but it won’t trigger if payment is taken at a central head office.

The Millennium & Copthorne offer is here. We discuss the My Millennium loyalty programme in detail in this article.

Want to run loyalty for Virgin Atlantic?

Since most UK loyalty marketing professionals read HfP, it is worth flagging that Virgin Atlantic is looking for a new Head of Loyalty.

Since large parts of the programme have now been handed over to Virgin Red, which is run completely separately from an office in Notting Hill, it isn’t fully clear where your lines of responsibility would start and end.

That said, being head of Virgin Flying Club is a role with very high status in the industry and it would open up a huge number of doors.

You can find out more about the role on Linkedin here.

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (December 2023)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, the Reward+ card has a bonus of 15,000 Virgin Points):

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

A generous earning rate for a free card at 0.75 points per £1 Read our full review

You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 9th January 2024, you will receive 30,000 Membership Rewards points (convertible to 30,000 Avios) with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold. You receive 25,000 points if you spend £3,000 in three months and a further 5,000 points if you hold the card for 15 months. You can apply here.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points (TO 9th JANUARY), FREE for a year & four airport ….. Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 30,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 30,000 Virgin Points.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 9th January 2024, you will receive a huge 100,000 Membership Rewards points (convertible to 100,000 Avios) with The Platinum Card. You receive 75,000 points if you spend £10,000 in six months and a further 25,000 points if you hold the card for 15 months. You can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

Crazy 100,000 points (TO 9th JANUARY) and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points. 

(Want to earn more Virgin Points?  Click here to see our recent articles on Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club and click here for our home page with the latest news on earning and spending other airline and hotel points.)

Category

Marriott Bonvoy, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (23)

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

  • ianM says:
    25 Sep25 September 07:41

    Slow news day, what about an analysis of how this Government has gutted the £ and how it will affect travel for UK readers?
    Hotel points must be significantly more expensive now since you have to buy them in $?

    • Tony says:
      25 Sep25 September 07:59

      Morning Ian!

    • Rob says:
      25 Sep25 September 08:47

      Correct, but as long as you are redeeming outside the UK it nets off.

    • BuildBackBetter says:
      25 Sep25 September 08:50

      It’s the best time to redeem using points. As you said, worst time to buy points.

    • Comrade says:
      25 Sep25 September 09:48

      As long as the YQ is less than £2000 we are good. We have money here.

    • Will says:
      25 Sep25 September 15:42

      The party truly is over, wait till people start to comprehend what it it will mean for house prices. Imperial college did analysis back in 2019 at the behest of the BofE that stripped out income growth and inflation and concluded broadly, all other things equal a 1% sustained change in long term bond yields = a approx 20% change in house prices the opposite way over time.

      The 30 gilt is now up 3% since it’s lowest level during covid housing boom.

      They project base rates to be 5.6% next year now. Big opportunity cost to be sat on a £1 million house vs savings interest, especially if your property wealth dwarfs your income which is a position many long term / inherited London property owners may well be in.

      • Rob says:
        25 Sep25 September 16:59

        Very true. London rental yields are about 2.5 – 3% (I get £2k per month for my £950k flat in Wapping). Unless are certain of substantial future capital gains, paying the stamp duty to buy a property and giving up what will be soon be 7% interest on your cash (which is would be with a 5.6% base rate) is not necessarily smart.

        • will says:
          25 Sep25 September 17:26

          I’m too young to have even been aware of it at the time, was looking at historic gilt yields this week and if you had a million quid in 1992 a 30 year gilt at near 10% that redeemed this year would have been a very nice way to a comfortable life.

          Of course, massive dose of hindsight, I imagine predicting of 15 years of near zero interest rates back in 1992 would have seen you sent to the looney bin.

          • Rob says:
            25 Sep25 September 18:10

            When I was in banking, I had a spreadsheet working out how much money I would need to walk away. I still have it, it is based on 7% per year interest on my cash.

            Good job I didn’t quit back in the late 2000’s based on that ….

  • Jon says:
    25 Sep25 September 10:45

    The new Head of Loyalty at Virgin Altantic will need to understand that you need to deliver the little things that you promise. Two flights this summer and one thing missing off each – welcome drink and then amenity kit. I was given 8000 points as an apology but many people would not bother with that email and would just go straight to another website to see what the offering there is. There seems to be an apology and points attitude (we are sorry but here are some points and look you can get a sausage roll) but the attitude needs to be one of don’t get it wrong in the first place.

    • Gordon says:
      25 Sep25 September 13:29

      @jon, I’ll go one better, Our Hyatt AI Hotel in Punta Cana didn’t get it wrong it was hit directly by hurricane Fiona, We were evacuated to another hotel of equal standard and we have been offered a return hotel certificate for the days we were evacuated. So I will take 9 complementary days (Top them up to make 14 days) in the Caribbean this time not in the rainy Season….
      My point is, As it was a natural phenomenon Hyatt did not have to give anything away. It is nice when your loyalty is rewarded.

    • Harry T says:
      25 Sep25 September 17:37

      Please don’t fly BA then – those wouldn’t even be considered a major issue in the context of their current business class service!

  • Lady London says:
    25 Sep25 September 13:50

    I always think that photo of the Marriott box at the O2 looks like a 6th Form Common Room at school. I hope it’s better than that 🙂

  • H says:
    25 Sep25 September 18:47

    Quick question – can I book tickets for N’Dubz for my daughter and her friend? Will they be able to enter without me? Daughter has same surname as me on her Id.

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

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