Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Manchester news: 25% off Iberia Express, BA and Loganair add flights, Virgin Atlantic cuts flights

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

News in brief from Manchester:

Get 25% off Avios flights to Madrid

Iberia Express is offering 25% off Avios redemptions from Manchester to Madrid.  

This means that Economy tickets are reduced to:

  • 5,625 Avios each way on peak dates (was 7,500)
  • 4,875 Avios each way on off-peak dates (was 6,500)

You need to book via Iberia Plus which means moving your Avios across from BA via ‘Combine My Avios’.  Following the Avios IT upgrade last Christmas, this should work OK as we explained here.

Details are on the Iberia website here.  You need to book by 31st October and fly by 30th November.  Blackout dates are 28th October to 1st November.

Our review of Iberia Express business class (yes, it has one) is here.  Our past Madrid hotel reviews include Hyatt Centric here, Aloft Grand Via here and the impressive Gran Melia Palacio Los Duques here. We’ll be covering Hyatt’s new Thompson Madrid later this month.

Whilst less relevant to HfP readers, the 25% discount also applies to flights from Madrid to Santa Cruz de la Palma, Malaga, Menorca, Lyon and Toulouse.

Iberia Express Avios discount from Manchester

SUN-AIR to resume franchised British Airways flights to Billund

SUN-AIR, the airline which operates British Airways flights out of Denmark under a franchise agreement, is returning to Manchester.

The route from Manchester to Billund (home of LEGOLAND, and indeed the LEGO HQ) will restart on 31st October.

This follows the earlier resumption of London City Airport to Billund flights on 5th September.

There will be one flight every weekday. The Monday flight leaves Manchester in the morning (8.55) whilst on Tuesday to Friday it is a 18.15 departure. The aircraft used is a Dornier 328, which is a novelty.

Tickets are bookable at ba.com for cash and Avios.

Reward Flight Saver does not seem to be offered on SUN-AIR so the base cost for a reward flight is 19,000 Avios + £115 return. There is no business class cabin.

(EDIT: the comments say that you can do RFS on SUN-AIR so I may have been the victim of an IT bug.)

The other SUN-AIR routes – from Billund to Brussels, Dusseldorf and Oslo – remains suspended.

Loganair increases Manchester to Aberdeen

Talking of new Manchester flights, Loganair has added a fourth daily service between Manchester and Aberdeen.

The extra rotation will depart Aberdeen at 10.30am, with the return leaving Manchester at 12.20pm.

Virgin Atlantic A350

Virgin Atlantic cuts flights from Manchester

Finally, two bits of Virgin Atlantic news from Manchester Airport.

The first is that the airline is cutting services on two routes.

  • Atlanta will be suspended between 1st April and 31st May
  • Orlando will be reduced from 12 per week to 7 per week for the early part of the Summer 2023 timetable (April / May / early June)

The second story is that Virgin Atlantic will be offering ‘air and rail’ tickets on TransPennine Express.

This will allow customers to book a single ticket from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Lancaster, Oxenholme, Preston, Newcastle, Sheffield and York through to Atlanta, New York or Orlando, and vice versa.

Importantly, disruption protection is included in both directions. If your train or plane is late, you will be moved to the next suitable plane or train connection with no additional charge. Upper Class flight tickets will include a First Class rail ticket.

These services can only be booked via the Delta Air Lines website for now, not the Virgin Atlantic website. It is part of a broader European ‘air and rail’ scheme operated by the US carrier.

Category

British Airways and Avios, Iberia and Iberia Plus, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (33)

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

  • Stuart says:
    13 Oct13 October 07:20

    Re Sun Air: Reward flight saver bookings are 100% available on Sun Air. I did one last month (funnily enough the day that QEII passed away, I was on board that very flight when it happened) BLL > LCY and have another one in 2 weeks time again.
    In fact, they’re possibly the best value RFS flights on the network. You pay 4750 Avios and 20.50p for an economy flight in the Dornier BLL > LCY. Despite the entire aircraft being Y, it gives you a meal service on board and a free bar (very similar to CE service) – tickets are usually always circa £300 each way (aimed entirely at business travellers – the plane was almost full). Happy to share booking screenshots / pics.

  • Mikeact says:
    13 Oct13 October 07:27

    Re Loganair…assuming they keep running and are not sold off.

  • Phil G says:
    13 Oct13 October 07:41

    With no direct services between Sheffield and the airport the railway is not an easy option if you have cases etc

  • Cmdr 007 says:
    13 Oct13 October 07:46

    Was in discussions with various VS folk in the know recently. Some of the reasons are operational within VS and MAG but expect a ramp up at MAN once A330-900 comes online at LHR & frees up aircraft. This will include resumption of LAS & LAX from MAN Including the opening of the Clubhouse at last. Unfortunately VS are not what they used to be, staff & crew nit in the good place they used to be & feel that mainly because Sir Richard has taken his hands of the reigns. Watch this space.

  • Mike Hunt says:
    13 Oct13 October 08:03

    Great to see a northern article 😁

    • Colin MacKinnon says:
      13 Oct13 October 08:19

      C’mon Mike, it only goes as far as the Central Belt – Virgin/Delta aren’t including trains from the Far North! 🙂

      The rail fare from the Highlands to Manchester might be more than the flight!

      • Colin MacKinnon says:
        13 Oct13 October 08:22

        Oops, my mistake. Forgot about Aberdeen being north of the Highland Fault! Where’s that edit button.

      • Andrew. says:
        13 Oct13 October 09:25

        TPX only go as far north as Edinburgh & Glasgow (occasional Falkirk forays during engineering works).

    • NorthernLass says:
      13 Oct13 October 09:39

      Currently you can’t get a Sunday train service between Scotland and North West England so I’m not sure how that will work!
      I would really advise against trying to do anything by train in this region atm if it’s vital to be somewhere at a specific time. It’s all very well including “delay disruption”, but who wants to miss days of their holiday?

    • KevinS says:
      13 Oct13 October 19:04

      Agree Mike!

  • Blair Waldorf Salad says:
    13 Oct13 October 08:20

    Re Madrid hotels, the Aloft Gran Via is no longer making its 10th floor terrace rooms (as in, proper big terraces not a balcony) available to book. I’m not sure whether the rooms are allocated by request only but it seems a missed opportunity as I’d be willing to pay more for one in what is otherwise a pretty unremarkable hotel.

  • Mark says:
    13 Oct13 October 08:41

    Anybody any idea why the Manchester flights are being reduced again. Are Virgin possibly pulling out of MAN?

  • astra19 says:
    13 Oct13 October 08:50

    I’ve had a play around with dates and from Scotland I can’t get any sensible train times. Everything’s leaving at 4:50am with 3x changes.

    • NorthernLass says:
      13 Oct13 October 09:40

      See my comment above – the train situation in NW England is an utter shambles at the moment.

      • astra19 says:
        13 Oct13 October 09:41

        Makes sense. Haven’t taken a long train since the pandemic. No wonder people fly.

    • Andrew. says:
      13 Oct13 October 09:44

      It’s odd, there seems to be a problem with the data feed or interpretation of data from Network Rail.

      Try booking a seat on the 22nd October from ZXE (Edinburgh) to NYC. It recommends taking the 06:13 from Edinburgh changing at Lancaster, Preston, Piccadilly. In reality you’re not changing trains. It’s a direct train arriving at 09:41.

      I’m guessing it’s picking up pathing/engineering pauses on the RTT as a break of journey. Wonder if it would count as 4 individual domestic “flights” for tier ponts though…

      I’ve tried it as a multi-journey, but it rejects every time. It would be nice to be able to book it as a ZXE-MAN Friday evening, the 18:12 goes direct reaching MAN at 21:29, then outbound on a Saturday morning.

      • Save East Coast Rewards says:
        13 Oct13 October 11:55

        Do they book under a DL/VS code or a 9B code? If they book as 9B you’re unlikely to get anything for the trains. If they have a DL or VS code you’ll likely get credit but only multiple times if each segment has a different flight number.

    • Bagoly says:
      13 Oct13 October 10:20

      I have previously looked at the Lufthansa equivalent.
      In order to offer the guarantee of connection to the flight, they typically made you get a train with a connection time of at least 6 hours.
      It was the same for the the guaranteed connections at Gatwick on LCCs.

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.

NEW: Sign-up bonuses boosted to 3,000 and 18,000 points

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!