‘The Travel Brief’, the weekly Head for Points travel trade newsletter
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Welcome to your weekly round-up of UK business travel and travel loyalty news from the last seven days, as well as our latest reviews and features.
As a reminder, you are receiving this as a previous subscriber to Malcolm Ginsberg’s Business Travel News newsletter. Following Malcolm’s (semi) retirement on his 80th birthday, Head for Points has taken over responsibility for your weekly Monday morning dose of news and views. The BTN archive continues to be available at btnews.co.uk.
If you aren’t familiar with us, Head for Points is the UK’s largest business travel and frequent flyer website. Our website gets 2.3 million page views per month from 475,000 unique users. The majority of these are London-based professionals who travel substantially for business and leisure. We have won five Business Travel Journalism Awards, including ‘Editor of the Year’.
If you are already a subscriber to our existing Head for Points Saturday newsletter, we won’t be offended if you choose to tidy up your inbox and unsubscribe from one. For IT reasons it has not been possible to automatically remove duplicate email addresses.
Win a VIP package at the National Theatre:
In conjunction with American Express Business charge cards, we are giving away two VIP packages for two people to see ‘Blues For An Alabama Sky’ on 1st November at the National Theatre in London. Entry is free and there is no obligation to have an American Express card.
The latest UK business travel news:
The UK Government may be about to drop plans to cut compensation for flight delays or cancellations on domestic routes according to evidence given to the Commons’ Transport Select Committee.
Virgin Atlantic’s first A330-900neo aircraft was delivered from Airbus last Sunday. The aircraft will begin commercial services later this month to Boston, Miami and Tampa. We will be on the inaugural flight to Tampa.
Aer Lingus is dropping flights between Belfast City Airport and London Heathrow from the end of the month. It can no longer fly this route post-Brexit. Short term, BA will operate it under a wet lease.
Marriott has bought another hotel chain …. taking it to 31 brands. With a straight face, it said it had a gap in the mid-market. Here’s a clue:
RwandAir is launching non-stop services to London from Kigali. After a number of years as a one-stop flight via Brussels, London finally gets a non-stop.
Radisson Rewards has gutted its loyalty program. A no-notice devaluation of all points – cutting their value in half – has particularly angered members.
British Airways has confirmed the return of the full Club World meal service from 28th October. It has been over 2.5 years since British Airways last served a ‘proper’ meal. We will bring you a review next week.
Which UK airport has the most arrests? We get a lot of odd press releases in our inbox but this one really caught our eye.
We have some images of the new Lufthansa First Class Suite – with a door – which should roll out from next year. Here’s a sample:
Business travel stories we recommend on other sites:
Richard Moriarty is to step down as CEO of the Civil Aviation Authority in Spring 2023 (CAA)
Will we ever see the launch of Great British Railways? (Alex McWhirter at Business Traveller)
Wizz Air celebrates hitting 15 million passengers at London Luton Airport (Simple Flying)
Spirit Airlines shareholders approve JetBlue merger (Simple Flying)
Etihad Airways and Armani/Casa launch new crockery and bedding (Caterer Middle East)
Antonoaldo Neves – ex TAP – appointed as CEO of Etihad Aviation Group, replacing Tony Douglas (Business Traveller)
The latest travel reviews:
This week, we head to Amsterdam to review the new Hyatt Regency Amsterdam hotel. It’s fresh, modern and worth a visit.
We also checked into the fully refurbished Sheraton Amsterdam Airport Schiphol hotel.
The latest UK travel loyalty news:
NEW: Get 60,000 Membership Rewards points and an annual £200 travel credit with the American Express Business Platinum Card if you apply by mid November.
British Airways will reinstate its pre-covid tier point thresholds from 1st January 2023. If you’re close to the reduced thresholds, our article runs through your options.
British Airways has launched a new flash ‘part pay with Avios’ offer for Gatwick flights, with a redemption value of 2p per Avios. It offers great value but ends on Monday evening.
We’ve rounded up all the central London hotels still available to book on points for King Charles III’s coronation. With cash rates sky-high, redemptions offer a good opportunity to save.
Get IHG One Platinum status in just five nights. If you don’t currently have hotel status this new ‘status challenge’ may be the easiest way to get it at the moment.
New ‘buy points’ bonuses have been launched by IHG One Rewards and Hilton Honors. Buying points can often be cheaper than paying cash for a hotel at peak times.
Accor’s latest promotion lets you earn 6,000 Avios or €120 of hotel credit from three, two-night stays. It is worth registering if you have any stays coming up.
Thank you for reading
Thank you for reading.
Head for Points is the UK’s largest business travel and frequent flyer website with 2.3 million page views per month. The majority of readers are London-based professionals who travel heavily for business and leisure. We have won five Business Travel Journalism Awards including ‘Editor of the Year’.
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We will be back next Monday.
Rob, Rhys and Sinead @ Head for Points
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