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. Malcolm’s new monthly forward-looking Travel News Update is now available at travelnewsupdate.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’.
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The latest UK business travel news:
As of yesterday, you can now travel directly from Heathrow Airport to Central London on the Elizabeth Line without having to change at Paddington.
British Airways will move to a revenue-based system for Avios earning during 2023. The more you spend, the more you earn. We don’t consider this to be a great idea, as we explain.
Newcastle Airport had a windfall when Flybe announced new routes to Heathrow and Belfast …. just 48 hours after Flybe cancelled its Isle of Man to Heathrow / Belfast routes citing ‘lack of aircraft’.
Emirates will also increase its Newcastle services.
Wizz Air has launched a number of new routes from the UK.
British Airways has changed its Dubai lounge access rules. Gold cards and First Class tickets only ….
Aer Lingus has added a number of new flights from Belfast, including to Newquay and Jersey.
Hyatt has opened new hotels in Lisbon and Krakow.
Ryanair has announced three new routes from Newquay for Summer 2023.
Business travel stories we recommend from other sites:
Wizz Air announces new London Gatwick to Lyon route (Business Traveller)
Birmingham-based Indian carrier Hans Airways is believed to be in financial difficulties even before it launches (Aviation Source)
British Airways to start phased move to New York JFK Terminal 8 on 17th November (Business Traveller)
Loganair takes more ATRs to replace Saab 340 fleet (FlightGlobal)
Emirates criticises Heathrow over proposed Christmas cap on passenger numbers (Business Traveller)
Interview of the week:
Meet Chris Hartley, CEO of Global Hotel Alliance. We caught up with Chris in London as he was in town to finalise the integration of ‘The Set Collection’ hotels, including Cafe Royal, into GHA.
The latest travel reviews:
We fly to Tampa to try the brand new Upper Class cabin on Virgin Atlantic’s new A330neo. Virgin has once again delivered in style, taking on board feedback from the A350 to create an impressive business class cabin. Image below.
British Airways brings back its full Club World meal service – see what we thought. We were one of the first to experience the return to pre-pandemic service levels.
We review the citizenM hotel in Shoreditch. The Dutch hotel chain offers high-tech design-led capsule-like rooms at competitive prices.
The latest UK travel loyalty news:
British Airways has launched a ‘double Avios’ promotion for your next four flights – but existing bookings do not count.
Surprise: the Avios to Nectar exchange rate has been devalued. The change means that you will get fewer Nectar points when converting your Avios, although Nectar to Avios transfers remain the same.
Rob explains his most complicated redemption ever. The trip involved redeeming points from nine diffrent airline and hotel programs for his annual family trip to Dubai.
Four Seasons has launched a £200 cashback offer with American Express.
This week (Tuesday to be precise) is:
- your last chance to get a sign-up bonus of 30,000 Membership Rewards points on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold – article here, apply here
- your last chance to get a sign-up bonus of 40,000 Marriott Bonvoy points on the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card – article here, apply here
And finally ….
We’re delighted to say that we have been shortlisted for ‘Editorial Team of the Year’ at the 2022 Business Travel Journalism Awards.
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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