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 550,000 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’.
The latest UK business travel news:
Virgin Atlantic has announced new routes to the Maldives and Turks & Caicos. Great news for anyone with Virgin Points or the Virgin Atlantic credit card: you now have two exciting new destinations to choose from.
British Airways has announced that its 27th US destination is Cincinnati.
British Airways trialling biometric check-in for international flights. A six month trial is underway on the Malaga route.
JetBlue has announced that its next European destination will be Paris. The airline now has five daily flights to London from both Boston and New York.
A flurry of domestic and international routes have been announced:
- Newquay to East Midlands on Eastern
- Manchester to Copenhagen on Norwegian
- Heathrow to Neom on Saudia – a new weekly flight to the mega-city which isn’t yet built!
Hans Airways, a start-up airline that wants to launch flights between Birmingham and Amritsar, India, has announced a refinancing. Despite rumours of administration, the airline has secured more funds – albeit with a reshuffle of its team.
British Airways launched its partnership with Uber, with an offer 250 free Avios for anyone who links their BA and Uber accounts by 31st December. You will earn 1 Avios per £1 spent at Uber going forward.
Business travel stories we recommend from other sites:
Iain Stewart appointed the new chair of the Transport Select Committee (politics.co.uk)
Eastern Airways schedules Humberside – Esbjerg for December 2022 launch (AeroRoutes)
Loganair to relaunch Manchester to Newquay flight earlier than planned (UK Aviation News)
Spaceport Cornwall receives first-ever UK spaceport licence (CAA)
Virgin Atlantic takes delivery of 2nd Airbus A330-900 (Simple Flying)
Our latest travel reviews:
Rhys reviews the new Marriott hotel in Geneva. Although technically an airport hotel, there are lots of reasons to stay here as a tourist. Image above.
We visit the new Thompson hotel in Madrid. Thompson is one of Hyatt’s luxury brands. This is the first Thompson to open in Europe, bar a short-lived Thompson hotel in London some years ago.
Talking of Hyatt, we are looking at two of their Thai hotels. First up is a review of the Grand Hyatt Erawan, Bangkok. Image below.
The latest UK travel loyalty news:
You can now redeem Avios at The Wine Flyer. The pricing is a little odd, however.
Here’s the story of how Avios ‘taxes and charges’ got out of control in the USA. If you thought they were high for UK residents ….
Which InterContinental hotels give free Club lounge access when you book via a ‘preferred partner’ agent? Confusingly, it’s not all of them – we’ve put together a list.
IHG One Rewards is offering tickets for concerts at the OVO (Wembley) Arena and AO (Manchester) Arena for points. The London ones include a £40 per person food voucher.
Time is running out to earn 100,000 Avios by opening a Barclays Premier bank account and getting the Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card. Read more on the Barclays website here.
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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Rob, Rhys and Sinead @ Head for Points
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