‘The Travel Brief’, the weekly Head for Points travel trade newsletter
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Welcome to your weekly trade round-up of UK business travel and travel loyalty news as well as our latest reviews and features.
You are receiving this as a previous subscriber to Malcolm Ginsberg’s Business Travel News, which Head for Points has acquired. If you are not a subscriber, you can sign up here to receive this free newsletter in your inbox every Monday.
Malcolm’s new monthly forward-looking Travel News Update is available at travelnewsupdate.co.uk.
Your next newsletter will arrive on Monday 9th January. Enjoy your Christmas and New Year break.
The latest UK business travel news:
London City Airport wants to increase its flying hours. The Saturday afternoon closure may become a thing of the past.
British Airways has cancelled two routes from London City Airport. Guernsey and Santorini will not be returning in Summer 2023.
British Airways has reduced its Summer flying schedule from Southampton Airport.
Flybe has also cut a number of its proposed routes from Southampton Airport.
British Airways is removing a quarter of its Newcastle flights.
Finnair is relaunching flights to Osaka despite the costs and delays of avoiding Russian airspace.
Le Meridien has opened a new NYC property on 5th Avenue.
IHG opens a new Hotel Indigo in Exeter.
Exclusive: IHG has lost Crowne Plaza London Albert Embankment to Hyatt.
TAP has unveiled a refurbished flagship lounge in Lisbon.
Aer Lingus is dropping Belfast to Heathrow in March, with British Airways adding additional flights to compensate. Blame Brexit.
Business travel stories we recommend from other sites:
How Storm Eunice transformed the life of Big Jet TV’s Jerry Dyer (The Guardian)
Radisson Blu opens in Lanzarote (Travel Daily)
Qatar Airways boosts Edinburgh services (UK Aviation News)
Ryanair introduces four new routes from Belfast International (Business Traveller)
Trip of the week:
We went to Madrid to go inside Iberia’s latest A350. It has a brand new business class seat including a fully closing door. It’s the first ‘next gen’ A350 to be delivered, with a 10cm wider cabin interior.
Our latest travel reviews:
Rhys reviews the iconic TWA Hotel at New York’s JFK Airport. Does it recapture the romance of the Jet Age? Image above.
On the same trip we reviewed the New York Times Square Marriott Marquis, the biggest hotel in New York.
Over in Ireland, we review The Shelbourne, Dublin’s grand dame hotel.
We look at the Currensea travel money card. It is a good alternative if you don’t have a credit card with 0% FX fees. There is a £10 incentive for trying it out.
The latest UK travel loyalty news:
Emirates secretly devalues Skywards redemptions with a 20% miles increase for premium cabins.
Get a 25% bonus when buying World of Hyatt points. The annual cap has also been doubled. You can buy here.
How to earn Avios, miles and points from Europcar rentals. It has become a new conduit for earning Avios.
Our coverage of how British Airways has repriced long haul Avios redemptions continues:
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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See you on Monday 9th January. Have a great New Year.
Rob, Rhys and Sinead @ Head for Points
PS. If you were forwarded this email by a colleague, you can sign up for a free subscription by filling in the form here
BJ 
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