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
Get 120,000 points with Amex Business Platinum and 60,000 points with ‘free for a year’ Amex Business Gold
American Express has launched the biggest payment card sign-up bonus we’ve ever seen in the UK.
If you apply for American Express Business Platinum, you can receive 120,000 Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus. This converts into, amongst other things, 120,000 Avios or 120,000 Virgin Points.
If you apply for American Express Business Gold, which is FREE for Year 1, you can receive 60,000 Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus. This converts into, amongst other things, 60,000 Avios or 60,000 Virgin Points – and from a card which is free for 12 months. T&C apply.
Sole traders are welcome to apply as well as Limited Companies.
Click here for our full overview of the offer, what the benefits are on the two cards and which is best for you.
The application form for Business Platinum is here and for Business Gold is here.
The latest UK business travel news:
IAG has finally agreed terms to buy Spanish airline Air Europa giving it a 73% share of the domestic Spanish market.
Aspire will expand its lounge at Belfast City Airport.
Luton Airport’s DART train to launch on 10th March.
Norse Atlantic is to drop its Boeing 787 Gatwick to Oslo service in late March.
Qantas has announced a new First Class lounge for Heathrow Terminal 3.
Accor is replacing its ibis Business paid-for loyalty programme – sign up now if you want instant Accor Live Limitless Gold status.
You can donate Avios to the DEC earthquake relief fund and IAG Loyalty will match your donation.
Business travel stories we recommend from other sites:
IATA chief Willie Walsh says Flybe Heathrow slots should go to Loganair, not BA (Travel Weekly)
Schiphol’s passenger cap extended until September 2024 (Business Traveller)
London’s K West hotel to become a Hotel Indigo after refurbishment (Boutique Hotelier)
Luton airport to install 12 ClearScan CT baggage scanners at security (Business Traveller)
SAS expects to leave bankruptcy protection later this year (Simple Flying)
How Barbara Harmer became Concorde’s first female pilot (Simple Flying)
Our latest reviews:
We take a look at the art’otel Battersea Power Station hotel which has just opened. Image above.
We review Hart Shoreditch, a new-ish Hilton ‘Curio Collection’ boutique hotel on the fringes of the City in East London.
Industry events:
Head for Points has been appointed Official Media Partner for World Aviation Festival, to be held in Lisbon in late September. We will be bringing you more information on WAF as we get nearer to the event.
We will be at ITB in Berlin next week – if you are exhibiting and want to say Hi, drop me a note at rob [at] headforpoints.com.
The latest UK travel loyalty news:
Rob headed to Doha to try out the process of spending Avios on goodies at Qatar Duty Free at Doha’s Hamad Airport – it is very slick. The bear above is at Hamad!
Get a 40% bonus when you buy Marriott Bonvoy points (click here to buy).
Learn how to get a status match between Avis and Hotels.com, slightly oddly.
Thank you for reading
Thank you for reading. Please drop me a note at rob@headforpoints.com with any feedback.
Are you in the hotel industry? Hotel reviews on Head for Points are hugely powerful. Using private browsing searches for ‘hotel name + review’:
- our 2022 hotel reviews have an average Google rank of 3.7 and 45% are the first editorial result (73% if you exclude the ‘advertorial’ Daily Telegraph reviews)
- our 2021 hotel reviews have an average Google rank of 4.2 (Google deranks reviews by age) and 27% are the first editorial result (61% if you exclude the ‘advertorial’ Daily Telegraph reviews)
Please contact sinead@headforpoints.com for more information on how we can give your hotel some publicity.
See you next Monday.
Rob, Rhys and Sinead @ Head for Points
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