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. The March edition is out now.
MONDAY ONLY: Win Apple AirPods with HfP and Qatar Duty Free
We are running a competition on Head for Points today (Monday) to win two pairs of Apple AirPods, worth £179.
These were generously donated by Qatar Duty Free to promote the new ability to spend and earn Avios on virtually everything for sale at Doha’s Hamad International Airport – you can find out how to spend Avios at Hamad in this article.
To enter the competition, click here and fill in the form at the bottom. Entries close at midnight on Monday. UK residents only.
People news:
Tom Otley has stood down as Editor of Business Traveller magazine after almost 20 years.
From a personal point of view, I’d like to acknowledge Tom as a great ambassador for the business travel sector over the last two decades. It was always a pleasure to chat to him at a media event and his enthusiasm, knowledge and contacts were second to none.
The latest UK business travel news:
Lufthansa has unveiled its new Allegris cabins with an impressive First Suite and seven new business class seat types. Image above.
Virgin Atlantic joined SkyTeam this week and published its new Clubhouse lounge access rules.
British Airways has launched a premium cabin sale. We crunch the numbers.
Virgin Atlantic has confirmed it is planning to launch flights to Seoul.
Aer Lingus adds two new UK routes.
IHG is adding Surrey wedding venue Lythe Hill to its voco brand.
Qatar Airways has become the official airline sponsor for Formula 1.
Qatar Airways adds eleven weekly flights to London.
ETIAS, the EU equivalent of ESTA, has been delayed again.
Norse Atlantic adds another four US routes from Gatwick.
Virgin Atlantic confirms a change of management for its international Clubhouses.
Cardiff Marriott hotel has completed a full refurbishment including a new Executive Lounge.
Business travel stories we recommend from other sites:
Caledonian Sleeper rail service to be nationalised in June (The Scotsman)
Southend Airport is put up for sale (Travel Weekly)
Hilton Brighton Metropole unveils £26 million refurbishment (Business Traveller)
Why the UK has banned Lufthansa sustainability adverts (Simple Flying)
Loganair to restore Glasgow-Donegal service (Business Traveller)
London City Airport confirms new security scanners ready by Easter (TTG)
Our latest reviews:
Sinead headed to the Maldives (a tough job but someone had to do it) to look at three Marriott resorts, starting with the Westin Maldives Miriandhoo. She took her young daughter so there is a family travel angle to the article.
Rob reviews Qatar Airways business class on the A380. Can it compete without Qsuite?
The latest UK travel loyalty news:
Virgin Atlantic joins SkyTeam
On Thursday Virgin Atlantic officially became a SkyTeam alliance member, joining existing partners Delta, Air France and KLM. Our coverage included:
- How to redeem Virgin Points on SkyTeam flights
- What are the tier point earning rates on SkyTeam flights when credited to Virgin Flying Club?
- What are the new Clubhouse access rules?
Other loyalty articles
Hyatt launches its Spring bonus points promotion.
What are the most valuable UK credit card sign-up bonuses?
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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