News: IHG UK flash sale, Southend adds Geneva, Avis Budget adds Glasgow Central Station

News in brief:

IHG launches a one week summer hotel sale

IHG has launched a one week sale on its hotels in the UK and Ireland. See here for details.

Participating brands including Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Hotel Indigo, voco, Crowne Plaza, Kimpton and InterContinental.

Whilst the booking period is only a week, you can book for up to a year in advance as long as you are a logged-in member of IHG One Rewards.

The headline discount is, for IHG One Rewards members, up to 35% off Best Flexible Rate. Rooms booked in the sale are non-refundable, so the pricing is not directly comparable, but the usual discount for non-refundable rooms is only 10%-ish.

Take a look at this special sale page of ihg.com for more details and to book.

Southend Airport adds easyJet flights to Geneva

We’ve run a few stories on Southend Airport recently as it attempts to claw its way back from losing all of its passenger flights during the pandemic.

With its own railway station and direct trains from Liverpool Street, it should be more popular with the London market than it is. The airport is just 53 minutes by train from Liverpool Street and 43 minutes from Stratford.

easyJet has been running a number of summer routes, and has already announced a Paris service for the winter season.

The airline has now announced a new Geneva service from Southend.

Starting on 16th December easyJet will operate two flights per week, departing on Wednesday and Saturday. Fares start at £23 one way.

Avis Budget opens a new location at Glasgow Central Station

Very quietly, the major car rental companies have abandoned non-airport locations in the UK. Enterprise is the only car rental company to still have a network of city centre locations and is where we ended up in York recently.

Avis Budget has taken a tiny step to reversing the trend. This week it opened a new depot at Glasgow Central Station, making it the third branch in the city. Glasgow Central is, apparently, the busiest railway station in Scotland.

Avis and Budget are the exclusive British Airways Executive Club car rental partners as we cover here.

However, you can still earn Avios with most other major car rental groups by crediting them to an Avios account with Qatar Airways Privilege Club and then moving them across to British Airways, as this article explains.

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Hotel offers update – September 2024:

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points?

• Hilton Honors is offering a 100% bonus (some may see less) when you buy points by 24th September. Click here.

• Marriott Bonvoy is offering a personalised bonus when you buy points by 23rd September 2024. Click here.

• World of Hyatt is offering a 20% discount when you buy points by 8th October 2024. Click here.