‘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.
This newsletter is the successor to Malcolm Ginsberg’s Business Travel News which Head for Points acquired. If you are not a subscriber, you can sign up here to receive this free newsletter in your inbox every Monday. Please forward it to any colleagues who you think may be interested.
Malcolm’s new monthly forward-looking Travel News Update is available at travelnewsupdate.co.uk.
I’m pleased to say that Malcolm will be presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2023 Business Travel Journalism Awards ceremony at the Tower of London on Wednesday.
FINAL WEEK: Exclusive HfP reader offer for SME owners
Got an SME? Join Malaysia Airlines MHbiz PRO and earn up to £450 of shopping vouchers
Cyber Monday deals
We’ve collated as many Black Friday / Cyber Monday travel offers as we can into two articles:
These three were worthy of more detailed coverage:
Save 33% on ALL Virgin Atlantic redemptions, in all classes, for virtually all dates
Get up to £300 off in the BA Holidays Black Friday sale
Remember that many of these offers end today, Monday.
The latest UK business travel news:
The British Airways lounge in Edinburgh has closed for three weeks – image above
American Airlines drops Seattle flights from Heathrow
How long is it taking British Airways to make EC261 compensation payments?
BA Silver and Gold cardholders lose lounge access in Shannon and Cork when flying Aer Lingus
A new Hyatt Place hotel is opening in Paddington
AC Hotel Glasgow opens – it’s part of Marriott Bonvoy
WestJet boosts flights from Canada to the UK – image above
London City Airport gains a Priority Pass option
What’s happening to the Concorde in Barbados?
Stories we recommend from other sites:
Courtyard by Marriott debuts new European design (Business Traveller)
Hainan Airlines will increase to daily Beijing to Manchester flights (UK Aviation News)
Level to get its own AOC as part of IAG Spanish expansion plans (FlightGlobal)
Wizz Air launches flights from London Luton to Salzburg (Simple Flying)
Our latest reviews:
Rhys continues to explore Taiwan and Shanghai with three more hotel reviews:
Meanwhile, Conny went on a five-star trip to Vienna:
- Hotel Imperial Vienna review, part of Marriott’s Luxury Collection – image above
- The Ritz-Carlton Vienna review
Sinead does not in any way draw the short straw as she heads to Manchester to review the Virgin Red Room at the AO Arena. This is bookable with Virgin Points for all arena events. Image below.
The latest UK travel loyalty news:
NEW: earn BA tier points from your BA Premium Plus Amex spending – we had over 400 comments on this article as readers pondered whether we’re at the top of a slippery slope or not
Should the British Airways Premium Plus Amex card let you earn tier points permanently? – we followed up with this article which looks at the long term implications
Qantas sets an example for how to handle points transfers after death
Is the new Lloyds Bank World Elite Mastercard the cheapest way to get a Priority Pass?
REMINDER: the Amex Gold credit card sign-up bonus is currently increased to 30,000 points (=30,000 Avios) and your first year is free (apply here)
Thank you for reading
Please drop me a note at rob@headforpoints.com with any feedback. See you next Monday.
Rob, Rhys and Sinead @ Head for Points
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