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Vote in the HfP Travel & Loyalty Awards 2023 – and win 10,000 Avios

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Back in November 2019 we launched the Head for Points Travel & Loyalty Awards. It was a big success, both in terms of the number of HfP readers who voted and the way that the airline, hotel, credit card and airport lounge industry embraced it.

In January 2020 we hosted a lovely dinner at Quo Vadis in Soho to celebrate the winners.

We decided to make it an annual event. And then …. well, you know the rest.

But now we’re back, with the Head for Points Travel & Loyalty Awards 2023.

Head for Points Awards trophy

We are in the privileged position of having an audience – you – that has an exceptional knowledge of business travel, airlines, hotels, airline lounges and travel credit cards.  Many of you experience these products on a regular basis, and far more frequently than either Rob, Sinead or I do.

The Head for Points Travel & Loyalty Awards 2023 are a great opportunity to recognise the cream of the crop when it comes to UK premium business and leisure travel.  A lot of the areas we are covering, such as airport lounges and travel credit cards, are ignored by other awards because they are too niche – but for our readers, they are very important and appreciated.

You can vote in the Head for Points Travel and Loyalty Awards 2023 here.

We have a small bribe to encourage you to do so – full details below.  One entrant will win 10,000 Avios.

What are the categories?

There are 14 categories, including:

  • Best Business Class seat
  • Best Premium Economy seat
  • Best UK airport lounge
  • Best new or refurbished UK airport lounge
  • Best UK travel rewards credit card
  • Best credit card sign-up bonus of the year
  • Best hotel loyalty programme
  • Best hotel loyalty promotion of the year
  • Best value miles or points redemption of the year

…. and more!

We genuinely want to recognise the best of what is out there.  Whilst we have drawn up a shortlist for each category, we have also included an ‘Other’ option.  If you think we have missed something good, write it in.

Rob and I will look at all of the ‘Other’ suggestions and select a small number of ‘Editor’s Choice Awards’ alongside the main winners.  This means that niche lounges, credit cards or products can still be a winner, so please put them forward.

You can skip any categories if you don’t have a particular opinion or no relevant experience – just click ‘Next’.

What can you win?

Voting is open now and will end at midnight on Tuesday 2nd January. We hope you can spare a couple of minutes (and it really is just a couple!) over the festive period to let us know who you think should win in each category.

One voter will be drawn at random and will receive 10,000 Avios.  We will also throw in two tickets to the Head for Points Summer Party in June (date TBC) and a handful of drinks vouchers on the night.  For clarity, we are paying for the Avios ourselves – British Airways is not sponsoring the awards in any way.

Thank you to our sponsor Rakuten Advertising

The awards and the winner’s dinner in January are being generously sponsored by Rakuten Advertising.

Rakuten Advertising leads the industry in delivering performance-driven ad solutions that help some of the world’s top travel and finance brands connect with unique, highly engaged audiences – from first impression to final sale.

We work closely with them to manage various partnerships, primarily our work with American Express, and we’ve always been impressed by the added value they bring compared to a standard affiliate network.

You can vote in the Head for Points Travel and Loyalty Awards 2023 here.

The deadline for voting is 2nd January, and we will unveil the winners later in the month.  Thank you for your help, and good luck in the prize draw.

Category

General

Comments (60)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Jet says:
    23 Dec23 December 06:05

    Sounds fine

  • BJ says:
    23 Dec23 December 06:31

    Good to see this back and it was fun to to do. Graphics and colours remain as slick as last time abd it worked perfectly.

    One thing I think needs some thought: next time possibly separate out airline seats and service into two categories? The two are don’t always coincide, especially at the moment IMO.

    For me personally the most difficult decisions this time were best hotel loyalty scheme, best credit card and best DUB offer.

    • BJ says:
      23 Dec23 December 06:33

      *SUB

    • TooPoorToBeHere says:
      23 Dec23 December 08:33

      Best SUB is *easy*. The 100k Avios from Barclays.

      Yes, their admin and testing was beyond awful but the amount of tax-free money-for-nothing that has produced….

      • No longer Entitled says:
        23 Dec23 December 08:44

        I just got accepted for the Amex Plat: 75,000 MR points, no hoops, and I can cancel before Feb and effectively only pay monthly.

        Throw in £100 of Harvey Nichols credit, six lounges visits in Feb (1 reserved for four people at a cost of £24) and probably just the one dining experience for £150 and it hits all of JDB’s buttons.

        I’m not sure the Barclays offering was significantly better.

        • Rob says:
          23 Dec23 December 08:53

          Most people can’t spend £10k in the next 8 weeks though!

          • No longer Entitled says:
            23 Dec23 December 09:39

            And about 95% of the population don’t earn the £75k needed for Barclays Premier!

        • JDB says:
          23 Dec23 December 10:30

          @No longer Entitled – I don’t have any issues with this. I just marvel at the ridiculousness of Amex’s ‘strategy’ as this latest bumper / biggest ever offer is an open invitation to take advantage of them. Their experimentation with two stage SUBs is clearly wrongly structured.

          Obviously everyone will end up paying for your hit and run only to be compensated with jumbo retention to complete the wheel of stupidity.

          • TooPoorToBeHere says:
            23 Dec23 December 13:58

            Agreed.

            This household of 2 adults (and, admittedly, more than one Limited Company) looks to end up with a total of 8 Amex cards issued and then cancelled within 12 months thanks to the uniquely stupid way Amex pay you to take out cards. And all the spend goes on non-Amex cards because of the inferior earnings rate and poor acceptance.

        • TooPoorToBeHere says:
          23 Dec23 December 13:56

          100k is more than 75k.

          I argue that you’re comparing the product rather than the SUB.

          You can wring value from the Amex annual fee of course but that is separate to the SUB.

          • Rob says:
            23 Dec23 December 14:06

            The voters will decide!

          • No longer Entitled says:
            23 Dec23 December 14:48

            I’m aware which is the higher number. Just pointing out that it was possible to earn a large chunk without the need to wait months for an appointment at a Barclays branch. The other points, in the next paragraph, were really just throw away comments.

            My vote went to the BAPP due to the combination of high SUB and low spend target.

          • BJ says:
            23 Dec23 December 15:05

            @TPTBH, the same thought on SUB v card occurred to me and undoubtedly many others too. In reaching their decision I think it is inevitable most will factor in the card. If not the question might as well just have been what is a betterSUB: 75k abios, 100k MR etc without referring to the product.

            @Rob, yes ultimately the voters will decide but the question mark is what proportion of the voters will vote based on personal experience versus decond-hand knowledge bjt we’ll never know. There is also the question that even where people do vote only on personal knowledge the results will simply be skewed towards the most commonly used airline, hotel or card. The Editor’s Choice awards are good in that they can partly offset the effects of their and to the best of my recollection were used wisely last time.

      • David says:
        23 Dec23 December 09:09

        Wasn’t that a 2022 offer and not re-run since? I realise there’s been a gap since the 2019 awards but these are titled as 2023 awards.

      • BJ says:
        23 Dec23 December 09:24

        That one did not make my shortlist. I was torn between Platinum and BAPP. In the end I decided the calue of the SUB along with the potentially guge value of the voucher for a modest spend requirement just edged the many benefits and flexibility of amex MR points on the Platinum.

  • JDB says:
    23 Dec23 December 07:32

    Thank you for running this again; it will be interesting to see how comments through the year do or don’t translate into winners.

    For most categories, the provider will be pleased to win, but for ‘Best credit card sign-up bonus of the year’ I’m not sure if it is really any great accolade to identify who has had to pay the most to win customers. As @Rob has said in a different context, you don’t need to pay people to buy Taylor Swift tickets.

  • Dominic says:
    23 Dec23 December 07:43

    Would be helpful if there was a ‘don’t know’ option or similar – I can comment on most, but have to randomly select for some categories if not aware..

    • Kowalski says:
      23 Dec23 December 07:44

      You can just click ok if you don’t want to vote on any of the sections

    • Rob says:
      23 Dec23 December 07:44

      Or, as per the article, just click ‘Next’ and skip one ….

      • yonasl says:
        23 Dec23 December 08:46

        “Next” should be relabelled “Pass” (as selecting an option takes you to the next question anyway)

      • Dominic says:
        23 Dec23 December 10:48

        That isn’t really intuitive – happened to skim read (as I’m sure many do!), and didn’t see that line.

        It’s also “OK” on mobile, which doesn’t imply “Skip” imo.

        But anyway, useful to know – I’ll respond without random selection, now!

        • Nick says:
          23 Dec23 December 13:12

          Agreed! I’m sure the HfP team will note that for next time. I did the same, then back tracked later in the survey to just skip the one’s that I couldn’t vote on with no experience of same.

  • DeB2020 says:
    23 Dec23 December 08:17

    Thanks for this, I have voted.

    Given that I am currently in the ETIHAD lounge at Heathrow T4, I couldn’t help noticing the similarity of the colour scheme of your logo and that of the airline.

    As a result of the super service in the lounge, the airline might have benefited in the vote!

    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

  • Daniel says:
    23 Dec23 December 08:59

    The BA Amex Tier points offer is not part of the “innovation” category?

    • Mayfair Mike says:
      23 Dec23 December 10:05

      Yes was surprised this was missed. Whether one agrees with it or not, it clearly provoked interest given the pages of comments that day. Personally I’m in Rob’s camp and like it

      • Jack Hodgson says:
        23 Dec23 December 14:07

        Why though I am curious as it is rubbish and the valuation offered based on how much you have to spend is completely and utterly ridiculous and out of range for the vast majority of people . Their points should only be earned by flying

        • Rob says:
          23 Dec23 December 14:22

          Whether it should or not be on the shortlist is up for debate (and Rhys and I did debate). My view is that the spend required, both the quantum and the timeframe, added to the ‘no notice’ given of the launch, are out of whack. If they bring it back permanently with a better sliding scale they can have the 2024 award in advance though.

  • Rob H not Rob says:
    23 Dec23 December 09:17

    Rakuten acquired play.com in one of their early ventures many years ago.

    Sadly they got it so badly wrong it wen’t bust a couple of years later. A real shame, it was a great site.

    • Jonathan says:
      24 Dec24 December 07:33

      play.com died because they used a VAT loophole that existed at the time when shipping from the Channel Islands, hence is to why they able to sell goods far cheaper than competitors.
      The government closed the loophole, then play.com couldn’t offer prices they used to

  • Matthias says:
    23 Dec23 December 10:17

    Nice idea, but how many readers will have actually experienced more than 1 or 2 of the nominees on each page? In which case it comes down to “well I did go to the Centurion lounge and it was pretty good, so I guess I’ll pick it”. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but also doesn’t mean that say the Aspire Lounge in Aberdeen wouldn’t be a more deserving winner.

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:
      23 Dec23 December 11:15

      For those of us not based in the London hinterland, we experience quite a lot as flying diverse routes and connecting is the norm.

    • Rob says:
      23 Dec23 December 11:24

      … which is why we’re doing Editor’s Choice Awards again. Northern Lights in Aberdeen won an Editor’s Choice back in 2019.

      • Nick says:
        23 Dec23 December 13:28

        It won’t this year… it’s now a shell of its former self, a sad reminder of what happens if you cut costs too heavily.

      • Alex Sm says:
        23 Dec23 December 16:33

        Can you add a link to 2019 winners list to the article? It could be found of course but you could save a ton of time of collective googling. 🙏🏻

        • Rob says:
          23 Dec23 December 17:11

          There is no single article (I think), we did one winner a day for two weeks.

          This year we won’t reveal the winners until the night of the dinner.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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