‘The Travel Brief’, the weekly Head for Points travel trade newsletter
Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission. See here for all partner links.
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.
The latest UK business travel news:
NEW: get 7,500 bonus Hilton Honors points on your next stay when you join ‘Hilton for Business’
BA Cityflyer now offering free check-in of hand baggage at London City following densification
Qantas launches Singapore to Darwin flights which connect to the QF2 Heathrow flight
The Conrad Singapore (former Regent) hotel opens
Which 24 routes from Heathrow see over 1 million passengers per year?
LivSmart Studios becomes Hilton’s 22nd hotel brand
A new ibis Styles hotel has opened in Paignton
The Radisson Blu Edwardian hotel chain has been sold for £800m and may be rebranded
Here’s the full opening schedule for the Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Wing between now and May, as new scanners are installed
Emirates Skywards is planning a new UK credit card …. what could it look like?
NEW: Revolut launches Avios for debit card spending in five countries – coming to the UK soon?
Airline fare deals:
We saw a spate of aggressive business class fare deals launch this week:
Fly Air France or KLM from London to Dubai in business class for £1,343
Etihad is offering £1,199 business class deals to India from London
Fly to Sydney in business class for €2,500 with Etihad
Ethiopian Airlines is offering £1,591 seats to Johannesburg from Gatwick in business class
Stories we recommend from other sites:
LNER launches 70-minute Flex ticket (Business Traveller)
UK regulator satisfied by Wizz Air actions over customer complaints (FlightGlobal)
Venice debuts booking platform ahead of €5 entry fee launch in April (TTG)
Holders of 35% of Heathrow plan to divest along with Ferrovial (Reuters)
Ryanair and Transavia among growing list of airlines making Tel Aviv return (FlightGlobal)
Our latest reviews:
Rob heads to Paris to review the reassuringly expensive Hotel Lutetia, part of Global Hotel Alliance and The Set Collection. It’s the only ‘palace’ hotel on the Left Bank. Image above.
The latest UK travel loyalty news:
Six Nations rugby packages are up for auction for IHG One Rewards points
Virgin Atlantic launches a reward seat sale: get 20% off almost all routes for ALL of 2024
Get up to 18,750 Avios with Sainsbury’s life insurance
How to earn BA tier points and Avios in the current Malaysia Airlines sale – business class seat pictured above
Save £100 at Emirates with American Express
Get up to 51,000 Virgin Points for opening a Virgin Money Stocks & Shares ISA
Which hotel loyalty programme is best for earning Avios?
How to pay HMRC by credit card using Curve by the 31st January deadline
Is there any point having the free British Airways American Express card? Whatever your reason for having it, another card does it better.
Review: Is Hilton Honors the best hotel loyalty scheme?
Thank you for reading
Please drop me a note at rob@headforpoints.com with any feedback. See you next Monday.
Rob, Rhys and Katie @ Head for Points
PS. If you were forwarded this email by a colleague, you can sign up for a free subscription by filling in the form here
