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What happened at the Head for Points Travel & Loyalty Awards 2023 dinner?

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Last Tuesday (yes, it’s taken almost a week to get ourselves back on track!) was the Head for Points Travel & Loyalty Awards 2023 dinner.

Over 6,000 of you voted over Christmas and New Year for your favourite loyalty programmes, credit cards and promotions – thank you for your support.

We will run through the results on Wednesday (pushed back by 24 hours due to coverage of the BA tier point changes). Today we wanted to bring you a few general photographs from the event.

Head for Points Travel & Loyalty Awards 2023 dinner

Thanks to reader Mark of Studio One Twenty who answered our shout-out before Christmas and designed the tombstones for us.

We took over The Crypt of St Etheldreda’s in Ely Place at Holborn, which is operated by Bleeding Heart as a function venue. It was an inspired choice, fitting the 80 of us perfectly and having good lighting and acoustics.

Head for Points Travel & Loyalty Awards 2023 dinner

I should thank Bleeding Heart at this point for the fantastic meal served. If you go to enough large scale dinners you come to expect second-rate food but this was a cut above. The team were also very accommodating as we changed the seating plan multiple times.

Head for Points Travel & Loyalty Awards 2023 dinner

Here a few action shots from the night, although we’re saving the award presentation pictures for tomorrow.

All photos are by Ash Knotek who did a great job.

Here’s Rhys with Ivan from Hyatt and Laurent, the GM of Hyatt Regency London Blackfriars.

Head for Points Travel & Loyalty Awards 2023 dinner

We couldn’t have funded the dinner without the generous sponsorship of Rakuten Advertising, one of the key affiliate marketing agencies in the travel and financial services space. Here is MD International, Rakhee Jogia:

Head for Points Travel & Loyalty Awards 2023 dinner

Obviously an awards ceremony needs an MC. We were delighted that Sky News presenter (and travel nut) Jonathan Samuels agreed to host – he made it all look shockingly slick and easy, and it really isn’t.

Head for Points Travel & Loyalty Awards 2023 dinner

Here is a shot of the full room looking back from the stage:

Head for Points Travel & Loyalty Awards 2023 dinner

Here’s another familiar TV face, Paul Charles (founder of The PC Agency travel PR group) with Jonathan:

Head for Points Travel & Loyalty Awards 2023 dinner

Here is the Hilton contingent:

Head for Points Travel & Loyalty Awards 2023 dinner

We were delighted that Anssi and Eerike from Finnair flew in especially for the event (with Rhys and Katherine from The PC Agency):

Head for Points Travel & Loyalty Awards 2023 dinner

Others who flew in included Ben, who runs Flying Blue, Delphine from Air France and Laura who runs World of Hyatt for EMEA. We also had a strong contingent from Manchester Airports Group who risked the rail network.

Plaza Premium turned out in force – here are Maciej, Louise and Sonali with Rhys:

Head for Points Travel & Loyalty Awards 2023 dinner

Here I am with David, Andrew and Graham from Aspire Lounges:

Head for Points Travel & Loyalty Awards 2023 dinner

We cunningly put the award nominations in a brochure for all guests, so that Jonathan Samuels didn’t have to read out the exact details of the shortlisted credit card bonuses and hotel loyalty promotions!

Head for Points Travel & Loyalty Awards 2023 dinner

Here is Rhys’s airline-heavy table which included Maja who runs JetBlue in Europe, Gary who runs Qatar Airways in the UK and Ireland, Mohamed who runs Singapore Airlines in the UK and Ireland and Paul who is a VP at Cathay Pacific:

Head for Points Travel & Loyalty Awards 2023 dinner

You won’t be surprised to hear that British Airways and American Express had a good night. Here are Amy (BA), Jack (American Express), Elizabeth (IAG Loyalty) and Esme (BA) sharing a photograph with their trophies:

Head for Points Travel & Loyalty Awards 2023 dinner

But who won what? We’ll tell you tomorrow!

Head for Points Travel & Loyalty Awards 2023 dinner

Comments (41)

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

  • TGLoyalty says:

    From next year, your Tier status will reset at the same time as everyone else’s, meaning you’ll have the same Tier Point Collection Year as friends and family who are also Members of the Executive Club.

    In future, the Tier Point collection period will start on 1 April and end on 31 March every year. The change will be in place for all British Airways Executive Club Members, starting from 1 April 2025.

    Has this been covered on HfP before?

  • paul says:

    Great to see the Airline lot having to go “economy” – that table looks like a tight squeeze for 10; I’m sure they’re only accustomed to such as a table for two.

  • HampshireHog says:

    Most excellent that MAG contingent chose the train over flying out of their own airport, couldn’t make it up, leaving us mere mortals to suffer the indignities of T3

    • Rob says:

      They could have flown to be fair, I didn’t ask them. Given that the venue was walkable from Euston I suspected they risked Avanti.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      Why would you fly when train is probably easier. from Manchester to Euston

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

      I have seen Jonathan Samuels do this route though

  • Milos says:

    The biggest question is, Rob, did you manage to get inside information on any exciting/interesting products or developments coming this year from the attendees?

    • Rob says:

      We couldn’t tell you if we had!

      (Actually, I did get the PremiAir story from there but luckily when I had a dig they had started advertising for staff for the reopening so it clearly wasn’t a big secret.)

      • Milos says:

        Yes, of course but it’s more a question of how exciting 2024 will be based on new/updated product and/or services… from a scale 1-10?

  • John says:

    I’m confused. Weren’t the winners of these prestigious awards published on the Daily Mail website on Feb 1?

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

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