‘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.
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This newsletter is the successor to Malcolm Ginsberg’s Business Travel News. Malcolm’s new monthly forward-looking Travel News Update is available at travelnewsupdate.co.uk.
The latest UK business travel news:
STATUS MATCH: Virgin Atlantic will BEAT your British Airways status. Get Virgin Flying Club Silver if you have BA Bronze and Virgin Flying Club Gold if you have BA Silver (or Gold, obviously).
British Airways to restart Tel Aviv flights via a one-stop service – but it is downgraded to a short-haul aircraft and tier points are being cut too
British Airways is changing your tier point collection year – this announcement on Monday led to a LOT of confusion but we’ve done our best to help
Confused? Here’s how BA’s new tier point collection year affects you – this is our easy-to-read version of how the tier point rule changes will impact you
Hilton poaches Small Luxury Hotels of the World from Hyatt
Another UK Hilton hotel adds a charge for pool use
Singapore Airlines to close its Heathrow lounge for refurbishment
Crowne Plaza Manchester Airport re-opens following an £8m refurbishment
You can now book the new InterContinental Chantilly in France
Stories we recommend from other sites:
Ryanair to launch flights from Norwich and Belfast to Malta (Business Traveller)
Iceland’s Play looks to bolster equity after seismic disruption (FlightGlobal)
SWISS to fly to Seoul for the first time (Business Traveller)
Is a single sky a realistic plan for European aviation? (Simple Flying)
SAS chief looks to SkyTeam gains to outweigh ‘emotionally difficult’ Star Alliance exit (FlightGlobal)
The Head for Points Travel & Loyalty Awards 2023
Who won at the Head for Points Travel & Loyalty Awards 2023?
…. and here’s what happened at the Awards Dinner! (image above, as 80 of the UK’s leading aviation, hotel, lounge, reward credit card and loyalty professionals join us as we announce the winners)
The Daily Mail covered our awards with a long article
Our latest reviews:
Rhys heads to Bogota in Iberia’s new A350 ‘Next’ business class cabin, image above
…. and a review of Iberia’s flagship Velazquez Lounge in Madrid
The latest UK travel loyalty news:
Huge Club Eurostar points sale now live – but Amex transfers are still down
ENDING SOON: Get a free upgrade to top-tier Platinum status in the World Duty Free / Red by Dufry scheme
Get up to 10,000 bonus Virgin Points when you book a Virgin Atlantic cash flight
How do Emirates ‘My Family’ household accounts work?
What are the best hotel promos for February 2024?
Review: Is Radisson Rewards the best hotel loyalty scheme?
The avios.com website is closing – what happens to Aer Lingus reward bookings?
Get a 40% bonus buying Marriott Bonvoy points (click here to buy)
Get 10,000 bonus Bonvoy points with a Homes & Villas by Marriott booking
Get 1,000 Etihad miles on every Hyatt stay in February and March – on top of your points
NEW: Get 15,000 Virgin Points and double points on spend with the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card!
Virgin Atlantic has launched a new offer for its Virgin Money-issued Reward+ credit card.
On top of the standard bonus of 15,000 Virgin Points with the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card, you will receive double points on your spending. This means that you will be receiving 3 Virgin Points per £1.
‘Double points’ is capped at £5,000 of spending and will end on 14th April.
There is no special deal on the free Virgin Atlantic Reward credit card. This card has no sign-up bonus.
This offer runs until 4th March. You can apply here. Our full article on the offer is here.
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
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