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.
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.
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.
Special report:
A history of BA1, the (now scrapped) London City Airport to New York JFK flight
The latest UK business travel news:
The NEW Qsuite from Qatar Airways will be unveiled in July – and First Class is returning too. Current Qsuite pictured above.
Doncaster Sheffield Airport moves a step closer to re-opening
Heathrow Terminal 5’s First Wing security channel is open again featuring two new ‘keep your liquids in your bag’ scanners
Royal Air Maroc relaunches Manchester to Casablanca, bookable with Avios
New Avios partner Juneyao adds Manchester to Shanghai flights
Langham Hotels launches its new ‘Brilliant’ loyalty programme
Get ‘3-4-2’ and ‘4-4-3’ at Hilton’s luxury hotels in Europe, North America, Middle East and Asia
Get exclusive Jumeirah benefits via the improved ‘Passport to Luxury’ programme
BA Holidays is offering discounts of up £200 on European beach holidays
Amex Centurion card: do the UK travel benefits justify the £3,400 annual fee?
Stories we recommend from other sites:
Art’otel London Hoxton to open on 24 April (Business Traveller)
easyJet lands at Birmingham Airport – but can it take on Jet2 and TUI? (TTG)
Southend Airport owner Esken fallen into administration (Southend Echo)
Regulator proposes changes to Heathrow Airport Limited’s airline charges (CAA)
Virgin Atlantic and Kenya Airways launch codeshare partnership (Business Traveller)
Our latest reviews:
Rhys head to the Hilton London Bankside hotel – great for spacious rooms in central London. The Executive Lounge is impressive too.
On the other side of the river, Conny heads to Hyatt’s Great Scotland Yard Hotel – easily the best Hyatt property in London – and also gets to try Scandinavian restaurant Ekstedt at The Yard and champagne afternoon tea at The Parlour (image below).
The latest UK travel loyalty news:
REGISTER NOW: IHG One Rewards launches its new spring bonus points offer – you can register by clicking here.
Avios redemptions at The O2 in London now come with £400 (!) to spend on food and drink
Which British Airways economy flight tickets can be upgraded with Avios?
Get up to 51,000 Virgin Points for opening a Virgin Money Stocks & Shares ISA
How to earn Avios when you rent a car from Budget
What are the rules for booking an ‘open jaw’ redemption flight using Avios points?
When is it worth paying an annual fee for a miles and points credit card?
Get a 30% bonus when you transfer Avios to Accor Live Limitless hotel points
Which hotel schemes let you earn points and night credit when you book multiple rooms?
FINAL WEEK: Get 2% cashback with the free Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card for SMEs and sole traders
The generous 2% cashback promotion on the FREE Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card for businesses is ending on 2nd April.
The card CAN by obtained by sole traders, who are blocked from the Capital On Tap Avios-earning SME card.
You will receive 2% cashback, instead of the usual 1%, on all of your qualifying spending in your first three months.
Whilst this card doesn’t earn any frequent flyer miles, there is, at the moment, a gap in the market for a small business miles and points Visa or Mastercard.
Our recommended alternative is the Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa card. This earns points worth an impressive 1 Avios per £1 spent. Our full review of the Capital On Tap card is here. However, Capital On Tap is only accepting Limited Companies and LLPs. You cannot get the 10,500 Avios sign-up bonus on this card if you are a sole trader or in a partnership.
The Barclayard Select Cashback card is:
- free
- open to sole traders and partnerships as well as limited companies, and
- offers 1% cashback on virtually all of your spending, and currently offers 2% cashback for the first three months
Full details, and the application form, for the Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card can be found here. Our full article is here.
The 2% cashback deal ends on 2nd April. We receive a commission from Barclaycard if you apply via our link which helps to support the site.
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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