What did you tell us in the Head for Points 2024 reader survey?

Thank you to the 13,000 people who completed the reader survey we ran on the site over Easter.

When we did the same exercise in 2022 we only shared the results with the people who voted. This time we thought it would be interesting to publish some of the findings about our typical reader.

We’ve not published your answers to those questions which were more ‘internal’, eg what method you use to read us.

Where do you live?

Unsurprisingly, the majority of readers live in London and the South East.

The UK region with the fewest HfP readers is Northern Ireland (1.9% of you) followed by Wales (2.1%).

We used broader regional definitions in 2024 than in 2022, so we can’t confirm if we now have more than 10 readers in Norfolk or not!

How old are you?

If you come to a HfP party you get a false impression of how young our readers are – mainly because only a certain demographic want to come out drinking in Central London midweek!

’35-44′ was the biggest group, followed by ’45-54′. We have virtually the same number of readers aged 65+ as we have readers under 35.

In terms of gender, 73% of you are male.

How much premium cabin travel do you do?

Of those who fly long haul for work, the majority of you are flying in Business Class. In fact, more of you fly Premium Economy than Economy.

Only 20% of you who fly short haul for work get to fly Business Class however. The days of ‘always Business Class’ travel policies seem long gone for most people.

Switch to leisure travel and it’s a big change. 42% of you fly Business Class when you travel short haul for leisure.

Over half of you fly Business Class on long haul leisure trips. Add in Premium Economy and First Class and over 70% of our readers are not flying Economy.

Who are your favourite hotel chains?

Over 60% of readers said that they have elite status with a hotel group. The most popular was Hilton Honors – 2/3rd of HfP readers who have hotel status have Hilton status.

In order, you then have Marriott, IHG, Radisson, Melia, Accor and Hyatt.

I accept that this question is a little skewed because Amex Platinum cardholders get status with Hilton, Marriott, Radisson and Melia as part of the benefits package. Whilst Hyatt was bottom of the list, I was surprised by how many readers have status with it given that you need to do ‘heads in [their few European] beds’ to earn it.

75% of you do 11+ nights in hotels per year. 8% do 50+ nights.

Do you have British Airways status?

I was intrigued by this one, because it gives a feeling for how many readers are heavy business or cash-paying leisure travellers compared to those who collect Avios but do not take premium cabin cash flights.

It was virtually a 50/50 split between ‘status’ and ‘no status’.

Of whose who have BA status, 24% are Gold or GGL, 39% are Silver and 37% are Bronze.

What non-BA airine status do you hold?

Unsurprisingly, the most common ‘other’ status to hold was in Virgin Flying Club.

I was surprised by the 2nd answer though – Qatar Airways Privilege Club – followed by Flying Blue, Emirates Skywards and Miles & More.

I suspect that a lot of Qatar Airways members have started reading us since it adopted Avios. Perhaps we’ll see a big spike in Finnair Plus elite members next year!

Which travel credit cards do you hold?

Unsurprisingly the two British Airways American Express cards dominate here with almost half of you holding the Premium Plus version.

Holders of the paid card outnumbered the free card by 2:1.

Behind the two BA cards, the third most popular card was the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard. This shows that many BA Amex cardholders have added this as their ‘non Amex’ card.

That said, around 50% of our BA Amex-holding readers do not hold either of the Barclaycard Avios cards. Some will have a Virgin Atlantic card but a lot of you seem to be using a non-travel rewards card for your Visa / Mastercard spend.

(Barclaycard and HSBC are the only card ‘families’ where more of you have the free version than the paid version. Substantially more of you have the paid Virgin Atlantic card vs the free card or have Amex Platinum vs Amex Gold.)

Who won 20,000 Avios?

We promised to give 20,000 Avios to one lucky voter. The winner was Stuart who is one of the 8.5% of you who live in Scotland.

After we told him he’d won, Stuart generously wrote:

“Thank you so much!! I have been a follower of your site for many years and because of your tips and alerts I have managed to pull off some fantastic first class flights over the years to New York, Tokyo and Mexico City. This years big trip is Los Angeles – we actually fly tomorrow afternoon from Glasgow via Heathrow and once again have managed to bag first class return flights with British Airways. Quite excited. So thanks again for all your help and I can’t wait to make some more fantastic memories while travelling in style with my extra Avios points.”

Thanks again to everyone who voted – we appreciate it.