‘The Travel Brief’, the weekly Head for Points travel trade newsletter
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Welcome to The Travel Brief, 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.
The Travel Brief 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: Virgin Atlantic CEO interview
Rhys sat down with Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss this week to discuss the future of Virgin Atlantic:
- What’s happening at Virgin Atlantic: Upper Class, Clubhouses, Heathrow and more
- Will Virgin Atlantic announce a new aircraft order at Farnborough?
- Will Virgin Atlantic return to Gatwick? And what about growth in Manchester?
The latest UK business travel news:
Save on Virgin Atlantic flights and holidays as part of the 40th birthday celebrations – ends Monday night
Finnair finishes its cabin refurbishment – all aircraft now have the new business class seat
Finally: the British Airways On Business website is back after 16 months – but check your transactions carefully
British Airways launches flights to Nuremberg – for just six weeks
Aer Lingus pilots initiate ‘Work to Rule’ restrictions amid salary negotiations
Hilton launches its summer sale: book now for 20% off
IHG launches a flash sale on its European and Asian hotels
Will Starlux join the oneworld airline alliance?
Will the new (third!) attempt to open a Mondrian hotel in London finally be a success?
Stories we recommend from other sites:
Hilton signs two Icelandic hotels (Business Traveller)
Andrew Fish joins Norse Atlantic as head of UK sales from Air Astana (TTG)
UK start-up Global indicates first flights pushed to 2025 as work on A380 progresses (FlightGlobal)
Marriott’s Luxury Collection debuts in Germany (Business Traveller)
Our latest reviews:
Nothing this week, but look out for coverage from Zurich, Barcelona, Singapore, Las Vegas, Santorini and Venice in the next three weeks.
The latest UK travel loyalty news:
Get 50% off Avios flight redemptions to Jersey
Save 40% on ALL 2024 Virgin Atlantic redemptions – offer ends Monday
Get a 100% bonus buying IHG One Rewards points for a week – click here to buy
The odd way that ‘Upgrade Using Avios’ is priced since long-haul Reward Flight Saver launched
Get 5,000 points for joining IHG One Rewards and completing one stay
Two weeks left: Get 60,000 bonus points with the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card
Ends soon: use your £50 Harvey Nichols credit from Amex Platinum by 30th June
Visit the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking with Hilton Honors
How to earn miles with 39 different airlines with the Marriott Amex, and pick up 60,000 Bonvoy points
Which hotel loyalty schemes let you use points to pay for food, drinks and spa?
Our series of UK travel rewards credit cards continues:
- Review: Tesco Bank Mastercard Credit Card, which can earn Virgin Points
- Review: Nectar American Express Card, which can earn Avios
- Review: the Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard credit card, which now has a 3,000 points bonus
STILL RUNNING: Get a 30,000 points bonus (converts to 30,000 Avios) with ‘free for a year’ Amex Gold
American Express is running a special sign-up bonus on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold – apply here. The bonus is increased from 20,000 to 30,000 Membership Rewards points which converts to:
- 30,000 Avios
- 30,000 Virgin Points
- 30,000 Emirates, Etihad, Flying Blue, Asia Miles, Delta, Finnair, Qantas or SAS miles
- 20,000 Singapore Airlines miles
- 60,000 Hilton Honors points
- 45,000 Marriott Bonvoy points
- 90,000 Radisson Rewards points
- 2,000 Club Eurostar points
….. and many other non-travel rewards.
You receive 25,000 Membership Rewards points after spending £3,000 in three months. You will receive a further 5,000 points if you keep the card for 15 months.
Even better, you get:
- four passes for any airport lounge in the Priority Pass network
- 24 x £5 credits to spend at Deliveroo (max one per order and two per month)
- up to 12,500 bonus Membership Rewards points each year based on your spending (2,500 points per £5,000 spent)
The card is free for the first year. If you keep it beyond the first year there is an annual fee of £195. You receive a further four airport lounge passes and more Deliveroo credits on renewal.
Our main article on the 30,000 points bonus is here. Make sure you read the bit about whether or not you qualify for the bonus.
You can apply for American Express Preferred Rewards Gold with the special bonus on this page of the Amex website.
The representative APR is 87.3% variable, including the annual fee. The representative APR on purchases, and in the first year which has no fee, is 30.0% variable.
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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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