Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

News: Louis Vuitton cafe opens in T2, Sainsbury’s closes its credit cards, voco Winchester opens

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

News in brief:

A Louis Vuitton cafe opens in Heathrow Terminal 2

If you heading through Heathrow Terminal 2 in the near future, note that a new Louis Vuitton store opened last week.

For a brand that used to take pride in not lowering itself to duty free sales (the first airport store only opened in 2011 in Seoul), it has certainly been making up for lost time ….

What is noticeable about this store is that it features the UK’s first Louis Vuitton ‘Le Cafe’ with a menu curated by Cyril Lignac. It doesn’t look as cool as the one in Doha’s Hamad Airport, but you need to have access to the Qatar Airways business class lounge in order to access that (and, according to the comments below, also have Qatar Airways Privilege Club elite status). The new Heathrow Terminal 2 site is open to all.

It is open from 5.30am to 10pm, seven days per week.

Louis Vuitton cafe Heathrow terminal 2

Sainsbury’s Bank closes its credit cards to new applicants

We covered Sainsbury’s Bank credit cards on HfP for a couple of years because, whilst their Nectar card had a weak earn rate, it did come with a decent sign-up bonus and it didn’t conflict with any other credit cards you held.

In August 2023, Sainsbury’s pulled the Nectar Credit Card for new applicants. It was replaced by the Nectar Dual Credit Card which had no sign-up bonus and a shocking earning rate (1 Nectar point per £5 spent) which meant that it was of no interest.

Sainsbury’s is following Tesco and pulling out of retail banking. The majority of Tesco Bank is being sold to Barclays whilst the bulk of Sainsbury’s Bank is being sold to NatWest.

It seems that NatWest has no interest in selling additional credit cards. All Sainsbury’s credit card have been closed to new applicants ahead of the sale.

It isn’t clear if NatWest will simply run down the existing credit card ‘book’ or whether it will try to launch new products under the Sainsbury’s Bank brand.

voco Winchester hotel

voco Winchester hotel opens

Holiday Inn Winchester has completed its major renovation and, as of last week, is now trading as voco Winchester.

voco is another IHG brand, so the hotel is staying within the IHG family, but with looser brand standards. It will allow the hotel owners to deviate from what is currently expected at a Holiday Inn. In general I would say that your average voco is a better hotel than your average Holiday Inn.

The image above is of a refurbished room, which looks substantially better than the ones which were previously on the Holiday Inn website.

The voco Winchester website is here if you want to find out more or book.

Remember that you earn triple IHG One Rewards points at voco hotels until 31st December. Our article on this offer is here and you must register here before your stay.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

IHG One Rewards news

IHG One Rewards update – April 2025:

Get bonus points: IHG is not currently running a global promotion.

New to IHG One Rewards?  Read our overview of IHG One Rewards here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on ‘What are IHG One Rewards points worth?’ is here.

Buy points: If you need additional IHG One Rewards points, you can buy them here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from IHG and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Category

IHG One Rewards, Sainsbury's and Nectar

Comments (48)

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

  • meta says:
    8 Oct8 October 06:28

    I believe that for LV Lounge/Café Doha, only QRPC’s Gold members and above are allowed in.

    • AspirationalFlyer says:
      8 Oct8 October 07:31

      Yes that’s right.

      There are effectively double entry rules:

      1. Access to Al Mourjan lounge.

      2. The right status level in Qatar Privilege Club.

    • Marc says:
      8 Oct8 October 15:55

      Do you still have to pay for everything once in the LV lounge? Or has that changed with the requirement for being QRPC Gold?

      • Azzam says:
        9 Oct9 October 00:49

        No you pay for it all and it’s all ridiculously expensive….makes no sense ofpcursr as it’s located inside the almourjan lounge….which has plenty of good free food..

  • Gordon says:
    8 Oct8 October 06:29

    I’d be interested to know how much a coffee is priced at?

    • JDB says:
      8 Oct8 October 08:32

      I’m not sure they will want people just to drop in for a cup of coffee but in any event, it’s one of those places that if you need to ask, you are probably in the wrong place.

      Louis Vuitton is, of course, renowned for its coffee, so it should attract the real connoisseurs.

      I hope the baristas will be paid mots than the handbag makers as reported in the FT.

      • Gordon says:
        8 Oct8 October 10:08

        My wife has a collection of designer handbags including LV, too many for my liking, so I am sure I can afford a hot beverage from there if I wished! In fact the question was just out of curiosity. Shame I could not get the answer I was looking for!

        • meta says:
          8 Oct8 October 11:11

          Cakes are cheaper than with Cédric Grolet in Paris or other much better ones. If I remember correctly coffee is 50 QAR and cake is 60 or 70 QAR.

  • OnTheRun says:
    8 Oct8 October 07:28

    The LV cafe doesn’t look very relaxing before a flight.

    I’ll leave this one to the “Insta” crowd, I think!

  • Andrew J says:
    8 Oct8 October 07:36

    Of course LV isn’t “lowering itself to duty free sales” with this opening either – all passengers pay the same price as the rest of the UK stores.

    • Rob says:
      8 Oct8 October 07:46

      You know what I mean ….!

      First airport store globally was 2011.

      • Chabuddy Geezy says:
        8 Oct8 October 07:59

        You are effectively getting a 1-2% discount through Heathrow rewards. The only other place to receive a discount on the same LV goods would be the Harrods loyalty scheme.

        • The Savage Squirrel says:
          8 Oct8 October 09:52

          I don’t know about that. There’s a market stall or two that gives a 90%+ discount. 😜🤣

        • Cats are best says:
          8 Oct8 October 19:46

          There’re also the 10% days and double points offers, not all brands participate though.

          Harrods Amex gives 3%, which stacks with Harrods Rewards 3% (assuming status), use it on a 10% day to get c. 15% net discount, even more if combined with a double points day.

          For items that are price controlled it’s excellent, even on things that are discounted elsewhere it can work.

    • JDB says:
      8 Oct8 October 08:41

      @Andrew J – they often don’t have prices to compare. One of the tricks that makes these duty free shop stores so successful is having unique products only sold in that store or stocking products not sold elsewhere in a particular country. This applies even to some scents.

      • Andrew J says:
        8 Oct8 October 08:47

        Apart from perhaps an occasional exclusive piece, there won’t be anything at the LV stores at LHR that’s not available at their non-airport stores, including the fragrances.

        • JDB says:
          8 Oct8 October 09:05

          I couldn’t tell you how many they have today, but in June they had 11. People either travel a long way to buy them or send their personal shoppers.

          • Chabuddy Geezy says:
            8 Oct8 October 09:23

            Another USP here is the regular LV stores will not sell you in demand items like certain handbags unless your customer profile or previous spending is deemed “worthy”. They are a lot less restrictive in the airport stores.

          • Andrew J says:
            8 Oct8 October 09:28

            11 pieces is a very small proportion of the total offering.

          • TGLoyalty says:
            8 Oct8 October 18:43

            11 piece for those with little actual taste probably.

            The classics are where it’s at.

            The real draw of these places is just getting people in their dead time where they can’t usually make it to stores or one last chance for a client to think twice about buying the item before they go back to their home country where it might be far more difficult to buy.

  • ChrisBCN says:
    8 Oct8 October 08:11

    Where is the bathroom in that hotel room? Looks fake!

  • WillPS says:
    8 Oct8 October 09:38

    I’m not sure there’s any ambiguity – Natwest haven’t purchased the rights to use the Sainsbury’s Bank name at all.

    Meanwhile JS seem to be exclusively pushing the Nectar Amex in store. I presume they see this as their future co-branded credit card product, and have no need for another.

    • Youllnever says:
      8 Oct8 October 10:55

      They should probably think about refreshing the Nectar Amex card design since it’s pretty outdated now.

  • Dubious says:
    8 Oct8 October 10:59

    Wow, I remember staying in the HI when it first opened and I was chasing bonus points. It was quite modern back and in good condition back then. Even got a fresh ‘cookie’ in the room.

  • SammyJ says:
    8 Oct8 October 11:00

    I said from Day 1 that the Holiday Inn Winchester was doing itself a disservice with that branding – the rooms were a bit bland but the public area far nicer than most UK HIs.
    Unfortunately the killer for me (regular Sunday night stayer heading south for work for the week, and often full Sun-Fri stays) was the intro of the £10 parking charge. Too much to add on top for a non-city car park, plenty of free alternatives at lower room rates nearby.

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? GET THE ONLY FREE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!