‘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 the latest reviews and features from the Head for Points team.
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We are about and about this week at World Travel Market (Tuesday), The Aviation Club (Wednesday, speaker Tony Douglas of Riyadh Air) and the Ultimate Luxury Travel Awards at Kensington Palace (Thursday) – please say Hi if you see us.
Special Taiwan series:
Rhys recently spent a week in Taiwan to see what China Airlines has to offer and to try out a couple of Taipei hotels.
We published the second and final batch of his reports last week:
China Airlines Business Class Lounge review – Taipei Taoyuan Airport, Terminal 1 A Gates
China Airlines premium economy review – A350 from Taipei to London
The latest UK business travel news:
Virgin Atlantic moves to dynamic reward pricing:
Virgin: “25% of flights will not have any Saver seats available” – see our initial thoughts on Saver pricing and read the comments for your initial views on dynamic pricing. Upper Class seats now cap out at 700,000 Virgin Points return + £1,000 of taxes and charges.
In other news:
My Lounge returns to Gatwick North as easyJet’s ‘The Gateway’ lounge rebrands
Air Canada lounge in Heathrow Terminal 2 closes for refurbishment
Accor launches a hotel sale – and all rooms are refundable
Tymit, the only company interested in new UK co-brand credit cards, walks away
IHG loses The Venetian and The Palazzo hotels in Las Vegas
Virgin Atlantic launches flights to Brussels – but you can’t book them!
NEW: Earn and redeem Marriott Bonvoy points with Sonder
Stories we recommend from other sites:
Rob took over Page 3 of The Times on Tuesday to discuss BA’s Brunchgate saga. You can read the article here (paywall).
He was also in The Telegraph on Wednesday – see here (paywall).
London Euston trials early boarding process (Business Traveller)
Ryanair set to slash UK flights after ‘idiotic’ APD rise (Travel Weekly)
Airbus delivers first A321XLR to launch customer Iberia (Airways)
KLM steps in to replace Lufthansa at Belfast City (Business Traveller)
Our latest reviews:
Rob heads to Poland – Raffles Europejski Warsaw – Accor’s best European hotel? Image above.
The latest UK travel loyalty news:
How do you unlock ‘extra’ Club World Avios seats with the BAPP Amex 2-4-1 voucher?
Get a 25% bonus when you buy Hyatt points AND limit doubled AND repeat in January – click here to buy
GOOD DEAL: Get a Virgin Wines (or gin) advent calendar for just 15,500 Virgin Points
Unveiled: the 2025 Amex Platinum dining and Harvey Nichols cashback changes
Get 80% bonus Avios on Avis car rentals
Lufthansa selling miles with a 50% bonus via its ‘bundles’ – as low as 1.0p – click here to buy
American Express Business Platinum permanently increases its bonus to 50,000 points which convert to 50,000 Avios
When do your Accor Live Limitless points expire? How can you stop it?
When do your Hilton Honors points expire? How can you stop it?
When do your IHG One Rewards points expire? How can you stop it?
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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