‘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.
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.
Event:
If you are a travel brand interested in moving into affiliate marketing, or a fellow publisher who covers travel and wants to improve monetisation, Sinead Archer from the Head for Points team will be presenting at a free Impact webinar on Tuesday morning. Details and registration are here.
The latest UK business travel news:
Icelandair receives its first-ever Airbus, and we were (literally) there, image above!
BOOK NOW: BA launches four new ‘Avios Only’ flights for August 2025
Cathay starts flights to Brussels and Munich from Hong Kong
Virgin Australia and Qatar Airways team up to add 28 additional weekly flights between Doha and Australia, soon to be bookable for Avios and (partly) Virgin Points
How to ‘buy’ status with each of the six major hotel groups – there are lots of cunning routes you may not know about
Priority Pass adds a restaurant in Manchester Airport
Qatar Airways has a Qsuite guarantee! Swap for free if your aircraft changes
Which UK airport restaurants offer £18 credit to Priority Pass cardholders?
The Liffey Lounge opens in Dublin Airport
Emirates’ A350s are getting a new business class …. but not yet
The Escape Lounge at East Midlands Airport is closing for two months
Book now to save up to 20% in the Hilton winter sale
Get £100 cashback at Mondrian hotels with American Express
Get £50 cashback on £150 spend with Minor Hotels and American Express
Stories we recommend from other sites:
British Airways begins its festive celebrations (Business Traveller)
Norwegian adds three new destinations to UK schedule (Travel Weekly)
Lufthansa will make you pay up to €600 to choose its best business class seats (Simple Flying)
Huge expansion planned for budget rail operator Lumo (Business Traveller)
Our latest reviews:
Rhys heads to Vietnam this week to check out some (mainly) new hotels:
- Grand Mercure Hanoi review: an excellent new hotel, image above
- Hilton Saigon review in Ho Chi Minh District 1, newly opened this year
- Park Hyatt Saigon review: colonial style in the city
Slightly less glamorously, Conny heads to Sheffield to visit the brand new Radisson Blu hotel, image below.
The latest UK travel loyalty news:
A reader is taking part in the SAS Million Points challenge and is documenting his journey for us. Here are the latest instalments::
- Barry’s SAS million point challenge – Airline 2, Air France
- Barry’s SAS million point challenge – Airline 3, TAROM
- Barry’s SAS million point challenge – Airline 4, KLM and Airline 5, SAS
In other news:
NEW: Convert Avios to Marriott Bonvoy points, although it’s not a good rate
Tesco Clubcard adds easyJet Holidays as a redemption partner
Where can you fly on Aer Lingus with your BA Amex companion voucher? We look at the route network
What are the best hotel promos for December 2024?
ENDS TODAY: Got a Limited Company? Get points worth 20,000 Avios!
If you have a limited company or LLP, we are running an exclusive special offer with Capital on Tap and its small business Visa credit card.
The deals ends on Monday 9th December, so you need to act TODAY.
This is a hugely powerful card. You earn points worth 1 Avios or 1p of cashback for every £1 you spend and it comes with no FX fees and no ATM fees.
Until 9th December, you will receive 5,000 points (worth 5,000 Avios or £50) for making your first purchase, and a further 15,000 points (worth 15,000 Avios or £150) if you spend £15,000 within three months.
This means you will receive a total bonus of 20,000 points (worth 20,000 Avios or £200) if you hit the £15,000 spend target. You will also receive your standard ‘1 point per £1’ as well.
The £15,000 spend target is lower than the £20,000 target which applied when we last ran this offer. If you felt you couldn’t hit the target last time, you may be able to do it now.
There is an annual fee of £99.
You can find out more in this article. You must apply via this exclusive HfP link to get the bonus. You should select the £99 ‘Business Rewards’ card and not the ‘Pro’ card.
Your interest rate is based on your business profile and can be as low as 14.95% APR variable.
Thank you for reading
Please drop me a note at rob@headforpoints.com with any feedback. See you next Monday.
Rob, Rhys, Sinead and Katie @ Head for Points
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