‘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.
The newsletter is a little thin this week due to the Christmas break but hopefully you can still find something interesting!
Reviews of the year:
Both Rob and Rhys have put together long articles looking at what excited them (or didn’t) during the last 12 months of travelling.
Rob’s look back – primarily hotels – is here.
Rhys’s look back, covering airlines and hotels, is here, image above.
The latest UK business travel news:
British Airways drops four short-haul routes – and is Glasgow to Gatwick closing?
Hilton Garden Inn Snowdonia in receivership, ‘to be rebranded’
Eurostar Plus vs Eurostar Premier – what’s the difference? (with new food photos)
Virgin Flying Club Silver or Gold? You can still gift your annual credit card voucher
British Airways launches an interline agreement with Canada’s Porter Airlines
Stories we recommend from other sites:
Mandarin Oriental Miami to be demolished to make way for new development (Business Traveller)
Lufthansa Boeing 787 deliveries delayed as new Allegris seat awaits FAA certification (Simple Flying)
Aer Lingus increases flight frequencies to Cleveland for Summer 2025 (Travel & Tour World)
easyJet to launch Southampton to Paris Orly route on 31st March (Business Traveller)
Our latest reviews:
Rhys flew from Copenhagen to Los Angeles to try out SAS business class on its new A350 fleet. Image above.
We also reviewed the SAS Lounge at Copenhagen Airport.
Whilst in Los Angeles, Rhys reviewed the newly refurbished W Hollywood hotel. What did he think?
On the way back, he reviewed the new Air France lounge at Los Angeles International Airport (Tom Bradley).
On a totally separate trip, back in London, we take a look at the Eurostar Premier lounge at London St Pancras International station.
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:
- “I’m doing the SAS million points challenge – here’s why” (a reminder)
- Barry’s SAS million point challenge – a worrying chat, Airlines 10 (Garuda) and 11 (Vietnam)
- Barry’s SAS million point challenge – more bad news, and Airline 12 (China Airlines)
In other loyalty news:
The hotel free night promotion you have literally YEARS to complete …. Hyatt Brand Explorer
ENDS SOON: Get 80,000 points (converts to 80,000 Avios) with Amex Platinum!
How to (wastefully) convert Marriott Bonvoy points into Hilton Honors or IHG One Rewards
Is it worth using Bonvoy points for Marriott Homes & Villas redemptions?
You can transfer points between Club Eurostar and Accor Live Limitless – but should you?
ENDS SOON: Get a 30,000 points bonus (converts to 30,000 Avios) with ‘free for a year’ Amex Gold
American Express is currently 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 Etihad, Flying Blue, Asia Miles, Delta, Qantas or SAS miles
- 22,500 Emirates Skywards 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 30,000 Membership Rewards points after spending £3,000 in three 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.
Thank you for reading
Please drop me a note at rob@headforpoints.com with any feedback. See you next Monday, and enjoy your Christmas break.
Rob, Rhys, Sinead and Katie @ Head for Points
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