Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Welcome, FT Weekend readers!

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Good morning! Head for Points is featured in the Financial Times this weekend, on the back page of FT Money, so I know that some FT readers will have popped over to the site today to see what it is all about.

Put simply, Head for Points is the UK’s main news and features site for Avios, other frequent flyer miles, hotel loyalty points and credit card points. We show you how to earn more points and how to spend them most efficiently.

We also run business class and premium economy flight reviews and upscale hotel reviews.

If you read us, and act on some of the tips we highlight, you will (hopefully) have a better travel life! That’s not the sort of thing I would normally feel happy writing, but the conversations I have at our reader events convince me that it is true.

Welcome, FT Weekend readers!

The FT article today covered a lot of ground. Here are links to find out more about the key bits:

Join the 42,000 people who get our free Saturday newsletter

Our weekly newsletter is the quick and easy way to keep up to date with what is happening in the world of airline, hotel and credit card points as well as the latest business travel news.

You can sign up by clicking any of the ‘Subscription’ links on this page (at the bottom on mobile, at the top right on desktop) or by visiting this page.

Our newsletters are totally free, we never sell our email list to third parties and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Barry’s SAS million points challenge

Barry Collins has been writing a diary for us about the challenge, which was far more messy than he ever imagined. The penultimate article is published today – click here – or you can start from the beginning by clicking here.

Get 30,000 points with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

This is a great deal for a FREE (for a year) credit card. The points convert to 30,000 Avios and loads of other things.

Here is our full article on the offer.

You can apply here.

(Some people are targeted for a higher offer so you may see a deal offering you more than 30,000 points.)

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.

Get £400 of annual dining credit with The Platinum Card from American Express

I mention this in the FT piece. Our full review of The Platinum Card and its benefits is here.

Until 14th January you get a ludicrous 80,000 points (worth 80,000 Avios) as a sign-up bonus. You can cancel at any point for a pro-rata fee refund.

(Some people are targeted for a higher offer so you may see a deal offering you even more than 80,000 points.)

You can apply here.

The representative APR is 694.9% variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases is 30.0% variable.

Finally ….

‘Miles and points’ can be a complex topic BUT it can also be hugely rewarding, bringing you mind-blowing travel experiences for peanuts. The best way to understand it all is slowly, spending a few weeks reading our daily content and seeing what is out there.

One place to start is the ‘Top 10 tips for earning and redeeming Avios’ article which we pubished today.

That said, if you have any burning questions please feel free to post them in our forum (first posts are manually moderated so may take an hour to appear at weekends) or email me at rob [at] headforpoints.com.

PS. On Monday we are launching a competition to win two business class flights to Taiwan, so do come back then!

Category

General

Comments (63)

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

  • apbj says:
    4 Jan4 January 05:41

    Bold to assume we’re not already here 😉

  • Kraut says:
    4 Jan4 January 06:54

    How about some special FT subscription offers for HfP readers?

    • yonasl says:
      4 Jan4 January 07:20

      I get free FT from work. I would rather get/pay £250 a year (half price with Black Friday offer) for access to the Bloomberg website and news.

      • Rob says:
        4 Jan4 January 07:23

        FT Weekend is £45 / quarter for home delivery. That’s all you need. Arrives at around 3am via FT courier if you live in central London.

        • SM says:
          4 Jan4 January 09:15

          Get FT weekend delivered from local newsagent costs me more than 45£ unfortunately. Wish FT would deliver outside of London.

    • Pangolin says:
      4 Jan4 January 21:54

      Revolut Metal includes a free FT Digital subscription.
      With Ultra you get the Premium subscription (includes articles by the Lex column).

  • Froggee says:
    4 Jan4 January 07:18

    I have never been welcomed to the FT as a HfP reader.

  • 1958 says:
    4 Jan4 January 07:58

    No comment.

  • John says:
    4 Jan4 January 08:23

    That feature now that BAEC and avios got a lot less interesting… (Still nice, of course, that HfP gets such coverage in the FT.)

    I take this opportunity, though, to note that I think HfP has steered the wrong way a bit when it comes to the miles-and-points game.

    For one, avios has become a lot less interesting for some time. Often, many miles and large co-payments are required. HfP has been so critical of the new Flying Club. In my opinion, wrongly so.

    In your reviews, from my perspective, you looked too much at non-stops ex LHR on VS metal. But with a bit more creativity, I find a ton of awesome redemptions. I booked a one-way in ITA business class (3 hour flight) ex LIN for 9.5k miles and EUR 30 co-payment. I’ve booked AF business ex MAN (two segments) for 8k miles and low co-payment. I’ve booked VS economy long-haul for 6k miles and reasonable co-payment (one-way ex LHR).

    A few years ago, BAEC was my most often used program for awards. These days, I use VS Flying Club and AF-KL perhaps five times as much as BAEC.

    • Peter K says:
      4 Jan4 January 09:10

      That is your opinion of course, but not everyones.

      I had a few hundred thousand virgin miles that I cashed out to Hilton during the pandemic and I’ve never regretted it. I’ve always found ways to save using the Hilton points. I never found virgin redemptions flights available where I wanted to go, then, when they made more seats available, at a price I found acceptable.

      • John says:
        4 Jan4 January 10:01

        I would argue that Flying Club a few years back is not that relevant as a point of reference.

        I am talking about the new Flying Club dynamic redemption system covered in HfP at the end of September 2024. Rob and his team were critical of the new Flying Club–I disagree.

        The best use of miles is usually not for a program’s own metal. This is not in HfP’s list of the top 10 tips on redeeming miles (they say avios in the title but then write about miles more generally) but something I consider one of the most important rules of thumb.

        • Bagoly says:
          4 Jan4 January 21:47

          An interesting point.
          The opposite is true for First on Lufty (and Air France?) but that does not invalidate the idea.
          It’s certainly true that my best value redemption (of M&M) was on Turkish+Ethiopian+Austrian.
          Being creative throws up opportunities.

    • Rob says:
      4 Jan4 January 09:31

      These are niche options though and by the very nature of our size (290k page views on Tuesday, 700k unique visitors per month) that’s not our market. We also don’t touch economy – readers don’t want it.

    • Rui N. says:
      4 Jan4 January 09:53

      Avios and BAEC are exactly as interesting for a lot of people as they were 2 weeks ago.

    • David says:
      4 Jan4 January 12:47

      I disagree with you John. The day dynamic pricing comes into BA, then we can talk.

      • meta says:
        4 Jan4 January 17:21

        HfP is not about the articles at all. You’re missing the point about this site. Articles are there to spark the conversation, not continue one.

  • Erico1875 says:
    4 Jan4 January 09:07

    Virgin and FB miles are just not as easy to collect.

    • QFFlyer says:
      4 Jan4 January 17:27

      VS miles are incredibly easy to collect, certainly as easy as BA if you live in the UK.

  • Manya says:
    4 Jan4 January 09:20

    I’m confused. Is this a message about some sort of ad posted on FT money to increase reader numbers?

    • Rob says:
      4 Jan4 January 09:23

      No, there is a full page article about Barry and me along with a recommendation to get our newsletter.

  • Russell G says:
    4 Jan4 January 10:14

    £400 dining credit with Amex Platinum*

    *Maybe, depending on whether they change the rules, put in some form of gotcha like re-registration or year starting a week after calendar year or happen to remove the restaurant from their list just before you pay!

    • Occasional Ranter says:
      4 Jan4 January 11:35

      Spot on. Please can AMEX just do some dull, competent administration for a bit.

      • Bagoly says:
        4 Jan4 January 21:16

        I have the same thought about the FT.
        I am currently living between Europe and the US, and they can’t cope with switching the delivery address between the two.
        Generally over the years I have been bemused by the fact that The Economist and the FT are great editorially, but so backward in the subscription departments.

    • David says:
      4 Jan4 January 12:49

      Available 7th Jan. Not ideal but not exactly Nov.

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

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