Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

What you missed on Head for Points last week

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Welcome to the Head for Points weekly newsletter, full of the latest Avios, travel loyalty and travel credit card news, hints and tips.

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Get a 80,000 points bonus (converts to 80,000 Avios) with Amex Platinum

ENDS SOON: Get a 80,000 points bonus (converts to 80,000 Avios) with Amex Platinum

American Express is running a special sign-up bonus on the The Platinum Card from American Express – apply here. The bonus is increased from 50,000 to 80,000 Membership Rewards points which converts to:

  • 80,000 Avios
  • 80,000 Virgin Points
  • 80,000 Etihad, Flying Blue, Asia Miles, Delta, Qantas or SAS miles
  • 60,000 Emirates miles
  • 53,333 Singapore Airlines miles
  • 160,000 Hilton Honors points
  • 120,000 Marriott Bonvoy points
  • 240,000 Radisson Rewards points
  • 5,332 Club Eurostar points

…. and many other non-travel rewards.

You receive 80,000 Membership Rewards points after spending £10,000 in six months.

The card has an annual fee of £650. You will receive a pro-rata refund if you cancel the card mid-year.

Our main article on the 80,000 points bonus is here. Make sure you read the bit about whether or not you qualify for the bonus.

You can apply for the American Express Platinum Card with the special bonus on this page of the Amex website. You may even see a bonus higher than 80,000 points as Amex is targeting some people with a different offer.

The special offer ends on 27th May.

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

In other news ….

Hilton launches a sale and its new points promotion:

REGISTER NOW: Hilton launches its new bonus points promotion for June to mid-August stays

SALE: Save up to 20% on UK & Ireland hotels in the Hilton Summer Sale

This week’s top travel news stories:

KLM launches flights to Barbados

Marriott buys citizenM hotels (now 37 brands, but who’s counting?)

Virgin Atlantic permanently cancels Tel Aviv route amid ongoing uncertainty

Saudia opens a new airline lounge at Heathrow Terminal 4

Oman Air confirms its oneworld entry date

Bristol Airport confirms the opening date for its brand new lounge

United Airlines expands at Edinburgh

IHG launches a new hotel sale

Credit card news:

Get a 30% bonus on HSBC Premier credit card points conversions to (Qatar) Avios. Accor, Hyatt and Shangri-La hotel points are also included in this transfer bonus.

Is this the sweet spot for using Virgin Atlantic credit card vouchers?

British Airways and Avios news:

NEW: Get 6,000 Avios for £149 of wine by combining two (or three) The Wine Flyer deals

Good First Class fares on BA to the US East Coast for the autumn and winter

STILL ON: British Airways Silver and Gold members can get a rare Lufthansa status match

Is Aer Lingus blocking Avios redemption flights within 60 days of departure (again)?

Reviews:

Rob and Rhys were in Doha last week and checked out the latest developments from Qatar Airways:

We try out Qatar Airways’ new Starlink wifi – a genuine game-changer. Gate to gate wifi at speeds beyond your home or office. Image above.

Review: the Al Safwa First Lounge at Hamad Airport, Doha – find out why this is the most architectually stunning airport lounge in the world

Hotel news:

Virgin Hotels London Shoreditch is officially launched – and I’m impressed so far. Image above.

A cunning plan to get free, valuable, top-tier GHA hotel status for 2026

Hilton and Accor add new football and concert experiences for your hotel points

Get 50% bonus OneKeyCash with Hotels.com

Other stories:

What does British Airways Gold status give you that other oneworld Emerald cards don’t?

How do IHG ‘Confirmable Suite Upgrade’ vouchers work?

Got a pre-paid hotel room you can’t use? Do mobile check-in anyway ….

That’s all, folks

Our latest round-up of miles and points offers closing soon is here.

If you are booking a hotel this weekend, click here to read our summary of the best bonus points offers for May from the big chains.

Don’t forget to visit our forum if you have any questions relating to frequent flyer or hotel loyalty programmes or loyalty credit cards.

See you next Saturday,

Rob, Rhys, Sinead and Katie @ Head for Points

Comments (1)

  • Lynsey says:

    Hello team, would you be able to publish an article about how to buy points for Thai airways please? I tend to use avios and this is a whole new world! Keep up the great work, with best wishes Lynsey

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