Bits: new Virgin LA lounge joins Priority Pass, Radisson sale, our survey prize winner

News in brief:

Virgin Atlantic’s new LA lounge joins Priority Pass

Last month Rhys flew out to Los Angeles to take a look at the brand new Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse.

Situated in the Tom Bradley International Terminal, it is the first entirely new Clubhouse to open since 2015 …. when the original Los Angeles Clubhouse opened!

In an interesting move, the lounge has joined Priority Pass.

The bad news is that there is a $35 fee payable on top of your Priority Pass swipe. This is similar to how Clubrooms lounges in the UK work, where there is a £15 top-up payment.

Priority Pass is also blocked around the time of the evening Virgin Atlantic flights.

Priority Pass access is allowed between 08:00 – 17:00 and 20:00 – 23:00.

For comparison, the Virgin Atlantic flights depart at 15.30 (Priority Pass OK), 20.05 and 22.50.

The reason for the fee is that Virgin Atlantic does not seem to be cutting down on its offering during the times that Priority Pass cardholders get access. In the past, when Virgin Atlantic has worked with Priority Pass, it was basically ‘hiding the good stuff’ in terms of food and drink.

Whilst you will now have to pay $35, you should easily be able to get your money’s worth in terms of sustenance.

You can find out more on the dedicated lounge page of the Priority Pass website here.

Get 3,000 bonus Radisson Rewards hotel points on sale bookings

Radisson has launched a sale covering 600 hotels in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. Full details are here.

It is worth a look if you currently have top-tier VIP status via the Club Avolta promotion. This is working out VERY well for readers (see this HfP forum thread) because VIP members get the best available room in the hotel at check-in, with some hotels including suites as well.

The sale is launching with a discount of up to 35% off Best Flexible Rate with Breakfast, albeit sale rooms are non-flexible and must be prepaid. You must be a member of Radisson Rewards (join here for free) to book.

You must book by 21st May for stays from 1st July to 10th September.

(Don’t be confused by the website showing the sale ending today. This was the pre-sale event and it rolls over tonight.)

Radisson Rewards members will earn an extra 3,000 points per stay although since the scheme was gutted these are only worth around £5.

Remember that if you have ‘Premium’ status in Radisson Rewards, which is what you get if you are an American Express Platinum cardholder, you can activate something called ‘Discount Booster’. This gets you an extra 10% or so off your booking IF you agree to earn points at a lower rate. I’m not sure how well this factors in with sale rates.

Since the points are worth so little these days, using ‘Discount Booster’ is a no-brainer if you have ‘Premium’ status and you are spending your own money.

If you are looking for ideas, recent openings which have raised our interest include:

• Palazzo Nani Venice, a Radisson Collection hotel (article here)
• Radisson Blu Zaffron Resort, Santorini (article here)
• Radisson Blu Resort Maldives (article here)
• Radisson RED Liverpool (review here)
• Radisson Heathrow (review here)
• Radisson RED Heathrow (review here)

You can learn more about Radisson Rewards in our review of the scheme here.

You can find out more about the sale on the Radisson website here.

Who won 10,000 Avios in our recent competition?

Over 9,000 HfP readers completed the short survey we ran a few weeks ago for a partner keen to understand the card usage behaviour of our audience of affluent frequent fliers.

Thank you to everyone who took part.

We have now awarded 10,000 Avios to a lucky winner selected at random – well done Jo from London who was pleased to accept the prize.

If you work for a business who may be interested in working with HfP for market research, either via an online survey or a face to face event, please get in touch with Sinead – sinead@headforpoints.com.