‘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.
This week’s top travel news stories:
Global Airlines’ first flight (sort of) took off this week. What’s next? Image above.
American Airlines’ Flagship Suites are launching soon with London the first to get them
Hotels.com Rewards may return, as it attempts to recover market share
Torquay to get a Hotel Indigo in late 2025
W Florence, Kimpton Frankfurt and Hampton Venice are all open or opening this summer
Bluechain and American Express part ways: no more bills or HMRC spend allowed via Amex cards
Aer Lingus relaxes its block on short-notice Avios redemptions …. but it’s still far from ideal
£1,137 business class flights from Dublin to New York on Aer Lingus, AA or BA
Get cheap lounge access and 0% FX fees with the Lloyds Bank World Elite Mastercard. You also get £18 restaurant credits at many UK airports.
Lufthansa adds (its first ever?) American Express cashback offer
Stories we recommend from other sites:
Hilton York completes room refurbishment (Business Traveller)
Majority of British Airways flights at Heathrow Airport leave ahead of schedule thanks to AI (The Standard)
London Gatwick gains world’s longest Airbus A330-800 flight from today (Simple Flying)
East Midlands latest UK airport to move to barrierless drop-off system (Business Traveller)
Our latest reviews:
Hotel reviews:
The Hotel Maria opened in Helsinki last year with a bold claim – to be the first true luxury hotel in Finland. Conny went over to Helsinki to review The Hotel Maria and see if it lived up to the hype. Image above.
Meanwhile, over in Paris to watch Arsenal crash out of the Champions League, Rob found time for a brief review of the Paris Marriott Opera Ambassador hotel. It’s impressive for the price, especially if you can access the lounge.
Airport lounges:
Review: Gulf Air’s Falcon Gold Lounge at Heathrow T4 – one of the least known but most pleasant lounges at Heathrow. Image below.
A review of Air Canada’s refurbished Maple Leaf Lounge at Heathrow T2 – what has changed after the refurbishment?
The latest UK travel loyalty news:
British Airways transfers from American Express Membership Rewards are now instant
Get a 20% bonus when you buy World of Hyatt points – we do the maths on whether it works. Click here to buy.
How to link your Qatar Airways Privilege Club and British Airways Club Avios accounts
£75 cashback at selected Melia hotels may have appeared on your American Express cards
Get 40,000 Marriott Bonvoy points with a ‘Homes & Villas’ booking – now open to all
Get free Gold status with Global Hotel Alliance simply by registering for a promotion
Earn double points with Preferred Hotels and I Prefer
Get triple Aeroplan miles with Air Canada when flying from the UK
What are the best hotel promotions for May? Find out where to stay this month for the best bonuses.
Our annual series of travel credit card reviews continues:
- Review: the British Airways American Express card – 5,000 Avios bonus
- Review: the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card – 30,000 Avios bonus
8 DAYS LEFT: Get an 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. You only have 8 days left.
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 DO qualify for the 80,000 points even if you have a British Airways American Express card.
You can apply for the American Express Platinum Card with the special bonus on this page of the Amex website.
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.
Head for Points receives a commission if you apply via our link. Thank you.
Thank you for reading
Please drop me a note at rob@headforpoints.com with any feedback.
If you are booking a hotel this week, click here to read our summary of the best bonus points offers for May from the big chains.
See you next Monday,
Rob, Rhys, Sinead and Katie @ Head for Points
PS. If you were forwarded ‘The Travel Brief’ by a colleague, you can sign up for a free email subscription by filling in the form here.
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