What happened at the Head for Points Summer Party 2025?

Thank you to everyone who came to our summer party last Thursday evening.

Everyone had a lot of fun, despite the weather. We definitely set a new heat record for the event with the Met Office saying it was the hottest day of the year. Luckily a big stone church is exactly where you want to be on such a day, although it did warm up eventually!

This year the party was sponsored by Heathrow Express, who showcased their new Premier+ offering ahead of its official launch.

This will replace Business First, the current offering, and bundles fast track security at Heathrow as well as lounge access at both Paddington and Heathrow in your ticket. Premier+ will be available later this summer and you can expect a full article on it when it launches.

Heathrow Express’s sponsorship meant we could give you all two drinks vouchers instead of one! Everyone must have been thirsty because the upstairs bars were depleted by around 9pm.

The drinks system this year was much faster than previously and it only took a few minutes to be served at peak times, with a range of beer, wine, alcohol-free beer and soft drinks available.

The whole HfP team was there, and we even managed to get the five of us together for a group photo at the end. From left to right: Rhys, Katie, Sinead, Conny and Rob.

A big shout-out to everyone who helped, including Yuhao, Maxime, Matt, James, Max and Ashley who welcomed everyone on the door and ensured a smooth arrivals process. The catering staff also did a fabulous job of serving everyone speedily.

We had around 150 travel trade guests this year. By all accounts they enjoyed being grilled on travel and loyalty by you all!

We had representatives from American Airlines, Aspire, Bluechain, Cathay Pacific, Celebrity Cruises, China Airlines, Club Avolta, Club Med, Currensea, Dragonpass, easyJet, Ennismore / Disloyalty, Flying Blue, Heathrow Rewards, Heathrow Express, Hilton, Korean Air, Lloyds Bank, London City Airport, Malaysia Airlines, Marriott, Miles & More, No1 Lounges, Norse Atlantic, Park Hyatt London, Plaza Premium, Preferred Hotels, Priority Pass, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Trip.com, Turkish Airlines, Uber, United, Virgin Group, Virgin Red, Virgin Voyages and Virgin Wines so there were plenty of people to chat with.

Media guests included Cathy Adams from The Times, Simon Calder from The Independent and Claer Barrett from the Financial Times.

Claer wrote about the party in FT Weekend – see p12 of the main section from Saturday if you have a copy.

Barry Collins, our SAS Miles Millionaire, was also there:

Our new venue, Christ Church Spitalfields, was just the right size. The nave was comfortably full, with overflow space (and a cash bar for additional drinks) downstairs in the crypt.

There was also an outdoor terrace for any sun-seekers out there:

Our famous raffle!

We had around 550 people there but it never felt too crowded until we make everyone come back inside for the raffle at 8pm! This photo shows the scale of the event before we corralled everyone inside:

I had the pleasure of MCing for the night. Rob gave a short speech, as did Aoife from Heathrow Express and Tim from Malaysia Airlines.

Malaysia Airlines provided the star raffle prize of two business class tickets to Australia via Kuala Lumpur. We had 15 other prizes too – a full list is below and we are very grateful to all the companies who helped out.

This year we changed the format of the raffle. Instead of announcing the top prize first we wanted to keep the tension high. We drew the winner but immediately put their ticket in a gold envelope to be unsealed after all other prizes had been won!

Julian – who came up from Canterbury especially – was our big winner and was understandably thrilled! Here he is with Tim and Helen from Malaysia Airlines and Rob:

He told us: “I’m planning to go to Sydney, where I lived before moving to the UK. Thinking of heading out in November to see family and friends.”

Richard and Paul Carter, who you may recognise from the BBC, both won four Plaza Premium lounge passes each:

Other prizes included:

• Hyatt: 20,000 World of Hyatt points
• Flying Blue: One year of Platinum status
• Accor: Two tickets to the ALL Terrace at OVO Arena Wembley for Busted vs McFly with an overnight stay at ibis London Wembley
• KM Malta Airlines: Two return business class tickets to Malta
• Virgin Wines: A 12 bottle case of wine
• Heathrow Rewards: 5,000 Heathrow Rewards points (two winners)
• Avis: A seven day car rental from any Avis location in the world
• Billesley Manor: A one-night stay at Billesley Manor Hotel & Spa in Stratford-upon-Avon, newly part of Marriott’s Tribute Portfolio
• Qatar Airways: Two tickets to see Alanis Morrissette from The NinetyThird lounge at The O2, including £100 per person to spend on food and drink
• Qatar Airways: Two tickets to see Peter Kay from The NinetyThird lounge at The O2, including £100 per person to spend on food and drink
• LeShuttle: A standard return on LeShuttle car train via the Channel Tunnel
• Plaza Premium: Four Plaza Premium lounge passes for use at Heathrow T2, T4 and T5, Gatwick North Terminal or Edinburgh (two winners)
• American Express: Two Summer Garden tickets to Noah Kahan at American Express presents BST Hyde Park

After the raffle the staff brought out over 500 Heathrow Express-branded cupcakes – they were so popular that by the time I got round to having some they were all gone!

Things quietened down towards the end of the night, although there were still 100+ people there after our official closing time of 9pm. It was during this time that I managed to talk to a number of HfP comment section regulars including Cat and Polly, pictured here with Conny:

As always, a massive thank you to everyone who came along. None of this would be possible if it weren’t for you.

Thanks also to Heathrow Express, whose sponsorship meant we could have a party of this scale in the first place, and all our raffle prize suppliers, particularly Malaysia Airlines who went above and beyond.

See you next year – if we can find a date which doesn’t clash with the World Cup! If not it’s 2027 ….