Bits: Mar Hall and The Bruntsfield join GHA, get 2000 Virgin Points when buying a Railcard

News in brief:

Mar Hall and The Bruntsfield join Global Hotel Alliance

Two historic Scottish hotels – Mar Hall Golf & Spa Resort and The Bruntsfield – have been acquired by Dubai-based hotel group JA Resorts & Hotels.

JA Resorts & Hotels is a small group with properties in the UAE, the Maldives and the Seychelles.

The reason we mention this is that JA Resorts & Hotels is a member of Global Hotel Alliance, meaning that the two hotels now let you earn and spend DISCOVERY Dollars and benefit from any GHA status you have.

Originally built in 1828 by Sir Robert Smirke, the architect of the British Museum, Mar Hall Golf & Spa Resort is a 5-star hotel set within a 240 acre estate on the banks of the River Clyde near Glasgow.  It underwent a £25 million refurbishment in 2024. Image below.

The Bruntsfield is a boutique townhouse hotel in Edinburgh, built as a Baronial-style residence in 1861. A refurbishment is planned so I’m not sure what condition it is in at the moment.

You can find out more on the JA Resorts & Hotels website here.

Get 2,000 Virgin Points when buying a Railcard

Virgin Trains Ticketing, the standalone rail booking app from Virgin Red, is offering 2,000 bonus Virgin Points when you buy a Railcard.

These are worth £10 off a future train ticket bought via the Virgin Trains Ticketing app or, of course, you can use them for any other Virgin Points redemption including flights.

Note that you need to be 18 years old to join Virgin Red, so if someone you know requires a 16-17 Saver Railcard, or a 16-25 Railcard but who is under 18, you will need to buy it for them. They cannot earn points in a Virgin Red account of their own.

You are required to store your Railcard inside the Virgin Trains Ticketing app. It cannot be added to the official Railcard app – although this is good news in some ways as it saves you unnecessarily adding an otherwise useless app to your phone.

The offer ends on 11th September.

You can find out more in the Virgin Trains Ticketing app. You need to scroll down the homepage to see it – if you have a phone with a small screen this may not be intuitive!