Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Bits: Cabify update, Accor adds tickets for new Wembley events, good Bangkok flight deal

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

News in brief:

An update on earning Avios from Cabify

We ran an article yesterday on earning Avios in Spain via taxi app Cabify.

This was wrong in a couple of respects. In my defence I blame ba.com, which shows different information depending on whether you are on the UK, Spanish or Mexican sites.

It turns out:

  • you CAN earn Avios in The British Airways Club from Cabify – it isn’t just for Iberia Club members
  • you can also earn in Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Portugal – although reader feedback below is that Portgual and Mexico are now closed

Our Cabify article yesterday has been updated and is hopefully now comprehensive. Thanks to those who submitted feedback.

Earn Avios from Cabify

Accor adds new tickets for OVO Arena Wembley events

Accor Live Limitless has added tickets for more upcoming concerts at OVO Arena Wembley.

The tickets give you access to the exclusive ALL Terrace, which I explained here.

The current options are (pricing is for TWO tickets):

  • Pierce the Veil – 23rd September – 4,500 ALL points
  • Parcels – 27th September – 9,000 ALL points
  • Attack on Titan – 28th September – 4,500 ALL points
  • Deacon Blue – 3rd October – 5,000 ALL points
  • Parkway Drive – 4th October – 5,000 ALL points
  • Kane Brown – 10th October – 6,000 ALL points
  • Simply Red – 11th October – 8,000 ALL points
  • SKYLIGHT with Emmanuel Smith – 12th October – 4,000 ALL points
  • Flo Rida – 14th October – 9,000 ALL points
  • Killswitch Engage – 17th October – 7,000 ALL points
  • Hot Wheels Stunt Show – 25th/26th October – from 4,000 ALL points

The Parcels event comes with added extras:

  • Private meet & greet with the band
  • Backstage tour
  • Gift bag with official merchandise

You can redeem your points for the ALL Terrace on the Accor website here.

Beware – the ALL website is weird. To ensure that all the UK options appear, you must set your ‘place of delivery’ (the truck icon at the top of the screen) to ‘United Kingdom’. If you don’t, you won’t necessarily be shown everything.

Accor is the largest hotel group in the world outside the Americas, so there are no shortage of ibis, Novotel, Pullman, Mercure, Sofitel, Raffles etc hotels where you can earn. Our full overview of Accor Live Limitless is here if you want to find out more about how the scheme works.

There are no credit card partnerships, directly or indirectly. You CAN transfer Avios into Accor Live Limitless points via Qatar Airways Privilege Club but the rate isn’t great at 4.5 to 1 – read more here. It may work for you if there is an act you are very keen to see and tickets are otherwise unavailable.

Accor Live Limitless adds new Wembley events

A good China Southern flight deal to Bangkok

Chinese airlines are often the cheapest way of flying to Australia and the Far East.

A couple of weeks ago we mentioned some good deals dug up by Luxury Flight Club to South East Asia or Melbourne from Heathrow.

A new deal to Bangkok has now appeared at £1,533 return in business class. It is widely available across November, December and January.

This is with China Southern via Guangzhou. China Southern is a British Airways joint venture partner and you earn Avios based on miles flown, even when you book under a China Southern flight number.

Stopovers are available for an additional £100. The train from Guangzhou to Hong Kong can be as fast as 49 minutes if you wanted to visit.

Comments (30)

  • DW says:

    Small FYI but Cabify does not operate in Portugal since 2019

  • Lumma says:

    Can you visit Hong Kong from Guangzhou by train on a stopover on the transit without visa scheme or would you need a China visa? Multi entry too I guess?

    • Throwawayname says:

      You won’t need a visa if you stick to the TWOV time limit.

    • Throwawayname says:

      By the way, Guangzhou isn’t some kind of provincial backwater that happens to have an international airport. Its population is very close to 20m and it has quite a bit of history and a few things to see.

      • The Original David says:

        Chinese city population size does not correlate with how interesting it is to visit (unless you have an unhealthy interest in identical high-rise residential property developments I suppose). Guangzhou has Shamian island and a few dumplings, that’s about it. Shenzhen is more fun, or if you can go north to Shaoguan to see the “male stone” (Google it…), you’ll be impressed.

        • Throwawayname says:

          I remember it being very interesting, then again I went years and years ago and China was both fascinating for a first time visitor and more open to and curious about foreigners. It didn’t hurt that I was staying in a phenomenal suite at The Gardens Hotel [for not a lot of money].

    • kevinchoi says:

      Hong Kong West Kowloon high speed station can only be used an an exit checkpoint from mainland China, which means you can travel to HK be high speed train with TWOV scheme. However, the station is not a listed entry point into mainland China, so you can take the train back to Guangzhou. Best way would be to fly from HK direct to Guangzhou.

    • Jonathan says:

      If you need to apply for a Chinese (tourist) visa they’re very easy to obtain, mine came with 2 years life and multiple entries.

      It is however a snag having to go to the nearest application centre, and London gets extremely busy, the queue was unbelievably long when I got there early morning

      We can hope that UK passports will be someday included in the visa free program they’re currently trialling, only ourselves, Sweden and Czechia aren’t included from European countries…

      • Lumma says:

        One of the “passport strength indexes” really marks the UK passport down becuase we don’t get visa free access to China. Of course, in social media everyone blames Brexit for it

        • Jonathan says:

          I don’t think Brexit had anything to do with us being excluded (so far) from the trail, as mentioned, other EU countries aren’t included, Sweden and Czechia, I also missed Lithuania from my original comment.

          A family member reckons it might be to our historical links with Hong Kong is to why we’ve not been included.
          Something the Chinese MFA don’t seem to realise is how much we (UK passport holders) move around so much

        • Rhys says:

          Five Eyes might be the bigger issue, I suspect.

          • Londonsteve says:

            What about a lack of reciprocity? Many countries are happy to welcome Chinese visitors as they’re high spending, the UK meanwhile demands an onerous (and expensive) visa.

  • Nigerian Prince says:

    China Southern is frequently the cheapest business class gateway to SE asia and Australia, but I never managed to get Avois credited to my BA account

    • Throwawayname says:

      A bit like LATAM, China Southern maintain FFP relationships with their former alliance partners. You can credit to Flying Blue or a number of other Skyteam programmes.

  • Jonathan says:

    With Cabify, do we know about any registration issues at all ?

    Some mentioned yesterday about needing a local phone number as apparently UK numbers don’t work…

    • ScottySue says:

      Just checked my Cabify account and my mobile number is saved. UK prefix of +44 and then the full mobile number (including the zero at the beginning) is shown.

  • Rhonal says:

    Hi Rob according to this article from Cabify it is available in the following countries: Spain, Chile, Argentina, Peru, Colombia and Uruguay https://help.cabify.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000996089-In-which-cities-can-I-find-Cabify

    • Rob says:

      As I said the other day, the Cabify Q&A is generally wrong in my experience although I’m sure some pages are updated. It still talks about Iberia Plus and BA Executive Club for a start.

  • Alex G says:

    Anyone thinking of flying to Guangzhou with China Southern should be aware that they will be flying through Russian airspace, and funding the Russian Government and its invasion of Ukraine.

  • Peter M says:

    I’ve just signed up for Cabify as I’m in Mexico City. Doesn’t work here. Says out of coverage area.

    • Throwawayname says:

      They recently (last summer?) withdrew from Mexico. I had to use the pink metered taxis last time I went- according to my middle-class Mexican friends, I should’ve been kidnapped about half a dozen times.

      • daveinitalia says:

        Wikipedia says “The company operates in Spain and Latin America (Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay). Previously, it also operated in Portugal, Mexico, and Brazil.”

  • LD27 says:

    We arrived late into Santiago de Compostela earlier this year and couldn’t use Uber. No problems downloading Cabify app with UK phone at the airport and booked car immediately.

    Last year used Uber in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay without any issues so hadn’t previously needed Cabify.

Leave a Reply to Throwawayname Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Please click here to read our data protection policy before submitting your comment

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.