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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 our latest reviews and features.
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The Travel Brief is the successor to Malcolm Ginsberg’s Business Travel News. Malcolm’s new monthly forward-looking Travel News Update is available at travelnewsupdate.co.uk.
Special report:
Are Business Plus seats such as Virgin’s Retreat Suite the next big thing in premium travel?
The latest UK business travel news:
Rob visits the new YOTELPAD Stratford hotel and asks YOTEL’s CEO …. what is a YOTELPAD? Image above
Air India schedules its newest (and best) planes to London from September
easyJet launches flights to Derry
Delta launches new luxury Missoni amenity kits
Air France launches flights to Kilimanjaro
Virgin Atlantic is the second most punctual UK airline …. but which is the worst?
BA Cityflyer to start flights from Gatwick to Chambery
…. whilst British Airways drops Gatwick to Amsterdam
Delta launches flights from London Heathrow to Orlando
Save an extra £300 in the British Airways and BA Holidays sale
Fly business class to Dubai from £1,126 with Lufthansa/SWISS – very good availability from January 2025
citizenM launches a new hotel sale with free breakfast and all bookings fully cancellable
Stories we recommend from other sites:
TAP Air Portugal to relaunch flights to Manaus (Business Traveller)
Business travel industry responds to ‘surprise’ Lufthansa green surcharge (BTN Europe)
Gatwick workers set to strike during July in pay dispute (Travel Weekly)
Crucial moment in Aer Lingus pilots dispute approaches as patience wears thin (RTE)
Airbus cuts key targets and takes hefty Space charge (Reuters)
Our latest reviews:
Conny heads to Switzerland to take a look at Park Hyatt Zurich, image above
Meanwhile, Rhys heads to the US and checks out the new Virgin Hotels Las Vegas as part of the Virgin Atlantic 40th birthday celebrations
He also finds time to visit Brussels to review the Brussels Marriott Hotel Grand Place which has recently completed a substantial renovation
The latest UK travel loyalty news:
Get 600 FREE Avios when you join ‘Avios for Thoughts’
What Amex benefits can you get at BST Hyde Park 2024?
Get a 70% bonus when you buy Virgin Points (0.88p each), click here to buy
American Express is bringing back its cardmember lounge at Wimbledon
See The Killers with Virgin Points at The O2 from the new Virgin Red VIP box
Get 5,000 Virgin Points via Clubcard for OVO Energy customers – including existing ones
Don’t waste your time using ‘Part Pay with Avios’ on Finnair – the maths isn’t pretty
How to get free hotel status from UK credit cards
A new £150 Air France KLM Amex cashback deal has arrived
Use IHG One Rewards points for VIP packages to Wilderness Festival
Our series of UK travel rewards credit cards concludes:
Review: Virgin Atlantic Reward Plus Mastercard with an 18,000 Virgin Points bonus
LAST CHANCE, ENDS TUESDAY: Get 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points sign-up bonus with the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card
You can currently get a huge sign-up bonus of 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points on the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card. You can apply here.
This is the biggest bonus ever offered on this credit card and is TRIPLE the standard amount.
This is worth roughly £300 of free Marriott stays, based on our 0.5p per point valuation, or 25,000 Avios or other airline miles if converted.
There are four good reasons to hold this card long term, and not just for the sign-up bonus:
you get 15 elite night credits EVERY YEAR in Marriott Bonvoy – this means, for example, that Platinum only requres 35 nights instead of the usual 50. Even better, these nights count towards Lifetime Status.
you get Silver Elite status in Marriott Bonvoy every year, because it is triggered automatically by the 15 elite night credits
you get Gold Elite status in Marriott Bonvoy if you spend £15,000 on the card in a membership year
you get a free night voucher worth up to 25,000 Bonvoy points if you spend £25,000 on the card in a membership year
There is an annual fee of £95 per year. The on-going earning rate is 2 Bonvoy points per £1 spent.
To learn more, click here for our full article on the offer. Please read the bit about whether you qualify for the sign-up bonus.
The offer ends on Tuesday night. We receive a small commission from Amex if you apply via our link – thank you.
You can apply here.
The representative APR is 54.8% variable, including the annual fee. The representative APR on purchases is 31.0% variable.
Thank you for reading
Please drop me a note at rob@headforpoints.com with any feedback. See you next Monday.
Rob, Rhys and Katie @ Head for Points
PS. If you were forwarded ‘The Travel Brief’ by a colleague, you can sign up for a free subscription by filling in the form here
This was published by Head for Points, to read the complete post please visit https://www.headforpoints.com/2024/07/01/business-travel-news-88/.