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Bits: LA in PremEco for £1000, Hilton credit card free night, 40% off United Airlines miles

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News in brief:

Fly to Los Angeles in Premium Economy for £1,000

Air New Zealand is having a flash sale on flights to Los Angeles which ends TODAY.  They sell this route because they fly London Heathrow to Los Angeles to Auckland, picking up and dropping off on the way.

Economy is £650 which, for the peak Summer season, is not bad.  Business Premier is £2,500 which, to be honest, is not earth shattering.  £1,000 for their Premium Economy seat is probably the best deal of the three.

You need to book via the normal ANZ website by midnight on Monday for travel between 1 April and 31 August, or 15 November to 15 December 2015.  Air New Zealand is a member of Star Alliance so you can earn miles with any Star Alliance airline.

My Hilton credit card free night arrived in 13 days

Regular readers know that I recommend the Hilton Visa credit card to beginners to this hobby.

You get a free weekend night, valid for 6 months, at any Hilton, Conrad (Conrad London pictured above), Waldorf-Astoria etc hotel globally for spending just £750.  It is a great introduction to the value you can get from points and miles promotions.

I recently got this card again after a two year break.  On Saturday 31st January I used it for the first time as part of my tax payment.  The email containing the code required to book my free night arrived on Friday 13th February.

Given that the credit card charge would have taken a few days to reach Barclaycard, this is quite impressive.

I should also say that the free night voucher for spending £10,000 on my IHG Rewards Club Premium Visa also turned up in a similar timeframe a few weeks ago.

United 350

Get a 40% bonus when you buy United Airlines miles

Finally, United Airlines is offering a discount of up to 40% when you buy their miles.

As few Head for Points readers have a large United collection I will not go into the scheme in details. If you were thinking of topping up your account, now is not a bad time.

The offer ends tonight. The discount is either 25% or 40% depending on how many you buy. 15,000 is the minimum purchase to save 25% whilst purchases of 30,000 to 150,000 save 40%.

The link to buy is here.

This offer may combine nicely with the current United redemption sale on Star Alliance partners which runs until February 28th for travel until the end of the year.

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How to earn Star Alliance miles from UK credit cards

How to earn Star Alliance miles from UK credit cards (April 2025)

None of the Star Alliance airlines currently have a UK credit card.

There is, however, still a way to earn Star Alliance miles from a UK credit card. 

The route is via Marriott Bonvoy. Marriott Bonvoy hotel loyalty points convert to over 40 airlines at the rate of 3:1.

The best way to earn Marriott Bonvoy points is via the official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card. It comes with 20,000 points for signing up and 2 points for every £1 you spend. At 2 Bonvoy points per £1, you are earning (at 3:1) 0.66 airline miles per £1 spent on the card.

There is a preferential conversion rate to United Airlines – which is a Star Alliance member – of 2 : 1 if you convert 60,000 Bonvoy points at once.

The Star Alliance members which are Marriott Bonvoy transfer partners are: Aegean, Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Avianca, Copa Airlines, Singapore Airlines, TAP Air Portugal, Thai Airways, Turkish Airlines and United Airlines.

You can apply here.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

20,000 points for signing up and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

Category

Hilton Honors, United Airlines and MileagePlus

Comments (56)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Mark says:
    16 Feb16 February 12:55

    I vouch for the ANZ Premium Economy to LA being a good experience – the seat is much better than on Virgin or BA (within a shell so that the seat in front doesn’t recline into your space at all) and the service on ANZ is excellent. I would say that £1000 is an okay but not amazing price though – it is £900-odd fairly regularly.

  • Nick Burch says:
    16 Feb16 February 13:22

    Slightly OT, but there’s some great fares to the Middle East on Qatar ex-Brussels right now. Looking in August, I managed to find Brussels to Dubai in business (via Doha) for £821 return!

    BA are also doing ex-AMS, ex-BRU or ex-LUX to Dubai for about the £1100 mark (exact price varies by city)

  • Flight Risk says:
    16 Feb16 February 16:11

    Does anybody know what the Tesco boost offer on Ticketmaster was today, Iv been counting it down since Head for points shared it last week but I missed it, but it doesn’t show me what the deal was! hopefully it wasn’t to good! can’t believe I missed it!

  • Flight Risk says:
    16 Feb16 February 16:14

    Interesting point to note re: Hilton credit card

    You get 2,500 points bonus for each of your first 4 stays. However my company pays the hotel with there credit card but last week I had two Hilton stays, the first one I used my Hilton card and charged back my drinks to my own credit card for extras and the bonus 2,500 credit to my account even thought I didn’t pay for the room.

  • wilson says:
    16 Feb16 February 16:17

    I am a HiltonHonors diamond member and have been for more than 10 years. last week unexpectedly and for no reason that I am aware of , i received an email awarding myself with an extra 100,000 points. Does anyone know why?

    • Nick Burch says:
      16 Feb16 February 16:37

      It’s part of the start of their “targeted promotions” – details on the HHonors forum on flyertalk

  • Andy says:
    16 Feb16 February 18:37

    I don’t appear so lucky – I reached my qualifying spend on 1st Feb (just one day after Rob) but haven’t received a voucher yet…. and hoping to spend it in April to it would have been handy to have it on friday.

  • Michael says:
    16 Feb16 February 21:38

    OT, but some short feedback much appreciated. I recently only joined IHG Rewards Club and the Set Your Sights promotion. Apart from downloading the IHG app my other targets are 1) stay a weekend 2 nights 2) stay 3 nights 3) stay at 2 different IHG properties. All via direct IHG bookings only. Only other point on to do list will double my points if I complete my to do list. Am I right, thinking that the targets work alongside each other. E.g. I could stay somewhere for 3 nights and if that covers 2 nights over the weekend I only need to stay 1 other night at different property and all stays of my to do list are done.

    • Lady London says:
      16 Feb16 February 22:05

      Yes can use the same stay to count towards more than one objective. Keep good records though and follow up because there have been problems with these promotions fully crediting. Also take a screenshot of your first list of tasks to get the points and bonus – because on the last promotion there were reports that IHG issued revised tougher targets to some people halfway through the promotion.

    • Rob says:
      17 Feb17 February 09:17

      Yes, that is how it works

  • Chris H says:
    17 Feb17 February 15:39

    I have tried to apply a few times for the Hilton CC but have been refused each time – even when the application has been manually assessed. I have good credit rating so can only assume that Barclaycard don’t want my money.

    Shame, as I was going to pay my exorbitant London rent using the card and earn some loyalty points that way!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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