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Bits: Hilton hotel sale reminder, book £1240 Garuda business class flights to Singapore

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News in brief:

Hilton summer sale enters its final stretch

The Hilton sale has been running for so long you may have forgotten it was still on.  It is now entering its final stretch so you may want to take a look if you have plans for September or early October.

The Big World Sale has decent weekend discounts available across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.  You can book for any weekend until 9th October.

The sale offers a discount of up to 30% off the standard Best Available Rate if you are a Hilton HHonors member, albeit that sale rates require prepayment and are non-refundable.  You receive a smaller discount (25%) if you are not logged in.  You also receive a smaller discount (15%) at Hampton by Hilton properties.

More limited sale deals are also running in the Americas (weekends only) and parts of Asia.  In the past, many hotels have also loaded sale rates for weekdays so do check.

You need to book by 4th September.  Ignore the closing date shown on the sale website home page – when you go into the small print, it specifically states 9th October as the last day to stay for Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Hilton has a special website for the sale which can be found here.

Book £1,240 Garuda business class flights to Singapore

A reader dropped me a line to highlight some very good Garuda Indonesia business class fares from London to Singapore currently on offer.

Pricing varies depending on where you book.  Based on 14th-21st September,  Opodo is pricing it at £1,240 which appears to be the lowest.  Booking on the Garuda website will cost you £1,340.  The outbound flight has a stop in Jakarta whilst the return is direct.

Garuda is a SkyTeam member so you will earn miles in KLM / Air France Flying Blue, Delta Skymiles or any other SkyTeam programme.

£1,240 isn’t as low as some of the ex-Europe Qatar Airways fares we’ve seen recently but for a flight starting from Heathrow this is a very good deal.

I reviewed the Garuda Indonesia 777-300ER business class seat last year and was impressed.  The 1-2-1 layout is superior to BA Club World.  However, the Garuda website shows a vague ‘777-200/300’ for ‘aircraft type’ at the moment so it is not clear if you would get this or not.


best credit card to use when buying flights

How to maximise your miles when paying for flights (April 2025)

Some UK credit cards offer special bonuses when used for buying flights. If you spend a lot on airline tickets, using one of these cards could sharply increase the credit card points you earn.

Booking flights on any airline?

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold earns double points (2 Membership Rewards points per £1) when used to buy flights directly from an airline website.

The card comes with a sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points. These would convert to 20,000 Avios or various other airline or hotel programmes. The standard earning rate is 1 point per £1.

You can apply here.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

Buying flights on British Airways?

The British Airways Premium Plus American Express card earns double Avios (3 Avios per £1) when used at ba.com.

The card comes with a sign-up bonus of 30,000 Avios. The standard earning rate is 1.5 Avios per £1.

You do not earn bonus Avios if you pay for BA flights on the free British Airways American Express card or either of the Barclaycard Avios Mastercards.

You can apply here.

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30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

Buying flights on Virgin Atlantic?

Both the free Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard and the annual fee Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard earn double Virgin Points when used at fly.virgin.com.

This means 1.5 Virgin Points per £1 on the free card and 3 Virgin Points per £1 on the paid card.

There is a sign-up bonus of 3,000 Virgin Points on the free card and 18,000 Virgin Points on the paid card.

You can apply for either of the cards here.

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

3,000 bonus points, no fee and 1 point for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Comments (18)

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

  • Talay says:

    Isn’t Garuda still banned for having a high chance of crashing due to very poor maintenance issues ?

    A mate in the airline business wouldn’t touch them with your bargepole !

    • Rob says:

      No. EU rules are very strict, there is a long list of airlines that can’t fly into the EU and Garuda is not on it, obviously.

  • Talay says:

    Yeah, the servicing was being done in the backwaters and not up to scratch.

    I wouldn’t put anyone I cared for on them.

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

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