Bits: Heathrow Express discount, earning miles at Waitrose, last chance for 3x Accor points

News in brief:

Heathrow Express adds discounted fares for August

Good news for anyone flying from Heathrow next month.  Heathrow Express has just revealed special off-peak fares during the full month of August.

During off-peak times, which includes weekends and bank holidays, a single fare will cost £15.  A return ticket will cost £25. Peak-times are Monday – Friday 7am – 10am and 4pm – 7pm.

Tickets can be booked online, via the app or bought on the day at the station.

If you book by 23rd July you can still use the current Amex cashback offer. You get £10 cashback on a £50 spend which would cover two return tickets, taking the price per person down to £20 return.  And remember that kids travel free, even with this offer.

Waitrose returns to the Virgin Atlantic shopping site

After a brief hiatus, you can again earn Virgin Flying Club miles when shopping instore at Waitrose.

But how many miles?  I can’t help you with that!

If you visit the Virgin / Waitrose page without being logged in, it says you will earn ‘from 1 mile per £1 – log-in and view your offer’.

If I log in, it jumps to 3 miles per £1 which is exceptionally generous.  If I log in as my wife, the text remains at ‘from 1 mile per £1‘ – this is on an account which has never been used for instore shopping.

So, it is confusing.  The best thing to do is to register your credit card with Virgin via the link above, forget about it, shop at Waitrose as usual and see what turns up.

Last chance to get 3x or 4x points on your Accor stays

When I did my round up of the best current hotel promotions yesterday, I missed off the latest Accor deal due to some confusion over the closing date.

As it turns out, you still have 48 hours to book.

Le Club AccorHotels, the loyalty scheme for Ibis / Novotel / Sofitel / Mecure etc, has a very generous triple or quadruple points offer in Europe and the Middle East.  You can register here and my article on it is here.  Book by Sunday, 23rd July, for stays by 3rd September.

Accor has a similar 3x bonus offer for the Asia-Pacific region.  Specifically, it covers:

Cambodia, Greater China (including Hong Kong ,Taiwan & Macao), India, Indonesia, Japan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, Fiji Islands, French Polynesia, New Zealand

It is also a good deal.  Again, you will earn TRIPLE base points on every booking you make and complete before 10th September.  However, the Asia-Pacific offer does NOT require you to book now.

Even if you have no Accor status, you will be earning 7.5 points per €1 equivalent you spend.  This is worth 15% of your spend back in Accor vouchers or (if you credit to Iberia Plus and not British Airways) 7.5 Avios per €1 spent.

Status members will do even better.

You need to register via this page of the Accor website.

Bookings made before 10th June will not count so, if you have existing flexible bookings, you should cancel and rebook them as long as the price is no higher.

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Accor Live Limitless update – April 2025:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.