What you missed on Head for Points last week

Welcome to the Head for Points weekly newsletter, full of the latest Avios, travel loyalty and travel credit card news, hints and tips.

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We hope you’ve managed a bit of a Christmas and New Year break, wherever in the world you happen to be. The newsletter is obviously thinner than usual this week.

ENDS SOON: Get a 30,000 points bonus (converts to 30,000 Avios) with ‘free for a year’ Amex Gold

American Express is currently running a special sign-up bonus on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold – apply here. The bonus is increased from 20,000 to 30,000 Membership Rewards points which converts to:

• 30,000 Avios
• 30,000 Virgin Points
• 30,000 Etihad, Flying Blue, Asia Miles, Delta, Qantas or SAS miles
• 22,500 Emirates Skywards miles
• 20,000 Singapore Airlines miles
• 60,000 Hilton Honors points
• 45,000 Marriott Bonvoy points
• 90,000 Radisson Rewards points
• 2,000 Club Eurostar points

….. and many other non-travel rewards.

You receive 30,000 Membership Rewards points after spending £3,000 in three months.

Even better, you get:

• four passes for any airport lounge in the Priority Pass network

• 24 x £5 credits to spend at Deliveroo (max one per order and two per month)

• up to 12,500 bonus Membership Rewards points each year based on your spending (2,500 points per £5,000 spent)

The card is free for the first year. If you keep it beyond the first year there is an annual fee of £195. You receive a further four airport lounge passes and more Deliveroo credits on renewal.

Our main article on the 30,000 points bonus is here. Make sure you read the bit about whether or not you qualify for the bonus.

You can apply for American Express Preferred Rewards Gold with the special bonus on this page of the Amex website.

The representative APR is 87.3% variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases, and in the first year which has no fee, is 30.0% variable.

In other news ….

Reviews of the year:

Both Rob and Rhys have put together long articles looking at what excited them (or didn’t) during the last 12 months of travelling.

Rob’s look back – primarily hotels – is here.

Rhys’s look back, covering airlines and hotels, is here, image above.

This week’s top travel news stories:

British Airways drops four short-haul routes – and is Glasgow to Gatwick closing?

Hilton Garden Inn Snowdonia in receivership, ‘to be rebranded’

Eurostar Plus vs Eurostar Premier – what’s the difference? (with new food photos)

Virgin Flying Club Silver or Gold? You can still gift your annual credit card voucher

Amex’s 10% dining discount returns in January – here’s how it works behind the scenes

Lost luggage? You can now share your Apple AirTag with BA, Virgin, Iberia, Aer Lingus & more

Becoming an SAS points millionaire:

A reader is taking part in the SAS Million Points Challenge and is documenting his journey for us:

• “I’m doing the SAS million points challenge – here’s why” (a reminder)
• Barry’s SAS million point challenge – some reflection, some BA, then Airline 9, Saudia
• Barry’s SAS million point challenge – a worrying chat, Airlines 10 (Garuda) and 11 (Vietnam)

British Airways and Avios news

British Airways launches an interline agreement with Canada’s Porter Airlines

Reviews:

Rhys flew from Copenhagen to Los Angeles to try out SAS business class on its new A350 fleet. With SAS now in SkyTeam you can redeem Virgin Points for its flights so it is worth learning more. Image above.

We also reviewed the SAS Lounge at Copenhagen Airport.

Whilst in Los Angeles, Rhys reviewed the newly refurbished W Hollywood hotel. What did he think?

In London, we take a look at the Eurostar Premier lounge at London St Pancras International station.

In Edinburgh, we visited the new The Resident Edinburgh hotel, image below.

Hotel news:

The hotel free night promotion you have literally YEARS to complete …. Hyatt Brand Explorer

How to (wastefully) convert Marriott Bonvoy points into Hilton Honors or IHG One Rewards

Is it worth using Bonvoy points for Marriott Homes & Villas redemptions?

That’s all, folks

Our latest round-up of miles and points offers closing soon is here and will be updated on headforpoints.com on Sunday.

Don’t forget to visit our forum if you have any questions relating to frequent flyer or hotel loyalty programmes or loyalty credit cards.

See you next Saturday,

Rob, Rhys, Sinead and Katie @ Head for Points