News in brief:

The Club Eurostar Shop opens for business

One aspect of the new Club Eurostar programme I haven’t touched on yet is the new Club Eurostar shop.

This offers a new redemption option for those travellers who are – in the nicest possible way – sick to death of Eurostar after weekly commutes and would prefer to use their points for something totally different!

The Club Eurostar Shop is only available to mid-tier Avantage and top-tier Carte Blanche members.  You will find a link on your home page after you log in.

There is certainly a lot on offer and the quality level seems to be pitched right given the target Eurostar market.

Regular readers won’t be surprised to know that the value you get is not great.  I ran a few examples and you seem to be getting around 3p per point.

This isn’t Club Eurostar trying to rip you off, it is simply logical because of how these schemes work.  If you redeem for, say, a Pure Evoke H3 DAB radio (3,460 points) then Eurostar has to buy it for you for £120.  They would be happier if you redeemed for a Eurostar ticket which costs them virtually nothing in comparison.  This is why you get around 10p to 15p per point for train redemptions.

That said, I am always in favour of giving people more choice when it comes to redemptions and the Club Eurostar Shop does add a lot of new options.

Has the Avios reward chart vanished?

I was trying to find the Avios pricing chart on ba.com yesterday.  Since the site had its revamp, however, I can’t find it anywhere.

If you want to know how much a redemption costs, it seems that you need to plug in your route into the redemption flight calculator here.

I also looked on avios.com.  It still has a zonal map but nothing as simple as the table below.

This is, of course “not a good thing”.  An unwillingness to be upfront about what redemptions actually cost is the first step to removing reward charts altogether and moving to some form of variable pricing.

The zones relate to the distance flown:

• Zone 1:  1 – 650 miles
• Zone 2:  651 – 1,150 miles
• Zone 3:  1,151 – 2,000 miles
• Zone 4:  2,001 – 3,000 miles
• Zone 5:  3,001 – 4,000 miles
• Zone 6:  4,001 – 5,500 miles
• Zone 7:  5,501 – 6,500 miles
• Zone 8:  6,501 – 7,000 miles
• Zone 9:  7,000+ miles

Cathay Pacific launches its winter sale

The Cathay Pacific sale is now on, with headline prices to Asia from £489 in Economy.

Business Class deals start at £2999 to Australia and New Zealand, £2359 to China, £2469 to Japan and Korea and £3619 to Hong Kong.  (Hong Kong is never a great deal with Cathay because it is a direct flight from the UK, other destinations require a change of plane.)   These are for travel from 9th January to 30th September 2018.

Cathay Pacific is a member of oneworld, so you will earn Avios and British Airways tier points when you fly with them.

Don’t forget that Cathay also flies from Manchester as well as Heathrow and Gatwick.

Full details are on the Cathay Pacific website here.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for the latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios from current offers and promotions.)

News in brief:

Are you our Club Eurostar competition winner?

Last week we ran a competition in association with Club Eurostar to celebrate the launch of their new loyalty program.

One lucky reader got to win 5,000 Club Eurostar points – enough for two Standard Premier tickets to any destination, with GUARANTEED availability via the new ‘Anytime’ reward – plus top tier Carte Blanche status for one year.

We can now announce that this lucky person is:

Gokyar B.

Congratulations!  Club Eurostar will be in touch to sort out your points and status upgrade.

Free Wilbur and Orville from Virgin Atlantic this Christmas

Somewhere in our kitchen is a Virgin Atlantic ‘Wilbur and Orville’ salt and pepper set.

I stole this from a Virgin Atlantic flight in, I guess, 1997 when I was doing some banking work in Johannesburg.  The fact that we still have it, and that after 20 years I still think of Virgin Atlantic whenever I see it, shows the value of smart marketing.

Anyone flying Upper Class on Virgin Atlantic between 21st and 26th December will get their own ‘Wilbur and Orville’ salt and pepper set to take home.  These come in ‘festive red’ which may or may not be an improvement on the usual silver and black!

30% bonus when you buy Avios via Iberia Plus

If you are in need of a final Avios top-up before the end of the year, Iberia Plus has launched another bonus.

This is not hugely generous so don’t jump in unless you intend to spend them immediately.  Until 31st December:

• Buy between 2,000 and 15,000 Avios, get a bonus of 10%
• Buy between 20,000 and 45,000 Avios, get a bonus of 20%
• Buy between 50,000 and 100,000 Avios, get a bonus of 30%

Remember that your Iberia Plus account needs to be 90 days old before you will be allowed to transfer Avios out of it and into British Airways Executive Club or avios.com.

The Iberia ‘buy Avios’ page is here.  You may need to log in to see the bonus.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for the latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios from current offers and promotions.)

With the new Eurostar loyalty scheme, Club Eurostar, now fully operational (my thoughts are here) – and with American Express Membership Rewards still onboard as the only Club Eurostar transfer partner (15:1 rate) – I thought it was worth looking at the ease with which you can use Amex points for Eurostar travel.

There are two different ways to book Eurostar tickets with your American Express Membership Rewards points.  There used to be a third option by converting your Membership Rewards points to Avios and using Avios to book a ticket.  This route was dropped in 2016 when Avios stopped partnering with Eurostar.

Route network

Eurostar currently serves Paris, Brussels, Lille, Disneyland Paris, Marseille, Avignon and Lyon.  There is no exact date yet for the 2018 start of trains to Rotterdam and Amsterdam.

Between December and April, special ski services travel from London to Moûtiers, Aime-la-Plagne and Bourg-St-Maurice.

Route 1: Transferring Amex points to Club Eurostar

Club Eurostar is the new Eurostar loyalty scheme launched last Autumn.  It replaced the two previous schemes, Eurostar Frequent Traveller and Eurostar Plus Points.

Reward availability with Eurostar was always pretty good.  It is now perfect, because under Club Eurostar you can book on ANY train in ANY class as long as you are prepared to pay a small premium.

Here is the new redemption chart – only look at the ‘Club Eurostar’ column:

The transfer rate in from Amex MR points is 15 Membership Rewards to one Club Eurostar point.  This means you’re looking at:

Standard Class – 15,000 Amex points return (22,500 for an ‘Anytime’ ticket)

Standard Premier – 30,000 Amex points return (37,500 for an ‘Anytime’ ticket)

Business Premier – 45,000 Amex points return for an ‘Anytime’ ticket

Tickets can be booked as singles or returns in any of the three classes.

All Eurostar routes cost the same number of points, making the South of France and the Winter ski services excellent value.

Standard Premier return tickets for ‘peak weekend’ breaks to Paris, out on a Friday evening and returning on a Sunday evening, are around £300 once you get into Spring.  This is about 0.8p per Amex point if you had to book an ‘Anytime’ ticket, or 1p per point for a standard redemption if seats were still available.

‘Anytime’ tickets have one important bit of upside if you are converting points from Amex.  Because  you are guaranteed to be able to redeem the seat you want, you don’t need to worry about reward seat availability disappearing whilst you wait for the points to transfer across.

Without wishing to state the obvious, there are no taxes or charges on Eurostar redemptions.  Free means free. 

Route 2: Redeem Membership Rewards points directly via American Express

You don’t necessarily need to transfer your Membership Rewards points to Club Eurostar.  Amex is able to book Standard class return tickets for you directly.  See here for details on the Membership Rewards website and search for ‘Eurostar’.

The rate is 15,000 Membership Rewards points for a Standard class return or 30,000 Membership Rewards points for a Standard Premier return.  Business Premier is not available.

These prices are identical to the ‘standard’ reward pricing if you convert to Club Eurostar and book from there.  However, there are negative reasons to letting Amex book a ticket for you:

You must book 14 days before travel

One-way trips are not allowed

Mixed class bookings are not allowed

Tickets cannot be cancelled or changed

You can only book into the cheaper fare buckets. Once the cash price reaches a certain threshold – which is not published – Amex won’t be able to book you a ticket directly with points.

If you really do want to book directly from your American Express Membership Rewards points – and it isn’t clear to me why you’d want to do this given the list of issues above – first use the Eurostar website to find return services available at the cheaper starting prices.

You first need to ring up Eurostar on a special number (given in the Membership Rewards website), and tell them that you want to make a booking using American Express Membership Rewards points. They’ll help you find a suitable cheap train, will make the booking, and will give you a reservation confirmation number.

You then need to ring up American Express. Tell them your Eurostar reservation number and dates of travel and they will deduct the points then confirm your booking.

There is little logic to going through this process, however, when you can book via Club Eurostar instead and get a better choice of trains, mixed class bookings, no requirement to book within 14 days of travel and cancellation / change flexibility.

At the end of day …..

Converting your American Express Membership Rewards points to Club Eurostar is the best way of getting a free ticket.

With a bit of organising, you can get a return ticket from the centre of London to the centre of Paris – or south of France – for 15,000 Membership Rewards points all-in (no taxes or fees) so it can offer a decent deal.

Thanks to Nick Burch who wrote an earlier version of this article a few years ago.

(Want to earn more miles and points from credit cards?  Click here to visit our dedicated airline and hotel travel credit cards page or use the ‘Credit Cards Update’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

News in brief:

Eurostar announces start of Amsterdam services

Eurostar has confirmed that its long-delayed service to Rotterdam and Amsterdam will begin on 4th April.

There will be two trains per day from London St Pancras, leaving at 8.31am and 5.31pm.  It will take 3 hours 1 minute to Rotterdam and 3 hours 41 minutes to Amsterdam.

The big problem comes on the return.  It will take another year, perhaps more, to get full UK passport and immigration services installed in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.  Until then, you will be able to board trains without any checks.

ALL passengers will have to get off the train in Brussels which will carry on (either empty or with passengers ticketed from Brussels) to London.  They will be booked onto a later London train to allow time for full passport formalities – a process which could take a long time given the number of passengers involved.   You will have the option of being booked on a Thalys / Eurostar combination which, because of how the timetable works, is actually quicker albeit still over four and a half hours.

If you want to try this new route, the HFP article explains how to use your Amex Membership Rewards points for Eurostar tickets.  Remember that free Eurostar tickets really are free – there are no taxes or charges to pay.

Tickets will go on sale on 20th February.  Prices will start at just £35 one-way as Eurostar attempts to use price to woo customers from the airlines and fill the early services.

Remember that American Express Platinum cardholders get free access to Eurostar lounges.  You cannot bring a guest but your partner is likely to have a supplementary Amex Platinum card anyway.

Railcards now available for immediate digital download

It’s half-term (at least, it is in our house).  If you are planning to take the kids on a train trip, it is worth noting that Friends & Family Railcards can now be bought and downloaded instantly as can most other Railcards.

During the purchase process on the Friends & Family Railcard website you have the option of selecting a Plastic or Digital railcard.  If you choose Digital, you are emailed a code after purchase which you type into the Railcard app on your phone.  The Railcard can be added to two phones if necessary.

This allows you to buy a Railcard and buy discounted tickets immediately without having to wait 5 days for a Plastic card to arrive.

As a reminder, a Friends & Family Railcard gets you 33% off Standard Anytime, Off-Peak and Advance adult fares and 60% off for kids’ fares.  Restrictions apply on times of travel and which trains are included.  First Class travel is not included.  Gatwick Express, Stansted Express, Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect services ARE included – we got 4 x one-way tickets on Gatwick Express for today for £30.20 using a Railcard.

The Friends & Family Railcard website here has more details.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for the latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios from current offers and promotions.)

News in brief:

Club Eurostar adds online redemptions to Amsterdam and Rotterdam

Eurostar is gearing up for the launch of its services to the Netherlands on 4th April.

Redemption seats on the new routes for Club Eurostar members are now bookable online.  In reality – because the return trip currently requires a change of train in Brussels as passport facilities are not yet available in Amsterdam and Rotterdam – most people will choose to take the train outbound and then fly back.

There will be two trains per day from London St Pancras, leaving at 8.31am and 5.31pm.  It will take 3 hours 1 minute to Rotterdam and 3 hours 41 minutes to Amsterdam.

A one-way Club Eurostar ticket is priced at:

Standard – 500 points for a general redemption, 750 points for an ‘anytime’ redemption

Standard Premier – 1000 points for a general redemption, 1250 points for an ‘anytime’ redemption

Business Premier – 1500 points for an ‘anytime’ redemption

An ‘anytime’ redemption is when you force open a seat on a train which otherwise has no reward availability.

If you are converting American Express Membership Rewards points into Club Eurostar, the rate is 15:1.  Do check cash fares before booking a redemption, however, as Eurostar is being quite aggressive with pricing at the moment in order to build momentum.

Remember that American Express Platinum cardholders get free access to Eurostar lounges.  You cannot bring a guest but your partner is likely to have a supplementary Amex Platinum card anyway.

Qatar Airways launches THREE daily flights from Gatwick

On a one to ten scale of weirdness, this is – on the face of it – quite high.

At the ITB travel show in Berlin yesterday (and where I am today) Qatar Airways announced two to three new daily flights between London Gatwick and Doha.

The flights will start on 22nd May with two new daily services.

A third service will run on Friday and Saturday between 15th June and 29th September.

All flights use a Boeing 787-8, so this will be the very good herringbone layout in Business Class and not the new Qsuite.  My review of that seat is here.

This is a lot of extra capacity to add into the market with just three months notice.  The continuation of the blockade with the UAE is stopping Qatar Airways being used as a cheaper indirect option to get to Dubai or Abu Dhabi

Late May is also a bad time to start a service because you are entering the peak Summer months where Doha as a final destination starts to look very unattractive due to the heat.   Adding a 3rd daily flight just as the heat becomes unbearable is even odder!  Most people will choose to transfer onwards, of course.

I get a feeling that this is linked to British Airways and its need to ‘use or lose’ the Gatwick slots it acquired from the administrators of Monarch.  BA has possibly given its biggest shareholder free use of three slot pairs.

BA and Qatar Airways have a joint venture on routes between London and Doha so British Airways will be getting a cut of the revenue.  This may also allow British Airways to effectively drop its own Doha service – which has been suspended for a while – to free up an aircraft whilst the 787 fleet is awaiting engine repairs.

The press release is here.

Ethiopian Airlines boosts Heathrow services

If you thought that South African Airways was the major airline in Africa, you’re wrong.  Following major investment in recent years, Ethiopian Airlines is now Africa’s largest airline and one with a primarily new fleet of A350 and Boeing 787 aircraft.

The airline is also a member of Star Alliance, allowing you to earn and redeem miles with any of the Star loyalty schemes such as Singapore Airlines Krisflyer, United MileagePlus or Lufthansa’s Miles & More.

Between June and October, Ethiopian is increasing its Heathrow services from seven to 10 per week.  They will operate with a new Airbus A350 with 30 business class and 313 economy seats.

One of my biggest regrets whilst running HFP is that a proposed Ethiopian Airlines press trip to Addis Ababa a couple of years ago never happened.  That would have been a fascinating couple of days.

PS.  Did you know that Ethopian Airlines flies from Dublin to Los Angeles?!  It is an interesting redemption if you have Star Alliance miles.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for the latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios from current offers and promotions.)

News in brief:

Kent to get direct trains to Luton Airport Parkway from May

The new and much delayed changes to the Thameslink rail network in London are about to begin in earnest.   This official website outlines what will be happening and when.

One lesser known change is that, from May, there will be a direct train service from parts of Kent to Luton Airport Parkway.

Running every 30 minutes, seven days per week, the service will run from Rainham to Luton town centre.

The Kent and outer London stations to be served are:

Rainham, Gillingham, Chatham, Rochester, Strood, Higham, Gravesend, Northfleet, Swanscombe, Greenhithe, Stone Crossing, Dartford, Slade Green, Abbey Wood, Plumstead, Woolwich Arsenal, Charlton, Westcombe Park, Maze Hill, Greenwich, Deptford and then on to London Bridge and through to Luton

Get double Club Eurostar points to the Netherlands

Eurostar services to Rotterdam and Amsterdam begin on 4th April.  This HFP article explains how it will work including the annoying change of train required on the return journey.

Club Eurostar is offering double points on all trips to the Netherlands booked between 20th March and 13th April for travel by 31st August.  This is only valid on Eurostar trains and not any connecting Thalys services.  The bonus points do not count towards your status level.

Passport fees to rise sharply next week

If you have a passport to renew, you should get the application underway this weekend.

From 27th March, an adult passport goes up from £72.50 to either £75.50 for online applications or £85 for postal applications.  The fee for children goes up from £46 to £49 online or £58.50 via the post.

On Wednesday 4th April Eurostar launched its new route from London to Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Passengers can now travel from St. Pancras to Amsterdam Centraal in 3 hours and 41 minutes.

On paper this is almost four times longer than the average flight time between the two cities.  To find out whether it is worth taking the Eurostar I went on the inaugural trip.  Club Eurostar provided us with a free one-way ticket, but this was not part of the official media group.

I was booked in Business Premier.  I won’t go into too much detail regarding the seat as Rob wrote an in-depth review back in 2016 when the new e320 trains were introduced to the London – Paris route.  Instead I will concentrate on the journey itself.

At St. Pancras

The train was scheduled to leave at 08:31 and arrive in Amsterdam at 13:12.  As you only need to get to the station 30 minutes before the scheduled departure – and with Business Premier you can arrive as late as 10 minutes before departure – you can save at least 90 minutes here compared to flying.

I got to St. Pancras around 07:30 as I had a Business Premier ticket and wanted to have breakfast and coffee in the lounge.  Remember that American Express Platinum cardholders get free access to Eurostar lounges in London, Brussels and Paris irrespective of travel class.  You cannot bring a guest but your partner probably has a supplementary Platinum card anyway.  Rob has never had a problem taking his children in too although this is discretionary.

Eurostar employees were handing out Stropwafels to passengers as they were queuing up to go through security!

The Eurostar lounge is on your right as  you enter the station.  It is an odd shape, very long and not particularly wide.  The downstairs area of the lounge was fairly quiet.

….. whilst upstairs was where everyone was waiting, chatting and taking videos and pictures.

Just after 8am it was time to board the train:

I was in carriage 1 which was the last carriage and thereby at the other end of the platform.  The official media group was at the other end of the train – you may have seen pictures in the newspapers last week of Raymond Blanc personally supervising the food, but he never made it to my carriage!

To celebrate the first  train ride to Amsterdam each passenger found a tote bag at their seat:

The Amsterdam services do not stop at Ashford International.  This allowed the train to set a record-breaking time to Brussels as you will see.

Shortly after leaving St. Pancras we were served breakfast:

After 1 hour and 48 minutes we stopped in Brussels. This was 17 minutes faster than the previous quickest timetabled journey.  I can imagine that the Eurostar ticketing team will be taking careful notes, as they need to juggle the number of people who just want to travel from Brussels to Amsterdam with those travelling London to Brussels (and this is now the fastest service of the day) and those travelling through to The Netherlands.

After leaving Brussels alcoholic drinks and snacks were served.

I chose a glass of champagne (Piper) and was given a cheese and meat box. The cheese was very strong which I don’t like but the meat was very good.

Three hours after leaving St. Pancras we stopped in Rotterdam:

And 40 minutes later we had reached our destination: Amsterdam.  That said, we had to wait on the tracks outside the station for about 10 minutes before continuing to our platform.

At Amsterdam Centraal everything was pretty unspectacular.  I was secretly hoping for a big party but it was not to be. I got off the train, walked down the platform, down the stairs and out of the station.

There was no passport control as that had already happened in London.

Eurostar’s chief executive Mike Cooper said about the new route to Amsterdam:

“The departure of our first commercial service to Amsterdam represents a historic milestone for Eurostar and the growth of international high speed rail. With the Netherlands becoming increasingly popular as a business and tourism destination, the potential for our new route is significant and we look forward to offering our customers a fast, seamless connection between these key European cities.”

Will the new service be a success?

Having to compete with 17 daily flights from London to Amsterdam, it won’t be easy to win over frequent flyers on this route.  The arrival times of 13:12 and 22:12 are also not very business friendly. On the other hand Eurostar offers almost seamless wi-fi connection on the whole route, apart for a few bits as you can see on the map below, which means you can work during the journey.

For comparison, I took a BA flight from Amsterdam back to London City the next day.  I left the hotel (IHG’s Kimpton De Witt, more on that soon) at 11am and walked to the central station which took about five minutes. The next train to the airport was leaving at 11:34am, my flight was at 1:40pm but ended up being slightly delayed and I was back in the HFP office at Moorgate by 2:45pm UK time.

All in all my journey took 4 hours and 45 minutes.  Given that I could get from the office to St Pancras in around 15 minutes, the total travel time – at least outbound – is virtually identical by train and I would have had more opportunity to work on the way.

Conclusion

I can see why taking the train instead of a plane can be attractive on the London to Amsterdam route, although a lot will depend on how easy it is for you to get to St Pancras compared to your nearest airport.  With KLM and its partners flying from every major UK regional airport you are never far from a plane to Schiphol.

The real problem is on the return.  Until the passport control facilities in Amsterdam and Rotterdam are in use, you need to change trains in Brussels on the way back in order to be screened.  This will happen once a formal agreement has been signed between the UK and Dutch governments, but it’s probably not going to happen before late 2019. The increases the travel time to almost five hours which is unfortunate, and will certainly lead to people travelling to Amsterdam by train and back by plane as I did.

Whilst most of the publicity around this route has focused on Amsterdam, I think that Rotterdam will be the quiet success story.  The train takes about three hours, whilst the flying options are limited.  Rotterdam’s airport is not exactly a major hub, with no rail connection, whilst most of the major corporate offices are very close to the station.

I do recommend giving Eurostar a go on your next trip to Amsterdam or Rotterdam in order to make up your own mind.

Remember that Club Eurostar is still offering double points on all trips to the Netherlands booked before 13th April for travel by 31st August.  This is only valid on Eurostar trains and not any connecting Thalys services.  The bonus points do not count towards your status level.

This HFP article explains how to use your American Express Membership Rewards points to redeem for Eurostar tickets although cash tickets are cheap at the moment as they look to build volume and you may find that a better deal.

Thanks to Club Eurostar for their help in arranging my trip.

(Want to earn more miles and points from credit cards?  Click here to visit our dedicated airline and hotel travel credit cards page or use the ‘Credit Cards Update’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

I need to be in Paris for two days at the end of June, returning home on a perennially expensive Friday evening.  As my hotel is only three metro stops from Gare du Nord it made sense to take the train back rather than fly.

With cash tickets reassuringly expensive for booking two weeks in advance, this was a good opportunity to check out the new ‘guaranteed availability’ benefit of redeeming with Club Eurostar points.

As I didn’t have any Club Eurostar points, this required a transfer from American Express Membership Rewards.  I thought it was worth looking at the value I got from this.

Transferring Amex points to Club Eurostar

Club Eurostar is the new Eurostar loyalty scheme launched last Autumn.  It replaced the two previous schemes, Eurostar Frequent Traveller and Eurostar Plus Points.

Reward availability with Eurostar was always pretty good.  It is now perfect, because under Club Eurostar you can book on ANY train in ANY class as long as you are prepared to pay a small premium.

Here is the new redemption chart – only look at the ‘Club Eurostar’ column:

The transfer rate in from Amex MR points is 15 Membership Rewards to one Club Eurostar point.  This means you’re looking at:

Standard Class – 15,000 Amex points return (22,500 for an ‘Anytime’ ticket)

Standard Premier – 30,000 Amex points return (37,500 for an ‘Anytime’ ticket)

Business Premier – 45,000 Amex points return for an ‘Anytime’ ticket

Tickets can be booked as singles or returns in any of the three classes.

All Eurostar routes cost the same number of points, making the South of France and the Winter ski services excellent value.

Friday night Eurostar tickets are not cheap ….

Booking two weeks in advance for a Friday evening service in Summer was never going to come out well.  This was the pricing I was looking at, for a one-way from Paris to London:

Standard Premier:  £215

Business Premier:  £303

I didn’t want to travel in Standard, as 2 hr 20 min in a full train did not really appeal – and the saving was only £50.  The idea of a private solo seat in Premier was far more interesting.

In terms of points, it was going to be:

Standard Premier:  1,250 Club Eurostar points, which is 18,750 Amex Membership Rewards points

Business Premier:  1,500 Club Eurostar points, which is 22,500 Amex Membership Rewards points

However, you can only transfer Amex points in multiples of 1,500.  This means that the Standard Premier ticket would actually have cost me 19,500 Amex points.

The only differences between Standard Premier and Business Premier are better food, lounge access and 10-minute check-in.  I have lounge access via my Amex Platinum charge card.  Despite that, I still decided to use the extra 3,000 points for Business Premier as life is short and my Membership Rewards pot is large – although I doubt the meal will be worth the notional extra £25-£30!

This is how the redemptions worked out:

Standard Premier:  1.14p per Amex point

Business Premier:  1.34p per Amex point

However …. I always stress that you should value redemptions based on what you would reasonably have paid.  Would I have paid £303 for Business Premier when Standard Premier was £215?  No way.  I didn’t mind using an extra 3,000 Amex points though.

You could also argue that I didn’t need to get the Friday peak train.  If I had waited until 6.45pm I could have bought a Standard Premier ticket for £137.  If I’d done that, though, I wouldn’t have been home in time to put my kids to bed which is something I don’t like to miss if I can help it.  There would also have been a lot of hanging around given that I couldn’t have pushed my hotel check-out beyond 4pm.

Other points to note ….

Had I booked earlier, I would have been able to get a one-way Standard Premier ticket for 1,000 points instead of 1,250 Club Eurostar points.  I ended up with a pricier ‘Anytime’ ticket.

‘Anytime’ tickets have one important bit of upside if you are converting points from Amex.  Because you are guaranteed to be able to redeem the seat you want, you don’t need to worry about reward seat availability disappearing whilst you wait for the points to transfer across.

As it happened, it took 48 hours for the points to move across from American Express to Club Eurostar.  My accounts were already linked – if yours are not already linked, the first transaction may take a little longer.

Without wishing to state the obvious, there are no taxes or charges on Eurostar redemptions.  Free means free. 

With a bit of organising and advance booking, you can get a return Standard ticket from the centre of London to the centre of Paris – or south of France – for 15,000 Membership Rewards points all-in (no taxes or fees) so it can offer a decent deal.  I ended up paying a lot more but that is the price you pay for booking a Friday night train in a premium cabin at two weeks notice …..

News in brief:

30% off Eurostar Standard Premier tickets

Until 16th July, Eurostar is running a 30% off sale in Standard Premier.

Standard Premier is, for most people, the sweet spot for Eurostar pricing.  You get a Business Premier seat, and the only major differences are a lower quality meal (but you still get a meal) and lack of access to the lounges (but you can get into Eurostar lounges with an American Express Platinum charge card).

Travel dates are:

• Paris – 1 August to 5 September 2018
• Brussels – 16 July to 5 September 2018
• Amsterdam – 16 July to 5 September 2018

The following black-out dates apply to all routes:  20 to 22 July inclusive, 28 to 29 July inclusive, 24 to 27 August inclusive and 2 September 2018.

You can find out more on the Eurostar site here.  Don’t forget to sign up for Club Eurostar and collect your points – you can top them up via American Express Membership Rewards at 15:1.

Earn 1,000 bonus Accor points at Fairmont, Raffles and Swissotel

From 2nd July, the Fairmont, Raffles and Swissotel brands have been fully integrated into Le Club AccorHotels.  You can now earn and redeem points, and enjoy Le Club status benefits, when you stay at any of the three chains.

(Raffles Singapore is pictured below, but currently closed for renovations.)

To celebrate, Accor has launched a special offer.

You will receive 1,000 bonus Le Club AccorHotels points with any booking made for a Fairmont, Raffles or Swissotel property.  You must book by 19th August for a stay completed by 30th September.

1,000 Accor points are worth a €20 discount on a future Accor stay or, if transferred to Iberia Plus, 1000 Avios.  Do not transfer your Accor points to British Airways as the rate is 50% worse at 2:1!

Full details of this offer are on this special page of the Accor site.   You MUST register.

What is not clear, unfortunately, is whether you can only earn this bonus once or if you get it on every booking at the three chains over the period.

Miles & More credit card expiry clarification

If you have the MBNA-issued Lufthansa Miles & More credit card, which ceases at the end of the month, you should have received an email from Lufthansa about mileage expiry.

In theory, as you were no longer a credit card holder, any miles you held over three years old would have expired on 30th September.   Lufthansa is giving us all a grace period and no expiry will take place until 30th June 2019.  The number of miles over three years old which will expire on that date will be visible online from 1st April.

Lufthansa is hoping to get a new card deal in place and, if we’re lucky, a new product will be available before this date which will avoid the need for any panic redemptions next year.

News in brief:

Amazon Prime Day continues all day Tuesday

Amazon Prime Day has returned for the fourth time, with big discounts on many items all day today.

You need to be an Amazon Prime member to take part, but Amazon is happy for you to sign up for a free 30 day trial if you want any of these deals.

(If you do take the 30 day free trial, you can actually cancel it immediately in your Amazon account.  This means you won’t forget to cancel later.  You continue to receive Prime benefits for the full 30 days.)

In the past we have had a preview list from Amazon of the best deals, but that has not happened this year.  Looking at the key Amazon own-brand products, the stand-out deals are:

£10 bonus when you buy an £80 Amazon Gift Certificate (click here) – you can buy one for yourself and redeem it into your own Amazon account immediately, so this is basically £10 of free Amazon credit  This deal has reached its order cap and is now withdrawn

Amazon Echo Dot reduced from £49.99 to £29.99

Amazon Echo reduced from £89.99 to £59.99

Amazon Fire TV Stick reduced from £39.99 to £24.99

Amazon Echo Show reduced from £199.99 to £99.99

Amazon Fire HD10 tablet reduced from £149.99 to £99.99

In terms of luggage, the main discounts appear to be on Samsonite and American Tourister suitcases.  I found a lot of items at 40% off – it is worth a poke around in the luggage section here.

As we said yesterday, if you do decide to buy anything, and you visit Amazon via this link, HFP gets a small commission and you can consider your annual HFP subscription paid …..

Eurostar station staff to strike on 28th July

Eurostar station staff at London St Pancras have called a 24 hour strike for 28th July. 

It is to protest at what the RMT union describes as “shocking and dangerous” working conditions due to recent service failures, caused by issues in the tunnel, train breakdowns and French rail strikes.  As anyone who has used Eurostar since the move from Waterloo will know, the concourse area is not huge and can soon become overcrowded if trains are not running on schedule.

Eurostar currently believes that it can continue to run services as normal if the strike does go ahead.

News in brief:

Eurostar to open a cocktail bar in the London lounge

The highlight of the huge new Eurostar Business Premier lounge in Paris is the cocktail bar, which is open every evening and serves up your choice of drink – on the house.  We covered it in our review of the new lounge here.

Eurostar has now announced that it is opening a cocktail bar in London.  You won’t have to wait long – the work is starting this month and they hope to be open by the end of August.  It will be situated on the first floor of the existing lounge.

Remember that you get free access to Eurostar lounges, irrespective of your class of travel, with an American Express Platinum card.  You can’t bring any guests although, of course, you can issue a free supplementary Platinum card to your partner.

Etihad to launch Acqua di Parma amenity kits

I am rarely excited by amenity kit news which is why we don’t cover them much on Head for Points.  Although Anika is in love with her British Airways Liberty print First Class bag she got on a press event last year ….

However, as a guy who spends a disproportionate amount of money on Acqua di Parma products, I was delighted to see it forming the basis of Etihad’s new Business Class and First Class amenity kits.

This is what you will get.  First Class passengers clearly get the better deal:

“Yellow, the colour synonymous with the Italian brand, is used for all First Class bags, while Business Class bags are offered in the same yellow, and also in black.

The First Class unisex cylinder bag contains a miniature bottle of Colonia, a 40ml body lotion and lip balm. First Class toiletries include Colonia hand wash and hand cream, and Colonia bathroom amenity kits feature shower gel, body lotion, hair shampoo, and hair conditioner.

The Business Class unisex wallet bag, which can be buttoned to create a stylish and useful valet tray, contains a Colonia sampler and hand cream, which will also be dispensed in the Business Class washrooms.”

They launch on 23rd August so I hopefully should be able to pick one up on our Middle East holiday at half-term.

News in brief:

Join me at Loyalty Summit and the Frequent Traveller Awards Europe

Thursday 20th September sees a new travel loyalty conference in London called Loyalty Summit. 

Held at the Hyatt Churchill, the speakers include senior members of Le Club AccorHotels, Radisson Rewards, Marriott Rewards, Finnair Plus, Norwegian Rewards, Miles & More, Flying Blue, American Express, SAS EuroBonus, Scandic Friends and IHG Rewards Club amongst others.  The agenda for the day is here.

Following the summit, guests will be heading to the RAF Museum in Hendon for a reception and gala dinner underneath a Lancaster bomber!  The evening will conclude with the Europe and Africa version of the Frequent Traveller Awards.

I will be attending the Summit – but not speaking – and I will also be hosting a table at the Frequent Traveller Awards dinner.

I was offered five heavily discounted tickets for my staff, but as I don’t have five employees I have been allowed to offer them to readers who work in the loyalty sector.

The standard rate is $399 if you work in the airline, hotel or car rental industry.  I can sponsor registrations for five people for just $199, so roughly £150.  This covers breakfast, attendance all day at the Loyalty Summit, lunch, transport from the Hyatt Churchill to Hendon, the gala dinner, drinks etc.

If you are interested, email me at rob at headforpoints.co.uk and I will send you a registration code.  As I like to help people who are at the beginning of their careers, priority will be given to people who work for the main companies we cover – Avios / BA, Virgin, Hilton, IHG, Marriott, Qatar, Etihad etc – and especially those who are at a junior level and who would not otherwise be able to get the full conference fee approved.

Eurostar launches its London lounge cocktail bar

Following the huge success of the cocktail bar in its new Paris lounge (see our review here), Eurostar has opened another on the upper level of the London St Pancras lounge.

A press photo is above.

The menu has been designed by the London Cocktail Club and includes Lavender Dusk, a signature Eurostar cocktail created by the Business Premier culinary director Raymond Blanc.

Remember that Eurostar lounge access is a benefit of the American Express Platinum card, irrespective of your class of travel.  You cannot bring a guest although obviously your nominated supplementary Platinum cardholder can come in with you by showing that.

British Airways launches a new Indian codeshare

British Airways has announced a codeshare deal with Indian airline Vistara.

This will allow you to book flights on ba.com to 13 new Indian cities including Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Goa, Kolkata, Kochi, and Pune.

You will change planes in Delhi, Chennai or Mumbai to a Vistara service.  Bags will be checked through for you.

You will earn Avios and tier points for the Vistara flight.  This is only possible if you book a Vistara flight under a British Airways flight number, which means it must be connecting to a mainline British Airways service.  You cannot earn Avios or tier points if you book a Vistara flight directly.

Services are now bookable on ba.com for travel from 27th September.

Most frequent flyer schemes allow you to pay to transfer miles to a friend.  It is usually a terrible deal.  The price is often only modestly cheaper than buying miles outright but no new miles are being created – you are paying a high fee simply for the loyalty programme to move them from one account to another!

Here is British Airways pricing for Avios transfers.  Transferring 13,000 Avios points from yourself to a friend will cost a crazy £100 unless you are a Gold member.  This is especially crazy given that a) you can issue a reward ticket for someone else from your account and b) you could create a Household Account for free and pool your miles that way.

In general, you should think long and hard before paying to transfer airline miles to someone else.

With the hotel loyalty schemes, it is a totally different game.

Most of the hotel schemes make it very easy to transfer points around – and you often don’t need to pay.  Here are some examples:

Best Western Rewards

The Q&A on the UK website says:  “Yes. Points can be transferred between accounts that share the same physical address. To arrange a point transfer, please contact our Rewards Team at rewards@bestwestern.co.uk”.  Easy.

Hilton Honors

Hilton used to make a nominal charge ($12.50 per 5,000 points) to make transfers.  This has now changed – points pooling, as they call it, is now FREE.  You can send up to 500,000 points and receive up to 2 million points per calendar year.

You can find out more on the Hilton Honors website here.

IHG Rewards Club

You can transfer points to anyone else for a flat fee of $5 per 1,000.  I did this once to top up my Mum’s account from 14,000 to 15,000 for a redemption – in this scenario it was definitely $5 well spent (buying 1,000 would have been $13.50).  The link to arrange transfers is here.

Le Club AccorHotels

Accor points cannot be transferred.

Marriott Rewards / Starwood Preferred Guest

Marriott allows you to transfer your points to anyone.  Full details are here.

Following the Marriott Rewards / SPG merger there is a cap of 100,000 points per year unless the points are being combined with those of another member and redeemed immediately.  There is no fee for the transfer but you need to call Marriott to get it done.

Radisson Rewards

Radisson Rewards used to be super-generous – any transfer, to anyone, for free. Whilst that is no longer the case, it is still pretty good.  If you are NOT elite (Amex Platinum comes with free Radisson Rewards Gold status) you can still transfer points to anyone who has shared your address for at least 30 days, as long as both accounts are at least a year old.  Details are on the website here.

If you have status, you can still transfer anything to anyone for free.

World of Hyatt

Hyatt points can be transferred to any other member for FREE by filling in this PDF form. You can only make a transfer once every 30 days. In theory you are meant to redeem them as soon as the transfer is complete but my understanding is that this is not enforced.

There is one unpublished rule, which I came a cropper with a couple of years ago.  Both the giving and receiving accounts must have had a qualifying Hyatt stay during the previous 12 months.  This is what it means when the PDF form says that both accounts must be ‘active’.

PS.  It is worth knowing that Club Eurostar also lets you transfer points to anyone for free.  See the Eurostar website here.

Le Club AccorHotels has announced a new partnership with Club Eurostar.

I was a little surprised to see this but I shouldn’t have been.  As the biggest hotel group in France and with a big UK presence, Accor was a natural fit.  Club Eurostar has also been keen to add new partnerships since the scheme was relaunched last year.

You can now move Accor points to Club Eurostar, and Club Eurostar points to Accor.

Full details are on the Accor website here.

But should you?

Accor is the only airline or hotel group which is really pushing the concept of two-way transfer partnerships.  You have been able to transfer Finnair points to and from Accor for a while, and Qatar Airways was added last year.

In a roundabout way, it is a way of converting Finnair or Qatar Airways miles into Avios or many other airlines, using Le Club AccorHotels as an intermediary.  You lose a lot of value doing this though.

The snag with these deals is that they are not hugely generous.  Le Club AccorHotels is a revenue based loyalty scheme, with 1 Accor point worth 2 Eurocents off a hotel room.  There is no redemption chart – the number of points needed for a free night is based on the cash cost of the room you want.

Because it is revenue based, it is hard for the scheme to be too generous on transfers because it needs to make a profit both on transfers in and transfers out.

You can see what I mean by looking at the asymmetrical Accor rates to and from Club Eurostar:

500 Club Eurostar points gets you 1,500 Le Club AccorHotels points

4,000 Le Club AccorHotels points gets you 350 Club Eurostar points

Point transfers do NOT count towards status in either scheme.

Let’s try to put a cash value on this.  Club Eurostar points, which are earned at the rate of 1 point per £1 spent, are redeemed like this:

Standard – 1000 points return (1500 for ‘any train availability’) – typically £100

Standard Premier – 2000 points return (25000 for ‘any train availability’) – typically £200

Business Premier – 3000 points return for ‘any train availability’ – typically £450

On this basis, let’s assume a value of 10p per Club Eurostar point.  That said, as the comments below point out, if you’re planning a Friday to Sunday weekend break you will pay a lot more and – assuming you need to trigger ‘any train availability’ – you will get closer to 15p.

Going back to our original trade:

500 Club Eurostar points (value £50) gets you 1,500 Le Club AccorHotels points (value €30)

4,000 Le Club AccorHotels points (value €80) gets you 350 Club Eurostar points (value £35)

This is clearly a bad trade however you do it.

Of course, life isn’t always that simple.  Perhaps you have a handful of Club Eurostar points you won’t use and will expire (although you can use them to part-pay a cash ticket), in which case 1,500 Accor points is better than nothing.  If you have 4,000 Accor points sitting around you can convert to 4,000 Avios in Iberia Plus or 2,000 – 4,000 other airline miles, although €80 off a hotel room seems better to me.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, it is always good to have more redemption options.  This one involves a noticeable loss of value in my book, but you may have a different view than me on what your Eurostar and Accor points are worth.

It is also worth noting that, when Qatar Airways devalued Qmiles without notice earlier this year, the option to cash out to Accor suddenly became excellent value.  Many people who were left with too few Qmiles for a redemption were suddenly happy to spend them via the Accor route.

You can find out more about this new partnership on the Le Club AccorHotels website here.

News in brief:

China Southern to leave SkyTeam – and rumoured to be joining oneworld

China Southern announced yesterday that it is leaving the SkyTeam airline alliance.  It will not renew its existing contract on 1st January and the airline will slowly unwind its position during 2019.

There is a belief in the industry that China Southern will switch to oneworld, alongside British Airways, from 2020.  American Airlines, a oneworld member, is already a shareholder in China Southern.

SkyTeam will presumably continue to consolidate around Delta and Air France KLM, its core members.  It would be interesting if this departure encouraged Delta and Air France KLM, both shareholders or ‘shareholders to be’ in Virgin Atlantic, to push the British airline gently towards membership.

Whilst oneworld is lacking a mainland Chinese carrier, it does of course already have Cathay Pacific.  China Southern has a major hub in Guangzhou which is on Hong Kong’s doorstep and would create complications.  If a deal went through it would provide a new set of Avios redemption options for getting from Europe to Asia.

Amex’s Centurion Lounge returns to London

Despite teething troubles last year (which included scheduling a ticketed event for the opening night, so virtually no-one who turned up on spec as encouraged could get in), American Express is bringing its Centurion Lounge concept back to London.

It is taking over Unit 6 on Langley Street in Covent Garden, which is:

“an immersive event and exhibition space, dedicated to experimental projects and programming. A grade I listed building with stunning exposed brick and industrial steelwork, the space is totally unique.”

A picture is above.  The lounge will be open from 13th to 16th December.

“Platinum Cardmembers and Centurion members [plus two guests per cardholder] are invited to escape the busy streets of London to relax, recharge, and leave the holiday stress behind in our welcoming space. The pop-up will be open from 13 – 16 December and will provide refreshments from chefs, as well as cocktails, special gifts and more.”

Eurostar lounge update

I was in the Eurostar lounge at St Pancras yesterday for the first time since the new cocktail bar opened.  Whilst it wasn’t open at 8am (!) it does look very smart as you can see above.

I have a love/hate relationship with this lounge.  It is always ludicrously overcrowded on the ground floor but deserted upstairs – whether this is the fault of the passengers for not noticing the stairs or Eurostar for not painting them luminous pink to make them more obvious isn’t clear.

The breakfast food selection is weak (two cereal options, pain au chocolat, croissants, ham, cheese) and, even worse, the quality of the pastries is dire.  Given that Pret is now open on the concourse there is no excuse for serving what they do.

On the positive side, the selection of newspapers and magazines is outstanding.  No other lounge I know comes close.  My taste in reading may not match yours, but there were at least 10 magazines I would happily have walked off with.

There are also wireless phone charging pads by every seat upstairs, which is a simple but very convenient benefit.  All seats have a power socket too.

Remember that Eurostar lounge access is a benefit of American Express Platinum (see our new review here) – just show your card at the door.  No guests are allowed but obviously your partner could come in if they were your free Platinum supplementary cardholder.  In my experience children are allowed in ‘by negotiation’ at quiet periods, with more chance in Paris where the lounge is larger.

I have written numerous articles before about using American Express Membership Rewards points and a few pieces on how I value airline miles and hotel points.

I have pulled together both of these strands in this updated 2018 article on how to make the best use of your Amex Membership Rewards points.  It does NOT cover every Membership Rewards redemption but it does cover the bulk of the pseudo-cash, cash and travel options.  All that is missing is the various merchandise options and they are generally poor value.

The Amex Membership Rewards website is here if you want to look for yourself at what is available.

Please post below with any comments, observations or anecdotes about your own redemptions.

0.75p – 1.5p per point (my target)

Airline miles.  My last piece on valuing Avios points is here and Amex points transfer into Avios at 1:1.  This is why the sign-up bonuses, such as 20,000 points for taking out the free (in Year 1) Amex Gold, are so valuable.

It is impossible to tie down a tighter range because of the number of different airline partners and the various ways (upgrade, long-haul, short-haul, economy, premium) you can redeem.  Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 to Avios, Virgin Atlantic, Emirates, Etihad, Singapore Airlines, Alitalia, Cathay Pacific, Delta, Finnair, Flying Blue and SAS.

My personal spreadsheet of the last 6.8m Avios I have redeemed shows that I got an average value of 1.2p.  This is based on what I would personally have been prepared to pay for the flights I took, however, which may be far different from what you would have been prepared to pay.  My best redemptions – such a recent 50,000 Singapore Airlines miles business class return redemption on SWISS from the UK to Dubai – far exceeded this.

1p per point (my target)

Radisson Rewards hotel transfers.  I explain my valuation in this article and the conversion rate is a generous 1 Amex point to 3 Radisson Rewards points.  You need (70,000 / 3) 23,333 Amex points for the most expensive hotels and if you assume a £250 per night cash cost then 1p per point is still realistic.  At the bottom end, 15,000 Radisson points (5,000 Amex points) gets you a budget UK Park Inn hotel which is likely to cost £50+, justifying 1p per Amex point.  Radisson Rewards in the UK covers Radisson Blu, Radisson Edwardian, Park Inn and Park Plaza.

0.75p per point (my target)

Marriott Rewards hotel transfers.  Amex points convert at 2:3 into the new combined Marriott Rewards / Starwood Preferred Guest programme.  Whilst I might look at this again when peak and off-peak pricing launches in 2019, it is currently very easy to get 0.5p per Marriott / SPG point.  A recent Paris redemption got me a £250 room for 40,000 points, whilst over the ITB travel show next March I have the excellent Berlin Marriott for 35,000 points at a time when cash rates are €450.

0.5p per SPG / Marriott point means, at a 2:3 exchange rate from Membership Rewards, 0.75p per Membership Rewards point.  You now have a whopping 30 hotel brands inside the new combined Marriott / Starwood business to redeem at, including Le Meridien, Sheraton, Westin, W, Marriott, Autograph, Design Hotels, The Luxury Collection, The Ritz-Carlton, St Regis etc etc.

0.66p per point (my target)

Hilton Honors hotel transfers.  Hilton has moved closer to a revenue-based redemption model in recent years, although you can get still outsized value at times.  Remember that the conversion rate is 1:2 to Hilton which is how I get to 0.66p per Amex point.  Hilton brands include Conrad, Waldorf Astoria and Hampton.

Club Eurostar points.  I value a Club Eurostar point at 10p, assuming you value a standard class return at £100 and a Standard Premier return at £200.  The 15:1 transfer rate into Club Eurostar means you are getting 0.66p per point.

0.5p per point (guaranteed, as you are getting pseudo-cash)

Retailer gift cards – Starbucks, M&S, Harrods, SpaFinder, iTunes, car hire vouchers etc.  20,000 Amex points will get you a £100 shopping voucher, for example.

0.5p per point (guaranteed, as you are getting pseudo-cash, with potential for upside)

The value of a Nectar point, given that you can redeem Amex points for Nectar points at a 1:1 ratio.  Occasional Nectar redemptions offer better value than this, eg during a ‘double up’ promotion at Sainsbury you would get 1p.  Occasional targeted eBay promotions have let you convert Nectar points to eBay credit at 1p per point.

0.5p per point (target)

Approximate value of using your points for Eurostar tickets (15,000 points for Standard, 30,000 for Standard Premier) based on the maximum cash price of tickets which are offered for redemption.  This article explains more.

0.45p per point (guaranteed, as you are getting pseudo-cash)

Linking your Amex account to amazon.co.uk and paying for your purchases directly with points (more in this article).  This is a slightly silly option, however, as you can also redeem for Amazon gift cards and get 0.5p per point!

0.4p per point (guaranteed, as you are getting cash)

Redeeming for American Express statement credit. This is fall back option – there is no excuse for redeeming for anything worse than this ratio.

0.2p – 0.33p per point (target)

Typical merchandise redemptions, such as an iPad.  These are almost always terrible deals.  In most cases, you are better off buying the item at Amazon on your Amex card and taking 0.4p per point of statement credit to pay it off.

I hope this gives you some ideas for using your points.  If you use them sensibly, the 20,000 points sign-up bonus on the free American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (see our Amex Gold review) could be worth £200 – and in the very worst case (taking statement credit) you will still receive £80.

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points and do not consider interest rates, service levels or any impact on your credit history.  By recommending credit cards on this site, I am – technically – acting as a credit broker.  Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a credit broker.

News in brief:

Earn double Avios with Shell Drivers Club

Shell Drivers Club is offering double points on all Shell V-Power purchases until 31st January.  Full details are on their website here.

Double points means four points (two Avios) per litre with Shell V-Power.  Standard fuel will continue to earn one point per litre.

Shell Drivers Club is the loyalty scheme for Shell garages in the UK.  Joining is simple – pick up a card at a Shell station when filling up and register it online.  You earn 100 Avios just for registering your card so it is worth doing this even if you switch to a different reward later.

You can learn more at the Shell Drivers Club website here.

The scheme is simple – 2 Shell points = 1 Avios. As well as Avios, 500 points can be turned into £2.50 of Shell vouchers.  The benefit of taking Avios is that Shell converts your points quarterly in multiples of 20 (ie 10 Avios) with no minimum, unlike the 500 point minimum for other rewards.

The snag is that you are effectively paying 1p per Avios as you could claim a £2.50 Shell voucher with your 500 Shell points instead of taking 250 Avios.  If 1p per Avios is too rich for you (it is too rich for me, I am happier ‘paying’ 0.75p or less) then take the Shell vouchers.

Thanks to Nick for this.

Eurostar adding a third daily Amsterdam service

Eurostar has announced that it is launching a 3rd weekday Rotterdam and Amsterdam service on 11th June.

It will depart St Pancras at 11.04, arriving in Amsterdam at 16.11.  The early morning service will leave earlier, at 07.16, arriving 12.11, potentially making life easier for business travellers.  The 3rd train leaves at 17.16, arriving 22.11.

Whilst the outbound service is direct, the trip back to London still requires a change of train in Brussels.  This situation will continue until Amsterdam gains the facilities to complete passport and security checks.

Here is Anika’s review of the inaugural London to Amsterdam Eurostar service.

QHotels switching its properties to Marriott’s Delta brand

QHotels is a small chain of 25 four-star UK hotels.  Some are run as DoubleTree by Hilton franchises, others trade under their historical names.

Properties include:

• DoubleTree by Hilton hotels in Glasgow, Cambridge (Belfry), Stratford upon Avon, Oxford and Forest Pines
• The Queens, Leeds
• Oulton Hall, Leeds
• Crewe Hall, Cheshire
• Dunston Hall, Norwich
• Norton Park, Winchester
• The Belfry, Nottingham

….. and many more.  A list is on their website here.

It seems that QHotels is about to rebrand the majority of these hotels under Marriott’s Delta brand.  This would be a coup for Marriott which currently has no Delta properties in the UK.

Delta is a ‘conversion’ brand, just like DoubleTree and IHG’s new voco brand.  A ‘conversion brand’ is a brand without brand standards, allowing virtually any half-decent existing hotel to literally switch overnight without having to worry about the power output of the hairdryer, thread count of the bedsheets etc.

The Nottingham Belfry is already showing on marriott.com as Delta Nottingham – see here.  It switches in April.

If you look at this page of the QHotels website, you will see that the legal entity for the bulk of its hotels has changed to ‘Delta XXXXX’.  Crewe Hall is now legally Delta Crewe Hall Op Co Limited for example.  This makes it highly likely that these properties will also be converting during the next few months.

Even the DoubleTree hotels seem to be switching.  DoubleTree by Hilton Stratford Upon Avon is now owned by Delta Stratford Op Co Ltd, for example.

News in brief:

Bournemouth Airport to open an Executive Lounge

Bournemouth Airport has announced plans to open its first Executive Lounge on 1st June.

The picture below is taken from some pre-design work and is not necessarily going to be the final look but it seems fairly ambitious.

Pre-booking is available for £21.95 via the airport website here.  There is no word yet as to whether Priority Pass or Lounge Club will be accepted but I would be surprised if they are not.

Sold by Manchester Airports Group in 2017, the airport is now owned by Rigby Group.  Rigby also owns Norwich, Exeter, and Coventry Airports and has management contracts to operate Solent, City of Derry and Blackpool Airports.

Thanks to Zoe for this.

Flybe to launch London Southend to Newquay

Stobart Air has announced plans to launch London Southend to Newquay flights on 1st April.

This is planned to be a Flybe franchise, but by 1st April Stobart Group is due to have injected its airline business into Flybe as part of the Virgin Atlantic-led takeover.

Flights will initially operate five days per week, increasing to daily from 1st May to 31st September.

If you’ve never been to London Southend Airport you will be pleasantly surprised.  Here is my review.  Remember that there is a direct rail link from London Liverpool Street.

Earn bonus Club Eurostar points with Accor hotels

Le Club AccorHotels, the loyalty scheme for Ibis, Novotel, Mercure, Sofitel, Raffles, Fairmont, Pullman etc, has launched a promotion with Club Eurostar.

Accor launched its Club Eurostar partnership last year.  It works in both directions:

you can earn Club Eurostar points instead of Le Club AccorHotels points for your Accor stays

you can convert Club Eurostar points into Le Club AccorHotels points

Neither of these options offer great value as this HFP article explains.  You are better off using your Accor points for free hotel nights and your Eurostar points for free train travel.

During this new special offer period, however, you can earn triple Club Eurostar points on every Accor stay.  This IS a decent deal, especially compared to taking Avios, although it isn’t much use if you’re not an existing Club Eurostar points collector.

(That said, you can top up your Club Eurostar account via American Express Membership Rewards at 15:1, so even if you have no Club Eurostar points you might to be able to get close to a free train ticket via this offer and top up with Amex points later.)

If you want to look at the numbers:

2000 Accor points = €40 of free Accor hotel room, so 1.7p per Accor point

2000 Accor points = 2000 Avios if you convert to Iberia Plus (but only 1000 Avios in BA Executive Club) which I’d value at 1p per Accor point

2000 Accor points = 175 Club Eurostar points which I’d value at £17.50 (ie 10p per Club Eurostar point) so 0.9p per Accor point, tripled under this offer to 2.7p

The offer runs until 28th March.  You MUST have your Accor accounts set to automatically convert your points to Club Eurostar, which can be done via this page of the Accor website.

Warning – if you activate this, all of your existing Accor points will be transferred over to Club Eurostar.  Do not do this until you are happy with that.

You can find out more about the offer on the Accor site here.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for the latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios from current offers and promotions.)

Le Club AccorHotels, the loyalty scheme for Ibis, Novotel, Mercure, Sofitel, Raffles, Fairmont, Pullman etc, has launched a promotion with Club Eurostar.

Accor launched its Club Eurostar partnership last year.  It works in both directions:

you can earn Club Eurostar points instead of Le Club AccorHotels points for your Accor stays

you can convert Club Eurostar points into Le Club AccorHotels points

Neither of these options offer great value as this HFP article explains.  You are better off using your Accor points for free hotel nights and your Eurostar points for free train travel.

During this new special offer period, however, you can earn triple Club Eurostar points on every Accor stay.  This IS a decent deal, especially compared to taking Avios, although it isn’t much use if you’re not an existing Club Eurostar points collector.

(That said, you can top up your Club Eurostar account via American Express Membership Rewards at 15:1, so even if you have no Club Eurostar points you might to be able to get close to a free train ticket via this offer and top up with Amex points later.)

If you want to look at the numbers:

2000 Accor points = €40 of free Accor hotel room, so 1.7p per Accor point

2000 Accor points = 2000 Avios if you convert to Iberia Plus (but only 1000 Avios in BA Executive Club) which I’d value at 1p per Accor point

2000 Accor points = 175 Club Eurostar points which I’d value at £17.50 (ie 10p per Club Eurostar point) so 0.9p per Accor point, tripled under this offer to 2.7p

The offer runs until 28th March.  You MUST have your Accor accounts set to automatically convert your points to Club Eurostar, which can be done via this page of the Accor website.

Warning – if you activate this, all of your existing Accor points will be transferred over to Club Eurostar.  Do not do this until you are happy with that.

You can find out more about the offer on the Accor site here.

How to earn Club Eurostar points via UK credit cards

As a reminder, Club Eurostar does not have its own UK credit card.  However, you can earn Club Eurostar points by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.  These are:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold – 10,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

The Platinum Card from American Express – 30,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

American Express Rewards credit card – up to 5,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

Membership Rewards points convert at 15:1 into Club Eurostar points.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, so you earn the equivalent of 1 Club Eurostar point for every £15 you spend.

American Express Platinum also comes with a great Eurostar benefit – lounge access!  You can enter any Eurostar lounge, irrespective of your ticket type, simply by showing The Platinum Card at the desk.  No guests are allowed but you can get entry for your partner by issuing them with a FREE supplementary Amex Platinum card on your account.

Eurostar has announced that it is launching a 3rd weekday Rotterdam and Amsterdam service on 11th June.

It will depart St Pancras at 11.04, arriving in Amsterdam at 16.11.  The early morning service will leave earlier, at 07.16, arriving 12.11, potentially making life easier for business travellers.  The 3rd train leaves at 17.16, arriving 22.11.

Whilst the outbound service is direct, the trip back to London still requires a change of train in Brussels.  This situation will continue until Amsterdam gains the facilities to complete passport and security checks.

Here is Anika’s review of the inaugural London to Amsterdam Eurostar service.

How to earn Club Eurostar points via UK credit cards

As a reminder, Club Eurostar does not have its own UK credit card.  However, you can earn Club Eurostar points by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.  These are:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold – 10,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

The Platinum Card from American Express – 30,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

American Express Rewards credit card – up to 5,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus

Membership Rewards points convert at 15:1 into Club Eurostar points.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, so you earn the equivalent of 1 Club Eurostar point for every £15 you spend.

American Express Platinum also comes with a great Eurostar benefit – lounge access!  You can enter any Eurostar lounge, irrespective of your ticket type, simply by showing The Platinum Card at the desk.  No guests are allowed but you can get entry for your partner by issuing them with a FREE supplementary Amex Platinum card on your account.