Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Bits: HfP in National Geographic Traveller, £10 Hailo credit for everyone, Uber hits Berkshire

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News in brief:

Read me in National Geographic Traveller this month

The new July / August edition of National Geographic Traveller (UK edition, £3.95) has a three page article on frequent flyer miles.  It is the most comprehensive article on the topic that I have read in a UK publication for many years.  It starts on page 164.

For better or worse, I feature heavily in the article.

Unfortunately, the article is inaccurate in a couple of places as glossy magazines have a very long lead time.  The interview I did with the magazine was done in December 2014.  When I talk about taking an airberlin flight ‘last year’, I mean 2013.   As this was before the Avios devaluation was announced, some of the numbers quoted in the article regarding the miles needed are now out of date.

There are nuggets of information which the general reader who happens to have a few Avios will find useful.  I cover little-known facts (outside of our circles) such as converting American Express points to Avios and that airberlin and Aer Lingus offer long-haul Avios redemptions with minimal tax.

The article is not yet available on their website but I expect that it will appear over the next couple of months.

National-Geographic-Traveler

£10 Hailo credit for everyone

If you have taxi app Hailo on your smartphone, dig it out NOW and enter code PREBOOKNOW on the ‘Wallet’ page.

A £10 credit will be added to your account, valid until June 15th.  It does not seem to require a prebooked journey to be valid.

I recommend registering ASAP before all of the codes are used up.  EVERYONE can use this code – it works perfectly well on existing accounts.  Thanks to Thomas for this.

Windsor Castle

Uber launches in Berkshire

From April 2018, please use our new Uber sign-up code UBERHEADFORPOINTS via this link, or download the app and add the code via the promo code box on the ‘Payment’ tab.  This gets you £3 off your first ride.

Finally, ride sharing app Uber has launched in Windsor, Slough and Maidenhead.

Only the cheaper (Toyota Prius) UberX service is available at the moment although I would expect the range to be extended in time.

If you haven’t signed up for Uber yet, download the Uber app and use code ‘HEADFORPOINTS’ to receive a free ride worth up to £15.  This code works anywhere in the UK covered by Uber.

Comments (20)

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  • Dan says:

    Hi rob, Uber also launching in Sheffield, for us northern folk

    • Gary says:

      Launched in Bristol yesterday too!

      • Martin Deutsch says:

        I hadn’t realised it was so recent! I arrived in Bristol yesterday and had an exciting(?) evening in a hotel room setting up a phone – when I opened up the Uber app to log in, it offered me £15 credit for my first journey in the city, because they’re new here.

    • Rob says:

      That’s a result for the next time I am back. A1 Taxis had an app last time I was up but it was pretty ineffective when I actually needed a car. It will make my life easier up there when it does launch.

  • Ralph says:

    My wife and I registered, separately; her app shows a ten pounds credit, mine doesn’t although I got a message saying code successful.

    • Matt H says:

      Mine and partners (android), code was accepted but credit not showing up. On the credit page it does now say in small writing “Credits only available with card jobs”, whatever that means.

      I thought all Hailo jobs were card jobs!

  • Roger C says:

    If you already have some credit through a code, does this add to it or replace it?

  • mkcol says:

    Gett Taxi has also launched in Milton Keynes. I suspect there’s only 1 car though!

  • Mark J says:

    Ralph, same for me, code reported as “successful” but no credit was applied to my account.

  • Rob says:

    On iOS, when I click Wallet I see (under my credit card details) a box saying ‘Hailo Credits: £10’. It I click that box it brings up the small print of the voucher, ie use by 15th June.

  • Nick says:

    Same for me.

  • anon says:

    Getting “Servers not responding” on Hailo app..

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.