Bits: 75% bonus for buying Hilton points, pilot and crew rest areas of a 777, Flybe sale

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News in brief:

Up to 75% bonus when you buy Hilton HHonors points

This offer is poorer than the 100% and 80% bonuses which Hilton HHonors has offered in recent months so I am not focussing on it strongly.

The full bonus is not even given on all purchases. 10,000 – 29,000 points only gets you a 25% bonus whilst 30,000 – 39,000 gets 50%. Only at purchases of 40,000 points or more do you get a 75% bonus. At the top end, you can buy 140,000 Hilton points (80,000 plus 60,000 free) for $800. That is 0.57 cents each.

Regular readers of Head for Points will know that I tend to value Hilton points at 0.3p each which is LESS than you are paying here. However, Hilton HHonors IS a decent deal at cheaper point levels. The Hampton by Hilton in Sheffield is 10,000 points per night. At 0.57c per point you would be paying roughly £35 per night if you bought the points. That is a 65% discount on the typical nightly rate of £100. Hampton properties include free breakfast as well.

If you just buying a handful of points to top off your account, the price per point doesn’t matter anyway. If you a few thousand short of a redemption then this is a cheap opportunity to buy them. The offer closes on October 5th. The link to buy is here.

The pilot and crew rest areas of a Boeing 777-300

Here is a little oddment which doesn’t really fit into one of the Air New Zealand profile pieces that I am running throughout September. When I was touring their 777-300 at Heathrow, I was allowed to go into the pilot rest area. It was fascinating.

Inside the cockpit is a set of stairs. Climb up and this is what you see:

Boeing 777-300 pilot rest area

Each pilot has their own relaxation seat. Out of shot is a TV monitor for each seat so they can watch the IFE.

Also out of shot, behind the curtain, is a mattress for each pilot where they can choose to sleep. I found it a little claustrophobic, to be honest!

Meanwhile, this is where the off duty cabin crew get to sleep:

Boeing 777-300 crew rest area

A bunk bed in an equally dark corridor in the belly of the aircraft!

Boeing 777-300 crew rest area

Flybe Winter sale launched

Finally, Flybe has launched a short Winter sale. There are 500,000 seats available for under £40 – you can see the full Flybe list of destinations here.

Remember that you earn Avios points on Flybe tickets! You must book by 15th September (Tuesday) for travel between 9th October and 26th March 2016. Full details on the Flybe website here.

Category

Hilton Honors

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

James67 says:

11 Sep11 September 04:28

Crew rest area does look a little gloomy, perhaps depends on airline. I have seen pics of crew rest areas on 773ER and 787 which I would happily trade for any F seat, claustrophobic or not.
- Rob says:
  
  11 Sep11 September 13:03
  
  Here’s the CX crew rest on the 777-300.. looks very habitable!
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7MOxqG7Vnw
Jake says:

11 Sep11 September 08:44

I once discovered the Virgin crew rest area on a 747 by accident, looking for the toilet! I thoguht it was a bit strange going downstairs to the loo on an airplane!
- TimS says:
  
  11 Sep11 September 10:04
  
  On a cargo 747 the crew rest area is the entire upper deck. That said, the upper deck on freighters is smaller than on pax. And IFE is BYO!
- James67 says:
  
  11 Sep11 September 11:54
  
  Toilets were downstairs on one aircraft I flew IIRC, maybe a340.
Sussex Bantam says:

11 Sep11 September 10:07

Massively OT – (so I put it in Bits) – how do I credit an Avis rental to BAEC ? I have to book through my work travel agency so can’t use the avisba.com site itself. I can however see the booking under my Avis Preferred membership.

(Sorry if this is a silly question – I don’t hire cars very often !)
- Rob says:
  
  11 Sep11 September 10:24
  
  Give them your number when you pick the car up, or simply retroclaim afterwards.
adam says:

11 Sep11 September 12:16

I used to go out with a girl who was Cabin Crew for Virgin Atlantic and as such flew a lot via a standby ticket. on most flights I used to get to fly Upper class – PE at worst. However, on a couple of flights there were no seats and as they had no obligation to get me home I had to sit on a cabin crew jump seat. On one trip I had the pilots rest seat and ended up spending the whole flight from LAX sitting up there on my own. Very surreal experience.
- Nick says:
  
  11 Sep11 September 20:08
  
  Is this still possible today? The old fly standby for a nominal amount for family of crew?
  - Adam says:
    
    11 Sep11 September 23:19
    
    Not sure to be honest. It was about 10 years ago. Good while it lasted though.
cheekychappie says:

11 Sep11 September 17:26

Various Debs offers turning up, a/c specific

£20 back
DEBENHAMS
Spend £45 or more twice, get £20 back
Save this offer to your Card to get a £20 statement credit when you spend £45 or more in two separate transaction, on different days on your Card at Debenhams in-store or online between 11 September 2015 and 8 November 2015.
EXPIRES
08/11/2015