Bits: Finnair to increase Edinburgh and Dublin, Starwood and Hilton Autumn promos

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News in brief:

Finnair increasing Edinburgh and Dublin services

Finnair is clearly happy with the success of its new Edinburgh and Dublin routes as both services are being increased for 2017.

Remember that Finnair is British Airways partner so you earn and redeem Avios on these services. As well as being good for a break in Helsinki or Tallinn (this is how you connect to Tallinn) Finnair has lots of services to Asia. The new Finnair business class was reviewed by me here.

Edinburgh will be increasing to five flights per week next Summer – I don’t have the exact dates. Dublin will be increasing to NINE flights per week from 27th March.

Finnair has also confirmed that it will continue to operate an A350 on one daily rotation on the Heathrow to Helsinki route throughout Summer 2017. This service officially starts on 5th October. If you are redeeming Avios to Helinki then you want to be on this service because you will get a flat bed in business class!

The Finnair website is here if you want to look up exact schedules.

Starwood and Hilton Autumn promotions trailed

We now know what both Starwood Preferred Guest and Hilton HHonors will be running for their Autumn promotions. It is worth knowing now what will be coming so you can plan accordingly.

Starwood will be running “More For You”. This appears to be very similar to the current offer and will give double points on weekday stays of 2+ nights and triple points on weekend stays. You need to stay between 12th September and 18th December. The registration page is here.

Hilton will be running ‘Double Up’. You will earn double points on stays from 1st September to 31st December. Some members will also be targetted for additional bonuses and there is meant to be an additional bonus for app bookings, although details have not yet been released.

If you had registered for the Summer Hilton promotion then you should have had an email yesterday allowing you to pre-register for this new offer before it is officially launched.

I will write more on both of these promotions when they are open for general registration.

Hotel offers update – December 2021:

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

Want to buy hotel points? There is currently a special offer running with IHG Rewards (80% bonus to 4th January 2022) and World of Hyatt (30% discount, equivalent to a 43% bonus, to 30th December 2021).

Category

Finnair and Finnair Plus, Hilton Honors, Marriott Bonvoy

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

James A says:

25 Aug25 August 05:52

When I read the Hilton email I was immediately taken by how cripplingly unimaginative it is. Double points is basically the new standard earning rate, which somewhat balances out the high redemption costs (except for cat 3 and below).
- Rob says:
  
  25 Aug25 August 09:15
  
  I just got 166,000 Hilton points from Mallorca so I won’t complain!
  - Alan says:
    
    25 Aug25 August 10:07
    
    Eek even with double points that sounds like a pretty hefty spend!
    - Rob says:
      
      25 Aug25 August 10:09
      
      50% cheaper than the St Regis or Park Hyatt though, and we had a suite and connecting room.
      - Alan says:
        
        25 Aug25 August 10:14
        
        Nice. Photos on Instagram looked decent too!
  - James A says:
    
    25 Aug25 August 11:52
    
    Did you get the ‘Avios’ hhonors too? It’s still happening for my stays
    - Rob says:
      
      25 Aug25 August 14:10
      
      Went all points, not short of Avios ….
      - Alan says:
        
        26 Aug26 August 18:40
        
        Rob, I think he was referring to the Hilton IT glitch where if you are registered for the Avios promo but have points and points selected you sometimes get awarded bonus HHonors points 😉
  - Leo says:
    
    25 Aug25 August 13:40
    
    Going week after next – what was the recognition of Diamond status like? I only have the one room booked for 8 days so won’t be a huge points haul – no idea what to expect now!
Markc62 says:

25 Aug25 August 08:01

I registered yesterday with no problem when I received the e-mail from Hilton. I agree it’s not an imaginative promo!
Ryan says:

25 Aug25 August 08:42

Just made what I think is my best ever redemption. A flight on FinnAir from London to Seoul – Business out (overnight), Economy rtn (Long day).
One way upgrade from Economy to Business is 50k from Europe to Asia – includes LON – HEL and HEL – ICN legs.
37k Amex points – Amex Plat sign-up and 2k of spending
£704.58 = £561.11 Economy RTN + £143.47 for 13k of FinnAir points.

This looked very attractive when compared to 180k avios and £550ish for a BA business RTN (I know that’s not like for like). That redemption would have left me with 2k avios left in my account.

I’m not too fussed about Economy long haul in the day time, but in the night it’s grim.

Thanks for helping me think creatively about redemptions Rob. I fully expected to swap my amex points for Avios but my travel demands led me elsewhere.

Lastly for an update to the AMEX transfer article, my AMEX points took less than 24h to end up in my FinnAir account. The accounts were not linked beforehand.
- Gavin says:
  
  25 Aug25 August 09:17
  
  You could have got to Seoul in CW for 78k avios with a Lloyds upgrade voucher and not had to change at Helsinki! Anyway interesting approach mixing travel classes
  - Ryan says:
    
    25 Aug25 August 17:55
    
    I would have definitely taken that approach had I had the foresight to get myself a Lloyd’s voucher. 🙂
    By the time I decided to go, it was only about 6 weeks before departure and didn’t think I had the time to apply for the card and get the voucher. That’s especially with all the good stuff I’ve heard about Lloyd’s IT.
    - Gavin says:
      
      26 Aug26 August 08:04
      
      Yes that would have been too tight I think!
- James67 says:
  
  25 Aug25 August 10:20
  
  You should not overlook revenue fares; I would expect AY rtn J ex UK to be around £1500 normal and possibly under £1200 sale. ExEU it can easily be found for around £1000. These would have come with a bunch of avios and TP.
  - Leo says:
    
    25 Aug25 August 13:48
    
    I’ve never SEEN a sale price in Finnair to be honest, though I have heard of them…agree most places in Asia can be had with them for about £1500 or a bit below. I was planning on trying them after Xmas but got a Cathay flight to DPS out of LGW on the new a350 for £1750 – basically BA silver renewal etc. 560 points over 440 and I’ll take Cathay whenever I can.
    - Rob says:
      
      25 Aug25 August 14:09
      
      Xi’an etc kept popping up ex London for £999 for a while.
    - James67 says:
      
      25 Aug25 August 18:10
      
      BKK was on offer last year at one point for £1150. I’m hoping for something similar in the winter sales for next autumn.
Nate1309 says:

25 Aug25 August 08:44

Rob there is an ‘s’ missing from Helsinki in the final sentence 😉
Handy article for those like me who a transfer to Dublin is as easy as Heathrow.
roberto says:

25 Aug25 August 09:32

OT amex platinum question . Following my recent seamless UG from gold to platinum, for the extra 20k, I can’t see if I have to apply for the priority pass (like you have to in the US) or if I am automatically enrolled by amex in the PP scheme? .. And as an add on question if I am auto enrolled with my platinum suplimentory cardholder automatically get their PP too? Thanks in advance….
- guesswho2000 says:
  
  25 Aug25 August 09:59
  
  The Priority Passes for main and supplementary cardholders are sent out automatically, mine turned up a couple of days after the card itself.
  
  Hotel status seems to be taking an incredibly long time to take effect though.
  - roberto says:
    
    25 Aug25 August 11:48
    
    Thanks for the intel.. Finger crossed they arrive quickly as we are away in a couple of weeks and hope to rinse the Priority Passes, spend the £1000, snatch the 20k points and cancel before they even charge the £450 fee.
    - Genghis says:
      
      25 Aug25 August 19:32
      
      That’s my kind of churning!
Alan says:

25 Aug25 August 09:32

Despite having my marketing preferences set to allow contact I never get any emails from Hilton apart from booking confirmations or change of earnings preference 🙁

On the upside as a Diamond member they’re taking me to a show at the Edinburgh Fringe on Saturday with free drinks and nibbles before! 🙂
- Genghis says:
  
  25 Aug25 August 10:40
  
  @Alan – how did you manage to wangle going to the Fringe with HH?
  Also – when you ordered your MoneyCorp explorer card and recently got the £20, did you go through the HfP link or direct from Facebook?
  Cheers.
  - Alan says:
    
    25 Aug25 August 10:56
    
    Hi Genghis – Diamond Desk just rang me out the blue a couple of weeks ago. Was all a bit of a faff though as they never sent the promised follow-up email with details, I then called them back and the team in Texas of course had not a scooby what I was talking about!! Logged a case and still no progress but thankfully it eventually got round to the team in Glasgow that are actually arranging it who have been in touch. Hilton are sponsoring the Udderbelly this year, hence how they have tickets. It’s for Gobsmacked at £15pp – looks like a good show and nice having hospitality beforehand! A friend who is a lifetime Diamond has been to a few events in London with Hilton.
    
    Moneycorp – clicked straight through from HfP, surprised how quickly it credited the £20!
  - Rob says:
    
    25 Aug25 August 11:45
    
    The HFP link is ok, the top guy at Moneycorp authorised this deal (in fact, he suggested it).
    - Peter K says:
      
      25 Aug25 August 17:55
      
      My wife and I have not had our extra £20 yet going via HfP link
      - Rob says:
        
        25 Aug25 August 23:13
        
        Happy to chase it up with the product manager at Moneycorp once the stated time for the bonus arriving has past (however long that was).
Andy says:

25 Aug25 August 11:41

OT but I couldn’t see an answer in the recent IHG Accelerate post. Do bookings made before signing up for the latest Accelerate promo count towards the promotion?

I have a booking in late September made in June for a HIE, and it would be nice if a £40 cash booking could tick off my “stay once get 5k” and “stay September get 5k” targets.
- Rob says:
  
  25 Aug25 August 11:43
  
  Should be ok but check the specific terms for those two bonuses.
Gavin says:

25 Aug25 August 19:27

OT – I noticed several people have their 4500 avios from the Sunday Times Travel Magazine offer. I’ve not yet had mine credited to my exec club account – anyone else not had theirs yet either?
- Genghis says:
  
  25 Aug25 August 19:34
  
  Me. DDs were meant to be taken yesterday but not yet. I think those that have received the points paid by credit card.
  - Gavin says:
    
    25 Aug25 August 22:01
    
    Thanks. Could be right, I also used DD
- harry says:
  
  25 Aug25 August 21:37
  
  nothing
  - Andrew H says:
    
    26 Aug26 August 09:37
    
    Nothing for me either.
- Alan says:
  
  26 Aug26 August 18:35
  
  Not had mine either, no payment been taken yet either though.