Bits: Plaza Premium lounge in Terminal 5, Hilton sale on, 10000 new Avios seats

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

News in brief:

Plaza Premium lounge in Terminal 5 under construction

As you can see from these two photographs, which I took yesterday, the new Plaza Premium lounge in Heathrow Terminal 5 is now under construction.

It is situated by Gate A7, which means it is in a parallel position to the Aspire lounge but at the north end of the terminal. I have no idea how it is meant to hold the 175 seats promised by Plaza Premium – I can only assume it must wrap substantially around the back.

(The kids play area has been moved to Gate A2 if you were wondering.)

Lounge Club, free with Amex Gold, and Priority Pass, free with Amex Platinum or buy one direct, will presumably both be accepted for entry, given the usual Plaza Premium standards.

Hilton Summer sale now on

Hilton’s summer sale started yesterday with an exclusive preview sale for Hilton Honors members.

Until 19th June Hilton Honors members can book Europe and UK weekend stays at up to 25% off.

Included is for example the Hilton Molino Stucky Venice for £239 per night instead of £319 (the Hilton Honors changeable and refundable rate is £309).

That said, the 25% saving is on the Best Available Bed & Breakfast rate and is non refundable so it cannot be directly compared to a refundable rate. These deals do usually offer a saving on the usual ‘advanced purchase’ rate however. A full prepayment needs to be made at time of booking.

This rate is only available for weekend stays in the UK and Europe between 16th June and 8th October 2017.

If you aren’t a Hilton Honors member, yet you can sign up when booking your stay on this Hilton website.

BA releases 10,000 Club World Avios seats over Christmas

British Airways sent an email out to some Executive Club members yesterday, but only a handful, to let them know that 10,000 additional Club World Avios seats have been released for travel over Christmas.

The dates covered are 18th December to 5th January.

10,000 Club World seats is more than 500 per day, so if you have tried and failed to find a suitable Christmas or New Year break destination it is worth having another look over at ba.com.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

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

Category

British Airways and Avios, Hilton Honors

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

Simon says:

14 Jun14 June 12:17

OT sorry): anyone know the Emirates points required for the box at the Emirates Stadium for Category C and Category B games? Just planning a trip next season. Thanks in advance.
AndyGWP says:

14 Jun14 June 13:03

re: Hilton – but re: the Barclaycard Hilton free night, is it fully refundable / cancellable?
- Rob says:
  
  14 Jun14 June 13:09
  
  It should be – I have never heard of anyone having a problem, put it that way.
  
  PS. It is raining in New York. It NEVER rains when I’m in New York 🙂
  - Zoe says:
    
    15 Jun15 June 00:14
    
    It’s rained all day in Barbados! Yes, I know it’s the wrong time of year to be here…
    - Polly says:
      
      15 Jun15 June 08:50
      
      It’s NOT raining in Dublin, we are in shock!
  - AndyGWP says:
    
    15 Jun15 June 16:26
    
    Good news… no rain in Cheshire 😉
    
    Also, I spoke to Hilton and they confirmed the certificate is fully refundable / cancellable 🙂
Moktar says:

14 Jun14 June 13:40

OT:
Upgraded from Amex Gold to Platinum via secure message route. Got offered 10K points with no spend requirement. I am now trying to enroll my hotel accounts for the status update. However, on the enrolment page, its giving me the following error:
“Sorry, Hilton Worldwide have been unable to process your enrolment request. This normally happens because there is already a member registered with the email provided or, if applicable, the existing Hilton Honors membership number is incorrect. Please provide an alternative email address or your existing Hilton Honors membership number and re-submit your request.”

Am I not supposed to match existing account details into this form? Receiving the same error for SPG as well.
- Rob says:
  
  14 Jun14 June 14:46
  
  What are you trying to do? The hotel upgrades need to be done via americanexpress.co.uk/platinum where there is a special form. You give your existing member number on that form.
  - Moktar says:
    
    14 Jun14 June 15:39
    
    Hi Rob,
    I am trying to upgrade my existing accounts with Hilton and SPG. I think I am on the same form as you are referring to. On the form where Amex asks for personal data which they will pass onto hotel chain, I have exactly the same details as my hotel profile. But on submission, the form gives me an error and states that there is already a member registered with the same email address or membership number (which is obviously me!)
    I thought Amex upgrades my existing hotel accounts rather than create new ones?
    Thanks for your help.
- Mzungu says:
  
  15 Jun15 June 16:22
  
  Thanks – just received the same offer (10K with no spend requirement) via secure message. Last week I tried the same by phone, and was turned down flat.
Tayo says:

14 Jun14 June 14:46

Wally1976,
Thank you very much for the link, greatly appreciated.
BigAl says:

14 Jun14 June 15:35

As usual, it’s worth taking the Hilton “sale” with a large pinch of salt. Prices for Hilton Berlin in September are coming up over EUR100 more expensive (per night!) than when I booked them 2 weeks ago at a fully refundable advanced HH rate.
Andrew H says:

14 Jun14 June 16:01

Groupon.es alert! The 2000 avios packs for 19 euros are back again!

They are only there for a limited time – do not dawdle if you want one. I repeat, do not dawdle!

Don’t forget to go via Iberia Store who are offering 10 avios per euro spent.

These 2000 packs were initially available the Friday before the Tesco ink error, but someone in Groupon made a titanic mistake and allowed unlimited purchases on those packs. Everyone was too busy with the ink to be disappointed. I managed to bag a pack on Monday morning when they were very briefly available and got the avios in my account today (so it took nine days).

Instructions for anyone new to the Groupon game:

Once you’ve made your purchase, it will show up in your Groupon purchase list after a few minutes (you should get an email to confirm that the Avios are ready).
Click the green button and you will be taken to a new page to get the Avios.

On the left side there should be a green button underneath a picture of an Iberia plane. Click the button and a pdf file will open in a new tab. At the top left there should be a security code and a coupon code. You will need these codes so make a note of them (ignore the ‘ref’ code).

Towards the bottom of the previous page, there’s a set of instructions. In the first paragraph there should be a small link. Click it, and you’ll be taken to a new page with some fields to fill in.

Add the security code, the coupon code, your email address, click the tick box, and hit the ‘validate coupon’ button. It may not work first time, and will just reload the page – this always happens for me. It will eventually work, just be patient. On the second attempt, it worked and took me to a new page asking for my Iberia Plus number. Enter it, hit the button, and you should get a confirmation message on the next page – your avios will be uploaded in 15 days.
- Matthew says:
  
  14 Jun14 June 20:36
  
  Thank you for the step by step guide, very useful 🙂
- Andrew H says:
  
  14 Jun14 June 22:35
  
  Six hours later and they’re still there. Hopefully everyone who wanted a 2000 pack has nipped in this time.
  - Andrew H says:
    
    15 Jun15 June 08:23
    
    The 2000 packs are exhausted again. So they were only available for about 12 hours.