What benefits does the Heathrow Rewards Premium tier get you?

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Heathrow Rewards is launching a revamp of its ‘Premium’ tier today. To promote it they are launching a transfer bonus to Avios and most of their other airline partners.

Heathrow Rewards gives you 1 point for every £1 spent in Heathrow (1 per £10 on foreign exchange) or on Heathrow Express tickets (online bookings only). Once you’ve earned 250 points you can exchange them for miles or shopping vouchers.

Heathrow Rewards

Let’s start with the airline transfer bonus. You will see that you get a higher bonus if you are on the Heathrow Rewards ‘Premium’ tier – this may be the start of a new pattern for Heathrow Rewards promotions.

Between today and 31st January you will receive:

A 50% bonus on transfers to BA / Avios / Aer Club if you are a base level member of Heathrow Rewards

A 100% bonus on transfers to BA / Avios / Aer Club if you are a Premium member of Heathrow Rewards

The bonus also applies to transfers to:

Emirates Skywards
Lufthansa Miles & More
Royal Brunei Royal Skies
Singapore Airlines Krisflyer
Virgin Flying Club

It does not apply to Etihad Guest.

The standard transfer rate is 250 Heathrow Rewards points = 250 miles. Under this promotion you will receive 375 or 500 miles per 250 points depending on your Heathrow Rewards status.

Please do not make a transfer until the offer is live on their website later today or you risk not getting the bonus.

Introducing the new Heathrow Rewards Premium tier

Heathrow Rewards has always had a Premium tier. You needed to spend £500 in a calendar year to qualify and would then receive double points (2 per £1) on all of your Heathrow shopping, parking and Heathrow Express tickets. There was also a small bonus of 100 points when you first qualified for Premium.

The airport has decided to jazz up the benefits of Premium whilst raising the qualifying threshold to £750.

Starting today, this is what you will receive:

Double points on all of your spending

Up to four Heathrow Express Business First upgrade vouchers per year

3,000 bonus Heathrow Rewards points with your first Rocketmiles hotel booking after achieving Premium

Premium wi-fi at Heathrow Airport

£10 discount when you spend £100 at World Duty Free

You will also receive:

750 points for referring a friend to Heathrow Rewards

150 bonus points when you book Heathrow Porters

150 bonus points when you book Shop & Collect

150 bonus points when you use Reserve & Collect

150 bonus points when you use Home Delivery

‘Enhanced’ bonus points and points conversion offers

There will also be an annual competition to win one million Heathrow Rewards points (so 1 million Avios!). All Premium members will receive one entry for every purchase they make at Heathrow.

When you hit £750 of spending, you will receive Premium status for the remainder of the current calendar year and all of the following year.

What if I am already a Premium member for spending £500?

If you are an existing Premium member, you will be upgraded to the new package. This will remain valid until the end of 2018. You will need to spend £750 during 2018 to retain your status for next year. You will not receive a new membership card, but if you update your card in Apple Wallet or the Heathrow app it will show you as a Premium member.

Note that the offer of free Premium tier membership for holders of the MBNA Etihad Guest credit card has been withdrawn.

Overall …..

I think this is a decent set of enhancements, especially as Heathrow Rewards has also been working hard on adding new airline partners over the last year. The jump to a £750 spending requirement is the first rise since Heathrow Rewards was launched, so part of the increase is just inflationary.

There is real potential here to earn a lot of points. With a Premium member getting double points and potentially receiving better terms (100%?) in future transfer bonuses, you could be picking up 4 miles per £1 spent. That’s not a bad extra return on your spending.

Full details of these changes will appear on the Heathrow Rewards website during today.

Category

British Airways and Avios, Emirates and Emirates Skywards, Heathrow Rewards, Lufthansa and Miles & More, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

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

Mike says:

16 Jan16 January 06:32

That’s good, I just made the Premium Tier in December, and logging into my account this morning I can see I’ve been upgraded.
Chris Cannon says:

16 Jan16 January 06:39

When will the card update in Apple Wallet or App? I spent over £4K last year with my HR card and there’s no distinguishing feature on the card to say premium tier (or any tier for that matter)
- Chris Cannon says:
  
  16 Jan16 January 06:43
  
  Never mind. Logged in through website and it shows there – premium
  - Rich says:
    
    16 Jan16 January 10:47
    
    Me too – actually my Heathrow App and Apple Wallet have updated now too.
Mark says:

16 Jan16 January 06:56

Guess who transferred from Heathrow Rewards to BAEC yesterday 🙁
Alex W says:

16 Jan16 January 07:37

Shame no more offer of premium tier for “holding” the Etihad credit card.
Is there any way to transfer HR points from a “friend” to my own account?
- Genghis says:
  
  16 Jan16 January 07:54
  
  I’ve previously transferred my “friend’s” HR points to my avios account (mine go to BAEC).
  - Alex W says:
    
    16 Jan16 January 08:01
    
    I meant to my own HR account. I have several “friends” with only a hundred or so HR points, not enough to transfer to Avios.
Alex W says:

16 Jan16 January 07:41

Shame no more premium tier for “holding” the Etihad card.

Is there any way to transfer HR points from a “friend” to my own account?
- Rob says:
  
  16 Jan16 January 15:25
  
  Yes, you email or ring HR and ask them. No charge.
Liz says:

16 Jan16 January 08:00

I was hoping for a new sign up bonus on taking out a new account. Rob, do you think that might happen now that they have enhanced their program
- Rob says:
  
  16 Jan16 January 15:25
  
  Good question, not seen one promoted so far this year.
Jake says:

16 Jan16 January 08:01

Rob, two questions (separate from each other) about amex gold pref.applications

1. Will Amex gold approve a UK citizen but overseas worker, in regards with their application and accept their salary (e.g. does it have to be a UK salary)

2. Can I refer someone who is either unemployed or retired, will they accept this as an occupation or reject due to min salary expectation?
- mark2 says:
  
  16 Jan16 January 08:24
  
  My wife and I have no rouble getting a complete set up to Platinum although retired mainly on state pension. It must depend on credit record.
  - mark2 says:
    
    16 Jan16 January 09:19
    
    these are obviously the Russian versions!
    - David says:
      
      16 Jan16 January 10:20
      
      Hahaha 🙂
- John says:
  
  16 Jan16 January 09:57
  
  Citizenship doesn’t matter, you can be approved as long as you are a UK resident.
  
  I only ever recall questions about income, not salary. There’s no minimum salary expectation. They do ask for details of your employer if you select that you are “employed”.
- the_real_a says:
  
  16 Jan16 January 14:14
  
  I know a couple of housewives who have AMEX on the back of their husbands or family income. They have a £2000 limit on their CHARGE cards. That’s the only restriction. As i understand it, the requirement is household income not personal income.
John says:

16 Jan16 January 09:12

OT: Travelling without my wife next week and wondering if I can use her Lounge pass (gold charge card 2 free visits) without her present?
- Anna says:
  
  16 Jan16 January 09:48
  
  I would say not as you need to present the Gold card as well, which is presumably in her name.
  - John says:
    
    16 Jan16 January 09:58
    
    Nobody has ever asked me for the linked Amex card.
- Rob says:
  
  16 Jan16 January 09:57
  
  Is there a name on the pass?
  - John says:
    
    16 Jan16 January 10:06
    
    Yes Initial and Surname (not matching mine).
    
    So only a problem if they ask for passport anyone know if they do?
    - S says:
      
      16 Jan16 January 10:47
      
      Never happened to me with Priority Pass
    - PJS says:
      
      16 Jan16 January 21:25
      
      Some lounges cross check the name on my Priority Pass with that on the boarding pass.
      Aspire at LHR T5 seem quite keen on this.