Black Friday 1: £100 off Virgin Flight+Hotel, Gatwick Parking, Opodo, 20% off Hotels.com

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

We wrote this article before the deals were live and have relied on the companies involved not to change their promo codes or links – apologies if anything changed at the last minute.

If you’re shopping on Amazon ….

Before we get into the travel deals, a quick reminder that – if you’re buying anything on Amazon today – we earn a small commission if you start your purchase by clicking here. It helps keep us ticking over and, as we’ll be paying 40% tax on the money, it puts more back into system than if you don’t use our link!

Virgin Atlantic ‘flight and hotel’ Black Friday deals

We have looked at Virgin Atlantic‘s ‘flight only’ deals in a separate article today.

However, if you’re booking a ‘flight and hotel’ package, there are extra savings to be made. This offer also works on US breaks, whilst the ‘flight only’ sale is only for non-US routes.

The deal: £100 off a ‘flight and hotel’ package in Economy, £150 off a ‘flight and hotel’ package in Premium or Upper Class

Rules: Total booking must be £1200, book by Monday 26th November, travel by 31st March 2019

Code required: BF2018 which must be used on the Virgin Atlantic ‘flight and hotel’ site here

Virgin Holidays is also offering the same Black Friday savings (£100 with Economy flights, £150 otherwise) on packages booked by Monday for travel by 31st October 2019. Minimum spend is £2000 per booking. The code here is 2018BF and you need to book on the Virgin Holidays site here.

Virgin Holidays Black Friday deal

Official Gatwick Parking – save 20%

If you are travelling through Gatwick soon, you can save:

The deal: 20% off your booking

Rules: Park by 22nd December, book by 26th November

Code required: No code but you MUST use this special link – click here – and the discount will automatically show

Opodo ‘flight and hotel’ £70 Black Friday deal

Opodo is offering a discount on ‘flight and hotel’ packages.

The deal: £70 off a ‘flight and hotel’ package

Rules: Total booking must be £900, book by Monday 26th November

Code required: BLACKFLYDAY which must be used on the Opodo ‘flight and hotel’ site here

Hotels.com 20% Mastercard saving

Hotels.com is running a strong offer for Mastercard holders, but be wary of the small print.

You will save 20% on hotel bookings you make TODAY ONLY when you pay with a Mastercard (11% for other cards). Code BLACKFRIDAY20ES is required. You must stay by 31st March.

However:

virtually all chain hotels are excluded

you do NOT earn hotels.com Rewards credit

We rate Hotels.com Rewards highly as this article explains. It doesn’t pay out until you’ve stayed 10 nights, however, so if you never normally use hotels.com then you might be happy with the 20% saving anyway.

Full details of the deal, and booking, are on this page of Hotels.com.

Up to 40% off Priority Pass

A reminder of the Priority Pass lounge access card deal we mentioned earlier in the week.

As you can see here, there are some sharp discounts:

40% off Standard membership (reduced to £41 from £69) – no free visits, you and your guests pay £20 each time

25% off Standard Plus membership (reduced to £141 from £189) – 10 free visits then £20 for every additional visit or for every guest visit

25% off Prestige membership (reduced to £254 from £339) – all your visits are free, your guests pay £20 each time

The best deal, to my mind, is Standard Plus. You are paying £14.10 per lounge visit which is pretty decent. You can find out more, and purchase, on this special page of the Priority Pass website. The offer runs to 25th November.

and more …..

Here are some other Black Friday deals we couldn’t cover in full due to space:

Europcar – up to 35% off (and earn Nectar points), book by 26th November, pick up by 31st March – click here

Norwegian – up to 30% off net fares, excluding taxes and charges, on all routes from Dublin and Shannon, book by 26th November, travel between 3rd December 2018 and 31st March 2019 (excluding 17th December 2018 to 6th January 2019).

Singapore Airlines – Economy and Premium Economy deals from London and Manchester to Asia and Houston (from Manchester), travel between 16th January – 11th July (SE Asia/Aus), 16th January – 10th April & 22nd April to 11th July (NZ), 28th November 2018 – 30th June 2019 (USA) – click here

Accor Hotels (Ibis, Novotel, Mercure etc) – up to 40% off your stay, book by 26th November, stay between 1st January and 24th February

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

Accor Live Limitless, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

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

Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

23 Nov23 November 06:13

NB though that the Virgin Holidays black Friday discount means you can’t apply the Flying Club discount, making the net saving significantly smaller.
Shoestring says:

23 Nov23 November 06:54

There’s a new Black Friday £25 off £40 code working on Amazon – it’s AMEX25OFFSWP.

You need to use some MR points from your linked Amex card to part-pay for Amazon product(s) [only].

Some of us were successfully using it last night. The same Amex card can be used on multiple Amazon family accounts, once only per account.
- Craig says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 07:19
  
  Thanks Shoestring, 3 smart plugs for £23!
  - Liz says:
    
    23 Nov23 November 11:00
    
    I must be getting old! I had to google what a smart plug was! 😂
- The Original Nick says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 08:09
  
  Harry, do you know if it works with products that are fulfilled by Amazon?
  - Shoestring says:
    
    23 Nov23 November 08:09
    
    It *only* works with products fulfilled my Amazon
    - Shoestring says:
      
      23 Nov23 November 08:25
      
      Won’t work on ‘fulfilled by Amazon’ products, only on products sold direct by Amazon.
    - Alan says:
      
      23 Nov23 November 09:38
      
      I think you mean ‘sold by’? Lots of 3rd party stuff fulfilled by them,but that’s not eligible.
  - The Original Nick says:
    
    23 Nov23 November 08:11
    
    Just tried it,seems not.
    - Roger says:
      
      23 Nov23 November 08:17
      
      Not for me too.
      already used on one account yesterday, tried again today on another account and it didn’t
    - Shoestring says:
      
      23 Nov23 November 08:23
      
      Well Amazon or Amex screwed up yesterday morning and it was working even without using an Amex card! (I didn’t see it until pointed out to comments readers last night by Blue Horizon I think.) Then Amazon stopped the glitch in the afternoon and the code stopped working. Then it came back again working properly with Amex MR points to part pay – & I successfully used it 5x (Amazon supplied products only). I may be guilty of misinterpreting The Original Nick’s question – it won’t work on ‘fulfilled by Amazon’ products but only on products sold direct by Amazon.
- Sam says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 08:44
  
  Seems to have expired.
  
  I got one order off this morning, but 15 minutes later with two different accounts – ‘This promotional code has expired’
  - Rich says:
    
    23 Nov23 November 08:55
    
    Yep. Same here – this promotional code has expired.
    
    Might be worth trying later in the day I suppose?
    - Rich says:
      
      23 Nov23 November 10:07
      
      Actually, not expired!
      
      I just tried to check my basket out again, and got a different error message ‘this promotional code cannot be applied to your order’ or something like that.
      
      Went out and changed the items in my basket and it worked this time.
  - Sam says:
    
    23 Nov23 November 10:09
    
    I went on chat and they said they couldn’t apply the discount but are going to credit me with £25 gift card as soon as my order dispatches, which is the next best thing I guess.
  - Shoestring says:
    
    23 Nov23 November 10:35
    
    Cheers Rich – you encouraged me to try again and it worked fine on our 6th family account. 240 pouches of Felix cat food for £22. Wouldn’t work on another Amazon Felix cat food box x2 so I switched for a slightly more expensive one 🙂
    
    So it definitely matters what you’re ordering, if at first you don’t succeed…!
    - Andy_H says:
      
      23 Nov23 November 11:24
      
      Thanks for this – just worked for me on a second attempt/second item, after the first item didn’t work.
    - Shoestring says:
      
      23 Nov23 November 15:14
      
      Nice one, Andy_H, surprised more HfPers aren’t jumping on board 🙂
    - Pug206 says:
      
      23 Nov23 November 16:15
      
      Where on Amazon do you link your MR card pls?
      
      I’m dropping the list at the “Your Account” tab and can’t see a relevant link.
S**mo says:

23 Nov23 November 07:32

I downloaded the beta app via the link and the app opens and works fine… but I can’t figure out how to top up!? I tried to add my Amex (uk plat) and it won’t let me still….. any ideas?
- KBuffett says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 07:55
  
  I’m also a member of the beta test group.
  Not sure I can be bothered, it seems like a hassle.
  The company is a bit strange. They issue black cards that are not Curve Black cards. Seriously
  - Tom says:
    
    23 Nov23 November 10:05
    
    Very strange company indeed, customer service quality has been reduced e.g. 3days without an answer, had to chase for an answer, the online chat seems to illustrate they take on hipster grads (interns maybe?) who dont seem to know the meaning of a SLA
    
    Promosing a return to amex to customers, but only a selected few who decided to pay £50 for the privilage only recentl (thats the truth, its a paid and closed beta)
    
    Promised to release a blog on a selected day but failed
    
    Charged customers with no notice on ATMs
    
    List could go on?
  - Chris says:
    
    23 Nov23 November 14:06
    
    Oh, also NatWest reward card treats Curve ATM txn as a cash withdrawal- immediate fee and cash interest.
- Alan says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 09:40
  
  Working OK for me, although a few small bugs – worth logging bug via app or in the Curve Community thread for iOS or Android depending on your OS.
- Louise Allen says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 11:21
  
  Nothing happened when I clicked the link in the email. No app download etc. Is it browser specific? I use Firefox on my Pixel. Have emailed for support… not holding my breath.
PT says:

23 Nov23 November 08:47

Looks like a complicated system, and requires top ups with fees on anything over £1000 and no cash withdrawals etc.
- Anna says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 09:23
  
  I’ve not been invited to the beta trial, but I’m thinking it might be useful for occasional payments where you wouldn’t normally be able to pay with Amex but want to hit a spending target, e.g. pay a £2k deposit on a car to get an Amex gold sign up bonus. You’d effectively be paying £13 for 24000 MR points (if my maths is correct!) which I think is worth it.
pablo says:

23 Nov23 November 09:44

Small world money transfers are waiving the transfer fee with code BF2018
Thywillbedone says:

23 Nov23 November 09:54

O/T:
I am staying in the Park Hyatt Mallorca next August on a points and cash deal. My understanding is that breakfast is not included with these rates (although it was historically). I am a World of Hyatt member (the base tier). Any clever ideas on how I might get the free breakfast? Do any credit cards offer this benefit for example? Any way of parlaying status elsewhere into status with Hyatt?

Thanks in advance!
- Rob says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 11:50
  
  Try statusmatcher.com and see what reports there are of matches. I agree it would be a massive saving if you could pull it off.
  - Thywillbedone says:
    
    23 Nov23 November 14:38
    
    Thanks Rob – no luck with that, it seems Hyatt are firm on loyalty needing to be earned.
- Bob says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 14:40
  
  I did read on here a week or two ago about a status match, but I can’t quite remember the details. I think Hilton status was one way, but don’t quote me on that.
MDA says:

23 Nov23 November 09:59

Will a hotels.com booking with the black friday code count as ‘valid activity’ (even though im not planning to earn a stamp from them) as I already have a free night unsued – it will expire in Feb 2019 if not used
Chris says:

23 Nov23 November 10:16

Who’s have predicted a painted brick wall as the background to their photo and presumably the walls in their hipster offices!