Exclusive HfP competition: Win two flights to New York – on the airline YOU love the most

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

It’s competition time again! We are launching a new competition on Head for Points today, running for the next week, to win two economy class flights between London and New York.

However, we are adding a romantic twist to the competition. This Valentine’s Day we want to know which is your most loved airline.

And YOU get to decide which airline you fly with if you are the lucky winner.

The winner will receive two economy tickets between London Heathrow or London Gatwick to either New York JFK or Newark Liberty. The prize can be taken at any point up to 30th September 2019, subject to availability. If you win you must be one of the two travellers.

Long-term readers will know that we also ran this competition last year. It was a big success and we are happy to run it again thanks to our secret sponsor.

What is going on here?

Let me explain.

We are working with a major airline on a piece of research. It wants to know what airline you would select for a flight if price was not an issue and airline miles or elite status benefits were not an issue.

We want to know your genuine preference. The best way to achieve this is to not make it a hypothetical question, but a real question, with real consequences.

On the entry form, you will be asked to select between American Airlines, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, Norwegian, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic or someone else as your preferred carrier for an economy flight to New York.

You and a friend can be flying to New York in economy on the carrier you select.

Please note that:

You will not earn any airline miles on your tickets
You will not receive any status benefits
You will not receive lounge access even if you have status with that airline

Do not consider any airline status you have or any miles you currently collect when selecting your airline. Your flights will not qualify for status, mileage or lounge benefits because the tickets will be issued using restrictive travel trade policies.

If you fly Norwegian, your prize will include pre-paid food and luggage so the prize is equivalent to a standard economy ticket on one of the full service airlines listed. If you select ‘other’ you will be randomly booked onto one of the six named airlines.

Interesting, yes? All you need to do is pick an airline and tick the main factor that influenced your decision from a list of:

Brand reputation
Crew and service
Food & Beverage
In-flight entertainment
On-board wifi
Previous experience
Seat comfort

How to enter

We are running this competition slightly differently because of the information we need from you. We are using Google Forms. Click the button below (or click here) and you will be taken to the form you need to complete.

It is only three questions long (and multiple choice) so don’t worry! It will take less than 30 seconds to complete.

The competition will run for a week, closing at midnight on Wednesday 20th February. The winner must travel if they win – you cannot gift the prize to anyone else.

Good luck. Please feel free to share on social media.

Here are the rules: You must be over 18 years, a UK resident and not an employee of any of the airlines listed on the entry form to enter. Strictly one entry per person. The winner MUST be one of the travellers. The competition will close at midnight on Wednesday 20th February. One entrant will be selected at random and will have 48 hours to confirm their details. If they do not respond, another winner will be drawn.

The prize is economy return flights for two people from a London airport to New York Newark or JFK on the airline you chose on the entry form. Flights are subject to availability and all travel must be completed by 30th September 2019. The competition is promoted by Head for Points, contact details on request. The name of the winner will be made available on request.

Your email address remains confidential and will not be passed to the sponsoring airline or used by Head for Points for any other purposes. Your airline preference, and the reason for your decision, will be aggregated with other respondents and given to the competition sponsor.

Category

General

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

SimonW says:

14 Feb14 February 08:46

Lets face it, you can offer 2 economy tickets as a prize, to control the “experiment”, but I’d wager more likely than not that the winner will get a lucky upgrade by pure coincidence!
- Callum says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 09:24
  
  Why? If you choose any airline other than the sponsor, they’re not going to know.
  
  Not that I think upgrading one person really does anything for the brand anyway.
  - SimonW says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 09:56
    
    I think they’d have a fair idea when Roger from XXX Airline’s marketing department calls up for a couple of tickets to NY, paid for with the company card, and invoiced to that airline. Oh, and he asks for (and gets) a ticket issued using restrictive travel trade policies. Come on Callum. You are better than that !
    - Callum says:
      
      14 Feb14 February 12:03
      
      I am better than that, perhaps you aren’t though.
      
      1. Why would they introduce themselves as Roger from the marketing department? Do you introduce yourself as Simon the (insert job) when you talk to people on the phone?
      
      2. Why would you think whoever they speak to would read HFP and therefore even be able to guess that’s what it’s for?
      
      3. Why would that person care enough to pass on that information? Why would whoever they pass it on to care whether a single person preferred a different airline? It’s not like sneakily giving them an upgrade really achieves anything – they aren’t writing a review for publication.
      
      4. Do they even need to call to buy the ticket? I would have thought they would have some kind of computer system for it. If they do need to call, see points 1-3.
    - SimonW says:
      
      14 Feb14 February 12:29
      
      Calm down dear. Calm down.
    - RussellH says:
      
      14 Feb14 February 14:33
      
      Callum said on 14 February 2019 at 12:03:
      
      > Why would they introduce themselves as Roger from the marketing department?
      
      Standard travel industry etiquette in the past when talking to any business partner over the phone, including buying travel arrangements. At least when buying rail travel.( I did not hold an ATOL, so did not buy air travel.)
      These days, though, I would expect these bookings to be done online.
      
      > Do you introduce yourself as Simon the (insert job) when you talk
      > to people on the phone?
      
      As I am retired I just introduce myself by name, no job.
      But, when I am volunteering at a major charity on a Wednesday and I am phoning someone on a client’s behalf, I always start “Good morning, my name is Russell. I am phoning from [name of charity and office location] on behalf of my client who….
      
      Only polite, I feel. And it it one of the obvious clues when cold callers ring, that they never introduce themselves without my asking.
    - Callum says:
      
      14 Feb14 February 18:48
      
      Simon – I’m perfectly calm – I wouldn’t keep correcting erroneous posts on here if they made me angry/annoyed. I’d be in a mental asylum otherwise! Perhaps the post came across more aggressive than I meant it?
      
      Russel – Good point but I don’t think your competitors really count as business partners? It’s also not remotely akin to cold calling given you’re calling a sales like to purchase a product!
      
      I can’t recall ever being told the specific department people are calling from (unless it’s relevant) either. Different times?
Paul says:

14 Feb14 February 09:01

I agree NY is just about manageable in economy, so I’ve enetered, but my reason for choosing is not in the list. I’m 6’6” so space is all I care about. Is that seat comfort? Not really, I find BAecon seat very uncomfortable, but am relying on the fact they have most flights, so I may be able to choose an unpopular departure and hope the plane is mostly empty and so allow me to ‘spread out’. That’s the issue I have with multiple choice questions, and surveys in general, are the answers telling me what I think they are?
- Mr(s) Entitled says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 09:16
  
  Which is why you need lots of data points. 12,000 should do it.
- JPK says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 09:28
  
  In economy we book exit row for myself (need bit more legroom too) with wife and kids in front or behind, as they don’t let the kids in that row
- Nick_C says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 11:04
  
  If I had to choose solely on the basis of the competition, it would be on seat comfort, and on that basis I would choose Delta. They have a 2-4-2 config on their A330s, so a fair chance of getting a window or aisle and not being hemmed in on both sides. They also have slightly more space than the VS A340s and carry fewer passengers.
  
  But few people look at this sort of detail, and most are driven purely on price. I always used to fly AA when their 777s were 2-5-2 (the perfect config in my view) and they offered “more room throughout coach” with a 34″ seat pitch.
  
  But in reality, if I was flying back overnight, I would choose BA or VA. I’ve had too many red eyes spoiled by American passengers who don’t think about trying to get onto UK time, and talk loudly for much of the night. And oddly, most people will choose one of their own county’s airlines over a foreign one.
  
  Another real life reason to fly home on BA, VS, or Norwegian, is that you are covered by EU261.
  
  If the major airlines were truly competing with each other instead of being part of an oligopoly, then BA and VS would use their EU status and EU261 as a selling point.
  - marcw says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 11:41
    
    Usually plane type is who gets my money when flying economy LH. 330, 340 are my preferred types, 2 – 4 – 2 configuration (upper deck on A380 in BA or QR as well).
  - Alan says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 12:19
    
    Virgin use 2-4-2 to JFK too on their A330s.
Qwerty Bertie says:

14 Feb14 February 09:20

I won’t enter the competition because I would be unable to use the prize for family/logisitical reasons, but am happy to give an opinion for the sponsors research. Under the circumstances described, I would do a quick bit of research and choose whichever one offers the best combination of legroom and seat width. If that resulted in a tie then I would base it on images of the seats & how comfy they look.
Natalia S says:

14 Feb14 February 09:23

I prefer to fly from Gatwick – it saves me at least an hour and a half each way compared to Heathrow. Arrival airport also matters a lot sometimes. So it’s Norwegian for me. Maybe it would make sense to include this option (airport to fly from/to) next time.
- Liamc says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 10:26
  
  How do you save an hour and a half each way when they are only 40 minutes apart. Makes no sense whatsoever. Surely the most it could add is 40 minutes…
  - Sussex Bantam says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 10:41
    
    40 minutes without traffic…
    - Genghis says:
      
      14 Feb14 February 10:53
      
      If travelling from home in SE London by car, I allow 1 hour to get to Gatwick but 3 hours to get to Heathrow (too many times sitting in traffic on the M25).
  - Natalia S says:
    
    15 Feb15 February 14:13
    
    All very well explained by Genghis – the longer the trip the more extra time to build in on the way to the airport. Also I can take a train to/from Gatwick (15mins), which I can’t for Heathrow, and the train is a lot quicker than a car.
- marcw says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 12:29
  
  Are you aware that BA also flies from LGW to NYC?
  - Natalia S says:
    
    15 Feb15 February 14:32
    
    I actually didn’t know that, thank you. Then I’d make a choice between the two based purely on the departure time. If it happens to be very similar, I’d probably go with Norwegian anyway.
    
    I just wanted to say that logistics of getting to the airport is important. For non-Londoners even more so if they have a connecting flight within the UK or maybe a convenient train running into the right airport.
ankomonkey says:

14 Feb14 February 09:26

Rob, are the sponsors looking at who entered this year and last year and whether their preference has changed? I voted the same both years.
- Rob says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 10:12
  
  Not individually. Sponsor only gets the aggregated results (which I published last year on the site too, a few months later, with the permission of the sponsor).
David S says:

14 Feb14 February 09:40

Weirdly being in Portugal this week and having Google translate open on my phone, the Google form comes out in Portuguese not English 😃
- Mark says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 10:15
  
  I’m getting Swedish ads on HFP (though I’m not in Sweden) – must be way the way our corporate internet access is routed…..
  - Olly says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 11:36
    
    Are you using a VPN that had automatically chosen a Swedish server? That’s what happens to me sometimes.
- Polly says:
  
  15 Feb15 February 03:02
  
  Mine Indonesian!
David P says:

14 Feb14 February 10:06

If one were to pick VS, will the prize be booked into Economy Light, Classic, or Delight? That would make a material difference to the choice.
- Rob says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 10:10
  
  You’d need to assume it is the standard cheapest product available.
  - Olly says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 11:35
    
    See below for the Norwegian cheapest product my son choose last year.
- Simon says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 10:26
  
  Classic, given the statement about it including luggage (when picking Norwegian)
Frankie says:

14 Feb14 February 10:07

I’ve just entered Raffles’ raffle!
- Peter K says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 17:25
  
  😁