News: save 5% off SNO ski hotels, get 18000 Avios with a subscription to The Economist (1.2p each)

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Long term readers will remember that, last year, we arranged an exclusive reader discount with ski holiday company SNO.

I’m pleased to say that SNO has agreed to offer Head for Points readers an exclusive 5% off discount code again this winter. Their website has some good half board hotel packages at the moment, including the Hotel San Giovanni (pictured) in Livigno, Italy, which currently comes with a free lift pass.

You can claim a 5% discount from the brochure price of all SNO holidays using the code SNOHFP. You can find all SNO hotel deals here – you need to book by telephone 020 7770 6888 to claim your 5% discount.

It’s back – earn 18,000 Avios with a subscription to The Economist

British Airways and The Economist have brought back their special offer for taking out a subscription. As you can see at this link, you can earn up to 18,000 Avios with a new one-year subscription.

Here are the two options on offer if you are a UK resident:

Print only or digital only: £179 with 15,000 Avios (1.19p per Avios)

Print and digital: £215 with 18,000 Avios (1.19p per Avios)

Subscribing to The Economist could make sense just for the Avios bonus even if you have little intention of reading it in detail, although there are occasional opportunities to buy points for nearer 1p each.

There are even better deals when looking at other countries. A digital only subscription for someone with a Canadian address snags you 15,000 Avios at 0.78p per point (C$199 / £116). Pricing in the Eurozone is unfortunately poorer than in the UK, with 1.6p per Avios on digital-only subscriptions in Belgium, France and Germany.

As always, if you are self-employed you may be happy writing off the subscription cost as a business expense which would sharply reduce your price per Avios even further.

This offer runs until 31st January.

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

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

Alan says:

4 Nov4 November 07:31

If looking for a more accessible points redemption in Kyoto (given how tricky Hyatt points are to obtain in the UK), I’d recommend the ANA Crowne Plaza Kyoto. Was only 30k IHG points per night. Free shuttle bus from the central train station, next door to Nijo Castle, was provided with free Club Lounge access (and restaurant discounts) as a Spire member. Clean and tidy, welcoming staff. Clearly not as luxurious but I found it very good value.
Shoestring says:

4 Nov4 November 07:45

Anika was in the papers over the weekend – and we learned her married name!
- Rob says:
  
  4 Nov4 November 09:21
  
  No, that’s her maiden name – for HFP / SP purposes we have never changed it.
  
  And I ghost wrote it, because the baby was due on the 31st so it seemed a bit mean to make her start knocking out copy! Baby seems to have other idea, however ….
  - RussellH says:
    
    4 Nov4 November 10:28
    
    I guess that you put her name on it because a) it was more a Shopper Points thing and b) about year ago she was being very widely quoted over earlier changes to Tesco Clubcard – I saw her billed as an ‘expert’ in such matters.
    I must admit I was surprised to see her commenting from the USA.
    - Rob says:
      
      4 Nov4 November 10:51
      
      Yes, it’s a ‘positioning’ thing – best if I keep my name purely on travel stuff.
  - Lady London says:
    
    4 Nov4 November 10:52
    
    I hope Baby changes his mind soon and decides to appear!
  - MD says:
    
    5 Nov5 November 00:25
    
    First one isn’t it? Always late…
    - Rob says:
      
      5 Nov5 November 09:46
      
      Ours was.
      
      Additional ones tend to be punctual as the escape hatch is more spacious 🙂
      
      Childbirth for men ‘is like watching your favourite pub burn down’ as they say ….
      - Cat says:
        
        5 Nov5 November 19:38
        
        😂🤣
Oli says:

4 Nov4 November 07:49

OT: Marriott to Aadvantage – A couple of weeks ago my transfer completed in 3 days but in our latest transfers on both my wife and my accounts, initiated last Sunday, are yet to show up on Aadvantage. Did anyone else make a transfer last week? I wonder if there’s a backlog as it was the last week of the Aadvantage bonus offer.
- Polly says:
  
  4 Nov4 November 08:57
  
  Ours still not showing after a week…
- SL says:
  
  4 Nov4 November 11:50
  
  Also not showing for me. Technically been 5 business days so far and T&Cs mention “Bonus miles will be posted to your AAdvantage® account within 7 business days after the initial conversion activity has been posted by the participating hotel partner”.
  
  What is the best way to go about things if points aren’t showing after 7? Contact Marriott or AA or something else?
- Oli says:
  
  6 Nov6 November 18:24
  
  Update – points I converted on the 27th of October have today appeared on my Aadvantage account with a correctly applied bonus. I’d mentioned in a previous post that in my last round of conversions, a couple of weeks ago, AA didnt correctly apply a bonus to the Marriott 5,000 miles per 60,000 bonvoy uplift – I am still waiting to hear back from AA on that.
meta says:

4 Nov4 November 07:50

Booked Park Hyatt Kyoto for next year’s sakura season couple of months back when they opened up redemptions. The rates were around £1600 per night after tax. I topped up my points balance during the buy points promotion. All considering one night cost me £250. Property looks amazing and food prices seem reasonable too compared to Ritz Carlton.

Just a warning, it is very difficult to find award space during high season and sometimes even off-peak. It might be because it is a new hotel, so people want to try or because hotel is playing games with inventory or both. For my dates there was a minimum stay of 3 nights in order to book on points. If you looked for same dates and one or two nights nothing would show up even though standard room was available to book for cash. Hyatt agents wouldn’t budge and said minimum nights rule applied, so I booked 3 nights online and then called to shorten to 2.
Dorset Flyer says:

4 Nov4 November 08:18

IAG to buy Air Europa.

https://www.ft.com/content/7b130064-fed2-11e9-b7bc-f3fa4e77dd47
- Shoestring says:
  
  4 Nov4 November 08:20
  
  google [IAG to buy Air Europa in bid to turn Madrid into major hub]
  - Tom says:
    
    4 Nov4 November 08:27
    
    I thought you meant Google were buying IAG and Air Europa…first FitBit..not this! 🙂
Crafty says:

4 Nov4 November 10:51

OT: Paying rent via debit card, using Curve linked to IHG.

Will Creation see this as a “cashlike” transaction and limit it to £700/week?
- Crafty says:
  
  4 Nov4 November 11:12
  
  Payment goes to an estate agent, if that helps.
- Harry T says:
  
  4 Nov4 November 13:03
  
  Unsure about your idea but I know that you can top up Revolut with IHG and could then do a debit card transaction or bank transfer from Revolut to pay rent. Hope that helps.
  - Crafty says:
    
    4 Nov4 November 13:50
    
    Thanks, but unfortunately Revolut can only be topped up slowly from IHG cards, and the payment is both large and imminent!
    - Anna says:
      
      4 Nov4 November 16:28
      
      IHG does indeed grind slowly with Curve, to paraphrase the proverb. We’ve now got one each, to speed up the process and also unlock a second free night for spending £10k; to my delight I had forgotten about the 20,000 point sign up bonus on new cards! One thing we use it for is our monthly car payment, as the company doesn’t take Amex, but I have to make sure I have £300 loaded up to Revolut in the days beforehand to be sure we stay within the IHG limits.
      - @mkcol says:
        
        7 Nov7 November 21:17
        
        Can you have 2 separate IHG credit card accounts but credit them to just the one IHG account?
        
        Looking at rejigging current Hilton focus & husband could help with that!
- mark2 says:
  
  4 Nov4 November 14:45
  
  Not sue why think it will look cash-like; surely it will just show the agent’s name?
  A few weeks ago I paid £2700 to a vet without problem. The insurance would have paid direct but then no points!
  - Shoestring says:
    
    4 Nov4 November 14:56
    
    you must really love that old mutt!
    - mark2 says:
      
      4 Nov4 November 15:55
      
      actually a 4 year old mutt and the bill for the MRI scan was £3200+. The vet’s advice to the dog: stay slim; stay fit; stay insured (with PetPlan).
      - Dave says:
        
        5 Nov5 November 03:01
        
        I’m having an MRI scan on Monday and that’s costing me, a human, £199
  - Crafty says:
    
    4 Nov4 November 19:09
    
    Tried it today. £3,000 on each Curve. So far appears to have gone smoothly.
    - MD says:
      
      5 Nov5 November 00:17
      
      Your rent is £6000?!
Claire says:

4 Nov4 November 11:14

OT / CURVERS BEWARE!! Both myself and my husband have had our IHG credit card accounts stopped and new cards being sent out due to a data breach reported to them by mastercard. However in both cases it was an attempt at Curving something (it happened to me so I tested with my husbands so we know what it was) we were double dipping at the time is all I will say, so beware they will not listen when you tell them that it was you using the card because once the breach is reported they must follow guidelines. Access to online account suspended until new card arrives too so I will have to call to make payment too. Very annoying 🙁
- guesswho2000 says:
  
  5 Nov5 November 05:45
  
  Same with my IHG Black primary card, but the supplementary is fine, as is my White card, and OH’s Black and White cards. Access to online account still fine, and I was told to just use the supplementary until the replacement turns up.
  
  They were all 6x (2x white, 2x black and 2x black supplementaries) being used for the same thing, so god knows what’s caused the issue on only one.
  - Claire says:
    
    5 Nov5 November 07:46
    
    Be interesting to see if the same happens again when the new cards arrive, if so I will cancel them as I cant spent the 10k on them directly. I do now have access to my online account, it was a temporary suspension. I guess IHG will have lots of new cards to send out in the coming weeks until they realise there is no data breach, they certainly wouldnt listen to us.
Benilyn says:

4 Nov4 November 11:21

Wild OT: Anyone know any copy-cat room spray / diffuser for that Shangri-La hotel smell?
- roberto says:
  
  4 Nov4 November 11:54
  
  You can buy genuine spray , candles and sticks at any shang or on line.
  https://twitter.com/shangrilahotels/status/403727048541499392?lang=en
  I bought some in Abu Dhabi last month.
  - Benilyn says:
    
    4 Nov4 November 13:18
    
    I bought some room spray yesterday, genuine one 🙂 I want more, but at copy cat prices 😀