Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Important dates for your diary – offers about to close which you shouldn’t miss (Dec 2019)

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Here is the latest edition of our regular feature which summarises offers that are ending soon.

It pulls together the different deals mentioned on our Top Avios Points Earning Offers, Top Hotel Bonus Points Offers and Top UK Credit Card Offers pages.

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Black Friday / Cyber Monday is finally over and it’s not quite time for the post-Christmas promotions yet so it’s a little quiet out there.  The big one closing on Friday is BA’s double Avios on flights promotion – book now to lock in double Avios if you are planning to fly anywhere in the next six months.

There’s also the Lufthansa / SWISS business class sale and a range of hotel point-purchasing opportunities.

Summary of current hotel promotions:

Deals closing soon

Friday 13th December

Last day to book BA flights and holidays and earn double Avios (travel by 30th June).  Article.

Last day to book BA Club World or First cash flights to qualify for the ‘unlock’ promotion (travel by 12th February).  Article.

Sunday 15th December

Last day to get a 25% bonus on transfers from TopCashback to AviosArticle.

Last chance to book the good ex-UK Lufthansa / SWISS business class sale fares (travel from 1/1 to 30/11). Article.

Last chance to book and complete an Avis car rental and earn 3,000 Avios. Article.

Tuesday 17th December

Last day to book IHG bonus points packages and get an extra 25% bonus on top (stay by 31st March). Article.

Last day to get 25% off hotel bookings in the IHG Cyber Sale. Article.

Sunday 22nd December

Last day to save 30% when you buy Marriott Bonvoy points.  Article.

Last day to earn £5 back on £10 purchases with American Express Shop Small.  Article.

Thursday 26th December

Last day to get 30% off pre-booked No 1 Lounges visits (for visits throughout 2020) . Article.

Comments (37)

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

  • Shoestring says:

    Europcar have status matched me up 1 level to Privilege Executive 🙂 – it’s always worth having but that’s only up 1 level from Basic, giving me:
    All of your Privilege Executive benefits
    check Priority service at time of vehicle pick-up: skip the queue or go directly to the parking cabin at all major airport locations(1)
    check Guaranted booking – we reserve your car and keep it for you even if you are delayed!
    check A free weekend as soon as you move to the Executive level(2)
    check A one car category free upgrade on all your rentals(3)
    check A £20 voucher after your 5th rental(4)
    check An additional free weekend after your 3rd rental(4)
    check Up to 15% discount at all participating AccorHotels locations

    I’d need to go up 2 more levels (another 30 rentals) to get Elite VIP satus – this is where you get a free Priority Pass card but only with 1 free entry!

    Anyway, got my assured single car upgrade (next level another 15 rentals gets double upgrade) & sounds like I could skip the queue, not that Newquay has much in the way of queues lol

    I doubt if they’ll give me a free weekend just for getting a free status match/ moving up a level

  • Doug M says:

    OT: Marriott. Had a 140K redemption in Vancouver, which I was short of the points. I knew the last couple of thousand would arrive from the SPG card in the next few days. In-between checking a few days ago and seeing the points had posted today, the redemption has gone to 145K. I knew they changed the rules and this could happen, but the timing sucks even more than my transfer of 50K Amex rewards in the week before the 50% bonus. Just been on points com to buy the last 5K needed, and it’s not instant, but another wait, during which time Marriott will probably hike another night by 5K.
    Even more committed to hotels com now.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      Why? Hotels.com is just a cash equivalent and rooms prices change far more than 5k points value.

      Also Marriott gives you the ability to book rooms when you don’t have the points but you want to complain that they don’t fix the price. They could just take away allowing you to book them without the points and then you might’ve been without any rooms available when you had the 145k

      • Doug M says:

        Not a complaint, just venting. I have money, so hotel com works really well for me.
        If you’re a leisure traveller locking yourself to a particular hotel scheme is harder. For leisure bookings you look for different things to a business booking. If I travelled regularly for work I’d just pick a scheme and go with it.
        To be clear Marriott did previously lock the rate, so it seemed reasonable to mention it.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          Yep but they are adjusting the scheme to make it work slightly better for both sides, I’m sure people were block booking Lots of stays over multiple days with the intention of just cancelling if they didn’t need them or when their plans had firmed up, without tying up any points.

          My point about hotels.com credit vs points is that points are a way to get a room when prices are sky high. Take a major final or an awards Etc rates can be 2x 3x the normal price but points are only 5k higher per night (£25 in bonvoy value) your hotels.com credit is still worth its face value and you’re left paying more than £25 more.

          Ofcourse if you are fortunate enough to have the cash to book where you want regardless of the cost then points aren’t very valuable at all.

  • Shoestring says:

    Hotels etc: booking.com/britishairways is earning 6 Avios/ £1

    obvs check your hotel cost vs alternative booking sites – our apartment in Malaga was a lot cheaper with hotels dot com /secret prices plus we could get a good cash bonus on top

    • KBuffett says:

      Be careful when using some hotels dt com links as they preclude you from earning reward nights

      • Shoestring says:

        true but the current deal on the Avios-earning site is 11.5% with the clear clause: ‘New Customers – Including earning Hotels.com Rewards’

        you might call that a (10% – the free night + 11.5%) = 21.5% discount or thereabouts

        (new customer = new email address, though that might stop you getting your Hotels dot com Rewards! I’d try new email address then get them to meld different a/cs later)

        • Doug M says:

          BA shopping portal to Hotel com is my usual route. Mostly you’re looking at around 3 Avios plus the reward night scheme.

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