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.

  • Ayearinmx says:

    Dec 27th is the day the AMEX, spend £4 get a bonus Avios is over. Nothing crazy but could be worth it to someone

  • Lee says:

    Still no Avios bonus from T C B for more than two weeks. Has anyone had same problem?

    • Claire says:

      I am waiting for points transfer. Normally posts within a few days but much longer this time, maybe due to volume. I have done 2 transfers a day apart but nothing showing in avios account.

    • Liz says:

      I raised a support ticket and got a reply to say the issue was now fixed. Also received 2 emails for my 2 transactions saying payment was on its way and it now says sent but still waiting for avios to arrive. Just requested another payout this morning. Hopefully they will appear this week, if not, I will raise another ticket.

    • E says:

      I have also been waiting, over 2 weeks in my case. I raised a support ticket last week and they said they were aware of the problem. Didn’t give me any idea when it would be resolved though.

      • Amit says:

        Have a balance of around £200, not sure if it’s a risk transferring to Avios, given the current delays.

        • Shoestring says:

          so you don’t fancy the 25% bonus?

          • Amit says:

            Of course the bonus is appreciated, not sure why it’s taking so long!

          • Shoestring says:

            it’s nothing to worry about & I’m 100% sure any transfers made now will get the bonus, delays/ glitches will be sorted out

            all the transfers are tracked under Payout History and the delayed ones currently show date and incompleted transfer status, so it’s all being recorded & nobody will lose out

        • TGLoyalty says:

          Unless you need them right now and they will be useless after that I wouldn’t worry about it. They will land eventually.

      • Secret Squirrel says:

        Three weeks waiting here, cs stated to me file sent and will be max 10 days.

  • Mike Bickle says:

    Waiting since 15 Nov which I’d completely forgotten about.

    I have os 10k from inflight service – lack of.

    How do people keep track / remember?

  • Shoestring says:

    O/T Nice gesture from Uber if you are NHS/ tell friend or relly who works for NHS –
    NHS staff with valid email addresses can claim 2x £10 Uber or Ubereats vouchers to use from the 23rd to the 27th December.
    https://www.uber.com/en-GB/blog/nhs2019/

    Must have a valid nhs.net or nhs.uk email address.
    Free Rides and Eats for NHS Staff this Christmas
    December 2 / United Kingdom
    Christmas is a busy time of year for everyone, but perhaps none more so than for NHS staff. To say thank you for everything they do for us all year, this Christmas we’re trying to make their lives a little bit easier.
    Between Monday, 23 December and Friday, 27 December, NHS staff members can enjoy either a free ride to and from work or a free meal at the end of their shift from Uber Eats, giving them an opportunity to put their feet up.

  • Shoestring says:

    THE Royal Bank of Scotland has been accused of writing fake reviews for its new banking app Bó before it was officially available to download. A series of five-star reviews of the app published months ahead of Bó’s launch on Nov 27 praised features such as its notifications and design. Another positive review, published on the day of the app’s release, was written by an account that has the same name as an RBS employee.

  • Navara says:

    Don’t forget the 40% Tesco to Avios bonus if you were a Shell Dricers club member ends 31 December.

  • KBuffett says:

    I want to close my wife’s AMEX Gold Charge account. She has around 60000 points. Is there any way of getting them to an account in my name other than Avios? Can we go AMEX to her Marriott and then to my Marriott? I hold ally points across various schemes, she doesn’t have anything really hence why I want to transfer to my name. Also, are there any transfer promotions going on?

    • Shoestring says:

      I think you got one of the best ways, ie convert her points to Bonvoys, then she can transfer the Bonvoys to your Bonvoy a/c

      obvs from Bonvoys you can then transfer to 40+ airline partners

      not brilliant without a 2nd conversion bonus out of Marriott, though (the long-standing first one doesn’t help much, ie 5000 free airline miles on 60K Bonvoys, you’re still down on a straight conversion from MR points—>airline scheme)

      which other schemes are you most interested in? – as some might allow you to pool points like BAEC HHA

      • KBuffett says:

        The only schemes I have decent balances at are Hilton, BA, Marriott & AmEx MR. We’re sitting in around 500,000 Avios and will easily be able to collect more, so don’t really want to transfer into there.

        • Sloth says:

          You can transfer points between accounts at Hilton

          • KBuffett says:

            I’m in no rush, but would it be sensible to wait for any possible transfer bonus periods, or am I clutching at straws.

  • rams1981 says:

    OT other than @secrectsquirrel has anyone else had delays with the groupon Aer Lingus Avios posting? I’m still waiting from last Sunday. No email to say there were issues and beyond their 5 day turnaround time promised. I’ve contacted the email listed and had no response yet. Groupon give you an option to refund them but the vouchers say they have been used so I’m not sure if they’ll agree.

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