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Loyalty in travel has come a long way since Texas International Airlines promised the first frequent flyer incentives in 1979, and hotel chains like Marriott and Hilton launched rewards programs in the 1980s.
Nowadays, rewards come with a host of different names, values, collection methods, and rules for how to spend them, as well as the added complication of tier points that denote how special a customer is.
Nicky Kelvin, editor of The Points Guy, says you should sign up for any loyalty plan that’s free
A handful of schemes have just undergone major changes and now offer the opportunity to earn enough points for a well-deserved break. Some are much better than others, says Nicky Kelvin, editor of The Points Guy (thepointsguy.com). However, it says you should always sign up if they are free. “Don’t leave any points on the table,” he adds.
Avios adds cruises to its currency
Formerly known as Air Miles for British Airways Executive Club members, Avios is now the currency used for rewards and spending on everything from flights and hotel rooms to wine, supermarket shopping and car rentals. You can even earn Avios by purchasing Moonpig cards online (up to five Avios per £1 spent) or booking on Deliveroo (up to seven Avios per £1).
Consumers can earn three Avios for every £1 or €1 spent when booking rooms or suites with a balcony on a Royal Caribbean (RCI) cruise.
Now IAG Loyalty (which manages Avios) has expanded to the seven seas, offering consumers three Avios for every £1 or €1 spent when booking balcony rooms or suites on a Royal Caribbean cruise.
“Avios earned for a balcony (cabin) for two people could cover a one-way flight within Europe,” said Gerard Nolan, vice president of Royal Caribbean International (RCI) for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. You can get a flight to Paris for 18,500 points plus £1, or to New York for 50,000 Avios and £100.
It’s worth it? You have to book your cruise directly with RCI to earn Avios; You may get better deals with a travel company. But with Avios being the currency of choice for an increasing number of businesses, you’d be crazy not to sign up (britishairways.com).
One Key has blue, silver, gold and platinum tiers, offering rates up to 6% on Expedia’s highest quality hotels.
New One Key Program Covers Expedia, Vrbo and Hotels.com
The autumn launch of One Key in the UK, following its launch in the US last year, replaces the former Expedia Rewards and Hotels.com programs and adds rewards for first-time vacation rentals through Vrbo.
Members receive 2pc in OneKeyCash for every £1 spent on eligible hotels, holiday homes, activities, packages and car hire. So if a trip costs £800, you’ll get £16 in OneKeyCash. Flights only earn 0.2 per cent for every £1 spent.
Additionally, One Key has blue, silver, gold and platinum tiers, allowing users to get rates up to 6 percent on Expedia’s high-quality hotels and savings of 10 to 20 percent.
Tier status is achieved by purchasing a certain number of travel items per year. For example, a group of friends staying five nights in a vacation home, taking five flights, and renting a car for five days would earn 15 travel items. This would unlock Gold status, with 20 percent savings on more than 10,000 hotels, 4 percent OneKeyCash on top properties, and room upgrades when available.
It’s worth it? It’s nice that you can now earn rewards on vacation rentals, but the old Hotels.com system was more generous, offering one free night for every ten nights you stayed – a 10% reward instead of the new 2% (expedia.com).
The Hilton hotel chain has launched a loyalty debit card in collaboration with Travel Money Card Currensea
Hilton launches debit card
Unlike credit cards, debit cards are rarely associated with rewards points, which makes Hilton’s new hotel loyalty debit card particularly interesting. In partnership with Currensea travel money card, the Hilton Honors card comes in basic and ‘plus’ versions, with annual fees of £60/£150.
The basic version earns you Silver status and one Hilton Honors point for every £1 spent on everyday purchases, and up to three points for every £1 spent at Hilton abroad. Currency exchange costs 0.5 pc.
The upgraded version gives you Gold status and 1.5 points per £1 spent and up to 4.5 points per £1 spent with Hilton abroad, charging 0pc on currency exchange. Sign up by November 30 and get 3,500/12,000 bonus points when you spend £1,000/£2,500 abroad.
A free hotel night costs between 5,000 and 95,000 points. You can also redeem points for experiences – a Sunday race day at Silverstone costs 125,000 points.
It’s worth it? Only if you frequently stay at Hilton Hotels.
Debit cards offer chargeback, which is a scheme that allows you to claim a refund from your card provider if a purchase does not arrive or is faulty. However, the protection on credit card payments over £100 is even greater. This is because, under section 75 protection, your credit card company has the same liability as the seller if there is a problem with the things you bought or if the company you bought them from fails (hiltonhonorsbitcard.currensea.co.uk).
You can earn points through the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, even when you spend money with a Virgin Atlantic credit card.
Virgin Atlantic renews its Flying Club
Vowing to “revolutionize the world of redemptions for Virgin Atlantic customers,” the airline has just announced changes to its Flying Club starting this Wednesday. Instead of guaranteeing only a dozen seats for redeeming rewards per flight, every seat on every flight will be available for redeeming points.
However, dynamic pricing will be used for reward seats, meaning they could cost many more points than before. To counter this, Virgin is promising some saver reward seats at the same price or at lower fares than current fares on many flights, with one-way seats to New York starting at 6,000 Virgin points, down from 10,000 currently. A spokeswoman said the monetary value of the points would be published on October 30.
It’s worth it? “It’s hard to say how good or bad it will be,” says Kelvin, who suggests that high points holders may want to secure fixed-price reward seats this month (virginatlantic.com).
Ennismore offers discounts to hotels such as The Hoxton in Shoreditch, London, through its subscription service.
Get discounts with Disloyalty
There are no points to earn or levels to climb with Ennismore’s subscription membership, which launched last year and has just added a mobile app. With discounts on over 90 hotels and 175 restaurants and bars from Ennismore brands such as 25hours Hotels, The Hoxton, Mama Shelter, Mondrian and SLS, it encourages members to try something new.
You get a 50% discount on stays at newly opened hotels; 20pc discount on first-time stays at a property; 10pc discount on return stays and on food and beverages; plus a free barista-prepared drink every day of the year. The card should be rolled out soon at the group’s Rixos and Our Habitas resorts.
It’s worth it? If you drink a lot of coffee, the £144 annual fee would pay for itself with the free daily drink (dis-loyalty.com).
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