Air France and KLM offering excellent Abu Dhabi / Dubai fares

There is an excellent deal running from many European cities to Dubai at the moment, via the SkyTeam alliance.

From the UK, you can depart from any UK airport with Air France or KLM flights, and change in either Paris or Amsterdam.

If you are willing to depart outside the UK, you save even more.

Here some examples based on a seven night stay (appears to be the minimum required) – you can book for the rest of 2024:

• From London Heathrow – £1,343 to Dubai return
• From Budapest – £1,050 to Dubai return
• From Dublin – £1,069 to Abu Dhabi return

Here is an example from London in October at £1,343:

These are ‘Business Light’ fares which do NOT come with lounge access or free seat selection unless you have SkyTeam / Virgin Atlantic status.

These tickets book into ‘O’ class which does not earn miles or status points in Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. You would probably end up crediting them to Air France KLM’s Flying Blue programme (4 miles per €1 but excluding taxes) or Delta Air Lines (100% of miles flown) from where you could – if you wished – top them up with American Express Membership Rewards points and redeem for Virgin Atlantic flights.

As you would be paying in Sterling, irrespective of where you start, your best card to pay with would be American Express Preferred Rewards Gold. This gives double points – two per £1 – on all airline spend, and the points convert at 1:1 into many airline programmes including Avios and Virgin Flying Club.

You can book for either airline via the KLM website here.

Eurostar transfers from American Express still suspended

I spoke to Eurostar yesterday about the continued problems with converting American Express Membership Rewards points into Club Eurostar points.

When Club Eurostar was relaunched last Autumn, following the merger of Eurostar and Thalys, it moved to a new IT platform. This caused problems with all of Eurostar’s transfer partners – Hertz, Accor Live Limitless (see here for details of that partnership) and American Express.

I think Hertz and Accor are now fixed, but American Express Membership Rewards transfers are still down. The latest timeframe is that it will take another 2-3 weeks to get a fix in place.

Revolut has started to offer Avios for debit card spending in five European countries via its new RevPoints loyalty scheme. I expect it to come to the UK soon.

If you or any familiy members live in Spain, Portugal, Croatia, Greece or Malta you can jump in now.

Revolut is rolling out a points programme called RevPoints, which convert to Avios.

To quote the company:

“RevPoints are designed to transform routine purchases into valuable rewards and will soon be available across Europe, making it one of the largest debit card loyalty programs. extensive areas of the region. By offering a tangible and rewarding incentive for everyday spending, we empower customers to get the most out of using Revolut as their main bank account.

RevPoints joins our portfolio of everyday banking products, as we continue to offer innovations aimed at meeting the needs of our customers, including vacation home rentals, hotels, travel insurance, experiences and currency exchange. As with many Revolut services, we are ready to redefine what loyalty programs can do, by adding even more benefits in the future.”

How do you earn RevPoints?

The key route is via spending on your Revolut debit card.

Other options include:

• Earning bonus points by upgrading your Revolut plan and hitting a spend target
• Completing challenges in the Revolut app
• Booking hotel stays via Revolut
• Signing up for RevPoints Spare Change

RevPoints Spare Change is a feature where you can choose to round-up any card transaction to the nearest whole number and exchange the difference for points. If your card transaction was £5.60, it would be rounded-up to £6.00, with 40p being exchanged for points.

What is the earning rate on card spend?

The earn rate varies based on your Revolut plan. This is how the European plans work in the countries where RevPoints is already live – swap € for £ and you get the equivalent UK pricing:

• Free plan – 1 RevPoint per €10 spent
• Plus (€3.99 per month) – 1 RevPoint per €5 spent
• Premium (€8.99 per month) – 1 RevPoint per €3 spent
• Metal (€15.99 per month) – 1 RevPoint per €2 spent
• Ultra (€45 per month) – 1 RevPoint per €1 spent

Some transaction types earn double points, and there are also ‘challenges’ such as a weekly spend bonus.

Which airlines is Revolut working with?

At the moment, the two participating programmes are Avios and Flying Blue, the Air France / KLM programme.

The only other option for redeeming points is for a discount on a hotel room booked via the Revolut platform.

Is this coming to the UK?

It seems so. I have seen specific comments about it being rolled out here soon, although there is no guarantee that the Avios option will remain.

Won’t this clash with existing Avios deals with Amex and Barclaycard?

It shouldn’t clash with the existing agreements with American Express and Barclaycard.

As long as a card offers an intermediate currency that converts to Avios, it is OK. Capital On Tap, NatWest and HSBC already operate on this model – you earn their proprietary points and must do a separate conversion to turn them into Avios. Revolut won’t be allowed to put an Avios logo on its card, however, and may be restricted from mentioning it in its advertising.

Will this be a good deal for UK Avios collectors?

Potentially, yes.

I doubt many HfP readers will want to pay a high monthly fee for a Revolut debit card.

However, the option to earn 1 Avios per £10 spent on a free debit card could be interesting. It depends how much occasional debit card spending you have.

If you could pay HMRC for free with a Revolut debit card whilst earning Avios then it would be very interesting for a subset of HfP readers – and would potentially make the paid Revolut products worth considering too.

Let’s see …. more to come, I’m sure.

You can check out Revolut plans on its UK website here although there is no mention of RevPoints yet.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable 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

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers 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

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year 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.

You can also book any Virgin Atlantic or Delta Airlines flight covered by the transatlantic joint venture.

To get the credit you need to use the promo code KLUKXMAS23 on the KLM website. It is valid on any long haul and European flight departing the UK with a minimum base fare of £170 + taxes and charges.

Airlines covered are:

• KLM
• KLM Cityhopper
• Air France
• Air France Hop
• Virgin Atlantic
• Delta Airlines 

Tickets must be round-trip and purchased on the KLM UK website by 22nd December.

You can travel between now and the end of June 2024. The promotion can be used in any cabin class subject to the £170 minimum base fare.

The discount code can only be used 200 times, so you’ll want to move quickly if you see a fare you like.

The KLM UK site is here.

How to earn Flying Blue miles from UK credit cards (January 2024)

Air France and KLM do not have a UK Flying Blue credit card.  However, you can earn Flying Blue miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

These cards earn Membership Rewards points:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 20,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with four free airport lounge passes.

• The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 40,000 Flying Blue miles

• American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 10,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Flying Blue miles which is an attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Flying Blue mile. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it.

At the end of my article, I noted that it was better than nothing – “which is what you get on most other major European airlines”.

As some of you noted in the comments, I was wrong. To be fair, I should have known better, having flown Air France in February.

So, on my my recent trip to Paris for the opening of the new Star Alliance lounge, I chose to fly Air France in order to compare what was on offer. (I also love the A220s that Air France now flies to Heathrow, which is like the A350s of single aisle aircraft.)

On my outbound flight at 9am, the offering was comparable to what BA supplies: a 25g packet containing two sables aux amandes almond biscuits:

Size-wise, this is the same as the new banana bread or flapjack. You may also be offered a Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain bar by BA on some morning departures.

On my return flight just after 6pm, things were a little better. Instead of biscuits you get something resembling an actual meal – half a sandwich:

I’ve never had a grilled Mediterranean sandwich before. To be honest, my hopes were not high. It doesn’t even look that good. Rather than spread, the filling is a mushy lump at the centre (click to expand on desktop, it really is something):

The taste test confirms that it doesn’t taste like much of anything.

On both flights I was also given a choice of soft drink, including tea, coffee, water, sparkling water, juice, cola etc. This is a substantial improvement over British Airways, where you only get a mini bottle of water.

So, which is better, BA or Air France? In terms of food, I think it’s fairly even. Whilst the half-sandwich is fine in theory, the execution is rubbish and I saw other passengers leave it uneaten once they saw what it was. How hard is it to offer a sandwich with a filling people actually want to eat?

When it comes to drinks service in short haul economy, however, Air France is in the lead. At least you get a choice!

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable 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

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers 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

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year 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.

TopCashback is ending conversions into Avios

TopCashback is ending its relationship with Avios at the end of the year.

TCB, website here, effectively allowed you to buy Avios at 0.95p each by trading any cashback due for points – you received 105 Avios for every £1 you sacrificed. I considered this a decent deal given that I know I can get more than 0.95p of value from an Avios.

Since IAG Loyalty is happy to sell Avios for 0.95p, and that the volumes from TCB are presumably decent, I have to assume that this deal is now seen as conflicting with Avios’s own activities.

Get a 20% transfer on HSBC transfers to Flying Blue

Well, here is something new. If you have a HSBC Premier credit card, you can get a 20% bonus if you transfer your points to Flying Blue, the Air France / KLM scheme, by 31st October.

HSBC has typically run a 25% transfer bonus to Avios once per year. It comes around on such a regular basis that most cardholders have begun to factor it in when considering whether to keep the card. This is the first bonus to any airline or hotel partner other than Avios, I believe.

As I usually say when these deals come along, no bonus under 50% should be enough to make you consider a transfer that you wouldn’t normally have done. If you are already active in Flying Blue and have a pot of HSBC points which need a home, this may be worth a look.

You need to have a HSBC Premier current account (free if you meet the £75,000 salary requirement) to get either of the HSBC Premier credit cards. The free card earns the equivalent of 0.5 airline miles per £1 whilst the £195 World Elite card earns 1 mile per £1. Full details are in our card reviews here (free HSBC Premier card) and here (HSBC Premier World Elite).

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

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

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

Get £50 cashback at Hotel du Vin and Malmaison

American Express has launched a new cashback deal with the Hotel du Vin and Malmaison brands, both of which are under the same ownership.

Whilst we don’t cover them much due to the lack of a loyalty angle, the two brands represent the best hotel option in many of the UK towns and cities where they operate. If you’ve never stayed in one, the best model is probably IHG’s Hotel Indigo chain. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if IHG ended up acquiring them at some point for conversion to Hotel Indigo.

The Oxford Malmaison also wins bonus points for being in a converted prison – see the photo below.

The Hotel du Vin offer is worth £50 back on a £175 spend by 30th November – check out options on their website here.

The Malmaison offer is worth £50 back on a £150 spend by 30th November – you can see their properties here.

Remember that you may or may not be targeted for these deals – look on the ‘Offers’ section of the Amex website or app for each card you hold – and that you need to click ‘Save To Card’ to register before spending.

Check the list of participating hotels before booking. The offers are very restricted with only 7,000 registrations allowed for each.

Get £150 American Express cashback with Air France (or Virgin Atlantic flights to the US)

Following on from the recent KLM cashback offer with American Express, sister company Air France has launched an identical offer.

If targeted, you will get £150 back when you spend £1,000+ on the Air France website by 14th November and book a flight which departs from a UK airport.

Remember that you need to opt in to the offer via your Amex statement page on the website or the Amex app. Only 15,000 registrations will be accepted.

Virgin Atlantic flights to the US can be booked on the Air France website. These flights have AF flight numbers, not VS ones, and so I suspect that they will trigger the £150 cashback if you spend £1,000+.

My review of Air France’s Boeing 777 business class seat is here. Here is our last review of the main Air France lounge in Terminal 2E at Paris CDG.

You can check out options on the Air France website here.

Who won a Virgin Voyage and 90,000 Virgin Points in our latest competition?

Last month we ran a competition to promote the recent Virgin Atlantic Credit Card promotion, offering HfP readers the chance to win a Virgin Voyage and 90,000 Virgin Points.

The lucky winner was Tom W, who has happily accepted the prize. Well done Tom and many thanks to the Virgin Atlantic Credit Card team for organising this competition.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

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

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

The belief in the market was that Scandinavian banks and institutions would come together to produce an ‘all local’ deal which kept full control of the airline in the region.

The market was wrong.

Surprisingly, Air France KLM was announced today as the lead partner in the winning bidder for the airline.

Air France KLM will form a consortium with financial firms Castlelake and Lind Invest, together with a contribution from the Danish government, to acquire the airline.

Initially, Castlelake will be the largest shareholder with 32% followed by the Danish government with 26%. Air France KLM will cap its shareholding at 19.9% for now. Some equity will be given to existing creditors of the airline.

Importantly, Air France KLM has agreed that – after no less than two years – it can take a controlling stake in the airline by acquiring shares from other investors.

It has been confirmed that SAS will leave Star Alliance – of which it was a founding member – and join Air France KLM (and Virgin Atlantic) in SkyTeam. The airline will restructure itself to provide greater feed into the existing Air France and KLM operations in Paris and Amsterdam.

The new investment totals $1.175 billion. This is made up of a mix of equity ($475 million) and convertible debt ($700m) together with $500m from Castlelake to refinance the ‘debtor in possession’ term loan.

The Air France KLM share of the investment is $145m, of which $110m is equity and the remaining $35m in the form of secured convertible bonds. 

The deal is expected to leave nothing to the existing shareholders of SAS who have been wiped out by the Chapter 11 restructuring. The deal still needs various legal approvals before it can complete and SAS AB is delisted – completion is currently planned for the second quarter of 2024.

SAS Chief Executive Anko van der Werff said:

“Through the completion of this process and the opportunities presented by being part of SkyTeam, we will be able to further enhance SAS’s offerings for the benefit of our colleagues, customers and communities”

Benjamin Smith, CEO of Air France KLM said:

“This is an important day for SAS and for Air France KLM. We are pleased to be part of the winning bidding consortium selected by the board of SAS. Air France KLM looks forward to establishing strong commercial ties with SAS. With its well-established position in Scandinavia and strong brand, SAS offers tremendous potential to Air France KLM. This cooperation will allow Air France KLM to enhance its position in the Nordics and improve connectivity for Scandinavian and European travelers. We look forward to being a part of this new chapter in SAS’ history and thank the board of SAS for their trust.”

You can read more on the Air France KLM website here and in the official SAS release here.

With Lufthansa acquiring Italy’s ITA in a similar staged process and IAG keen to pounce on TAP, we may see three flag carriers absorbed into bigger groups by the end of 2024.

How to earn Flying Blue miles from UK credit cards (January 2024)

Air France and KLM do not have a UK Flying Blue credit card.  However, you can earn Flying Blue miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

These cards earn Membership Rewards points:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 20,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with four free airport lounge passes.

• The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 40,000 Flying Blue miles

• American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 10,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Flying Blue miles which is an attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Flying Blue mile. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it.

Today I want to look at another change which may have passed you by. American Express is stopping the direct sale of Membership Rewards points on 1st October.

Did you even know this was possible? The facility is mentioned in the Terms & Conditions for the Membership Rewards scheme, for anyone willing to wade through them.

One of the lesser known features of the American Express Membership Rewards programme is the ability to buy up to 10,000 Membership Rewards points per year for 1.5p each.

Note that a lot of Amex call centre agents will never have done this and may deny it can be done.  You may need to hang up and call again.

Let’s have a look at whether this is worth doing in the few days you have left.

Why buy miles indirectly via Amex when you can buy them directly?

Over the last few years, pretty much every airline and hotel programme has brought in a ‘buy points’ option.  This is not surprising – it is easy money for the programme, and they are still charging you more than the marginal cost to them of redeeming the points.

Since American Express is willing to sell Platinum and Preferred Rewards Gold cardholders additional Membership Rewards points, you can use this method to buy yourself airline points for a discount on the price charged by the programme itself.

This method has got more attractive over the last couple of years for those airlines who sell miles priced in US$ or Euro, since the fall in Sterling has made them noticeably more expensive if bought direct.

American Express sells you Membership Rewards points priced in £ so the cost has remained constant.

Of course, many airlines have occasional mileage sales which bring down the price below what you will pay using this route.  Don’t use this method to buy miles speculatively which you don’t plan to use immediately.

This method does not really work for hotel programmes, based on my maths.

How much can you save by buying 10,000 Membership Rewards points?

Let’s take a look at a few examples, based on the points you get from converting 10,000 Membership Rewards points which you have bought from Amex for £150.

This is the full list of airline and hotel groups offering transfers from Membership Rewards in the UK.

Compared to buying 10,000 Membership Rewards points for £150 ….:

UK airlines:

• Avios – 10,000 Avios cost £195 directly (see here), you save £45

• Virgin Points – 10,000 points cost £165 directly (see here), you save £15

Other airlines:

• Asia Miles – 10,000 miles cost £245 directly ($300, see here – can only be done at the point of redemption if already have 70% of the miles needed), you save £95 as well as getting around the ‘can only buy whilst redeeming’ issue

• Delta SkyMiles – 10,000 miles cost £285 directly ($350, see here), you save £135

• Emirates Skywards – 10,000 miles cost £245 directly ($300, see here), you save £95

• Etihad Guest – 10,000 miles cost £160 directly, you save £10

• Finnair Plus – 10,000 miles cost £110 directly (€129, see here), no saving via Amex at the current exchange rate

• Flying Blue – 10,000 miles cost £223 directly (see here), you save £73 (although if you buy direct there is currently a bonus promotion running worth 50% to 100%)

• Qantas Points – 10,000 points cost £200 directly (A$388, see here, points can only be purchased at the point of redemption to top up an existing balance), you save £50

• SAS EuroBonus – 10,000 points cost £145 directly (SEK 2,000, see here), no saving via Amex at the current exchange rate

• Singapore Airlines – 6,667 miles cost £205 directly ($267, you cannot buy online and can only buy 50% of whatever redemption you are planning), you save £55

Hotels:

• Hilton Honors – 20,000 points cost £165 directly ($200, see here), you save £15

• Marriott Bonvoy – 15,000 points costs £155 directly ($187.50, see here), no saving via Amex at the current exchange rate

• Radisson Rewards – 30,000 points cost £170 directly ($210, see here), you save £20 – although it no longer makes sense to buy Radisson points now they have a fixed redemption value of under 0.2p

This method also gets around arcane rules in some programmes. Singapore Airlines, for example, only lets you buy miles directly if you are about to redeem and already have 50% of the miles you need. Asia Miles has a similar rule. The Amex points purchase route lets you get around this.  This method also gets around any annual caps on the amount of miles you can buy directly.

Conclusion

As you can see from the numbers above, there is a big difference between the airline and hotel schemes.

There is often a good saving to be made by NOT buying airline miles directly and, instead, buying up to 10,000 Membership Rewards points from American Express at 1.5p each and converting them. You need to do this by 1st October before the option is withdrawn.

This is not the case with hotel schemes, where buying Membership Rewards points to convert to hotel points rarely offers great value.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

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

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

• allow you to redeem Etihad Guest miles for Air France and KLM flights

• allow you to redeem Flying Blue miles for Etihad flights

• benefit from reciprocal elite benefits

The current codeshare operation between the groups will be expanded to cover another 40 routes. We have already seen Air France announce flights to Abu Dhabi, although the reason for this wasn’t clear at the time.

The expanded codeshares are meant to be in place for the upcoming winter flying season. None of the loyalty changes will happen immediately although I suspect most should be in place within 12 months.

In terms of relevance to HfP readers, the following are worth considering:

• if you earn miles flying with Virgin Atlantic, would you benefit from crediting to Flying Blue instead to take advantage of Etihad redemption opportunities?

• if you earn miles flying with Etihad, would you benefit from crediting to Flying Blue instead, given the ability to redeem on Etihad and the entire SkyTeam alliance?

• if taxes and charges are reasonable, there may be value in transferring American Express Membership Rewards points to Flying Blue instead of Etihad Guest if you want to book Etihad flights. If nothing else, the miles would be easier to re-use if you ended up cancelling your flight.

We’ll keep you updated when we know the timeline for these changes. You can find out more on the Etihad website here.

PS. It is worth considering whether Virgin Atlantic may be looking at a similar deal. It already works very closely with Air France KLM via its transatlantic joint venture, and Virgin Atlantic Holidays would benefit from access to Etihad inventory at preferred rates. British Airways and Qatar Airways already have a deep relationship via their joint venture agreement, joint oneworld alliance membership, joint use of Avios and the 25% shareholding that Qatar Airways holds in BA’s parent company.

How to earn Flying Blue miles from UK credit cards (January 2024)

Air France and KLM do not have a UK Flying Blue credit card.  However, you can earn Flying Blue miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

These cards earn Membership Rewards points:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 20,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with four free airport lounge passes.

• The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 40,000 Flying Blue miles

• American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 10,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Flying Blue miles which is an attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Flying Blue mile. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it.

Flights from London to Toronto will increase to four times a day from April to October 2024, an increase from the three offered this year.

Flights from Manchester will increase to six weekly fights in the peak summer months from June to September, whilst flights to Edinburgh will enjoy a longer season, starting on 1st March and running until January 2025.

According to Mark Galardo, Executive Vice President of Revenue and Network Planning at Air Canada,

“Air Canada saw a tremendous rebound in international flying this past summer, particularly on the trans-Atlantic, and we expect Europe will remain popular next year. In anticipation of this, we are expanding our flying schedule to offer customers more choice and flexibility as they begin to plan their 2024 holidays.

The centrepiece of today’s announcement is our new Montreal-Madrid flight. This will be the only year-round service between Montreal and the Spanish capital, complementing our long-standing Toronto-Madrid flights, and offering compelling options for leisure customers and also returning business travellers.”

We have yet to review Air Canada’s international business class, which it calls Signature Class. Our review of the Maple Leaf Lounge at Heathrow Terminal 2 is here.

Toronto and Montreal rank as the third and fifth busiest airports in North America when measured by daily transatlantic seats. To be perfectly honest, that’s a far bigger operation than I imagined!

From the UK and Ireland, you have the following choices on Air Canada:

From London Heathrow Terminal 2:

• Calgary – once daily
• Halifax – once daily
• Montreal – up two twice daily
• Toronto – four times daily
• Vancouver – once daily

From Manchester:

• Toronto – six weekly

From Edinburgh:

• Toronto – up to once daily (seasonal)

From Dublin:

• Montreal – thrice weekly
• Toronto – once daily
• Vancouver – four times weekly

Air Canada is a member of Star Alliance and you can earn and redeem miles from any Star Alliance programme on their services. This HfP article looks at the best way to earn Star Alliance miles from UK credit cards.

If targeted, you will get £150 back when you spend £1,000+ on the KLM website by 2nd October, and book a flight which departs from a UK airport.

Remember that you need to opt in to the offer via your Amex statement page on the website or the Amex app. Only 15,000 registrations will be accepted.

Virgin Atlantic flights to the US can be booked on the KLM website. These flights have KL flight numbers, not VS ones, and so I suspect that they will trigger the £150 cashback if you spend £1,000+.

You can check out options on the KLM website here.

Save £5 on a £50 Esso spend

Finally, a more low-rent Amex offer of £5 off a £50 Esso spend has appeared. This is valid to 15th October.

You can:

• earn Avios via Esso by taking Nectar points and converting them to Avios, or

• earn Virgin Flying Club points at Esso by taking Tesco Clubcard points and converting them to Virgin Points (only valid at Esso stations with a Tesco Express store)

The price gap between supermarket petrol and branded petrol has narrowed. Since Asda and Morrisons were taken over and decided to stop using petrol as a loss leader, all supermarkets have increased their fuel prices. Even readers who usually avoided Esso due to cost should come out on top with £5 cashback.

It is also worth checking the Nectar app for any opt-in Nectar bonuses before visiting Esso. Any bonuses will be under the ‘Partner Offers’ section.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

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

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

How aggressive? £1,100 return, if you stay five nights:

Dates appear to be November to Summer 2024, although the Grand Prix period is excluded.

The only catch is that this is a Business Light fare which comes with no airport lounge access and no free seat selection until check-in. You do get fast track benefits though.

For sadists, there are also routes which go via Amsterdam AND Paris (Dublin – Amsterdam – Paris – Abu Dhabi!). This might be useful if you’re looking to maximise Virgin Atlantic tier points.

In fact, to be honest, the whole fare is best suited for someone looking to earn or retain Virgin Flying Club elite status. This article explains how many Virgin Atlantic tier points you earn from Air France. It looks like you’d get 280 points return on this itinerary.

For anyone else, flying UK – Dublin – Paris – Abu Dhabi may be a bit excessive even if the fare is £1,100 return plus the cost of the UK connection.

You can play around with dates on the Air France website here.

Caviar House launches the Mile High Picnic

Caviar House & Prunier has launched the Mile High Picnic collection across all of its sites at Heathrow and Gatwick airports.

The company has run in-airport dining sites for many years but is now expanding into take-away food. To quote:

A fine gourmet treat that will perfectly set the tone for an upcoming holiday or journey; each box is hand-crafted with the utmost care to deliver a delectable experience like no other. Filled with a selection of super fresh seafood, melt in the mouth smoked salmon, and an array of accompaniments, these picnic boxes are anything but ordinary. And they sure do make a change from a soggy sandwich and a bag of crisps!

Caviar House & Prunier is a cut above your average airport restaurant – caviar (sustainably farmed) as the name suggests makes up a lot of their business – so this could be worth a look.

Mile High Picnic sets start at £19.50 and are available from all Heathrow terminals and from London Gatwick’s South Terminal, which is the one used by British Airways.

Earn Flying Blue miles with a new parking partner

If you collect Air France KLM Flying Blue miles, the group has a new UK parking partner – Looking4Parking.

Looking4Parking offers parking across most UK airports, and you will earn 3 Flying Blue miles for every £1 spent at their dedicated portal here.

It is comparison pricing service, covering Meet & Greet, Park & Ride and onsite airport parking from providers such as Airparks, NCP, APH and the airports themselves.

Whilst you may not have heard of Looking4Parking, it is owned by Manchester Airports Group via CAVU, their airport lounge and ancilliaries division. CAVU recently bought Park Via, the British Airways parking partner, which will presumably be folded into Looking4Parking in some way.

Save 10% at Smythson and Accessorize at Heathrow

Finally, a quick heads up on two shopping offers at Heathrow this weekend for anyone with a Heathrow Rewards card:

• Smythson (Terminal 4 and Terminal 5) – until 31st August, save 10% on any purchase of £250+ plus get 500 bonus Heathrow Rewards

• Accessorize (all terminals) – until 30th September, save 10% when you spend £60+ on full price items (gift cards excluded)

Our full review of Heathrow Rewards, including joining details and the best ways to spend your points, is here.

Launching at the start of the winter flying season on Sunday 29th October, it represents a new way to spend Virgin Points to get to the Middle East.

I have used Air France to fly to Dubai before using Virgin Points – last year I managed to get enough business class seats for my entire family.

Availability to Dubai quickly dries up though. At the moment, the new Abu Dhabi route looks very open.

The flights operate daily. It is an overnight flight from Paris, departing at 9.15pm (lands 6.45am) with the return leaving Abu Dhabi at 8.45am, landing in Paris at 1.15pm.

Air France is using an A350. It will be one of the earlier ones with the old-style business class seat pictured above and not the new suite.

I think the reason it is an overnight flight out is that Air France codeshares with Etihad on the route, and the existing Paris – Abu Dhabi flight on Etihad leaves in the morning. This service cannot be booked on Virgin Points despite being an Air France codeshare.

How to book with Virgin Points

Here is Virgin Atlantic showing FOUR business class seats for Virgin Points on Monday 30th October, back on Sunday 5th November, should your children have a late half-term:

As you can see, you can save a lot on taxes and charges if you choose to start your trip in Paris. As the screenshot shows, the cost per person, return, in business class is 110,000 Virgin Points + €388 (£337).

You could either buy a separate flight to Paris, collecting and rechecking your bags, or do what we did last year and take Eurostar with a sightseeing day in Paris before flying onwards. If that’s too much faff, you can book with a connecting Air France flight to/from the UK – either London or one of its regional departure points – although the addition of Air Passenger Duty will push up taxes sharply.

It is very unlikely that the Virgin Atlantic website will let you complete an online booking. It has never let me book a long-haul Air France or KLM flight – you always get an error message after inputting payment details saying ‘sorry, someone else took your seats’ but this is not true. Call Virgin Atlantic after checking the Virgin website for availability and you can book successfully.

You cannot use a Virgin Atlantic credit card 2-4-1 or upgrade voucher on partner airline flights such as this one.

Here is my review of flying to Dubai last year on an Air France Boeing 777. This is a different seat to the A350 but it will give you an idea of the food and IFE.

The Air France website is here.

How to earn Flying Blue miles from UK credit cards (January 2024)

Air France and KLM do not have a UK Flying Blue credit card.  However, you can earn Flying Blue miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

These cards earn Membership Rewards points:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 20,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with four free airport lounge passes.

• The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 40,000 Flying Blue miles

• American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 10,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Flying Blue miles which is an attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Flying Blue mile. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it.

There is one thing in the announcement that I didn’t know about. American Express is stopping the direct sale of Membership Rewards points on 1st October.

Did you even know this was possible? The facility is mentioned in the Terms & Conditions for the Membership Rewards scheme, for anyone willing to wade through them.

One of the lesser known features of the American Express Membership Rewards programme is the ability to buy up to 10,000 Membership Rewards points per year for 1.5p each.

Note that a lot of Amex call centre agents will never have done this and may deny it can be done.  You may need to hang up and call again.

Let’s have a look at whether this is worth doing in the few weeks you have left.

Why buy miles indirectly via Amex when I can buy them directly?

Over the last few years, pretty much every airline and hotel programme has brought in a ‘buy points’ option.  This is not surprising – it is easy money for the programme, and they are still charging you more than the marginal cost to them of redeeming the points.

Since American Express is willing to sell Platinum and Preferred Rewards Gold cardholders additional Membership Rewards points, you can use this method to buy yourself airline points for a discount on the price charged by the programme itself.

This method has got more attractive over the last couple of years for those airlines who sell miles priced in US$ or Euro, since the fall in Sterling has made them noticeably more expensive if bought direct.

American Express sells you Membership Rewards points priced in £ so the cost has remained constant.

Of course, many airlines have occasional mileage sales which bring down the price below what you will pay using this route.  Don’t use this method to buy miles speculatively which you don’t plan to use immediately.

This method does not work for hotel programmes, based on my maths.

How much can you save by buying 10,000 Membership Rewards points?

Let’s take a look at a few examples, based on the points you get from converting 10,000 Membership Rewards points which you have bought from Amex for £150.

This is the full list of airlines and hotel companies offering transfers from Membership Rewards in the UK:

Compared to buying 10,000 Membership Rewards points for £150 ….:

UK airlines:

• Avios – 10,000 Avios cost £195 directly (see here), you save £45

• Virgin Points – 10,000 points cost £165 directly (see here), you save £15 (although until 31st July there is a 60% bonus when you buy points directly which makes it the best option)

Other airlines:

• Asia Miles – 10,000 miles cost £230 directly ($300, see here – can only be done at the point of redemption if already have 70% of the miles needed), you save £80 as well as getting around the ‘can only buy whilst redeeming’ issue

• Delta SkyMiles – 10,000 miles cost £270 directly ($350, see here), you save £120

• Emirates Skywards – 10,000 miles cost £230 directly ($300, see here), you save £80

• Etihad Guest – 10,000 miles cost £160 directly, you save £10

• Finnair Plus – 10,000 miles cost £110 directly (€129, see here), no saving via Amex at the current exchange rate

• Flying Blue – 10,000 miles cost £223 directly (see here), you save £73

• Qantas Points – 10,000 points cost £200 directly (A$388, see here, points can only be purchased at the point of redemption to top up an existing balance), you save £50

• SAS EuroBonus – 10,000 points cost £146 directly (SEK 2,000, see here), no saving via Amex at the current exchange rate

• Singapore Airlines – 6,667 miles cost £205 directly ($267, you cannot buy online and can only buy 50% of whatever redemption you are planning), you save £55

Hotels:

• Hilton Honors – 20,000 points cost £154 directly ($200, see here), you save £4 – however, there is currently a 80%-100% bonus running when you buy points directly which clearly beats the Amex route

• Marriott Bonvoy – 15,000 points costs £145 directly ($187.50, see here), no saving via Amex at the current exchange rate

• Radisson Rewards – 30,000 points cost £162 directly ($210, see here), you save £12 – although it no longer makes sense to buy Radisson points now they have a fixed redemption value of roughly 0.2p

This method also gets around arcane rules in some programmes. Singapore Airlines, for example, only lets you buy miles directly if you are are about to redeem and already have 50% of the miles you need. Asia Miles has a similar rule. The Amex points purchase route lets you get around this.  The method also, of course, gets around any annual caps on the amount of miles you can buy directly.

Conclusion

As you can see from the numbers above, there is a big difference between the airline and hotel schemes.

There is often a good saving to be made by NOT buying airline miles directly and, instead, buying up to 10,000 Membership Rewards points from American Express at 1.5p each and converting them. You need to do this by 1st October before the option is withdrawn.

This is not the case with hotel schemes, where buying Membership Rewards points to convert to hotel points rarely offers great value.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

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

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

This appears to include Virgin Atlantic flights to the US if they have an Air France flight number.

Here are terms, if you are targeted:

• get £150 cashback when you spend £1,000+ online with Air France
• bookings must be made by 25th July 2023
• there are no restrictions on travel dates
• cumulative spend is OK
• you must book via the Air France UK website here
• flights must depart from London Heathrow, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Manchester or Newcastle
• all cabin classes are included

You need to be careful about partner flights, since the Air France website shows Air France, KLM, Delta and Virgin Atlantic services amongst others. Looking at the rules, a Virgin Atlantic or other partner flight with an AF flight number should be OK. A flight without an AF flight number is probably not OK.

Flight cashback deals work differently to other Amex cashback deals. Amex receives detailed information from airlines on the exact flight and cabin class booked so it is easy for it to block the cashback if you book a flight which does not have an AF flight number.

You need to book via the Air France UK site here.

How to earn Flying Blue miles from UK credit cards (January 2024)

Air France and KLM do not have a UK Flying Blue credit card.  However, you can earn Flying Blue miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

These cards earn Membership Rewards points:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 20,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with four free airport lounge passes.

• The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 40,000 Flying Blue miles

• American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 10,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Flying Blue miles which is an attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Flying Blue mile. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it.

One of the main concerns we had when Virgin Atlantic announced its plans was whether the airline would let SkyTeam business class and elite status members use its Clubhouse lounges.

This is particularly pertinent for the Heathrow Clubhouse, which often runs at or close to capacity. Even if Virgin Atlantic wanted to, it would simply not be possible to cater to all SkyTeam elites.

Back in March Virgin Atlantic published a revised list of access rules for the flagship Clubhouse at Heathrow Terminal 3.

These rules do not appear to have been effective at curbing demand, because the airline has quietly revised the list to exclude more people.

The current rules are on this page of the Virgin Atlantic website.

Who can get into the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse lounge at Heathrow?

Heathrow Clubhouse access via your ticket type:

Anyone flying in the following cabins will automatically get access to the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse:

• Upper Class passengers on Virgin Atlantic (including one guest who must be travelling on Virgin Atlantic or Delta, on any flight in any cabin)
• Delta One passengers on Delta (no guest)
• Clase Premier passengers on Aeroméxico (no guest)

Other SkyTeam business class passengers do NOT get access.

Heathrow Clubhouse access via your SkyTeam status:

Only the following elite status passengers can enter the Clubhouse if they are not flying in Upper Class / Delta One / Clase Premier:

• Virgin Flying Club Gold, flying on a Virgin Atlantic, Delta or Aeroméxico flight in any class (including one guest)
• Delta SkyMiles Diamond or Platinum Medallion, flying on a Virgin Atlantic or Delta flight in premium economy (including one guest)
• Air France / KLM Flying Blue Platinum, flying on a Virgin Atlantic or Delta flight in premium economy (including one guest)

Who has lost access to the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse?

Comparing the access guidance above to what was published back in March, the following people now have to head elsewhere:

• Delta SkyMiles Diamond or Platinum Medallion, flying on a Virgin Atlantic or Delta flight in economy
• Air France / KLM Flying Blue Platinum, flying on a Virgin Atlantic or Delta flight in economy
• All other SkyTeam Elite Plus members flying on Virgin Atlantic, Delta or Aeroméxico flights in economy or premium economy

The following non-SkyTeam elites appear to have also lost access unless flying in business class:

• Virgin Australia Velocity Club Gold, Platinum and The Club members flying Virgin Atlantic
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Gold, Solitaire PPS Club and PPS Club members flying Virgin Atlantic
• Air New Zealand Gold or Elite members flying on Virgin Atlantic to San Francisco

The following people lost access due to the shift of Air France and KLM flights back to Terminal 4:

• Passengers connecting to La Première on Air France

Conclusion

To be honest, we hadn’t been hearing any horror stories of Clubhouse overcrowding. When I was last there over Easter it was definitely busy but certainly not unmanageable.

Virgin Atlantic seems to believe that the situation would be improved by restricting access further. Cutting access to Delta and Flying Blue top tier members who are flying in Economy is likely to have the biggest impact whilst also making Virgin Atlantic Gold status more attractive than that of other SkyTeam carriers.

Our guide to the Virgin Clubhouses is here and you can also read our review of the Heathrow Clubhouse here.

The official Heathrow Clubhouse rules are on the Virgin Atlantic site here.

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, the Reward+ card has a bonus of 15,000 Virgin Points):

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

A generous earning rate for a free card at 0.75 points per £1 Read our full review

You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 40,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 40,000 Virgin Points.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points. 

(Want to earn more Virgin Points?  Click here to see our recent articles on Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club and click here for our home page with the latest news on earning and spending other airline and hotel points.)

Air France and KLM add seat selection fees in Business Class

Whilst it hasn’t been communicated to members yet, Air France KLM has confirmed via its trade site here that it will impose seat selection fees in long haul Business Class from 4th April.

The cost will be €70 to €90 per person each way. You can avoid the fee by waiting until check in and selecting from seats that remain.

Whilst Silver, Gold and Platinum members of Flying Blue will be exempt, you will need to pay if you are an elite member of another SkyTeam airline. This is particularly frustrating for HfP readers who have status in Virgin Flying Club and seems rather petty, albeit it will probably lead to some flyers moving across to Flying Blue as a result.

Transatlantic routes to the US, Canada and Mexico are exempt for now due to the terms of the Delta / Virgin / Air France / KLM joint venture agreement.

New Avios redemption flight option to Tangier

Royal Air Maroc, which is a member of the oneworld airline alliance alongside British Airways, has launched a seasonal route from London Gatwick to Tangier.

There will be two flights per week, on Mondays and Saturdays. The season starts on 24th June and ends on 2nd September.

The flights are showing for Avios redemption via ba.com but you get an error message if you try to complete a booking. The call centre should hopefully be able to do it. Taxes and charges can be high on Royal Air Maroc redemptions so check the total before confirming any booking.

Business Class is usually 2×2 on Royal Air Maroc short haul. I don’t mean that the middle seat is blocked (a la British Airways, Lufthansa etc) – I mean that you get super-sized seats in a 2×2 layout.

Co-brand frequent flyer credit cards reach Iraq

There is, it seems, no end to where co-brand credit cards are popping up.

Royal Jordanian, a British Airways partner via the oneworld alliance, has just launched the first co-brand credit card in Iraq. Details are here.

It’s not hugely generous, assuming that interchange fees are not capped in Iraq. You receive 1 RJ Royal Club mile for each US$1.50 equivalent you spend. As a sign-up bonus, cardholders are upgraded to Silver status in the Royal Jordanian programme after their first flight post enrollment.

What is Air France and KLM doing for lounge access in Terminal 4?

As we covered last week, Air France and KLM have been forcibly moved back to Terminal 4 by Heathrow. This started yesterday.

This is a blow for the airlines, even though Terminal 4 has historically been their home. Since the Air France KLM and Virgin Atlantic transatlantic joint venture went live, the ability to connect seamlessly from long haul to short haul in Terminal 3 has been an important driver of traffic. British Airways will now look more attractive for many people travelling from France or the Netherlands to North America.

The SkyTeam lounge in Terminal 4 – which was huge, see our last review here – closed during the pandemic. I don’t know if it has been fully ripped out or not – let me know if you know.

Air France and KLM are now using the Plaza Premium lounge in Terminal 4.

I reviewed the Plaza Premium lounge in Heathrow Terminal 4 and it is totally fine. Image below. It isn’t huge, however, and it was fairly busy when I was there last month. This was obviously well before Air France and KLM turned up.

Your chance of getting into Plaza Premium Heathrow Terminal 4 using American Express Platinum or DragonPass (you can’t use Priority Pass) has now dropped.

Is this sustainable long term? Probably not, but at the same time the old SkyTeam lounge is now too big without Delta passengers. I’m not sure if Air France and KLM would want to underwrite it given that they are only running short haul services.

Inside the American Airlines First Class lounge at Heathrow Terminal 3

As we covered last week, American Airlines has reopened its First Class lounge in Heathrow Terminal 3. It is the last airline lounge to reopen in the terminal.

The First Class lounge is a separate area to the Admirals Club lounge at Heathrow, which we reviewed here.

A friend of mine was there yesterday and sent a few pictures. He pinged me a few pointers:

• He got a very warm welcome 

• Champagne is offered on entry (Moët white or pink), similar to an AA Flagship Lounge

• It does (as I said last week) have a very utilitarian, old aged peoples home feel!

• There are no real changes from when he was last there four ago

• You can order from a menu (see below) or take food from a small buffet

• It’s a big space and didn’t feel crowded

• You get a good view of the aircraft at Gate 23

To be honest, there is no logical reason to use this lounge unless you want somewhere that it a little quieter than the alternative spaces. If you have access to the American Airlines First Class lounge, you have access to the Cathay Pacific First Class lounge (review) ….

How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (January 2024)

Here are the four options to get FREE airport lounge access via a UK credit card.

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with two free Priority Pass cards, one for you and one for a supplementary cardholder. Each card admits two so a family of four gets in free. You get access to all 1,300 lounges in the Priority Pass network – search it here.

You also get access to Plaza Premium, Delta Air Lines and Eurostar lounges.  Our American Express Platinum review is here. You can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

If you have a small business, consider American Express Business Platinum instead.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for the first year. It comes with a Priority Pass card loaded with four free visits to any Priority Pass lounge – see the list here.

Additional lounge visits are charged at £24.  You get four more free visits for every year you keep the card.  

There is no annual fee for Amex Gold in Year 1 and you get a 20,000 points sign-up bonus.  Full details are in our American Express Preferred Rewards Gold review here.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard gets you get a free Priority Pass card, allowing you access to the Priority Pass network.  Guests are charged at £24 although it may be cheaper to pay £60 for a supplementary credit card for your partner.

The card has a fee of £195 and there are strict financial requirements to become a HSBC Premier customer.  Full details are in my HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard review.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard

A huge bonus, but only available to HSBC Premier clients Read our full review

PS. You can find all of HfP’s UK airport lounge reviews – and we’ve been to most of them – indexed here.

Our comprehensive review of the Accor Live Limitless scheme is here.

Keep up to date with new hotel offers by signing up for our free daily or weekly newsletters.

Accor Live Limitless is offering you a bonus of 500 Accor points, worth €10, on your next stay if you link your ALL account to an Air France KLM Flying Blue account.

For most HfP readers, the Flying Blue / Accor partnership is no longer relevant. Ever since Avios (via Qatar Privilege Club) and Accor partnered up last year, most of you will prefer to earn Avios – and not Flying Blue miles – on top of your Accor Live Limitless points.

Details of how you can ‘double dip’ with Avios and Accor points are in this article from yesterday. There is currently a ‘double Accor points’ offer running for those who take up the Avios partnership offer.

If you’re not bothered about the Avios partnership, and even if you have zero interest in the Air France / KLM Flying Blue scheme, it is worth creating an account to link to your Accor account just to pick up these 500 bonus points.

Note that you cannot unlink your Qatar Privilege Club account from your Accor Live Limitless account unless it has been linked for over 12 months. It isn’t possible to swap to Flying Blue, do one stay for the 500 points bonus, and then swap back to earning Avios.

You can find full details of this special offer, and register, on the Accor website here.

How does the Accor and Flying Blue partnership work?

Here’s a graphical overview:

As you can see:

• When you stay at Accor hotels, you will earn 1 Flying Blue airline mile per €1 – on top of the Accor points you would usually earn

• When you fly with Air France or KLM, you will earn 1 Accor hotel point per €2 – on top of the Flying Blue miles you would usually earn

You can only be better off by registering for this offer.  There is no downside, unless you collect Avios and prefer to earn those instead via the Qatar Privilege Club / Avios partnership.

There is a tiny bit of small print on the Accor offer.  Stays at their low end brands (Adagio, Adagio Access, ibis, ibis Styles and Mama Shelter) earn miles at lower rates.

You can also transfer Flying Blue miles into Accor points

You have always been able to transfer Accor Live Limitless points into Flying Blue miles at the rate of:

• 2,000 Accor points = 1,000 Flying Blue miles

However, you can now transfer the other way too:

• 4,000 Flying Blue miles = 1,000 Accor points

How do you get your 500 bonus Accor Live Limitless points?

This is how the bonus works:

• You must link your Accor and Flying Blue accounts via the Accor website here by 10th April

• You must book an Accor hotel stay between the date of linkage and 10th April 2023, for a stay by 30th June 2023 (existing bookings do not count)

• Your booking must be paid for entirely in cash – redemption or ‘part cash, part points’ bookings are excluded

• There is no minimum stay requirement

• You can only earn the bonus once

• Your 500 bonus points may take up to six weeks to arrive

There is a Flying Blue flight bonus too

Once you’ve registered for this offer, you can earn an additional bonus by taking an Air France or KLM flight by 30th June 2023 and crediting it to your Flying Blue account.

The flight must be booked between 9th March and 10th April 2023.

You will receive 1,000 bonus Flying Blue miles for your flight. Whilst these are not worth anything on their own, it puts you nearer the 4,000 Flying Blue miles you need in order to convert them to 1,000 Accor Live Limitless points.

Conclusion

Since the Avios (via Qatar Privilege Club) and Accor partnership was launched, I doubt many of our readers are too bothered about signing up to the Accor / Flying Blue deal.

If you are, however, then now is as good a time as any with 500 bonus Accor Live Limitless points to persuade you.

You can find full details on the Accor Live Limitless website here.

Our two-part review of Accor Live Limitless starts here.

Accor Live Limitless update – January 2024:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

This begs far more questions than it answers:

• Why is this happening with virtually no notice?

• Why has this not been announced to the public? As of last night, the Heathrow website still showed the airlines in Terminal 3 for April flights and there is nothing on the airline websites.

• What will happen about a lounge, given that the SkyTeam lounge was closed down?

• What happens to passengers who have a tight connection to/from a Virgin Atlantic or Delta flight in Terminal 3 and were expecting a quick transfer rather than the long trip from Terminal 4?

• What say did Air France and KLM have in this move, given that the only winner seems to be British Airways? BA will undoubtedly increase its share of transfer traffic when passengers realise they won’t need a terminal change.

The only upside is that the front desk staff at the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse will no longer have to turn away a steady stream of Air France and KLM elites each day who want access before their short haul flight.

With Air France and KLM moving back to Terminal 4, it would make sense to re-open the ‘permanently’ closed SkyTeam lounge, although clearly this depends on whether it was stripped out or not. SkyTeam has recently opened a new alliance-branded lounge in Sao Paolo so it has clearly not given up on the concept of alliance-branded facilities.

How to earn Flying Blue miles from UK credit cards (January 2024)

Air France and KLM do not have a UK Flying Blue credit card.  However, you can earn Flying Blue miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

These cards earn Membership Rewards points:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 20,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with four free airport lounge passes.

• The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 40,000 Flying Blue miles

• American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 10,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Flying Blue miles which is an attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Flying Blue mile. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it.

To get the credit you need to use the promo code UKVALDAY50 for Air France and KLUKLOVE50 for KLM. They are valid on any long haul and European flights departing the UK operated by Air France / KLM with a minimum value of £160.

Tickets must be round-trip and purchased on the Air France or KLM websites, with travel between now and the end of June 2023. The promotion can be used in any cabin class.

The discount code can only be used 200 times, so you’ll want to move quickly if you see a fare you like.

The Air France site is here and the KLM site is here. Most flights show on both sites, irrespective of which airline is flying them, so if one code fails then try the other site with the other code.

How to earn Flying Blue miles from UK credit cards (January 2024)

Air France and KLM do not have a UK Flying Blue credit card.  However, you can earn Flying Blue miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

These cards earn Membership Rewards points:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 20,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with four free airport lounge passes.

• The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 40,000 Flying Blue miles

• American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 10,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Flying Blue miles which is an attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Flying Blue mile. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it.

From the UK, you can depart from any UK airport with Air France or KLM flights, and change in either Paris or Amsterdam.

If you are willing to depart outside the UK, you save even more.

Here some examples based on a seven night stay (appears to be the minimum required) for the Autumn:

• From the UK – £1,495 return
• From Budapest – €1,244 return
• From Helsinki – €1,125 return
• From Nice – €1,330 return

Here is an example from Helsinki in October:

Note that these tickets book into ‘O’ class which does not earn miles or status points in Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. This may change when Virgin Atlantic joins SkyTeam in a few weeks. You would probably end up crediting them to Air France KLM’s Flying Blue programme, from where you could – if you wished – top them up with American Express Membership Rewards points and redeem for Virgin Atlantic flights.

As you would be paying in Sterling, your best card to pay with would be American Express Preferred Rewards Gold. This gives double points – two per £1 – on all airline spend, and the points convert at 1:1 into many airline programmes including Avios and Virgin Flying Club.

You can book for either airline via the KLM website here.

How to earn Flying Blue miles from UK credit cards (January 2024)

Air France and KLM do not have a UK Flying Blue credit card.  However, you can earn Flying Blue miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

These cards earn Membership Rewards points:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 20,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with four free airport lounge passes.

• The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 40,000 Flying Blue miles

• American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 10,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Flying Blue miles which is an attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Flying Blue mile. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it.

Details are here on the KLM site.  You can book both airlines here since they operate as one for marketing purposes.

Below is the headline pricing. Other destinations are also available.  This is from London Heathrow via Paris or Amsterdam, prices may vary from other regional airports.

What is good about this sale, of course, is that KLM operates from most regional airports in the UK. Air France also has decent regional coverage, albeit not as good as KLM. This is an especially good offer for those outside the M25.

Deals include:

• Accra from £1,430
• Bogota from £1,616
• Delhi from £1,947
• Dubai from £1,263
• Lima from £1,610
• Lagos from £1,856
• Mumbai from £2,236
• Nairobi from £1,511
• Rio de Janeiro from £1,605
• St Martin from £1,820
• Tel Aviv from £958
• Calgary from £2,087
• Toronto from £1,832
• New York from £1,762
• Vancouver from £2,220
• Las Vegas from £2,201
• Mexico City from £2,135
• San Francisco from £2,201
• Los Angeles from £2,206
• Chicago from £1,907
• Montreal from £1,825
• Washington DC from £1,924

Other destinations are also available, mostly in the US, including Seattle and Atlanta.

You need to book by 25th January and travel by 31st October 2023.

Flights will credit to Flying Blue or any other SkyTeam loyalty programme or, of course Virgin Flying Club. You can see how many Virgin Flying Club tier points you will earn in this article although this may change when Virgin Atlantic joins SkyTeam in a few weeks.

Your best option to maximise your miles when paying is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  This offers double points – 2 per £1 – when you book flight tickets directly with an airline.  This assumes you are paying in Sterling, as Amex has a 3% FX fee for non-£ payments. Our review of Amex Gold is here.

Take a look on the KLM website here.

How to earn Flying Blue miles from UK credit cards (January 2024)

Air France and KLM do not have a UK Flying Blue credit card.  However, you can earn Flying Blue miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

These cards earn Membership Rewards points:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 20,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with four free airport lounge passes.

• The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 40,000 Flying Blue miles

• American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 10,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Flying Blue miles which is an attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Flying Blue mile. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it.

You can depart from any UK airport with Air France or KLM flights, and change in either Paris or Amsterdam.

The fare will be around £1,300 return in Business Class.

The fare is available between January and April 2023. A six night stay is required.

Here is an example:

As these are Air France or KLM flights, you would be able to credit them to Virgin Flying Club and earn Virgin Points and credit towards Virgin Atlantic elite status. This would work irrespective of the timing of Virgin Atlantic’s entry into the SkyTeam alliance as the Air France KLM partnership is separate.

As you would be paying in Sterling, your best card to pay with would be American Express Preferred Rewards Gold. This gives double points – two per £1 – on all airline spend, and the points convert at 1:1 into many airline programmes including Avios and Virgin Flying Club.

You can book for either airline via the KLM website here.

How to earn Flying Blue miles from UK credit cards (January 2024)

Air France and KLM do not have a UK Flying Blue credit card.  However, you can earn Flying Blue miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

These cards earn Membership Rewards points:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 20,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with four free airport lounge passes.

• The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 40,000 Flying Blue miles

• American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 10,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Flying Blue miles which is an attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Flying Blue mile. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it.

It’s very flexible:

• you can book from today until 13th December (but see the limit below)

• you can travel between today and 6th June 2023

• you can depart from any UK airport with Air France or KLM flights

• it is valid for short haul and long haul flights (USA routes are excluded)

• it is valid in Economy, Premium Economy and Business Class

• you must use code UKFESTIV70 in the ‘enter a voucher or discount code’ box

Full details are on this page of the Air France website.

Importantly, the code is only good for 200 people so don’t wait until the final booking day of 13th December.

How to earn Flying Blue miles from UK credit cards (January 2024)

Air France and KLM do not have a UK Flying Blue credit card.  However, you can earn Flying Blue miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

These cards earn Membership Rewards points:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 20,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with four free airport lounge passes.

• The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 40,000 Flying Blue miles

• American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 10,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Flying Blue miles which is an attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Flying Blue mile. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it.

Last month I headed down to the Middle East for half term with my family. Instead of flying British Airways from London, we decided to use Virgin Points and booked on their partner Air France. We travelled to Paris a day earlier via Eurostar and did some sightseeing before heading to Charles de Gaulle the next day.

The cost of the Paris detour was more than covered by the saving in taxes and charges. We paid £200 each for the one way trip, plus 50,000 Virgin Points, compared to £470 in taxes and charges had we gone with British Airways.

I covered the Air France booking process, when using Virgin Points, in this article.

My review of the Air France business class lounge in Paris is here.

You can learn more about Air France business class on their website here.

(A quick apology. As with the lounge review yesterday, I did this trip after damaging my iPhone camera and the pictures are not as sharp as they should be.)

Air France is, seat-wise, a mess

Air France likes to compete with Lufthansa to see how many different business class products it can fly at the same time.

The seat I review below is the seat used on the core business class routes.

A brand new business class, similar to the one I flew but with doors, has just been launched and will be refitted onto 12 of the oldest of the Boeing 777-300ER fleet. You can see this seat on the Air France website here.

These aircraft currently have angle-flat business class seats (remember those?). Luckily the A380 fleet, which was ordered with angle-flat seats in business class (duh!) was scrapped during the pandemic.

The bottom line is that:

• you should get the seat I review below

• if you are very lucky you will get a similar version with doors which is brand new

• if you are unlucky you will get a ‘wedgie’ angled-flat seat, but this is more likely to be on secondary routes

Air France Boeing 777-300ER seating

Here are some PR pictures of the most common seat, which is the one we flew:

and

This is the Safran Seats ‘Cirrus’ seat, also used by Cathay Pacific and American Airlines amongst others.

In the flesh, it looks like this:

Here are a few general thoughts:

• we were on a 4-class aircraft which has one row – yes, just four seats – of first class. In this variant, there is a 4-row business class cabin behind and then a far larger 11-row business class cabin. We were in the 4-row business class cabin (Row 5) which felt more private and also meant we were served first.

• every seat is a good seat – the 1-2-1 layout means that solo travellers have privacy and even those in the middle seat will find their head (if not their feet) a long way from their neighbour

• all seats are forward facing – perhaps a statement of the obvious, but not necessarily if you are a long-term British Airways Club World flyer

• there is a lot of storage space – you have the cupboard with the striking red interior (see the top photo above) plus a large console table and your own baggage bin above the seat

• your feet have quite a bit of space – whilst they are under the back of the seat in front, it is not a tight cubby hole (see picture above)

• privacy from the side isn’t great – here’s a shot of my daughter taken from my seat

• connectivity is good – there is a plug socket (which will take UK and European plugs) and a USB charger

• wi-fi has been introduced since I last flew Air France, which was a huge improvement (it worked well for me – the cost for the full flight was €6 for messaging, €18 for light browsing, €30 for streaming)

• the only people who may not like the seating are couples who want to chat, as even in the middle pair of seats you cannot see the face of the person next to you when sat fully back.

• the seat appears not to have an arm rest on the aisle side but this is not the case.  There is one but it is sunk into the seat.  If you give it a push it pops out and can be raised up. The armrest must be down for take-off and landing.

• the TV has to be folded back for take off and landing so you don’t get full ‘gate to gate’ entertainment

• despite the seat now being a good number of years old, it was still in very good condition – the only real signs of wear were on the surface edges where the gilding was coming away

The seat has everything I like about a business class seat – storage, acceptable privacy and space.  I really couldn’t care less about not having a door, especially on a day flight.

As this was a day flight, I can’t comment on how good the bed is for sleeping.  I put it flat for a period to try it out and it felt fine for my 6’2′ frame but that’s not the same as trying to get eight hours sleep.

One criticism I had of the crew is that they did try to enforce sleep.  We left Paris at 1.45pm and landed in Dubai at 11.25pm, which was 8.25pm Paris time.  This is, by any standards, a day flight and yet the crew decided to dim the lights for an extended period. It wasn’t quite as bad as when I did this flight in 2018. On that trip the cabin flights were turned off entirely for two hours in what was, Paris time, late afternoon.

Air France business class amenity kit

Business class amenity kits generally fail to inspire these days, and the current Air France is no exception:

There was a toothbrush and toothpaste, a pen, flight socks, an eye mask and some earplugs.  The best bits were a miniature Clarins moisturiser and hand cream.

Air France business class food and drink

Before take-off I was given a glass of Pommery Brut Royal champagne.  This technically sells for £40 but is regularly discounted to £30.

I had a second glass after take-off and it came with a pack of ‘Crepes Fourrees’. These are essentially crispy tubes stuffed with cheese – it was a novelty to me, but a pleasant change to the usual post take-off nibble.

Air France works with Anne-Sophie Pic on selected food items, a partnership which has beeen running for many years now.  Pic runs the acclaimed restaurant at the Four Seasons hotel at Tower Hill and back in 2019 (I can’t find more recent data) was the only female chef in the world with three Michelin stars.

With a 1.45pm departure time, there was no doubt that we would be getting a lunch menu.

First up was this appetizer of shrimp tartare and pea cream with lemon and ginger:

I was quite impressed with it – it was something different with a good mix of flavours. It came with a small baguette, butter and a side salad, and I ordered some more champagne.

I chose, as my main course, “poultry and poulette sauce with tonka bean, creamy polenta with mushrooms”. All four mains came from Anne-Sophie Pic and so come with sort of twist on standard airline food.

I admit that this doesn’t look too great in the photo, but it was very well put together by someone who understood how to mix flavours and textures that work well at altitude.

The other three options were:

• beef cheek and coffee pot-au-feu, and a sweet onion consomme

• pollock with seaweed, lovage sauce, spinach and fennel compote

• conchiglie pasta, Swiss chard and lemon coulis, creamy lightly smoked ash-coated goat’s cheese, toasted pumpkin seeds

Nothing straightforward here! To be fair, my son – as picky as your standard 11 year old – had the same chicken dish as I did, thought the polenta was mashed potato and declared himself happy.

Dessert was listed as ‘vanilla cream puff by Philippe Urraca, morello cherry clafoutis tart, Opera cake’, to which you could add sorbet and desert wine if you wished (so I did!):

There was also a cheese course which I passed on.

Before landing there was a light snack, which was an improvement on what I received four years ago when I last took this flight. It was described as a ‘puff pastry bun with curd cheese, smoked salmon and vegetable julienne’, with a desert of ‘red berry coulis on plain thick yoghurt’ and a ‘crunchy vanilla cream puff’:

It certainly beat the British Airways long haul ‘afternoon tea’. If I’m honest, I preferred the simpler chicken goujon roll which I was served as a second meal on Virgin Atlantic when I flew to New York two weeks ago.

Air France IFE

Regular HfP readers will know that I am not an fan of IFE.  My idea of a good flight is to collect together all of the magazines that are sitting around my house unread and to plough through them in one multi-hour session!

For research purposes I did try out the IFE.  The English-language selection was weak – not surprising, given that I imagine a large percentage of Air France flights are between two non-English speaking countries – but the TV was a decent size given that it is fairly close to your face.

The most recent film I could find was ‘Elvis’, but it’s not exactly been a vintage few months in your local cinema either. As often happens, the TV series available are just a selection of random episodes, eg just three episodes of ‘Friends’. In fact, everything seemed to be capped at three episodes.

The TV is angled away from you when stowed, as you can see below, but pops out on a hinge when you want to watch.

The headphones were good with one quirk – they are hard-wired into the red storage cupboard next to the seat.  There was also a small screen on the remote control for anyone who wanted to watch on that instead:

Air France business class – the conclusion

I enjoyed my Air France business class flight, as I did when I last flew it four years ago.  The seat size and privacy, combined with the high quality food, made the seven hour flight time whizz by.

The seat continues to hold up well in a world of doors and half-doors, and I would have no problem flying this on a longer trip or overnight. The only issue with Air France is ensuring that your aircraft has this seat – or the brand new version with a door – and not the older angled lie-flat version. The A350 fleet is definitely OK, and with the A380 fleet gone the number of aircraft with the angled seats is much reduced.

Air France and KLM – I still need to try KLM long-haul business class – have been a great addition to Virgin Flying Club.  Even with Virgin Atlantic joining the SkyTeam alliance in January, I imagine that the existing joint venture partners – KLM, Air France and Delta – will still make up the bulk of redemptions.

Do read this HfP article before trying to book Air France or KLM redemptions on the Virgin Atlantic website, however.

You can find out more about Air France long haul business class on the Air France website here – oddly the site shows the old angled lie-flat seat.

The new Air France business class suite is showcased on this page.

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, the Reward+ card has a bonus of 15,000 Virgin Points):

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

A generous earning rate for a free card at 0.75 points per £1 Read our full review

You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 40,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 40,000 Virgin Points.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points. 

(Want to earn more Virgin Points?  Click here to see our recent articles on Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club and click here for our home page with the latest news on earning and spending other airline and hotel points.)

I will be following it up with a review of Air France business class from Paris to Dubai. This was part of a long half-term family trip which started with a Eurostar redemption to Paris, a day of sightseeing in Paris and then the flight to Dubai itself.

The saving on taxes and charges by starting in Paris easily covered all of our other costs. We paid just £200 each, vs £470 for a one-way Avios business class flight from London to Dubai.

The flight was booked with Virgin Points as I described here.

The Air France lounge in Terminal 2E, L Gates

The L Gates are in a satellite building at Terminal 2E.  This is a bit of a trot from check-in and involves a transit train, although if you are connecting from a UK Air France flight you are likely to be in the same area.

There are two things you instantly notice about the Air France lounge, which still looks good following its 2018 renovation.  The first is that it is enormous – 34,000 square feet, apparently.  This is the best picture I have which shows the scale of it, but there is actually a lot of space behind me too:

The second thing of note is that it is built on a bridge over a major road.  Cars are shooting under you all the time, although the lounge is sound and vibration proofed:

The reception desk is manned as you enter but also has a number of automatic scanners.  We scanned our iPhone boarding passes, the scanner turns green and the staff – who presumably have a quiet eye on you – let you walk past them into the lounge.

Looking left and right, all you see is seating and food and drink stations:

What you don’t see is the large spa area around the corner:

When I was last here in 2019 I took a shower, and I found the shower suites impressive – large and well maintained, with towels, a razor, shaving cream, toothpaste / toothbrush and deodorant provided. Hopefully nothing has changed. 2019 picture below:

Next to the showers is a chill out area and this group of day beds, each individually curtained off:

There is also a Clarins spa which I didn’t check out, but it does look a very impressive facility. It is well ahead of the Elemis spas which used to be in the British Airways lounges.

Food and drink

In truth, the spa and day beds are the highlight of the lounge. As with most airport lounges at the moment, the main seating area was overcrowded and we couldn’t get three seats together until a few flights were called.

We there from around 11.30am so the lounge was drifting towards lunch. As you would expect from France, there is a good patisserie selection (when will Eurostar finally start serving decent pastries on its trains and lounges?!):

…. and some hot options (this is pork in mustard sauce):

…. and a decent salad selection:

The food selection looks sparser than it actually was.  The serving area is very large and the dishes had been widely scattered. Pre-covid the lounge had a chef at peak times to prepare food on demand, but the area was deserted mid-morning – I’m not sure if this is still active in the evening.

You wouldn’t have gone hungry although it was clearly not gourmet level.  Duval-Leory champagne was freely available to help yourself:

…. along with a selection of self-pour wine, although there was a separate bar if you wanted anything more complex than a shot.  This is a PR picture of the smart central bar area:

In general, when you remember that this is purely a business class lounge, it was a decent selection. (There is an exclusive space elsewhere for the handful of First Class passengers passing through each day – remember that there are only four First Class seats on most flights.) Get rid of half of the people and it would have been great …..

For kids ….

For the kids, one end of the lounge featured a small childrens area although it had little to offer apart from this video games machine:

There was a separate cordoned off area.  It wasn’t clear who was meant to use this, although there was a group in there:

There was no shortage of power points, with most of the seats being separated by small tables which contain plugs.  At least on this trip I had brought a European converter socket – last time I was here, I had smugly thrown my cables into my bag thinking that, as I was off to the Middle East, no converter was needed.

The lounge still hasn’t reinstated third party magazines – the racks were filled with literally hundreds of copies of the Air France inflight magazine and nothing else. I can only assume they are less likely to transmit covid than third party newspapers and magazines …. That said, when I here in 2019 there wasn’t anything in English anyway.

Conclusion

The Air France lounge at Terminal 2E (L Gates) in Paris Charles de Gaulle is a modern and impressive space.  If they could just get rid of half of the people in it, it would be great ….

I have a niggling feeling that they could have done a little more to break up the l-o-n-g room although they have tried.  One of the things I like about BA’s Galleries First lounge at Heathrow is that you have a number of totally separate spaces – champagne area, relaxation area, kids room, the terrace, dining area, main lounge area – which makes it feel more welcoming.

Overall, it is a perfectly pleasant place to spend an hour. It is probably best experienced as a couple – you may well struggle to find seats for a group of more than two. It is so busy that if you were on your own I think you’d be nervous about leaving your personal items to take the lengthy stroll down to the refreshment areas.

The second article in this series – click here – will look at Air France business class on a Boeing 777-300, and explain why this is a good way to spend Virgin Points.

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, the Reward+ card has a bonus of 15,000 Virgin Points):

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

A generous earning rate for a free card at 0.75 points per £1 Read our full review

You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 40,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 40,000 Virgin Points.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points. 

(Want to earn more Virgin Points?  Click here to see our recent articles on Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club and click here for our home page with the latest news on earning and spending other airline and hotel points.)

However, my mate Skip at Luxury Flight Club has picked up on an aggressive Air France, Delta and KLM sale out of Spain to the United States.

Seats seem easy to find and you can credit the flights to Virgin Flying Club, earning Virgin Points and Virgin Atlantic tier points.

You can book on the KLM website here.

Here are some price examples.

Note that a Saturday night stay seems to be required and all flights will route via Paris, Amsterdam or a Delta hub.

From Barcelona:

• Miami €1,167
• Boston €1,167
• Chicago €1,217
• New York (JFK) €1,262
• Washington €1,267
• Toronto €1,300
• Montreal €1,306
• San Francisco (SFO) €1,367 

From Madrid:

• Miami €1,170
• Boston €1,170
• Washington €1,220
• Chicago €1,220
• New York (JFK) €1,264
• Montreal €1,307
• Toronto €1,308 
• San Francisco €1,370

Travel dates are:

• 16th January – 31st March
• 17th April – 15th July
• 31st August – 30th November

The deals are certainly there – I found this on the first attempt:

Obviously, once you factor in a trip to and from Spain, your total costs are going to be higher. If you treat it as an extra part of your trip, however, you can get a good deal here.

You can check for availability on the KLM website here. KLM shows Air France and Delta availability too so you only need to look in one place.

How to earn Flying Blue miles from UK credit cards (January 2024)

Air France and KLM do not have a UK Flying Blue credit card.  However, you can earn Flying Blue miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

These cards earn Membership Rewards points:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 20,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with four free airport lounge passes.

• The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 40,000 Flying Blue miles

• American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 10,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Flying Blue miles which is an attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Flying Blue mile. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it.

Life would have been a lot easier if I’d just bagged the guaranteed four British Airways seats for our dates when they opened up 355 days before departure. We weren’t committed to doing the trip at that point, however, and I always knew that my wife wouldn’t be able to join us for the full 12 days. I also wanted to run down other mileage balances.

If nothing else, this article will show you what happens when you don’t jump in 355 days ahead.

There were a few elements at work here when I started to plan the holiday:

• I wanted to make a dint in my over-large pot of Virgin Points at the expense of using Avios, if possible

• Part of the hotel stay was always going to be for cash because there is a place we like and we are happy to pay for, even at the current crackpot rates

• We knew from Day 1 that my wife would only join us for part of the trip due to work commitments, but we didn’t know which parts until a few weeks before departure

• We are not willing to fly overnight in either direction given the large number of day flights available

Step 1: Getting to Dubai

Avios seats to the Middle East are virtually impossible to get in premium cabins over October half term (which is two weeks long for my children) unless you get the guaranteed seats at 355 days out.

Usually I use Lufthansa Miles & More miles to travel from the UK, changing in Germany or Switzerland. This is a good value redemption, especially as kids get 25% off, but post-covid reward seats were bizarrely scarce.

This is what we ended up with:

Eurostar to Paris in Standard Premier

I had quite a few Club Eurostar points from recent trips to Paris and topped them up via a transfer of American Express Membership Rewards points. Standard Premier is the sweet spot with Eurostar in my view, especially for three people as you can get a table pair and an adjacent solo seat.

The total cost was 3 x 1,000 Club Eurostar points for 3 x Standard Premier seats, one way. There are no taxes and charges to pay with Club Eurostar redemptions.

Here is a recent HfP article on why ‘Amex to Club Eurostar’ transfers are currently a good deal.

1 night at Kimpton St Honore Paris

A few weeks ago, IHG One Rewards had some sort of secret flash sale / IT error / whatever which meant virtually all hotels were being sold for no more than 45,000 IHG One Rewards points for a few hours on a Sunday morning.

I jumped in and booked two rooms at the Kimpton St Honore Paris which is now running much more smoothly than when I reviewed it here. The standard rate is roughly 120,000 points so this was a great saving.

I chose this hotel because I know the location very well (InterContinental Le Grand where I usually stay is opposite) and the non-stop bus to the airport stops virtually outside. You can also walk to it in about 30 minutes from Gare du Nord – just head down the hill and keep walking.

The total cost was 2 x 45,000 IHG One Rewards points for two rooms. The cash rate was around €600 per room. Breakfast was free via my IHG One Rewards Diamond status.

Air France business class, Paris to Dubai

I booked this using Virgin Points. If you have kids and are travelling during UK school holidays, you will find that availability on points is always better with airlines from countries where the schools are not off during that week. I had no issue getting 3 x Air France business class seats.

(I did have trouble booking due to Virgin’s dodgy IT, as I covered here.)

This is a day flight, 1.45pm from Paris, which lands late evening in Dubai. A review of the flight will follow soon.

The total cost was 50,000 Virgin Points plus just over £200 of taxes and charges per person, one way.

Step 2: Staying in Dubai

3 nights at InterContinental Festival City

With my wife not joining us until Friday, I was willing to compromise on a non-beach hotel for three nights as it was just the children and myself. We’ve stayed at InterContinental Festival City before and know the area and the hotel.

I booked this during IHG’s weird 45,000 points flash sale, but actually the saving was minimal – this hotel tends to be around 45,000 points anyway. We were upgraded to creek-facing ‘premium’ rooms, which connected.

I have complimentary Royal Ambassador status via IHG, one of the few perks of this job. Restaurant breakfast was free due to my IHG One Rewards Diamond Elite status. Even better, because children are not allowed in the lounge in the evening when alcohol is being served, we were comped the huge evening restaurant buffet every night. Our total bill for three nights was £19.50 for three cans of coke by the pool …..

The total cost was 3 x 45,000 points x 2 rooms for three nights.

5 nights at Madinat Jumeirah

We always stay here – the top photo in this article is of Madinat – and since Jumeirah gutted its reward scheme a couple of years ago we’ve had to pay for it (shock). I’ve never reviewed it because you can’t, easily – four hotels, 70+ eating and drinking venues, multiple pools and lounges etc etc.

Suffice it to say that you shouldn’t let the tail wag the dog if you have a destination you really want to visit. Life is too short.

All you need to know is that this is, in my view, the most luxurious mega-resort opened this century. You can’t go wrong here irrespective of age or group (solo, family, couple, retired) as everyone is catered for. It’s not cheap though.

I had 33,000 Jumeirah One points from previous stays. I actively dislike the reward scheme – see our review here – but I was happy to cash in the points for £550 off the hotel bill. There was no better way to use them. I immediately earned 30,000 points back!

Jumeirah One is so bad that if you book via our luxury hotel partner Emyr Thomas, as we always do, you get virtually the same benefits as a top-tier Gold member!

3 nights at Al Maha

Al Maha is Marriott’s The Luxury Collection’s resort in the desert outside Dubai – website here.

I have been interested in coming here for years but children under 10 are banned. My son cleared this hurdle during the pandemic and, with Marriott gutting the ability to get outsize value from the Bonvoy programme, it was realistically our last chance to go at a sensible points cost.

I don’t want to discuss it now as I will review it at some point. A photo of our tent and private pool is above.

The total cost for three nights was 285,000 Bonvoy points x 2 tents, so 570,000 Bonvoy points in total. The cash cost for our stay would have been £9,000 for the two tents. Al Maha is virtually all inclusive so there is little to pay on top if you don’t drink.

Under the new Marriott Bonvoy pricing structure it is likely to reach 300,000 points per night in peak season, meaning that repeating my trip is likely to cost around 1.8 million Bonvoy points in the future …..

Step 3: Getting my wife in and out

Qatar Airways A380 First Class

I was expecting my wife to join us late – she simply doesn’t have enough annual leave to take two weeks off in October on top of holidays in February half term, Easter, May half term and Summer.

I originally had an Avios seat booked for Thursday on British Airways but at the last minute she decided to push her departure out to Friday. Being able to do this is, of course, one benefit of booking with Avios.

She ended up rebooked on Qatar Airways, First Class on the A380 from London to Doha. Conveniently for her it was literally my only option! She also ended up in ‘flat bed’ First Class on the short hop from Doha to Dubai as Qatar Airways is using a leased Cathay Pacific aircraft on the route at the moment.

The cost was 85,500 Avios + £394 for the one way trip. As you can see from the picture above, A380 First Class is – seatwise – not really an improvement of Qsuite, although the A380 fleet doesn’t have Qsuite in Business Class.

Emirates A380 First Class

Unfortunately my wife was required to head to Germany after five nights with us. Luckily Emirates flies from Dubai to Hamburg and this is a route where reward seats rarely seem an issue.

Business Class was available for 72,500 Emirates Skywards miles but when First Class is only 85,000 miles is seemed wrong not to …. The taxes and charges were £400 for the one way trip, which is a bit of a swizz given the lack of Government-imposed taxes.

I transferred over American Express Membership Rewards points to Emirates Skywards to book this. The transfer is instantaneous, so there was no risk of losing the seat.

I also had to book a British Airways flight from Hamburg to London for a few days later. Given the cost of cash flights, I was pleased to see Avios availability here.

Step 4: Getting home from Dubai

Meanwhile, my children and I came back on British Airways.

How was I able to get three (originally four) Club World seats from Dubai to London during October half term? By using points from the British Airways On Business programme for small businesses.

For some weird reason, long haul availability for On Business points is very close to ‘any seat, any flight’, even when there are no Avios seats for weeks on end. This is not the case for short haul, oddly.

The reason I have a lot of On Business points is that I add my refer a friend code to HfP articles about On Business! Thank you to anyone who ever used this code.

The cost was 3 x 21,000 On Business points + 3 x £305 for three one way flights to London.

Our articles always say that On Business points are poor value when used for Business Class vs Economy Class flights on British Airways – and they are – but I was happy to take the hit here. On Business points have a ‘hard’ three year expiry which can’t be stopped so I needed to use them and this was a good opportunity.

I should also add that I got 20% off the Uber from Heathrow to West London because I bought some Uber gift vouchers with PayPal as part of the recent American Express / PayPal promotion 🙂

Conclusion

If this sounds complicated, it was actually far worse in reality! For every option we took there were a number that I looked at and rejected. Having points in lots of different schemes is obviously beneficial but it also means you have far more options to explore, which takes time.

In the end, the trip used:

• Club Eurostar points (for Eurostar to Paris)

• American Express Membership Rewards points (to top up Club Eurostar and Emirates Skywards accounts)

• IHG One Rewards points (for Kimpton Paris and InterContinental Festival City)

• Virgin Points (for the Air France flights to Dubai)

• Jumeirah One Rewards points (for a cash reduction on our Madinat Jumeirah bill)

• Marriott Bonvoy points (for Al Maha)

• Avios (for my wife’s Qatar Airways flight to Dubai and her return to London from Germany)

• Emirates Skywards miles (for my wife’s flight to Germany)

• British Airways On Business points (for my flight home)

Don’t ask how many hours were spent putting this together and running through the options. It was a good trip though.

The only downside is that my wife didn’t want to write reviews of her Qatar Airways First Class or Emirates First Class flights ….