Airline Loyalty

Some of the better value flight awards that are still available in the miles and points world are Etihad premium cabin awards booked with Aeroplan or American Airlines AAdvantage miles. Right now, however, it looks like Etihad is working hard to make sure that these awards aren't available to be booked and it's not even being subtle with how it's doing this.

Qatar Airways has now launched its Black Friday sales for departures from various European countries (see here for the Americas promotions) and this year it's also throwing an offer of up to 10,000 bonus Avios into the mix.

Aer Lingus has announced a new promotion in which it's offering members of its AerClub  (free to join) a 50% discount on the number of Avios needed to offset the cash element of any fare they book before the end of this weekend. Surprisingly, this may be a reasonable deal.

For flights booked from 18 October 2023 onwards, British Airways will be offering members of its Executive Club program considerably fewer Avios that it currently does as it transitions part of its rewards program to a spending-based model.

Today, British Airways has unveiled a new set of 'Avios Only' flights which sees over 1,250 Reward Seats released across five of the airline's routes for travel in August 2024. The Avios Only flights are very limited but include travel to a number of very popular destinations, so with demand for these seats likely to be high, anyone interested booking should do so asap.

Since my move away from AAdvantage, British Airways Gold status has been good to me and I've come to appreciate it for more than just the oneworld Emerald benefits that it gives me. In particular, it's two of the less well known benefits of British Airways Gold status that I have come to appreciate more and more.

Throughout the month of October, United's MileagePlus program is offering members a 30% bonus when they convert select hotel currencies into MileagePlus miles. For members with Marriott Bonvoy points, this could be a good deal. For people with orphaned hotel points that qualify for this promotion, this could be a good deal. For most others, this is a promotion to avoid.

Chase Ultimate Rewards is currently offering cardholders a limited time 30% bonus on transfers to the Virgin Atlanic Flying Club and, ordinarily, this would be an offer that would only work for a relatively small number of people. This time, however, and for a very limited time, this transfer bonus may come in useful for more people than normal.

Virgin Atlantic has launched a good award sale for travel taken through the end of the year across its entire network. Surcharges on Virgin awards continue to be disappointingly high as they're not discounted, but some of the options that this sale opens up are still pretty good.

Virgin Atlantic's has brought back the best points sale that we've ever seen it run and that means that for the next few days, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club members can buy points from 0.89 pence each (UK accounts) or from 1.48 cents each (US accounts).