Hilton 20% Off Summer Sale
Hilton has launched its latest sale with 20% off Europe, Middle East and Africa if you book by September 3rd.
This offer is available for weekend stays booked directly with Hilton. Stays must be completed on weekends by September 8, 2024. For the purposes of this offer, “weekend” means Friday, Saturday and/or Sunday nights and in the Middle East (excluding UAE, Turkey, Lebanon, Morocco and Africa) Thursday, Friday and /or Saturday nights.
Reservations until July 15, 2024 must be booked at least 3 days before arrival. Bookings between 16 July and 3 September 2024 must be booked at least 1 day before arrival.
The downside is that full advance payment is required when booking and prices are non-refundable.
You can find the sales page here.
The rollout of the new Finnair Air Lounge business class seats is complete
Finnair has successfully completed its new long-haul cabin renewal, with all long-haul aircraft now being refurbished. So when you fly Finnair long-haul, you know you’ll have new seats.
The project included the introduction of an all-new Business Class seat, an all-new Premium Economy cabin and a refreshed Economy Class.
The state-of-the-art cabin was first launched in 2022 and was introduced to the airline’s entire fleet of A350 and A330 long-haul aircraft within two years.
I flew the new business class on both the A330 and A350 (you can read my reviews here). The business class seats are huge and a real innovation in that they don’t recline. Instead, you can lie down, rest, or lie flat on the huge surface available to you. I personally find it comfortable and think it’s a good product. You can also experience this on the London-Helsinki route, where long-haul aircraft are used up to twice a day.
Finnair also announced the upcoming cabin renewal of its E190 regional aircraft. These short-haul jets, which operate flights to Finnair’s range of Nordic destinations, will receive a brand new cabin inspired by the colors and design now seen on Finnair’s long-haul fleet. Finnair will also soon open a new, larger lounge in the Schengen area of ​​its home hub Helsinki Airport.
Revolut’s new loyalty debit card scheme with Avios and many more airline miles
Revolut, the global financial app, today announced RevPoints, a European debit loyalty card program now available in the UK. Customers can then turn their spend into rewards, including airline miles and exclusive discounts on travel, accommodation, experiences and more.
I have been using Revolut for many years and find it practical for transferring money in foreign currency or withdrawing cash without a fee from cash registers abroad. You can instantly transfer money from your own bank account to Revolut, allowing you to easily withdraw cash abroad. It’s actually a checking account that comes with a debit card. Unlike some current accounts, you don’t have to pay anything into or out of it regularly. You’ll only earn RevPoints for purchases, not for things like transfers or withdrawals, but it’s definitely a very useful development for miles collectors.
The best thing about this scheme is that you can transfer their RevPoints to 30+ airline loyalty programs including British Airways Executive Club, Flying Blue and many more. The points will be valid for 3 years, which gives enough time to use them. This will be the perfect opportunity for those who don’t want a credit card or don’t want another to earn Avios through everyday spending. It could also open up Avios earnings for big purchases like cars and tax bills where you can’t use a credit card.
RevPoints can also be redeemed for significant discounts on holiday accommodation and experiences via the Lifestyle tab in the Revolut app. Points can also be used for discounts at top brands such as French Connection and Dermalogica when shopping online with Revolut Pay.
Depending on your plan, users can earn up to 1 point per £1 spent and even accelerate earnings by converting change into points, completing in-app challenges or booking in-app stays and experiences. In addition to earning on bookings of stays and experiences, users of the standard tariff can turn on the Spare change function and earn on spending with the card. In addition to the points they earn for spending on the card, rounding up spare change will be converted into additional points, up to 50 points for every pound saved.
For new users, there is a bonus of 3,000 points (equivalent to 3,000 air miles or up to £60 in travel discounts) after making 150 eligible transactions. Plus, you can earn up to 10,000 bonus points when you upgrade your plan and meet spending limits within the first 90 days.
Earning rates and bonuses for different plans can be seen here:
You can earn bonus RevPoints by upgrading to a paid plan. When and how many bonus RevPoints can be redeemed depends on the terms of your plan. For those on the Revolut Ultra plan, the rewards are much higher but cost £45 a month. Customers who spend £2,500 per month can earn up to 30,000 RevPoints per year. It comes with lots of extras like insurance and 3GB of data you can use abroad per month. I’ll be taking a closer look at Revolut Ultra over the next few weeks.
Once you join Revolut, you will do this. It wasn’t showing up in my app yesterday so I’m not sure if it’s still up and running.
To enable RevPoints in the app:
- Go to your profile
- Select ‘RevPoints’
After activating RevPoints, you can check how many points you have earned:
- Go to “Lifestyle” in the bottom menu
- Select ‘RevPoints’ (top right icon)
To start earning RevPoints, you’ll need:
- Transact with your card: use your Revolut card for your spending
- Use rounding: convert your spare change to RevPoints at increased rates
- Take part in weekly challenges: use your Revolut card with Apple Pay, donate, refer a friend and more
- Book stays and experiences: make a booking and earn double the RevPoints you would have spent with your Revolut card
The changes also affect Revolut customers with Metal and Ultra plans, who will get “new lifestyle enhancements depending on their plan type.”
Customers will be able to keep up with this summer’s sport with access to The Athletic, hone a new skill with a MasterClass or improve their chess game with a Chess.com premium membership. The new subscription will complement the existing range – which includes the Financial Times, Deliveroo, Tinder, ClassPass and NordVPN. These new benefits will be available in the app and customers can easily activate them with eligible paid plans via “Profile” > “Your Plan” > “Partners”.
- Athletic: Paid subscription worth £59.99 per year – coming to Metal & Ultra.
- Chess.com: Diamond membership worth up to £180 a year – coming to Ultra; Platinum membership worth up to £120 a year – coming to Metal.
- MasterClass: Premium membership worth up to £228 per year – coming to Metal & Ultra.
You can apply for a Revolut card here.