Thank you to the 13,000 people who completed the reader survey we ran on the site over Easter. When we did the same exercise in 2022 we only shared the results with the people who voted. This time we thought it would be interesting to publish some of the findings about our typical reader. We’ve not published your answers to those questions which were more ‘internal’, eg what method you use to read us. Where do you live? Unsurprisingly, the majority of readers live in London and the South East. The UK region with the fewest HfP readers is Northern Ireland (1.9% of you) followed by Wales (2.1 ..read more

The cheapest way to get to Australia in Business Class with Avios, by far, is with Qatar Airways. The cost is only 180,000 Avios return plus around £600 of taxes and charges per person. Availability comes and goes, but currently looks surprisingly good. A comment from Kaconym in our comments section yesterday made me take a look. Kaconym was correct. Apart from Sydney and Auckland, Business Class Avios availability on the other Qatar Airways routes to Australasia (Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne) is looking pretty good, both short term and long term. I did a quick survey. This is looking ..read more

How can you earn frequent flyer miles or hotel points with Enterprise Rent-A-Car? Compared to Hertz or Avis, Enterprise is definitely in the second tier when it comes to earning rewards in airline or hotel programmes. However, you can’t let the tail wag the dog, and you may find yourself somewhere where Enterprise is the most convenient or cheapest option regardless. For a UK resident, you can see the partners available on this page of the Enterprise website. What are the best Enterprise Rent-A-Car partners? The problem is that none of the partners are very generous, frankly. Here are your op ..read more

The daily chat thread is now part of our forums. Click here to go to the forum home page and then select ‘Click here for today’s chat thread’. Thank you ..read more

We have run a couple of articles recently about special offers for buying points: get up to a 70% bonus when you buy Virgin Points (now closed) get up to a 100% bonus when you buy Hilton Honors points (buy here) …. and there have been many others. These articles always generate feedback along the lines of ‘I never buy points’. This approach is wrong on two levels. The first reason why it’s wrong to never buy points …. The first reason, which I don’t intend to go into again today, is that buying points CAN make financial sense. I wrote a piece in 2021 explaining how I spent over £2,000 on Hi ..read more

This is our review of the Park Hyatt Milan, Italy, hotel. After a fantastic stay at the Park Hyatt Vienna (review here) back in 2022, still one of the best hotels I’ve ever visited, I was keen to revisit the brand. My recent trip with ITA Airways, the new(ish) Italian airline to review their A220 service from London City Airport to Milan offered the perfect opportunity. This year the Park Hyatt Milan is celebrating its 20th anniversary, having first opened its doors to guests in 2004. It completed a full refurbishment of guest rooms in 2022 and has just renovated its top suites with local arch ..read more

Vueling, the low cost short-haul carrier within the IAG group and a sister airline of British Airways, has a very fluid UK route network. This has been especially true post-pandemic, with the airline being used to keep valuable take-off and landing slots at Heathrow and Gatwick in use on behalf of British Airways. As you can earn and spend Avios on Vueling flights, we thought it was worth a look at where you can fly this summer. London Heathrow Yes, Vueling is back at Heathrow after a few years away. It has now set up home in Terminal 4. You can currently fly to: Barcelona Paris Orly London ..read more

The daily chat thread is now part of our forums. Click here to go to the forum home page and then select ‘Click here for today’s chat thread’. Thank you ..read more

Welcome to The Travel Brief, your weekly trade round-up of UK business travel and travel loyalty news as well as our latest reviews and features. If you are not a subscriber, you can sign up here to receive this free newsletter in your inbox every Monday. Please forward it to any colleagues who you think may be interested. The Travel Brief is the successor to Malcolm Ginsberg’s Business Travel News. Malcolm’s new monthly forward-looking Travel News Update is available at travelnewsupdate.co.uk. The latest UK business travel news: Norse Atlantic launches Cape Town flights from Gatwick – b ..read more

Who has the best premium economy product – Virgin Atlantic, British Airways or Norse Atlantic? Norse Atlantic announced its new Cape Town route this week, going head to head with Virgin Atlantic and British Airways. Norse offers a substantially different premium economy experience to those carriers and I thought it was worth comparing the three airlines to help you make an informed decision. Who has the best Premium Economy seat? Let’s face it.  Premium Economy is not a half-way house between Economy and a Business Class bed, irrespective of what the marketing may tell you.  It is s ..read more