The Travel Brief, your weekly business travel and loyalty round-up - 24th June

Welcome to 'The Travel Brief', your weekly trade round-up of UK business travel and travel loyalty news as well as?links to the latest reviews and features from headforpoints.com .

If you would prefer to receive 'The Travel Brief' by email every Monday, you can sign up here . It's free, obviously! You can also subscribe via LinkedIn and get new editions in your feed. Please recommend it to any colleagues?who you think may be interested.

Special report: Virgin Atlantic CEO interview

Rhys sat down with Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss this week to discuss the future of Virgin Atlantic:

• What's happening at Virgin Atlantic: Upper Class, Clubhouses, Heathrow and more
• Will Virgin Atlantic announce a new aircraft order at Farnborough?
• Will Virgin Atlantic return to Gatwick? And what about growth in Manchester?

The latest UK business travel news:

Save on Virgin Atlantic flights and holidays as part of the 40th birthday celebrations - ends Monday night

Finnair finishes its cabin refurbishment - all aircraft now have the new business class seat

Finally: the British Airways On Business website is back after 16 months - but check your transactions carefully

British Airways launches flights to Nuremberg - for just six weeks

Aer Lingus pilots initiate 'Work to Rule' restrictions amid salary negotiations

Hilton launches its summer sale: book now for 20% off

IHG launches a flash sale on its European and Asian hotels

Will Starlux join the oneworld airline alliance?

Will the new (third!) attempt to open a Mondrian hotel in London finally be a success?

Stories we recommend from other sites:

Hilton signs two Icelandic hotels (Business Traveller)

Andrew Fish joins Norse Atlantic as head of UK sales from Air Astana (TTG)

UK start-up Global indicates first flights pushed to 2025 as work on A380 progresses (FlightGlobal)

Marriott's Luxury Collection debuts in Germany (Business Traveller)

Our latest reviews:

Nothing this week, but look out for coverage from Zurich, Barcelona, Singapore, Las Vegas, Santorini and Venice in the next three weeks.

The latest UK travel loyalty news:

Get 50% off Avios flight redemptions to Jersey, image above

Save 40% on ALL 2024 Virgin Atlantic redemptions - offer ends Monday

Get a 100% bonus buying IHG One Rewards points for a week - click here to buy

The odd way that 'Upgrade Using Avios' is priced since long-haul Reward Flight Saver launched

Get 5,000 points for joining IHG One Rewards and completing one stay

Two weeks left: Get 60,000 bonus points with the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card

Ends soon: use your ￡50 Harvey Nichols credit from Amex Platinum by 30th June

Visit the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking with Hilton Honors

How to earn miles with 39 different airlines with the Marriott Amex , and pick up 60,000 Bonvoy points

Which hotel loyalty schemes let you use points to pay for food, drinks and spa?

Our series of UK travel rewards credit cards continues:

• Review: Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card

• Review: Tesco Bank Mastercard Credit Card , which can earn Virgin Points

• Review: Nectar American Express Card , which can earn Avios

• Review: the Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard credit card , which now has a 3,000 points bonus

STILL RUNNING: Get a 30,000 points bonus (converts to 30,000 Avios) with 'free for a year' Amex Gold

American Express is running a special sign-up bonus on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold - apply here . The bonus is increased from 20,000 to 30,000 Membership Rewards points which converts to:

• 30,000 Avios
• 30,000 Virgin Points
• 30,000 Emirates, Etihad, Flying Blue, Asia Miles, Delta, Finnair, Qantas or SAS miles
• 20,000 Singapore Airlines miles
• 60,000 Hilton Honors points
• 45,000 Marriott Bonvoy points
• 90,000 Radisson Rewards points
• 2,000 Club Eurostar points

….. and many other non-travel rewards.

You receive 25,000 Membership Rewards points after spending ￡3,000 in three months. You will receive a further 5,000 points if you keep the card for 15 months.

Even better, you get:

• four passes for any airport lounge in the Priority Pass network

• 24 x ￡5 credits to spend at Deliveroo (max one per order and two per month)

• up to 12,500 bonus Membership Rewards points each year based on your spending (2,500 points per ￡5,000 spent)

The card is free for the first year. If you keep it beyond the first year there is an annual fee of ￡195. You receive a further four airport lounge passes and more Deliveroo credits on renewal.

Our main article on the 30,000 points bonus is here . Make sure you read the bit about whether or not you qualify for the bonus.

You can apply for American Express Preferred Rewards Gold with the special bonus on this page of the Amex website .

Head for Points receives a commission if you are accepted via our link - thank you.

Thank you for reading

Please drop me a note at [email protected] with any feedback. See you next Monday.

Rob, Rhys and Katie @ Head for Points

PS. If you would prefer to receive 'The Travel Brief' by email on a Monday morning, you can sign up for a free subscription by filling in the form here