The loyalty points schemes that could land you a winter holiday – and why you should always sign up for them if they’re free

Loyalty in the travel world has come a long way since Texas International Airlines promised the first incentives for frequent flyers in 1979, and hotel chains such as Marriott and Hilton launched reward programmes in the 1980s. 

Rewards today come with a plethora of different names, values, methods of collection and rules on how you can spend them, as well as the added complication of tier points denoting just how special a customer is.

A handful of schemes have just had major shake-ups and now offer the opportunity to clock up enough points for a well-earned break. Some are far better than others, says Nicky Kelvin, editor of The Points Guy (thepointsguy.com). However, he says you should always sign up for them if they are free. ‘Don’t leave any points on the table,’ he adds.

Avios adds cruises to its currency

Once known as Air Miles for British Airways Executive Club members, Avios is now the currency used for rewards and spending on everything from flights and hotel rooms to wine, supermarket shopping and car hire. You can even get Avios when buying Moonpig cards online (up to five Avios per £1 spent) or by booking Deliveroo (up to seven Avios per £1).

Consumers can get three Avios for every £1 or €1 spent when booking balcony rooms or suites on a Royal Caribbean (RCI) cruise

Now IAG Loyalty (which runs Avios) has expanded to the seven seas, giving consumers three Avios for every £1 or €1 spent when booking balcony rooms or suites on a Royal Caribbean cruise.

‘The Avios earned for a two-person balcony [cabin] could cover a one-way flight within Europe,’ said Gerard Nolan, Royal Caribbean International (RCI) vice president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. You can get a flight to Paris for 18,500 points plus £1, or to New York for 50,000 Avios and £100.

Is it worth it? You have to book your cruise direct with RCI to get Avios; you may get better deals with a travel company. But as Avios is the currency of choice for an increasing number of companies, you’d be crazy not to sign up (britishairways.com).

One Key has blue, silver, gold and platinum tiers, giving rates of up to 6 pc on Expedia’s top-quality hotels

New One Key programme spans Expedia, Vrbo and Hotels.com

The autumn launch of One Key in the UK, following its US launch last year, replaces the old Expedia Rewards and Hotels.com programmes, and incorporates rewards for holiday rentals for the first time through Vrbo.

Members receive 2 pc in OneKeyCash for every £1 spent on eligible hotels, holiday homes, activities, packages and car hire. So if a trip costs £800, you get £16 in OneKeyCash. Flights only yield 0.2 pc for every £1 spent.

Additionally, One Key has blue, silver, gold and platinum tiers, letting users earn rates of up to 6 pc on Expedia’s top-quality hotels, and savings of 10 to 20 pc.

Tier status is achieved by buying a certain number of trip elements a year. For instance, a group of friends staying for five nights in a holiday home, taking five flights and hiring a car for five days would yield 15 trip elements. This would unlock Gold status, with savings of 20 pc on more than 10,000 hotels, 4 pc OneKeyCash on top properties and room upgrades where available.

Is it worth it? It’s good that you can now get rewards on holiday rentals, but the old Hotels.com scheme was more generous, giving a free night for every ten nights stayed – a reward of 10 pc rather than the new 2 pc (expedia.co.uk).

The hotel chain Hilton has launched a loyalty debit card in partnership with travel money card Currensea

Hilton launches debit card

Unlike credit cards, debit cards are rarely associated with reward points, making Hilton’s new hotel loyalty debit card particularly interesting. In partnership with travel money card Currensea, the Hilton Honors card comes in basic and ‘plus’ versions, with annual fees of £60/£150.

The basic version gives you silver status and one Hilton Honors point for every £1 spent on everyday purchases, and up to three points for every £1 spent with Hilton abroad. Currency exchange costs 0.5 pc. 

The enhanced version gives you gold status and 1.5 points for every £1 spent and up to 4.5 points for every £1 spent with Hilton overseas, charging 0 pc on currency exchange. Sign up before 30 November for a bonus of 3,500/12,000 points when spending £1,000/£2,500 abroad.

A free hotel night costs anything from 5,000-95,000 points. You can also redeem points on experiences – a Silverstone Sunday Race Day costs 125,000 points.

Is it worth it? Only if you frequently stay in Hilton Hotels.

Debit cards offer chargeback, which is a scheme that enables you to claim a refund from your card provider if a purchase doesn’t arrive or is faulty. However, protection on credit card payments over £100 is even stronger. That is because, under section 75 protection, your credit card company has equal responsibility with the seller if there’s a problem with the things you’ve bought or the company you’ve purchased them from fails (hiltonhonorsdebitcard.currensea.co.uk).

You can earn points through the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, including when you spend money with a Virgin Atlantic credit card

Virgin Atlantic revamps its Flying Club

Promising to ‘revolutionise the world of redemptions for Virgin Atlantic customers’, the airline has just announced changes to its Flying Club from this Wednesday. Instead of guaranteeing just a dozen seats for reward redemption per flight, every seat on every flight will be available for points.

However, dynamic pricing will be used for reward seats, meaning they could cost many more points than they did previously. To counterbalance this, Virgin promises some saver reward seats at the same price or lower than current rates on many flights, with one-way seats to New York from 6,000 Virgin points, down from a current 10,000. A spokeswoman said the monetary value of points would be released on 30 October.

Is it worth it? ‘It is difficult to say how good or bad it will be,’ says Kelvin, who suggests that high-point holders might want to lock in fixed-price reward seats this month (virginatlantic.com).

Ennismore is offering discounts to hotels such as The Hoxton in Shoreditch, London, via its subscription service

Get discounts with Dis-loyalty

There are no points to earn or tiers to climb with Ennismore’s subscription membership, which launched last year, and which has just added a mobile app. With discounts in more than 90 hotels and 175 restaurants and bars in Ennismore brands such as 25hours Hotels, The Hoxton, Mama Shelter, Mondrian and SLS, it encourages members to try something new.

You get 50 pc off stays in newly opened hotels; 20 pc off first-time stays in a property; 10 pc off return stays and food and drinks; plus a free barista-made drink every day of the year. The card should be rolled out to the group’s Rixos and Our Habitas resorts soon.

Is it worth it? If you drink a lot of coffee – the £144 annual fee would pay for itself just with the daily free drink (dis-loyalty.com).