We first wrote about Heathrow Rewards (basically the London Airport’s equivalent of Changi Rewards) back in February this year. The reason then was a 3,000 KrisFlyer miles bonus for new members provided you’ll be passing through London Heathrow this year and will spend at least £150 at shops and restaurants there in a single day.
Our personal tip is that they have some good deals on duty free whiskey compared to Singapore prices!
That promo is still running until the end of 2018 and we’re personally looking forward to taking advantage of it for a 6,000-mile bonus between us next time we pass through Heathrow in July.
Bear in mind if you are interested in the promotion, that tobacco products and foreign currency exchange do not count towards the minimum spend.
It’s not just KrisFlyer
The important thing to note about that 3,000-mile bonus offer is that it’s actually not for KrisFlyer miles specifically, the offer itself is run by Avios – but it credits Heathrow Rewards points.
These normally transfer 1:1 into KrisFlyer if you wish (provided you have at least 250 points in your account), but there are a number of airline frequent flyer schemes you can transfer to instead using this program:
The current offer
This is where KrisFlyer comes in. Right now Heathrow Rewards is offering a 25% bonus for transfers into the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer scheme (i.e. 1:1.25). If you’re a premium member of the program, you’ll get a 50% bonus (1:1.5).
I don’t know how many people have already taken advantage of the 3,000 miles offer above then sat on their hands for a bonus (as we suggested in our February article), but if you did now’s a good time to ‘cash out’.
Why else would I join Heathrow Rewards?
Most of our readers fly through Heathrow very infrequently, if at all. It makes applying for a Heathrow Rewards card seem a bit pointless but there are a few reasons we think everyone should have one:
- It’s simple to join and free – if you haven’t signed up yet do so here, and make sure the offer code AVIOSAO18 is pre-filled in the ‘Promotion Code’ field, to be eligible for the 3,000 miles offer (if the code’s not there, just type it in).
- You’ll receive 100 points in your account just for signing up.
- Even if you don’t have plans to pass through Heathrow this year, you never know if that will change and you lose nothing by signing up with the offer code from the outset.
- There’s no need for a physical card – your Heathrow Rewards membership can live in the virtual wallet on your phone if you prefer.
- Crediting Rocketmiles hotel bookings to Heathrow Rewards usually gets you a lot more points than crediting to KrisFlyer miles.
- Remember even after the transfer bonus ends you will be moving points across to KrisFlyer 1:1. There’s no limit to how often you can do that provided you’re transferring at least 250 points each time, and there’s no cost associated.
Rocketmiles
In case you missed it, this is one of the main advantages we see for the Heathrow Rewards scheme for Singapore-based travellers. Crediting to Heathrow Rewards points generally results in a much higher accumulation rate than crediting to KrisFlyer when booking hotels through Rocketmiles.
Once the points are in your Heathrow Rewards account, just transfer them over to your KrisFlyer account at the bonus 1:1.25 or 1:1.5 ratio, or even at the regular ratio of 1:1 if a bonus is not running at the time and you need the miles straight away.
Points expiry
One drawback of the Heathrow Rewards scheme to be mindful of is that your points expire if you don’t have any new transactions for 3 years, so be sure to have transferred them to KrisFlyer by then, unless you’re a Heathrow regular in which case you won’t need to worry too much as all your points stay ‘alive’ provided you transact at least this often.
New planes
Remember Singapore Airlines are now flying their newest A380 suites and business class products to London 3 days a week, and the service goes daily from 1st May, so there’s never been a better time to make a trip to the UK to experience the new cabin products on the longest nonstop flight Singapore Airlines run using their A380.
(Cover Photo: David Iliff. License)