NEWS & OFFERS: New Marriott double nights promo, Heathrow Rewards ditches partners and Boom’s first supersonic flight

Boom’s first supersonic test flight

While many believe that Boom may just be pie in the sky, they continue to make progress towards being the next supersonic passenger jet. Several airlines have placed tentative orders (including United and American Airlines) and personally, I would be delighted if they succeeded since I never flew Concorde.

On Tuesday 28th, they will be performing the aircraft’s first supersonic flight, having already successfully completed a number of test flights using their demonstration aircraft, XB-1. Recently, they have tested the aircraft to just below supersonic speed at 0.95 Mach.

If you are reading this on Tuesday 28th, you can watch the live stream of the test flight here at 3.45pm GMT.

Heathrow Rewards ditches partners with zero notice

Heathrow Rewards has always been a useful way to earn points while shopping at Heathrow and using services like parking and Heathrow Express. If you are buying something designer or expensive, although it is not cheaper at Heathrow, getting points back on it often makes it worth buying at the airport. Heathrow recently announced they would be amalgamating all their services into one website including Heathrow Rewards. I saw this as good news since the current website is terrible. Most of the time it won’t log me in and redeeming rewards for parking is incredibly clunky. 

However, as is the way now, Heathrow has also decided to drop several of its partners with no notice as part of the changes.

With immediate effect:

• Emirates Skywards will no longer be a conversion partner for Heathrow Rewards. Members will not be able to convert points and/or Skywards Miles between the two programmes.
• Miles & More members will not be able to convert miles into Heathrow Rewards vouchers. 

Whether this is due to the new platform or a permanent change, it is not clear. But it is something they must have known about before and it is very poor form for those who had been planning to transfer points across between the partners. Heathrow Rewards should have given at least 24 hours notice to allow people to convert points before the change.

The Heathrow Rewards program will be temporarily paused from 22:00 27 January 2025 to 05:00 31 January 2025. You will not be able to access your account or points balance on Heathrow.com or in the Heathrow App. It will not be possible to collect or redeem points when shopping or using services. You will need to keep the receipt and claim afterwards via the Help page. 

New Marriott double nights promo is about to launch

One of the best hotel promotions of the year (or worst depending on your view point) is back. Some don’t like the promotion as it means that along with some of the US credit cards it means it is much easier to get status. As they say, if everyone has status, no one has status. I have certainly noticed a difference in trying to redeem my Nightly Upgrade Awards which in London have proved almost impossible to get approved. This promotion means that if you got the Bonvoy Marriott American Express Card you could get Platinum status (which gives lounge access) in just 18 nights during the promotion period. The credit card gives you 15 nights elite credit per year as well as extra points earning at Marriott hotels. 

Marriott has not sent out the official communications, but the promo page is live. You can’t register yet though. 

The promotion not only gives you double elite night earning, it also gives you extra points. For every night you stay between 11 February 2025 and 28 April 2025 you will get:

• 1,000 bonus Marriott Bonvoy points
• 1 bonus elite night credit

To get the bonuses you will need to register on this page before your stay. You must register by 14 April 2025. Stays booked prior to registration count, as long as you register before you stay. 

For hotels that require a two-night stay to get one elite night, you will only get half a night credit per night (Four Points Express is an example of one of the brands).