NEWS & OFFERS: New TAP Lisbon lounge, 10,000 Marriott points for £100 spend – worth it?, Virgin Tel Aviv and Qatar Valentine’ssale

New TAP Lisbon non-Schengen lounge

TAP Air Portugal has opened its new non-Schengen lounge at their home base at Lisbon Airport. This would be the lounge you would use flying long haul and to the UK. The lounge is open daily between 5:00am and midnight, with eligible TAP and Star Alliance passengers welcome. The area can accommodate up to 100 people in an area of 380m2.

Sofia Lufinha, TAP Chief Customer Officer, said:  “Customer comfort is a priority for TAP, as well as the variety of solutions, such as work or relaxation spaces and the diverse cuisine available.

“TAP is always focused on improving the quality of customer service and that was the goal with this new lounge, which we have now achieved, and which will certainly be a good option for our customers who have flights to South America, North America, Africa or the United Kingdom.”

Passengers can take advantage of dedicated work and relaxation zones as well as a dining area, run by Cateringpor, which will provide hot and cold meals inspired by Portuguese cuisine throughout the day.

The space will also host temporary exhibitions featuring Portuguese artists, curated by Underdogs, an urban art cultural platform based in Lisbon. Over the next six months, the artists showcased will include Raquel Belli and Pedrita Studio, whose works of urban-inspired contemporary art, are centred on the contemporary reinterpretation of Portuguese artistic language.

For more information visit flytap.com

Marriott Amex offer for 10,000 bonus points for £100 spend

If you hold the Marriott Bonvoy Amex card, a new offer should have appeared, which is worth considering. If you are conetemplating getting Marriott Platinum status or struggle to maintain it, the credit card is a good option. By taking it out, you get 15 status nights credit, meaning Platinum is only 35 nights away. Plus, there is also the double status nights promo I wrote about here. Marriott Gold is available with the Amex Platinum, so that may be a better option if you are happy with gold.

The offer gives 10,000 Bonvoy points for spending £100 at certain Marriott Hotels on food and beverages. This can be cumulative as well. You have until 19 May 2024 to complete the spend. To be certain, I would make sure you pay in the restaurant with your card rather than charge to a room if you are staying.

Here are the restaurants and bars it can be used in:

Most of these are the more downmarket restaurants or their bars, but there are a few in there I’d recommend, such as The Luggage Room, which is a great cocktail bar. The Booking office at St Pancras is also a firm favourite with its stunning space in the old booking hall. I also like the elegant feel of the Palm Court at the Sheraton, as well as their Smith & Whistle bar. 

However, unless you particularly fancy going to these places anyway, it is not worth a special trip to get the points. If you want 10,000 Marriott points, you can get 9600 points in the current 40% extra promotion for £89.

Virgin Atlantic Tel Aviv

I recently wrote about BA’s decision to downgrade their aircraft and tier points to Tel Aviv. Virgin Atlantic has now confirmed that it will not be resuming services as originally planned but will resume flights to Israel until September. This confirms why BA has taken the decision as I am sure they knew there would be little competition on the route when they restarted. 

The message on the Virgin Atlantic website said: “Due to the ongoing situation in Israel, we have taken the difficult decision to extend our pause on flying to and from Tel Aviv up to and including 4 September 2024. 

“The safety and security of our customers and our people are our number one priority and our flying programme to Israel remains under constant review.”

Qatar Valentine’s sale

Qatar Airways has a new sale on until 19 February for Valentine’s Day. You can travel until 31 October 2024. The prices are nothing special, even from mainland Europe, but if you need to buy soon, you may want to consider booking before the end of the sale. It is interesting to note the huge variation in prices to Australia with as much as £2500 difference depending on where you start. 

Here is a selection of the prices:

From the UK, there is a 12% discount on base fare business class with the code PCPREMGB to a range of popular destinations.

You can find the sale page here and the discount code page here.