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YOTEL Joins Select by Hilton
You’ll soon be able to earn and redeem Hilton points, plus enjoy status benefits at YOTEL hotels worldwide. The first hotels will be live on Hilton booking channels by late 2026.
YOTEL will become the first brand in ‘Select by Hilton’, where hotels keep their own identity, style, and brand management while benefitting from being part of Hilton.
Hilton already has 9,100 properties and over 1.3 million rooms, and ‘Select by Hilton’ is designed to bring independent brands into the Hilton ecosystem.
YOTEL has three different hotel brands. You’ll find cleverly designed compact rooms inspired by First Class airline cabins with a futuristic feel and a focus on tech (e.g., SmartBeds and automated luggage storage).
The YOTEL brand is located in city centres, with YOTELAIR at airports, and YOTELPAD for extended stays.
There are currently 23 hotels, including locations in London, Manchester, New York, and Tokyo, as well as airport properties at London Gatwick, Singapore, Istanbul, Amsterdam, and Paris CDG, with more locations planned for the coming years.
We’re hoping the partnership will work in practice, too, with great redemption rates and plenty of elite benefits, but we’ll have to see.
Reward Flight Finder Adds Iberia
Reward Flight Finder has just added Iberia to the platform. You can now check a full year of British Airways and Iberia availability in one search, rather than hunting across separate sites and then trying to compare the results afterwards.
Given that Iberia also uses Avios and points can be easily transferred between the two airlines, it’s a great opportunity to make sure you’re getting the best value, especially as Iberia often offers better-value redemptions.
Demand for reward seats in Business Class continues to grow, and a Reward Flight Finder membership gives you a real advantage.
Here’s how it works:
- Enter your origin, destination, preferred cabin, and travel preferences
- Find Iberia availability across the whole year
- Set alerts for specific dates, cabins, or flights.
- Receive notifications the moment seats that match the criteria are available
- Book directly with Iberia
The Iberia search will be available across all Reward Flight Finder membership tiers. The free version (Bronze) allows 3 daily reward seat searches and alerts in Economy, while the paid options have features, including:
- Silver – access to hourly alerts, expanded unlimited search capacity, and the inspirational Worldwide Map tool (£3.99 per month or £39.99 per year).
- Gold – Instant alerts, unlimited flight-by-flight tracking, multi-airport monitoring, and advanced filtering, including aircraft-specific options such as Club Suite (£6.99 monthly or £69.99 per year).
This is a great addition to Reward Flight Finder, which was already our favourite site for finding BA redemption opportunities.
Discover Reward Flight Finder here >>>
British Airways First Starlink Flight Takes Off
After plenty of anticipation, British Airways has become the first UK airline to launch Starlink WIFI on board. The inaugural service departed yesterday for Houston on a Boeing 787-8.
Starlink is available free to passengers in every cabin, providing fast WIFI from takeoff to touchdown (no waiting until cruising to get online), as opposed to the patchy WIFI we’ve come to expect on BA. The launch also means flight crew can have easier communication with staff on the ground.
BA is starting with its Boeing 787-8 fleet, with installations already underway and more aircraft currently being fitted. BA will likely then move on to the 787-9s. Starlink will be fitted on more than 300 aircraft in the next two years, including long-haul and short-haul fleets, but excluding BA CityFlyer. To begin with, it’s more luck of aircraft allocation, but this is a great start.
Hopefully, access to fast WIFI won’t cause any issues onboard with people not using headphones and the confrontations and disruptions that may arise, especially on busy flights.
BA follows select other airlines, such as United and Qatar, which have already begun the Starlink rollout. Virgin has also announced Starlink, but the rollout is not expected to begin until Q3 this year.
The launch is part of BA’s £7 billion transformation plan, which has already seen new lounge concepts in Dubai and Miami. Starlink is a game-changer for BA and something that’s really needed!
1 comment
Starlink: ok if BA wants to demonstrate that they are keeping up with leading airlines, but have they thought about how to manage the audio-abusers? Short haul flights include announcements that voice calls cannot be made using WiFi, will they do the same for Starlink on long haul? My main concern is about the “don’t tell me what to do” passengers who see the tech as a fundamental right irrespective of the impact on those around them. When one passenger complains to the crew about another noise from another passenger in an enclosed environment, tensions can escalate depending on how well the crew member is able to mediate and manage the situation. Which can be pot luck these days…and not necessarily fair on the crew.
Having lost a night’s sleep (wearing an eye mask) on Iberia recently after a nearby passenger decided they wanted to keep two overhead lights on all night – and the cabin crew decided not to challenge them – who gets to decide which passenger gets their preference?
Good to see that United got in early by changing passenger Ts&Cs to require the use of headphones for calls, will BA follow suit?