News you may have missed at Points Well Made - 12th July

Hello, I hope you're all tolerating the heat!

The Hilton Honors Plus debit card welcome bonus has jumped to 50,000 points, the highest it's ever been. For context, the standard bonus is 15,000. It was 30,000 in March. This is the first time the welcome bonus alone has covered the annual fee, and you've got until 7 September to apply. If you've been on the fence about this card, that fence just got a lot harder to sit on.

Helena has written up our 10-day trip to Slovenia, covering Ljubljana, Lake Bled, and Piran with all the places we stayed, ate, and explored. She's also put together a guide on how to find Avios seats to Japan, which is comfortably the destination we get asked about more than any other. BA has launched two Avios offers at once (a 40% buy bonus and a BA Holidays discount), there are two new Virgin Atlantic offers in the Amex app, and we've listed which UK banks actually work with the Currensea debit cards, because there's no point getting excited about 40,000 Marriott points if your bank isn't on the list.

Remember too that the British Airways x American Express Avios-only flight to New York goes on sale this week, here's everything you need to know about this including how to pre-register.

Lastly, if you head to our Instagram, we will be doing our miles and points Q&A on our Stories this afternoon. So if you're reading this Sunday morning, you've got a few hours to get any questions in!

Sam

Which UK banks work with the United, Hilton and Marriott debit cards by Currensea?

The debit cards we keep banging on about, the United, Hilton and Marriott Bonvoy ones, are all run by Currensea. These cards don't come with a new bank account. Instead they link to the current account you already have. So before you get excited about 40,000 Bonvoy points or a heap of United miles, you'll need to check that Currensea works with your bank.

All the banks listed here.

Two new Amex offers: Virgin Atlantic, and Virgin Atlantic Holidays

You may have already noticed two new offers appear in your American Express app.

(If you don't already, do keep an eye on this section as you never know when you may be able to save some money on something you were going to buy anyway!)

For any offer, make sure to save the offer to your card first, or else the offer will not track when you make your purchase.

Both offers can be found here.

How to find Avios seats to Japan with British Airways or Iberia

One of the most common destinations we get asked about regarding reward flights using Avios is Japan. A week doesn't go by without someone emailing, DM'ing, or commenting about how to do it.

Japan has, over the last couple of decades, emerged as one of the most popular destinations for UK holidaymakers. Whether that's a paid booking or a reward flight, people cannot get enough of this beautiful country, and we totally understand why. It's firmly on our bucket list.

Sam wants to eat all the food (to be fair, so do I), and immerse himself in the culture, and I really, REALLY want to chase the cherry blossom across the country and see all the magnificent gardens, because their horticulture industry is off the scale.

That probably paints the picture of exactly why people want to go. The breadth and range of things to do, see, eat, and drink is immense, and there's something fantastic about immersing yourself in someone else's culture for a couple of weeks and then not wanting to come home.

So, how do you actually get reward seats to Japan?

British Airways just launched two Avios offers at once: here's what you need to know

British Airways has announced two separate promotions today, both worth knowing about if you've got Avios or you're planning to buy some.

One is a 40% bonus on purchased or gifted Avios. The other lets you use fewer Avios to unlock the same savings on BA Holidays packages. They run on different timelines and work in completely different ways, so let's take them one at a time.

Both offers can be found here.

Hilton Honors Plus debit card welcome bonus jumps to 50,000 points, its highest ever, until 7 September

The Hilton Honors Plus debit card welcome bonus has been boosted again, and this time it has jumped to its highest ever level!

The standard bonus for this card is 15,000 points. In March it was doubled to 30,000. It's now being offered with 50,000 points, which is the first time the welcome bonus alone has covered the annual fee., and you have until 7 September 2026 to apply.

You earn 20,000 points on your first transaction with the card. You will get the remaining 30,000 points when you spend £2,500 in foreign currency within six months.

All the details of this mega offer can be found here.

Our 10 Day Trip to Slovenia: Where We Stayed, Ate & Explored

If you'd told me a year ago that Slovenia would become one of my favourite countries I've ever visited, I'd have probably questioned you. But here we are, and I am slightly annoyed at myself for not going sooner. Yes, as a country it's small, but it's so wildly underrated, and it packs an almost unfair amount of beauty and charm into its borders.

Sam and I based ourselves across three very different spots: the capital Ljubljana, the disgustingly scenic Lake Bled, and the Adriatic gem that is Piran. Each one delivered something completely different. Whether you're planning a full circuit or picking just one, here are our top picks for where we ate, where we stayed, and what we got up to, so you don't have to figure it out from scratch.

Points Well Made is a passion project from Sam and Helena. If you've enjoyed this and want to help us keep the lights on, please consider buying us a Ko-fi or subscribing monthly. You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok for more of the same. Thanks for reading.