News You May Have Missed at Points Well Made - Jan 11th
- Sam
- Jan 11
- 7 min read
Updated: Jan 12
Hello everyone! We hope you had a lovely Christmas and that the first few days of 2026 are treating you well ... despite the recent weather here in the UK!
What a week (and a bit) of articles we have rounded up for you today. Disclaimer alert, this does include one that came out before Christmas! We've got an interview with the CEO of Virgin Voyages, reminders on various card bonuses which will be expiring soon, and a super exciting new feature on our website which we think you are going to really enjoy!
And do head over to our Instagram (@wellmadepoints) where we are running a Q+A today on our stories. Do leave any questions you have about travel, points, our opinions, best deals etc and we will answer them this afternoon.
Sam and Helena
I sat down with Virgin Voyages CEO Nirmal Saverimuttu to talk about their aggressive status matching scheme, which extends to about 35 different programs including airline loyalty schemes like Virgin Atlantic, and why they're casting such a wide net. His answer? They want more people to experience what they're calling a radically different approach to cruising, one that ditches the buffets and dress codes for boutique hotel vibes and made-to-order dining.
What really stood out was Saverimuttu's philosophy on crew culture. While the cruise industry has a reputation for low pay and high turnover, Virgin Voyages gives crew free WiFi, passenger-quality food, and paid uniforms, because as he puts it, "if you treat your crew well, and make sure your crew members feel like they are the most important part of your company, then everything flows from there." We also discussed their pullback from Portsmouth (UK sailors are now heading to the Caribbean and Med instead), and his vision for eventually being able to book entire Virgin holidays, flights, cruises, hotels, all with Virgin Red points.
Full interview with all the details on what you actually get with status matching, why they include so much in the fare, and what makes their loyalty programme tick can be found here.
If you've been procrastinating on those American Express sign-up bonuses, you've got less than a week to get off the fence, these offers expire 13th January. The Gold Card is offering 40,000 Membership Rewards points with a free first year, while the Platinum Card dangles 75,000 points plus a £250 travel credit. Both require you to hit spending thresholds in the first few months, but given that Membership Rewards convert 1:1 into Avios and a host of other programmes, that's potentially a significant points haul before the month is out.
The catch? You need to have been Amex-free for 24 months to qualify for the Gold bonus, while Platinum just requires you haven't held a Membership Rewards-earning card in that time. The Platinum's £650 annual fee is eye-watering, but between unlimited lounge access, hotel status upgrades, and various credits, it can pay for itself if you travel regularly. The clock's ticking, 13th January is Monday.
Full breakdown of both cards, their perks, and how to maximise the bonuses here.
Paying rent with a credit card isn't exactly groundbreaking in most countries, but the UK has been weirdly behind on this. Nuba Rewards is a new UK start-up trying to change that, think of it as our answer to the US's Bilt. You pay them with your card, they pay your landlord, nobody needs to know you're racking up points on your biggest monthly expense.
The obvious question: what's the catch? There are fees involved (they vary depending on whether you're using Visa, Mastercard, or Amex), so paying those fees just to earn a handful of points each month probably won't make sense for most people. But if you're trying to hit a hefty spending threshold for something like a massive Amex sign-up bonus or grinding towards a Companion Voucher, suddenly this could actually be worth considering. It's less about passive earnings and more about strategic acceleration.
Full breakdown of how it works, what it costs, and when it might actually make sense here.
Qatar Airways is running two free competitions for UK residents right now. Both require nothing more than a Privilege Club membership number, which takes about 90 seconds to sign up for.
The first is giving away return Business Class flights for two to anywhere on their network—the sort of trip we'd normally save Avios for. The second is Champions Club hospitality tickets to watch Newcastle vs PSV Eindhoven at St James' Park on 21st January, which is considerably more than a standard match ticket.
No purchase required for either.
The Great British Rail Sale is back for its fourth year, running from 6th to 12th January with over 3 million discounted tickets offering savings of over 50% on advance and off-peak fares for travel between 13th January and 25th March. The caveat: these are advance and off-peak fares, so you'll need to be flexible with your travel times, but the savings are real.
Here's the bit that's often overlooked: you can earn Virgin Points or Avios on these discounted tickets. Virgin Trains Ticketing gives you 3 Virgin Points per £1 spent with zero booking fees (occasionally running promotions at 9 per £1), and it works for any train operator, not just Virgin trains. If you're collecting Avios instead, Transport For Wales offers 3 Avios per £1 when you book through the Avios eStore, again working across all operators. Both options are significantly better than Trainline's 1 Avios per £1, and you're avoiding booking fees in the process.
Full breakdown of how to set up both options and make the most of the sale here.
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The Amex Platinum Card comes with £200 annual dining credit at participating UK restaurants, which sounds brilliant until you actually try using the Amex website to find where you can spend it. Scrolling through text lists trying to work out which restaurants are actually near you is frankly painful.
A Reddit user has solved this by creating a Google Maps integration that plots every participating UK restaurant visually, so you can actually see what's nearby rather than squinting at lists. The data's current as of January 2026 and gets refreshed roughly every six months. Obviously this isn't official Amex documentation, so you should still verify on their website before making plans, but as a planning tool it's infinitely more useful than what Amex currently offers.
American Express sign-up bonuses are some of the most valuable offers in the UK points game, but some applicants are genuinely baffled when they're approved for a card yet don't receive the advertised bonus. The culprit is almost always Amex's 24-month eligibility rules. The core question is deceptively simple: have you held a personal American Express card in the last 24 months? If yes, your bonus eligibility becomes significantly restricted, though not always impossible.
Here's what catches people out: the rules operate differently depending on which card family you're applying for, and there's a crucial distinction between personal and business cards that most people miss entirely. Some premium cards have narrower eligibility that can actually work in your favour, and business cards often remain wide open even if you've been locked out of personal bonuses. The order you apply for cards matters just as much as the cards themselves.
Full breakdown of the 24-month rules, which cards still offer bonuses even with Amex history, and how to maximise your strategy here.
British Airways has decided that serving hot breakfasts on short-haul Club Europe flights to places like Amsterdam, Dublin, and Belfast has become "challenging", so they're downgrading to fruit plates, yoghurt, and a heated pastry instead, not much more than a Boots Meal Deal. Never mind that they used to serve 200 hot breakfasts on these same routes back when they operated 757s and actually treated people decently. The aircraft hasn't changed, the flight times haven't changed, the staffing requirements haven't changed, but apparently it's suddenly too difficult to heat up a breakfast in an oven during a 60-minute flight.
What makes this particularly galling is BA's response when challenged. Their customer services team is doubling down with corporate-speak about "giving crew more time in the cabin with customers", as if passengers in Club Europe are desperate for extra small talk. Meanwhile, people are sharing stories of long-haul flights departing without enough breakfasts loaded, leaving oneworld Emerald status holders—the highest tier in the alliance—staring at an empty tray on a red-eye from Singapore to Sydney.
If you've been sitting on the fence about the Barclaycard Avios Plus, time's running out. This enhanced 35,000 Avios sign-up bonus disappears in just under a week – 15th January – and given Barclays' track record, we might not see another boost like this for quite some time.
Let's break down what's still on offer and why you might want to act quickly.
Beyond the welcome bonus, this card's main appeal shows up later. Put £10,000 through it in any 12-month period and you'll earn either 7,000 bonus Avios or a BA cabin upgrade voucher.
This is a good one! If you've been collecting Avios for a while, you've probably wondered whether it's better to spend them on flights or just pay cash and save your points for later. The answer depends entirely on how much value you're getting per point. And that varies dramatically depending on which route you're booking and which cabin class you choose. We've built a calculator that does the maths for you, showing exactly how many Avios you need, and what your Avios could be worth on any British Airways route from London.
You can find the Avios Calculator here (or find it under "Guide and Tools"), but keep reading for an explanation on how it works. Or you can read the full article where we talk about this fun new product on our website here.
Points Well Made is a passion project of Sam and Helena with a loyal following. If you like what we do, and wish to help us continue to create the content you love, please consider buying us a Kofi, or subscribing monthly. Your help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
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