Bits: 80% bonus buying IHG points, bonus Virgin Holidays tier points, save £30 with Turkish

News in brief:

Get an 80% bonus when you buy IHG One Rewards points

IHG One Rewards has launched an 80% bonus for buying points. It’s not as good as the 100% bonus which ran recently but, if you need to top up your account in the next three weeks, it’s better than nothing.

The offer ends on 30th April.

The maximum number of points you can buy is 360,000 (ie 200,000 plus the 160,000 bonus) although this may vary. The minimum purchase to trigger the 80% bonus is 5,000 points on my account which is lower than usual but, again, this could vary.

It is possible that you don’t see the offer at all, as part of IHG’s market testing.

The page to buy points is here.

With an 80% bonus, you would be able to buy up to 360,000 IHG One Rewards points for (at current exchange rates for $2,000) £1,500.

I usually value IHG One Rewards points at 0.4p. You are paying 0.42p here so you shouldn’t lose money, although it is not necessarily a slam dunk unless you are just topping up your account before redeeming.

The skill is to use them at hotels where you can get substantially more than 0.4p per point of value, although this got a little harder since IHG reward prices started getting more closely related to cash rates.

You can buy points via this link.

Our full review of IHG One Rewards is here if you want to know more about how the programme works.

Bits: 80% bonus buying IHG points, bonus Virgin Holidays tier points, save £30 with Turkish 1

Get bonus tier points on Virgin Atlantic Holidays this week

Virgin Atlantic Holidays, like BA Holidays, offers bonus tier points towards status when you book, over and above what you would earn from the flights alone.

It is more generous than the British Airways version, and until 20th April Virgin is offering its most generous incentive yet.

The lead booker gets an extra 300 tier points if the booking is for £4,000 or more.

Here are the key points:

your booking can include flight and hotel or flight and car hire (or indeed flight, hotel and car hire if you wish!)

you must book at least three nights of hotel or cruise accommodation or car hire to receive double tier points

all passengers on the booking will receive double tier points

you can book for any future date

you will only receive double tier points if your holiday includes Virgin Atlantic-operated flights – codeshares do not count

for a temporary period, for bookings made by 20th April, the lead booker will receive 300 bonus tier points if the total booking is for £4,000 or more

irrespective of whether your booking qualifies for double tier points, the lead booker will continue to earn bonus Virgin Points based on spend – 2 per £1 spent for Red members, 3 per £1 spent for Silver members and 4 per £1 spent for Gold members. This is totally separate to any Virgin Points earned from your flights.

How many Virgin Atlantic tier points do you need for status?

The tier point earning chart is here. In simple terms, you receive (before any doubling):

Economy Light – 25 tier points each way
Economy Classic – 25 or 50 tier points each way
Economy Delight – 50 tier points each way
Premium – 50 or 100 tier points each way
Upper Class – 100 or 200 tier points each way

Where a range is given, it is almost certain that you will receive the lower number on a holiday booking. The higher numbers are only for refundable flexible flight tickets.

There are two elite tiers in the Virgin Atlantic programme.

Silver requires 400 tier points in a rolling 12 month period. The key benefits are free seat selection in Economy Light, use of premium check-in and 30% bonus miles on cash flights. You do NOT get lounge access. You can see full details of Silver status on the Virgin Atlantic website here.

Gold requires 1,000 tier points in a rolling 12 month period. The key benefits are access to Clubhouses and the Heathrow Revivals lounge, use of Upper Class check-in, use of the Upper Class drive-thru wing in Heathrow Terminal 3, additional luggage allowance and 60% bonus miles on cash flights. You can see full details of Gold status here.

The lead booker is GUARANTEED to earn Silver status under this promotion. Your flights will earn at least 50 tier points return, doubled to 100, and the additional 300 tier points on top takes you to 400 and Silver status even if you start from scratch.

Full details are on the Virgin Atlantic site here. The Virgin Atlantic Holidays website is here.

Save £30 on a Turkish Airways flight

Finally, Turkish Airways has launched a discount code for the UK market.

Code TKAFFUK30 gets you a £30 discount on the base fare. You enter the code on the payment page on the Turkish Airlines website here.

The conditions are:

both economy and business class flights are included

your flight must depart from the UK

you must book by 20th May 2026

you must complete your travel by 30th June 2026

only valid on Turkish Airlines flights – no codeshares, no AJet, no Star Alliance partner flights, even when they are bookable via the Turkish Airlines website

You can check dates and pricing on the official website here.

Bits: 80% bonus buying IHG points, bonus Virgin Holidays tier points, save £30 with Turkish