Bits: Beond Launches London – Maldives Flights, Get 2000 Virgin Points With A Railcard

News in brief:

beOnd launches ‘all business’ Maldives flights from London

It’s not often that all-business class airlines are launched, so when beOnd began operations in 2023 we watched with interest.

This nominally Maldivian airline (it is a joint venture between Maldivian SIMDI Group and UAE-based Arabesque, and headquartered in Dubai) initially began with flights from Munich, Milan and Zurich to Male, via refuelling stops in Dubai.

The airline has much grander ambitions, initially targetting 30 destinations by 2030. How it gets there is a bit of a question mark, with just a handful of aircraft in its fleet and reports of oft-empty flights leading to last minute cancellations.

Just last year, beOnd said it wanted to fly to 18 cities this year – an interesting proposition given it currently only operates two aircraft, an A319 and an A321, both in all-business configurations.

At least two route additions are now confirmed, to London and Paris. Both flights will launch in mid December with London on 16th December. Routes will feature a 45-minute refuelling stop at Dubai World Central, but you won’t be able to book London – Dubai or Dubai – Maldives as a stand-alone flight.

Flights will operate three times a week, on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, with a midday departure from London. You land in Dubai around 9pm and arrive in Male at 6:30am. The return flight leaves Male at 9pm, landing in Dubai at 2am before carrying on to Heathrow for a 6.30am arrival.

Pending Government approval, flights will operate from Heathrow. beOnd will presumably have been able to access the ‘new entrant’ slots that encourage new airlines to launch routes.

Fares from London start at around £2,700 return, which isn’t bad for peak season Maldives services. The 2×2 seating, which would normally be an issue in business class, is less of a downside when the majority of passengers will be couples.

For a taste of what to expect, you can see my walk-through of beOnd’s first A319 here.

The beOnd website is here.

Get 2,000 Virgin Points for buying a Railcard

Virgin Trains Ticketing, the standalone rail booking app from Virgin Red, is offering 2,000 bonus Virgin Points when you buy a Railcard.

These are worth £10 off a future train ticket bought via the Virgin Trains Ticketing app or, of course, you can use them for any other Virgin Points redemption including flights.

Note that you need to be 18 years old to join Virgin Red, so if someone you know requires a 16-17 Saver Railcard, or a 16-25 Railcard but is under 18, you will need to buy it for them. They cannot earn points in a Virgin Red account of their own.

You are required to store your Railcard inside the Virgin Trains Ticketing app.

It cannot be added to the official Railcard app – although this is good news in some ways as it saves you unnecessarily adding an otherwise useless app to your phone.

The offer ends on 19th April.

You can find out more in the Virgin Trains Ticketing app. You need to scroll down the home screen to see the offer – if you have a small phone this may not be intuitive!

And double points on train tickets ….

To run alongside this offer, although you don’t need a Railcard to take part, Virgin Trains Ticketing has launched another ‘double points’ promotion.

You will earn 6 Virgin Points per £1 for all train tickets booked by 19th April.

If you’ve never used Virgin Trains Ticketing, it is worth noting that it supports split ticketing. I have been finding this useful on my regular York to Scarborough runs, where I save £4 on a £24 First Class ticket with a (notional) split in Malton, plus I earn Virgin Points on top.