The new ‘Tesco to Avios’ conversion incentive is ….

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• Stu says:

  14 May14 May 05:35

  Given the recent announcement by Tesco of annual losses something akin to the UK national debt, I don’t personally see ClubCard being around for much longer. Those of us who only fly for pleasure and can only afford Y, who save Avios for that one off special trip in C or F, will be doomed to sit down the back for ever!

  • Mark says:

    14 May14 May 07:33

    I suggest you have a look at some of the J cash deals such as the article today for Qatar.

    Given that a J redemption (without a 2for1) will set you back at least 100,000 avios/just over £400 in clubcard vouchers plus substatial taxes and fees you could even find the cash deals are cheaper than face value of the vouchers.

    Even if you want to go to the US, its worth looking at the comparison sites for flights starting in Dublin for example. For a little added hassle of a detour on the outbound you may be surprised what you can get even outside of any sales.

    Lastly I wouldn’t write off the club card scheme just yet. It is probably one of the things Tesco is actually doing right, and has contributed to their success in the past.

  • James67 says:

    14 May14 May 07:50

    Try to avoid becoming avios-focussed. There have been great deals on long haul business class during past 6 months where business class seats on the likes of Qatar, Etihad, Turkish and even BA have been as little as £200 more than economy flights on similar routes. when you factor in miles earned that extra £200 becomes more justifiable. Granted that these fares have often been exEurope but you can turn that to your advantage to have a low-cost short break using RFS or LCC in conjunction with hotel points. There also have been some great credit card deals of late, particularly Etihad and Virgin which are very much worth doing if you can meet the target spends without straining your budget. Apart from the credit card you can currently earn 500 Etihad miles for signing up, up to 1500 per month for holidaycheck reviews, 1100 fir joining Heathrow rewards and spending £25, 5000 from first rocket miles booking, 1000 from Gilt spend over $50, 25% hotel MR and Heathrow Rewards transfer bonus, triple miles for return economy flight by end February next year, and I believeKaligo also a partner. Virgin has their highest ever credit card signup supported by better conversion from tesco and probably MR too, the ISA, and award charts that have not yet been devalued. At the moment Eitihad looks good to me and is my collection focus. Although somewhat pricey their awards are flexible at low or zero cost, taxes and fees are low, and as Rob has highlighted 75% miles plus cash options are great value.

    • Jason says:

      14 May14 May 09:21

      James

      Are they flexible on the 75% miles and cash? Etihad that is?

      • Rob says:

        14 May14 May 09:55

        In what sense? They are flexible in that you can use any number of miles between 75% and 100%, down to last exact mile, and pay a tiny sum to cover the rest. They are not flexible in letting you go below 75%.

        • James67 says:

          14 May14 May 10:34

          Rob, I think Jason may mean flexible in sense of changes and cancellations which is what I was refering to. I had a look at this last night. I was surprised at how generous Etihad Guest was concerning changes and cancellations. For example first chsnge appears to be totally free. I have no idea whether the same rules apply to cash and miles flights though because there was a confusing statement to the effect that the rules for the more expensive open reward tickets were the same as for the equivalent revenue ticket.

        • jason says:

          14 May14 May 12:02

          James/raffles

          I was referring to being able to cancel and change flights, not the flexibilty between the 75-100% part.

        • Rob says:

          14 May14 May 13:20

          Usual cancellation rules for redemptions – it is treated as a redemption seat and not a cash seat

    • polly says:

      14 May14 May 11:43

      I agree James. ..but if we can still collect avios plus the 241 and use them for F on BA only it’s still a treat. But for those not lucky enough to be able to collect enough by cards or tesco avios..yes Qatar are a dream to fly in J, the nearest thing to BA F around. It’s Def worth flying ex EUROPE on J for around£200 more than Y.

      • James67 says:

        14 May14 May 12:41

        Polly, my current strategy has become very open ended. Have 4 schemes on the go (avios, AA, FC and EG) all with very low balances but I am booked up through April next year. In meantime I will just collect what I can at zero cost in real terms and will not consider buying via any means unless price dips below 0.6p/mile. EG is most attractive to me at moment because of cc and other useful promotions so me, my partner and my dad all signed up and will pool in family account. Depending on spending plans over next few months I might also be able to take up Virgin Black but with only HKG of interest to me and a very likely devaluation that is not a high priority. Only place my strategy is cracking is spg points. Currently have only 18k of those so may top up to 40k via 25% discount and MR to transfer them to either EG, AA or Alaska. Alaska on CX on 42.5 ow J but restricted HKG-Europe single leg. AA 52.6k ow J with endless multisector possibilities bust expensive to change or cancel. EG more expensive but more flexible. So it’s a dilemna. Will continue to pass on the cheap fares for now in favour of redemptions as the firmer often nonrefundable and too expensive to change. I am hoping for more good BA fares this Xmas that will allow me to cancel 2 BA redemptionx to BKK, freeing up 120k avios and earning thousands more.

        • Phillip says:

          14 May14 May 17:31

          For OW redemptions, I am finding CX’s Asia Miles a very handy transferable currency too (from MR predominantly). Playing around with the zones has allowed for some generously cheap redemptions! I second everything else James67 mentions. I find EY’s family membership really easy to sign up to and flexible to use. I would add PointsHound as an earner and would always check prices in USD/EUR/GBP and compare not only the actual price but the miles given which can vary significantly between currencies and in some cases, I’ve had more miles awarded to the cheaper version of the price.

        • James67 says:

          14 May14 May 19:38

          I have never considered Asia Miles due to my perceived lack of collection opportunities but will have a look this weekend. Thanks for tip on pointshound billing currency.

        • Polly says:

          15 May15 May 08:15

          James, You might get lucky, that was a v g BA sale last Xmas which we benefitted from. Boy, you have a lot of juggling going on there. And it is time consuming. As we only concentrate on Asia routes also, am not buying avios, unless v low price, just collecting when I can with tesco and cc referring each other. However, if these types of sales continue, we might just stop altogether and plan trips via sales. ATM we have enough collected for our next 241 in F to HKG then Bali on Cx like last year. Having cancelled the other 241 to go QR to HKT in the sale, like you, we will earn plenty more avios that way, which I forgot about!

        • James67 says:

          15 May15 May 12:54

          HfP takes the hard work out of it so lots of thanks to Rob and other contributors here. True we may miss a few things but not many. I rarely ever visit FT these days which was much harder work. As you know I appreciate your point on sa.es but not a reason to stop collectingmiles. Even if you end up with just few points in diversified porfolio they can prove useful for short hops in Asia, Europe and positioning flights. For example, I have just over 20k flysmiles which is enough for European business class flight or on Sri Lankan between HKG and BKK. I see QR going double daily on a380 to BKK from autumn.

  • pj says:

    14 May14 May 19:40

    I suspect that many of us here – such as myself – though we are tiny in number in the big scheme of things – are sitting on a couple of million Avios if the bonus conversion Tesco rate comes good again.

    Not all of us earn Avios FOC (perfectly properly) like Big R through running a useful site & various commissions.

    We fought hard for them, we hope the conversion will come back. Do we hope in vain? Is it all going itts up?

    I am optimistic.

• Ed E says:

  14 May14 May 06:26

  “… you receive 300 miles per £2.50 voucher” – this is the rate per £1 not per £2.50 voucher. Feel free to delete comment when updated Rob.

  • Jason says:

    14 May14 May 07:25

    Ed

    It’s 240 miles per £ 🙂

    • Mark says:

      14 May14 May 07:37

      Ed is quite right. Normally 625/£2.50 voucher, but the 20% bonus makes that up to 750/£2.50 or the equivalent of £300/£1 for Virgin conversions.

      • Mark says:

        14 May14 May 07:37

        300/£1 even 🙂

    • Jason says:

      14 May14 May 09:23

      Sorry i was refeeingbtomavios conversion as I hadn’t read the article properly and didn’t notice it was being compared to the Virgin offer!

• Simon says:

  14 May14 May 06:32

  Thanks for the heads up, I actually thought a bonus this quarter was likely than for a long time given the 50% bonus for buying miles they had a couple of months ago.

• Simon85 says:

  14 May14 May 06:32

  Virgin it is then. For this quarter anyway.

  • Tariq says:

    14 May14 May 06:53

    Think I’ll go the same way too.

    • mark2 says:

      14 May14 May 08:19

      That’s fine as long as Virgin/Delta fly to your preferred destinations.

      • Tariq says:

        14 May14 May 19:36

        Yup, fingers crossed for a miles sale to MCO before next summer! If not will settle for DXB.

• Dom says:

  14 May14 May 06:34

  What do you think the chances are in the BA draw? I have £90 of vouchers, wondering whether it’s worth converting or waiting till next period.

  • Mark says:

    14 May14 May 07:13

    Unless you need the Avios now or the vouchers are expiring I would wait.

  • Scott says:

    14 May14 May 07:34

    I’ve had a 100% failure rate 😉

• LoyalBA says:

  14 May14 May 08:18

  Given the current Virgin credit card incentives and yet another lack of BA club card to avoid bonus I’m finally and the increase in Avios required to book, I am finally waving goodbye to BAPP and going with Virgin, had a good seven year run but time to change.

• Frenske says:

  14 May14 May 08:20

  I have been using club card points for other purposes. There are quiet good deals out there. More specific Eurotunnel (3x voucher value) is an excellent deal and also Pizza Express during the last Boost was good.

  The house hold is sitting on a slowly-increasing pile of 350K Avios and little chance to spend the lot of it when having a 6-month old baby. I think a lot of people are so focussed on gaining Avios (like it is some kind of pension) that they forget to look around for better redemptions.

  • JohnG says:

    14 May14 May 10:59

    Couldn’t agree more. It’s always worth re-assessing your plans from time to time, especially when there’s a major change. I’ve reached the 200k Avios I need for a planned holiday next year. Currently I think transferring Clubcard points to Hilton via Virgin, Eurotunnel, and a couple of other options provide better value than Avios for me. If BA did a 50% transfer bonus then clearly I’d reconsider again (and probably use it).

• Andrew says:

  14 May14 May 08:37

  I won 1500 avios in the last competition after I converted £75 worth of vouchers which were about to expire. The bonus points showed up at the end of the quarter and about three weeks later I received a letter informing me of my win. Better than nothing but hardly life-changing

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