Important deal updates: Accor, BA ex-Dublin, Tesco conversions

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There have been a few important updates on some of the deals I have covered in the last couple of weeks. Whilst I don’t normally do this, I thought it was worthwhile spending an article running through some updates:

1,050 free Le Club AccorHotels points

Last weekend I told you how to earn 1,050 free Accor points via completing a quiz on their website. Later in the week, I showed you how to convert these to Avios despite being below the usual 3,000 point threshold.

Accor has now pulled this promotion. It appears that there was substantial abuse of it in China with many thousands of accounts opened and the points fraudulently used.

It looks like some innocent accounts have been caught up in this.

If you transferred your points to Iberia and your account reads: “FFP Systematic Transfer : Iberia” then you are OK. If it says “Account Regularisation” then it appears that your points have been removed by Accor.

British Airways Club World flights to Hawaii for £945

On Friday I wrote about the British Airways Club World deals available out of Dublin.

One of these was a £945 return business class deal to Honolulu. This fare has either sold out or been removed by BA. Hawaii Club World / business class tickets are still available for €1,846 (£1,340) which is a more widely available price – excellent value for what is, in theory, not a sale fare.

The other Dublin deals are still available – see my original article for details.

Tesco Clubcard bonus points are now in – check your account

If you transferred Tesco Clubcard points to your British Airways Executive Club account last month, your 20% bonus (capped at 4,800 Avios) should now have arrived.

This whole process has been a bit farcical. Initially it wasn’t clear who was targetted, we were then all surprised to see that the bonus did not post instantly and, finally, someone made a big mistake and gave everyone a flat bonus of 480 Avios instead.

The 480 Avios should have been removed and replaced with the correct figure.

All in all, this promotion was substantially more confusing and messy than it had any right to be.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

Accor Live Limitless, British Airways and Avios, Tesco Clubcard

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

3CT says:

20 Dec20 December 16:10

I went on a spree of booking hotels in Bordeaux, Lille and Toulouse for my summer trip to France for Euro 2016.

I seem to have escaped the regularisation but I had already used my points including those won in the Accor Quest promotion to reduce hotel costs.
Graeme says:

20 Dec20 December 17:38

OK so signed up for Accor to do the game – got the 1,100 – now logged in to find my balance is reset to zero. Not making me feel the love for Accor really..
- Choons says:
  
  20 Dec20 December 20:37
  
  Opposite for me, the points I have are still on the account but I thought they should have been transferred across by now or at least should have moved to zero.
- harry1 says:
  
  20 Dec20 December 20:39
  
  Do you understand the context of rogue China dealings?
Gavin says:

20 Dec20 December 22:35

Accor points transferred fine it seems (FFP message showing in points history). A lot of effort but only cost was my time, hopefully some more low hanging fruit will come along
RIccati says:

21 Dec21 December 01:57

All the commends above make me to suggest that Accor has earned some BAD publicity and negative goodwill from this badly exercised promotion.

Fraud or not but a decision of taking points from the hundred thousands of people worldwide (even those who tiptoed just to earn points for the quiz) is another example of elephant in the glass shop.

Every one of those people will be eventually making a decision, should I stay at the Mercure [European city] or another hotel..
- TimS says:
  
  21 Dec21 December 07:37
  
  To be honest I think it will be quickly forgotten.
  
  Many new (non fraudulent) accounts will have only set up new accounts to take advantqge of the iberia transfer trick. That doesn’t help accor or generate any sort of loyalty to their brand. It was just a way to get free avios, a brand accor has no interest in promoting.
  
  Therefore no accor loyalty was lost as they were new accounts and the customers were unlikely to stay at accor anyway so little impact. Certainly less than the actual cost of accor buying the avios to fulfill the many multiple accounts that were set up in China to abuse the promotion. That would be a REAL financial cost to accor that would have generated no future revenue/loyalty to accor.
  
  Accor do have an odd habit of running promotions that offer free points for little or no brand loyalty. Their recent Rugby World Cup predictions facebook promo is another example of this
Andrew H says:

21 Dec21 December 09:48

Eight days on from my Accor transfer and still no points in Iberia. Suspect this is down to Iberia. How many times a month do they do sweeps for this sort of thing?
- harry says:
  
  21 Dec21 December 10:08
  
  Vinoseleccion told me that IB only sweep for their points once a month (first couple of days) – and indeed mine took over 6 weeks to get added
  - Andrew H says:
    
    21 Dec21 December 10:26
    
    Thanks. Another two weeks or so to wait for the Accor and the Groupon transfers, then.
- Rob says:
  
  21 Dec21 December 11:02
  
  The last Starwood to Lufthansa transfer I did took 28 days to go through ….
K S says:

21 Dec21 December 10:31

Wanted to check – is it best to not auto convert on Tesco to avios? to get these bonuses not completely sure what the strategy is – switch it on and offer every so often?
scallder says:

21 Dec21 December 10:41

I had my Accor account “regularised” – Having just spoken to them, seemingly because i haven’t had an Accor stay with them in the past year they wiped the points.

Whilst still on the phone to them, they sent me an email so i could reply saying in writing that i wanted the points re-instated and they were put back there and then.
- Andrew H says:
  
  21 Dec21 December 10:57
  
  I transferred my points soon after the promotion started so I was fortunate not to have the account regularization problem.
  
  After the points transfer, I started using the Accor Places app on Facebook. My points level in Accor was zero. I managed to earn a 50 point badge straight away… and within 48 hours the 50 points were automatically transferred out of my account to Iberia!
  
  So the process I used to transfer under 3000 Accor points, seemed to automate the second, small transfer as well. Doubt it would work now, though.
  - Rob says:
    
    21 Dec21 December 10:58
    
    Once you have the transfer set up, every point you earn goes directly to IB. My wifes points from the promo were sent over immediately as she already had it set.
    
    I am actually in an Accor hotel tomorrow night for the first time in a l-o-n-g time.
    - Andrew H says:
      
      21 Dec21 December 11:00
      
      That would be great if it continues. I thought Accor might have nixed any automated transfers less than 3000 after this promotion, though… we shall see. 🙂
    - Andrew H says:
      
      21 Dec21 December 11:06
      
      Hope it’s a nice Accor hotel you’re staying in.
      
      I see Accor are still doing their £25/£40/£60 deals for this weekend, Christmas Day included. Four star hotels with swimming pools in London for £60 at Christmas weekend!
      - Leo says:
        
        21 Dec21 December 11:43
        
        How are you finding these? Prices well over than that on there weekend offers page.
      - Rob says:
        
        21 Dec21 December 12:46
        
        See here – https://headforpoints.com/2015/01/20/accor-happy-mondays-rooms-from-25/ – it is the Happy Mondays promo
Tania says:

22 Dec22 December 00:13

A little bonus today. I have an Avios account (not BA) that I only opened for Avios suitcase etc Today I received an email from the Avios elves, 200 Avios added for Christmas.
- Andrew H says:
  
  22 Dec22 December 10:10
  
  I received 250 Avios in my Avios account this morning as an Aer Club bonus. I haven’t had any email from Avios.com this morning, though.
  
  You can tell if it’s Aer Club related by checking your Avios.com statement
  - Simon says:
    
    22 Dec22 December 13:26
    
    Yes I got this as well.
    - Alan says:
      
      22 Dec22 December 13:27
      
      Ditto – won’t say no to 250 free Avios 🙂
      - Andrew H says:
        
        22 Dec22 December 13:32
        
        Some people seem to be getting emails from Avios.com giving 200 free avios – I haven’t received one. Hoping this is separate from the above
      - Andrew H says:
        
        22 Dec22 December 18:07
        
        I asked AviosUK about this on twitter. This is what they said:
        
        “A few Avios customers are being chosen at random as a little Xmas treat, no promises but there may be more emails sent soon”
      - harry says:
        
        22 Dec22 December 18:24
        
        Won’t say no lol
        
        On top of the free 24000, happy Xmas BAEC 🙂
      - harry says:
        
        24 Dec24 December 12:38
        
        went on Chat to beg for some free Avios like the dumb & dumber I am
        
        no joy so don’t waste your time 🙂