Bits: 2400 Avios with Tesco Mobile, Qatar Airways launches flights from Cardiff

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News in brief:

2,400 Avios with a new Tesco Mobile phone

If you’re looking for a, possibly spare or second, mobile phone, Tesco Mobile has a new offer. Buy any of these six phones and you will receive 1,000 bonus Clubcard points, worth 2,400 Avios or 2,500 Virgin Flying Club miles.

The phones start at £69. I’m not an expert on this but there might be some eBay resale potential here too. Full details are in this Shopper Points article.

Qatar Airways to launch services from Cardiff Wales Airport

Qatar Airways had promised the announcement of a “ground-breaking experience for passengers” at Arabian Travel Market this week, but I don’t think anyone was prepared for something this ground-breaking.

Qatar Airways is launching services from Cardiff Wales Airport in 2018. Cardiff joins San Francisco, Kiev and Lisbon among 12 new cities earmarked for services. There is no word of whether the Welsh Assembly has oiled the wheels with a route support deal or what aircraft type will be used. Qatar does occasionally use short-haul planes for connections from second-tier airports.

Qatar Airways is, of course, a oneworld partner airline which means that you can earn and redeem Avios points, and earn British Airways tier points, when flying with Qatar.

Anyone expecting exceptionally cheap deals may be disappointed though. The Qatar / British Airways partnership deal, under which the two airlines share the revenue from services on both airlines between the UK and Doha, may well restrict the ability to discount to the levels we have seen in Europe.

If you want to know about other Avios redemption ideas from outside London, this HfP article looks at Avios flights from UK regional airports.

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

British Airways and Avios, Qatar Airways and Privilege Club, Tesco Clubcard, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

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

Gareth says:

25 Apr25 April 12:34

OT hopefully OT ok on and bits article, I have the Amex offer for 50 off 250 Hilton spend to use still which expires 8th may. It refers multiple times on offer to checkout spend, if I simply prepay for the room will that be sufficient for the 50 back, thanks
- rams1981 says:
  
  25 Apr25 April 12:56
  
  Yes – prepaying works
  - Gareth says:
    
    25 Apr25 April 13:28
    
    Thank you
- Rob says:
  
  25 Apr25 April 14:02
  
  Yes
the real harry1 says:

25 Apr25 April 16:01

O/T data point – couldn’t use my usual Co-Op for council tax as they got sold a week ago and the new owner won’t take Amex thru PayPoint (we tried it & it didn’t go through). So I went to Texaco>PayPoint instead and it went through fine. Probably depends on your particular Texaco though as I think a lot of them are franchised.
JamesR says:

25 Apr25 April 18:08

O/T because im a total moron, ive paid for another Amex annual insurance policy when I already had one. Amex arent going to refund me on that are they… ?
- the real harry1 says:
  
  25 Apr25 April 18:11
  
  most insurance policies eg car, house etc MUST be refunded pro rata by the insurer on your demand, though they are entitled to charge you service fees – worth simply asking if they’ll refund you
- Sundar says:
  
  25 Apr25 April 18:23
  
  U can call and ask to cancel stating duplicate insurance and they will cancel and refund.
- RussellH says:
  
  25 Apr25 April 20:29
  
  IIRC, you must have a 14 day cooling off period during which you can cancel for any reason at all at no cost.
JamesB says:

25 Apr25 April 19:43

OT: WARNING
In the past hour I’ve received two separate email witb avios logos etc confirming transfer from something called abas and ucount. I have never heard of these and email contained no personal information. Take care not to click any buttons in these emails and just delete them if received.
- bossman81 says:
  
  25 Apr25 April 19:59
  
  Yes, had the same. Deleted
- TripRep says:
  
  25 Apr25 April 20:46
  
  Looks related to a Scam spoofing Standard Bank reward points in Zimbabwe…
  
  There’s info on the genuine Avios site, delibrately not posting links here…
  
  But yes, don’t open & delete/block.
  - EwanG says:
    
    25 Apr25 April 21:12
    
    Looks more like a system error rather than a scam.
    
    Still best to ignore and delete the messages though!
Chris says:

25 Apr25 April 20:21

Same here.
Its troubling that they have my avios balance correct….
- JamesB says:
  
  25 Apr25 April 20:35
  
  Interesting, never noticed that. Might be prudent to go to BA and combibe avios there and change avios log in details.
  - Stu_N says:
    
    25 Apr25 April 21:26
    
    Tweet from @AviosUK, looks like a cock-up rather than a scam.
    
    “We’re aware that an email for our South African customers has been sent to some of our UK base in error, please disregard. Thx ^VW”
    - JamesB says:
      
      25 Apr25 April 23:42
      
      Thanks Stu, apologies for the false alarm folks.
      - Genghis says:
        
        25 Apr25 April 23:44
        
        You can never be too careful it seems these days.
      - JamesB says:
        
        26 Apr26 April 00:14
        
        @Genghis, I guess you are way out east in the sunshine. Good morning and enjoy your day.
      - Genghis says:
        
        26 Apr26 April 00:22
        
        Yep. Got woke up by the rain but it’s now turning into another glorious day 🙂
JamesB says:

25 Apr25 April 21:12

OT: Plans for a 50% reduction in APD on flights from Scotland passed their first hurdle today:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-39694369
- Kip says:
  
  25 Apr25 April 21:47
  
  It’s a good idea. Once implemented I’d like to see reductions in APD for airports in the north of England to remain competitive then introduce a tiered charge throughout the country so that only LHR/LGW/LCY remain at 100% APD.
  - Alex W says:
    
    25 Apr25 April 23:53
    
    Presumably BA will just increase their surcharges on redemptions to make up the difference?
    - Callum says:
      
      26 Apr26 April 00:35
      
      Why? The majority of airports they serve don’t levy APD (to a similar level as us anyway) but they didn’t increase surcharges from them to match the UK level – including Aberdeen.
  - JamesB says:
    
    26 Apr26 April 00:11
    
    You will likely find some take exception to your comments on the London airports. I used to share your views but I’m now less convinced. Regional expansion is taking place all across the UK despite LHR so penalising it and the other London airports might just be self-defeating by reducing choice, not increasing it. London area will always be able to attract both greater frequencies and a broader range of destinations than the regions ever could simply due to the density of population and commerce in the south east. A more interesting question might be whether it is in the interests of passengers to meddle with BAs monopoly at LHR, however, I am now against that too as the most likely outcome would be a decrease in the number of nonstop longhaul destinations.
Adam says:

29 Apr29 April 14:08

Just a quick question for anyone in th know, today I was booked on dxb-doh-bhx (on business and first) Thanks you qatar the first leg was late coming in and we missed the doh-bhx. As a result they transferred us to doh-mun-bhx. (The last leg being with Lufthansa but all booked through qatar on the same 6 digit flight reference code.

What are the chances that we will get an extra 40 tier points for the last leg.
- Rob says:
  
  29 Apr29 April 15:12
  
  Nil, even if the flight had a Qatar flight number, because oneworld goes on operating carrier. The only exception is Qantas-coded Emirates flights.
  
  Whether Qatar can make BA give you 40 TP ….. I don’t know.