Bits: now a Tesco / BA competition, 20% Tesco to Virgin bonus?, 1200 Avios with PayQwiq

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News in brief:

British Airways launches a Clubcard / Avios conversion competition

Last week I wrote about the competition that avios.com is running if you convert your Tesco Clubcard vouchers into Avios via the avios.com platform.

As a reminder, for every £2.50 of Clubcard vouchers you convert via avios.com before 31st August, you will receive one entry in a prize draw:

Two people will win 50,000 Avios

Three people will win 25,000 Avios

150 people will win 5,500 Avios

British Airways has now released its competing competition.

For every £5 of Clubcard vouchers you convert to Avios via ba.com before 31st August, you will receive one entry in a prize draw. There is ONE prize consisting of:

two return British Airways Club Europe flights to Berlin

a three night stay at a choice of 5* hotels on a B&B basis – Waldorf Astoria Berlin 5* (very nice, says Anika), Ritz Carlton 5* (I’ve stayed, very nice, picture below) and Hilton Berlin (why you’d pick this I’ve no idea!)

The prize is valid for travel between 1st October and 20th December 2017.

I’d value the BA prize at about £1,000. The avios.com prize pot (1m Avios in total) is worth around £10,000! Logically, you should enter the avios.com competition although on the face of it the British Airways prize sounds more exciting.

Details of BA competition can be found on the Executive Club ‘News & Offers’ page here.

Ritz Carlton Berlin

20% bonus Virgin Atlantic miles with Tesco?

There were some reports in the HfP comments yesterday from readers who received a 20% bonus when they converted their Tesco Clubcard vouchers to Virgin Flying Club.

There is no official announcement yet on either the Clubcard or Virgin websites. However, if you are considering what to do with your vouchers, you may want to hold off for a day or so until we know if a Virgin deal is live and what the terms are.

Of course, now that Clubcard is offering a ‘genuine’ 3 x face value deal with Uber, any Uber user would be ‘paying’ 1p per Virgin mile this way. A £1 Clubcard voucher would be worth £3 of Uber credit or (250 * 20% bonus) 300 Virgin miles. You may not consider that worthwhile.

If there is any official news on a bonus, it will appear on the Tesco / Virgin website here or the Virgin / Tesco website here.

Virgin Atlantic

1,200 Avios with PayQwiq

Tesco and PayQwiq have brought back their “free Clubcard points when using PayQwiq” offer.

New customers downloading the PayQwiq app and using it can get up to 500 free Clubcard points (1,200 Avios).

The app must be downloaded by 3rd September and the last day to collect points is 31st October. You can collect 100 points once per week, so you need to spread out your Tesco visits.

Full details are in this Shopper Points article.

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: