Bits: new Heathrow Rewards offer, new BA Amex spend bonus, 6000 Avios with Tesco insurance

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News in brief:

Heathrow Rewards launches new Virgin Flying Club offer

Heathrow Rewards is launching a promotion for Virgin Flying Club members today – but it isn’t bonus miles.

Anyone who transfers their Heathrow Rewards points to Virgin Atlantic – at the standard 1:1 rate, in chunks of 250 – will be entered into a competition.

The prizes are:

First prize – 20,000 Virgin Flying Club miles

Second prize – 10,000 Virgin Flying Club miles

Third prize – 5 people will win 5,000 Virgin Flying Club miles

Anyone who makes a transfer to Virgin during September will be entered. You will only be entered once, irrespective of the number or size of transfers you make.

If Virgin Flying Club miles don’t appeal, remember that the 50% conversion bonus on Heathrow Rewards transfers to Avios is still running until 30th September.

Heathrow Rewards

New BA Amex spend bonus

Some British Airways American Express cardholders will be contacted today about a new spending promotion.

Eligible British Airways American Express cardholders will be offered 2,500 bonus Avios for spending £5,000 between 1st September and 30th November

Eligible British Airways American Express Premium Plus cardholders will be offered 5,000 bonus Avios for spending £10,000 between 1st September and 30th November

Whilst these offers are worth having if you are targetted, you should think carefully before pursuing them.

If you have already hit your spending target for the year to trigger your 2-4-1 voucher, it might be better to get a new card and hit a new spend target:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold charge card (£2,000 spend required to trigger 20,000 bonus Amex points, worth 20,000 Avios) or

Starwood Preferred Guest American Express credit card (£1,000 spend required to trigger 10,000 bonus SPG points, worth 10,000 Avios) Representative APR 36.2% variable including £75 fee based on a notional £1200 credit limit or

Lloyds Avios Rewards credit card (you receive a BA Avios upgrade voucher for spending £7,000) Representative APR 23.7% variable including £24 fee based on a notional £1200 credit limit or

IHG Rewards Club Premium MasterCard (20,000 IHG points for signing up and a free night voucher – potentially worth £250 at a top hotel – for spending £10,000) Representative APR 41.5% variable including £99 fee based on a notional £1200 credit limit

Any of these would be more valuable than putting an extra £5,000 – £10,000 through your BA Amex.

6,000 Avios or 6,250 Virgin miles with Building & Contents Insurance

Tesco Bank is currently offering 2,500 bonus Clubcard points (converts into 6,000 Avios or 6,250 Virgin Flying Club miles) when you take out its Building & Contents Insurance for the first time.

Full details are in this Shopper Points article.

You should compare the Tesco price with the current Alan Boswell Group insurance deal. Boswell is an Avios partner and they are giving out 5,000 – 10,000 Avios with policies taken out this month. Details are here.

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 American Express, Heathrow Rewards, Tesco Clubcard, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

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

roberto says:

1 Sep1 September 09:07

OT my 500 amex points for the £20 “Everyday Spend” promo hit today.. I bought a £20 WH Smith gift card on the 26th of Aug.

And had one lot of 1000 amex rewards for the £25 amazon voucher deal on my BAPP but not the second batch on my wifes supp card thus far.
Relaxo says:

1 Sep1 September 09:09

OT- Currency exchange app WeSwap have a decent signup/referral promo on at moment. £5 for joining +£5 for topping up minimum £50 by Sep 8. Can use referral link: http://swp.to/en/zej6763
Rob – Notsure if you’ve covered this before so feel free to take down post if you find it inappropriate/unfair.
- Rob says:
  
  1 Sep1 September 10:28
  
  No, it’s fine. It is on my list of things that I should cover at some point.
- Relaxo says:
  
  1 Sep1 September 12:05
  
  Should say – sweeter deal if you have a partner you can refer. Effectively get £20 between two people for a £50 top up.
John says:

1 Sep1 September 09:14

The Amex 500 Avios offer for “Everyday spending” of £20+

Is this valid only once per shop? I’ve made a couple of individual £20+ purchases at WHSmith but only one bonus of 500 was applied. The offer shows as ‘redeemed’ on my card account.

I’m positive Rob’s original article on this offer suggested it was for each £20+ purchase, not just limited to one purchase (or one purchase per store)….?
- Alex W says:
  
  1 Sep1 September 09:48
  
  The offer on my card clearly states valid once per card.
  - Dave says:
    
    1 Sep1 September 09:51
    
    Did anyone make such an observation when Rob wrote his article on it?
    
    Am sure Rob can clarify….
    - Rob says:
      
      1 Sep1 September 10:28
      
      They are almost always one-use only.
      - John says:
        
        1 Sep1 September 10:53
        
        The Amex offer is advertised as “Everyday Spending”. Poorly worded/executed. Why would anyone be encouraged to spend more than once then. Or indeed spend more than £20. (Naturally Amex would much prefer cardmembers spend a lot more than £20…thus why this marketing promotion *originally appeared* to be incentivised accordingly)
        
        Hence, if you do shop once and spend £20 in one retailer, you now have zero incentive to spend any further money at any of the listed stores (eg Ocado, Shell, Post Office etc)
        
        Very odd marketing indeed.
  - Tom says:
    
    1 Sep1 September 10:20
    
    Mine too – bought a M&S GC and the offer is now showing as redeemed.
- Tilly says:
  
  1 Sep1 September 10:27
  
  Offer on my card says valid once. Filled car up at shell on Tuesday night, offer showing as redeemed and 500MR points already credited to account.
Dan says:

1 Sep1 September 10:27

OT – IHG Premium CC. Anyone having difficultly paying by ‘debit’ card online? Mine keeps being rejected yet plenty of balance on the ‘debit’ card to pay it.
- Rob says:
  
  1 Sep1 September 10:29
  
  Creation is a bit funny in my experience. Cards will be rejected one day and accepted the next.
- Liz says:
  
  1 Sep1 September 12:45
  
  Yes – I am in the US at the moment and tried to pay my bill a couple of days ago as it needs to be paid before we come home – it rejected my debit card too. I have messaged them but so far no reply.
- Scallder says:
  
  1 Sep1 September 15:27
  
  I put through a payment today and it went through ok…
  - Dan says:
    
    1 Sep1 September 15:55
    
    Mine has gone through too now. Perhaps Liz’s message gave them a nudge!
Steve-B says:

1 Sep1 September 10:52

OT: I added my wife as a supp to my PRGC under last month’s promo that Amex was running. I thought points post pretty much immediately on acceptance, but it’s been 2 weeks since card arrived and want to take advantage of the Plat upgrade offer in case it gets withdrawn again. Could anyone comment on their experience?
Rich says:

1 Sep1 September 10:59

The BA Amex deal might have just come at the perfect time for me, if I get offered it.

I’m nearly at my Lloyds Avios target, so I’m delaying spending on that until March. About to cancel my Preferred Rewards Gold card and keep my Membership Rewards alive with a Gold Credit card.

Effectively 1.5 Avios/ £ for the next 3 months, at which point I may apply for the IHG card (one of my Accelerate targets).
- Polly says:
  
  1 Sep1 September 11:28
  
  Rich,
  If you have spent £15k on the prg card, worth going over the year to get the 10k MRs bonus. 2nd yr fee might kick in but you get pro rate refund anyway once you cancel down to gold credit card. Also chance to earn a further 20k MRs with a plat upgrade..
  
  .wonder if one can downgrade to the gold credit card from plat to preserve MRs tho? Anyone ever done this?
  - Rich says:
    
    1 Sep1 September 13:18
    
    Actually, I’ve barely used it this year. Just kept it for Amex Offers, referrals, the lounge visits, and mainly to keep my MR account open. Oh, and double points on travel spend when I remember to use it for that!
    
    I toyed with the idea of aiming for £15k spend next year, but couldn’t justify the £140 fee with other cards and offers about, especially since I can keep my MR account open with a free card.
  - Mzungu says:
    
    1 Sep1 September 14:36
    
    Polly,
    I asked Amex about using the Gold Credit Card without the PRGC, and they told me that I could keep it with an annual fee (£35 IIRC). It would keep the MR account open, but it also prevents you churning for a sign up bonus, so I can’t see any reason why you’d want to keep it?
    - Rich says:
      
      1 Sep1 September 16:00
      
      No annual fee on the one I’ve got. American Express Rewards Credit Card.
      
      Yeah, it’s a shame I won’t be able to churn the PRGC, but to me it’s more valuable to keep the MR account open. I have a hefty balance in there and no desire to commit it to BA (or somewhere else) yet. Once I’ve cleared it out, I can cancel the card and reapply for the PRGC after 6 months.
    - The Urbanite says:
      
      2 Sep2 September 11:07
      
      I have the Gold Credit card – put far more spend through it than I would get from churning PRG so no incentive at all for me to cancel it.
flyforfun says:

1 Sep1 September 11:15

OT/- re Lloyds £7000 bonus, is there anywhere on the account or statement is says when you have to collect it by or how close you are to the target? Can’t see anything on mine!
- Name Change says:
  
  1 Sep1 September 11:28
  
  To piggyback on this, where would one find the voucher once it is triggered? I assume in the Avios account somewhere, but I can’t seem to find it…
  - Rich says:
    
    1 Sep1 September 13:55
    
    No, you have to manually track it. Remember, it’s *account* year, not calendar year, despite what you may read elsewhere.
    
    I just keep a spreadsheet with each monthly bill, though you’ll have to manually adjust the amount in your anniversary month. Don’t forget to subtract the card fee, which doesn’t count towards the bonus.
    
    Also don’t forget to change your card at Amazon, Apple Pay, Uber, Spotify and the million other places it is your default card, if you’re trying to delay triggering the voucher.
    
    It will drop into your Avios.com account. Go to Your Statement, and click on Vouchers. In my experience I got a letter informing me, but it took them several months to bother to send it out, so I only really got 9 months validity.
- Polly says:
  
  1 Sep1 September 11:30
  
  No, no tracker at all, unlike the real Amex cards…people keep getting caught by early triggering of it..annoying. Just have to keep track of ongoing statements totals.
- Anna says:
  
  1 Sep1 September 11:32
  
  Are your avios posting? If not you may be having the same issue as me and others – there is a problem with Lloyds’ IT which takes 26 weeks (!) to rectify. If this is the case, you have to call them and ask them to post your avios and voucher manually, which they will do. The problem also means you can’t see you cumulative spend, however I just added up my monthly payments to calculate this, they all appear on your statements.
  - mark2 says:
    
    1 Sep1 September 11:42
    
    Oh, I wish I had the Avios not posting problem.
    My wife has had £600 compensation so far!
    - Anna says:
      
      1 Sep1 September 15:44
      
      I’ve had £275!
CDB says:

1 Sep1 September 12:44

OT: Deliveroo 500 avios came through today, nice surprise as completely forgot….
- New Card says:
  
  1 Sep1 September 14:50
  
  Me too although the voucher code was missing in the email, so I couldn’t claim – has anyone else had this?
  - CDB says:
    
    2 Sep2 September 02:18
    
    Voucher code was on bottom right but not very obvious