Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

What we know about the new Clubcard conversion offers for British Airways and Virgin Atlantic

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Tesco Clubcard points from the last collection period should now be showing online at tesco.com.

If you are thinking of where to convert, we now have an inkling of what is available in terms of incentives:

If you convert to Avios via an avios.com account, you will be entered into a competition.  Every £2.50 you convert gets you one entry.  Two people will win 50000 Avios, three people will win 25000 Avios and 150 people will win 5500 Avios.  The deadline to convert to be entered is 28th February.  Details are here.

 Tesco Clubcard conversion offers

If you convert to Avios via a BA account …. we don’t know.  I am willing to bet on British Airways offering a competition of some sorts but the details may not appear for a day or so.  You may want to hold off converting until you can compare the two.

If you convert to Virgin Flying Club, there appears to be a 20% conversion bonus.  I stress ‘appears’ because – whilst people who auto-convert to Virgin seem to have had a 20% bonus applied – there is no mention yet on either the Clubcard or Virgin Atlantic websites.  I would expect full details in a few days.  Keep an eye on the Virgin / Tesco website page here.

Personally ….. I am converting to Uber at the moment.  It is a ‘genuine’ 3x face value deal and our Uber spend is fairly high.  My choice is converting every £10 of vouchers into either £30 of Uber credit or 2400 Avios or 2500 Virgin miles.   This means I would be ‘paying’ 1.25p per Avios or 1.2p per Virgin mile (1p with the 20% bonus) if I took those instead and I’m not willing to pay that.


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:

Nectar American Express

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

American Express Platinum card Amex

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 card

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.)

Comments (119)

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

  • Andrew says:

    Question Folks.

    I have my Clubcard points setup to automatically convert to BA miles each quarter. Do I still get entered in to any draws and also would I qualify for any conversion bonus’ (If there was a bonus of course!).

    Just wondering if there is a benefit to converting them manually each quarter?

    Apologies if this has been asked before!

    Thanks

    • Rob says:

      Yes, you’re entered. The downside of auto-convert is a) a better offer (perhaps non-Avios) may turn up you prefer, such as when they added Uber and hotels.com recently, and b) if you save them, you get maximum benefit if Avios ever brings back a conversion bonus – admittedly unlikely on recent form but you never know.

      Put it this way – what is the benefit of auto-convert?

      • Stu N says:

        Laziness, I guess…?

        I don’t spend much in Tesco – there is no convenient superstore and the Metro one near work is a bit rubbish. I just auto-convert so it fires across a handful of Avios after I hit a cumulative 250 points.

        • Rob says:

          Fair enough. If you’re looking at 250 points every now and then the convenience is worth it. If you are doing a few thousand points per quarter I would be wary. I do not auto-convert.

      • Andrew Howard says:

        Thanks

  • Sergio says:

    O/T: If I book a flight+hotel using BA holidays to get the flight cheaper (I’m seing more than £1000 difference) do I need to checkin in the hotel? Can I just pick the cheapest thing and don’t show up there at all?

    Thanks in advance

  • Alan says:

    Just had an email from Tesco confirming 20% bonus AND that 1000 for autoconvert is back…

    “Did you know that Tesco is one of our most rewarding partners? It makes collecting miles as easy as popping to the shop for a loaf of bread. And right now, it’s even better than usual. From 1 February – 15 March 2018, you can enjoy a bonus of 20% when you convert your Tesco Clubcard vouchers into Flying Club miles.

    What’s more, if you sign up to automatically turn your Clubcard vouchers into Flying Club miles, you’ll receive an extra 1,000 miles on top. You’ll be soaring towards new adventures quicker than you can say ‘weekly shop’.

    Don’t miss out – make sure you spend your Clubcard vouchers with Flying Club before 15 March to enjoy lots of lovely bonus miles.”

  • Andy S says:

    Virgin 20% bonus confirmed in email
    Quote:
    Did you know that Tesco is one of our most rewarding partners? It makes collecting miles as easy as popping to the shop for a loaf of bread. And right now, it’s even better than usual. From 1 February – 15 March 2018, you can enjoy a bonus of 20% when you convert your Tesco Clubcard vouchers into Flying Club miles.

  • Alex Sm says:

    Why do you promote mattress runs – it sounds sort of unethical… you can at least mention instead (or alongside) that it is a good opportunity to organise a mini-break or visit parts of London/UK which people wouldn’t visit otherwise – it is so much more positive!

    • Rob says:

      It isn’t unethical at all! You are not exactly depriving a homless person of a bed for the night are you? If we were, say, buying food because it had bonus Clubcard points and then binning it uneaten then that would arguably be unethical.

      • Alex says:

        It is still waste of labour of cleaners and laundry etc
        But it is also an issue of limiting yourself to purely transactional behaviour which is close to cheating – another angle of ethics.
        But I don’t ask you to stop writing about mattress runs but you could at least add some positive spin to that by highlighting that this could be converted into an exploration opportunity rather than pure check-in and run-away thing…

        I remember you did this for HI in Brent. Last autumn, for example, My partner and I managed to build a mini-break even around the most miserable place I ever been to (NE London, HIX Chingford or something) with exploring former Walthamstow Greyhound Racecourse, William Morris House and dining in one of the best Turkish restaurants in London.

  • Alex says:

    This is what I just received from BA, btw:

    “How would you like the chance to win a holiday to the Greek island of Kefalonia – beautiful setting for the film Captain Corelli’s Mandolin? Here’s how:

    Simply turn £5 worth of Tesco Clubcard vouchers into Avios before 31 March 2018 and we’ll give you an entry into our prize draw – plus 1,200 Avios of course. If you already spend your Clubcard vouchers with British Airways Executive Club automatically, then you’ll receive two entries for every £5 of vouchers spent.

    The prize includes Club Europe return flights and three nights’ accommodation for two people in a 4-star hotel. You can take your break anytime between 15 May and 31 August 2018, subject to availability. “

    • Jeanine Ottman says:

      I’ve looked on the Tesco.com website and the BA.com website and can see no mention of this competition at all. Am reluctant to convert my clubcard points to BA Avios in case I don’t get entered into competition – unless it’s automatic ….

  • Rob says:

    Correct. I am using it too, better than a slap in the face (when the wife asks what time we are flying it is very quick to find the info vs BA, emails etc) but that is about it.

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