Get bonus Avios and Virgin Flying Club miles from Tesco via the Pay+ app

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• the real harry1 says:

  28 Jul28 July 06:14

  DragonPass with Barclays is very simple & good value. Take out a free current a/c. Apply for the Travel Plus Pack – £15.50/ month, mimimum term 6 months. You get 6 lounge passes – which can all be used at the same time if you like, so good for families. You also get RAC breakdown insurance plus travel insurance for the family, under 80s included. You can turn the TPP off & on at will, so it is easy to use it for 6 months, stop paying (or switch between his ‘n hers a/cs) – then re-start it next year for another 6 months/ 6 lounge passes.

  • Kevin H says:

    28 Jul28 July 16:49

    One difference between Barclays Travel Plus Pack and the Nationwide Flex Plus seems to be with travel insurance:
    Barclays excludes business travel (general exclusions 8i) whereas it is included with Nationwide.

    • @mkcol says:

      29 Jul29 July 14:03

      Do either include worldwide wintersports cover? I’ve heard Nationwide doesn’t.

• Graham Walsh says:

  28 Jul28 July 06:20

  I prefer the Plaza lounge. I was in T5 on Monday and flying CW so thought I’d try the other lounge (smaller one). It’s terrible. Maybe it’s because it’s the holiday season. I couldn’t find a seat with power. So I had some food (wasn’t bad apart from the saucer size plates) and then moved to the Plaza lounge. Walked in, sat down to a huge seslection of power and comfort. At peak it was busy not like a school playground like the Galleries lounge was. Probably one of the main reasons for keeping my Amex Plat.

  OT I was CW for the first time. Nice seats etc but I hated the people and staff doing a ballet/kung fu movement to get out of the middle seat. Who ever thought that was a good idea. I was worried that I’d end up with someone’s leftovers on my lap.

  • the real harry1 says:

    28 Jul28 July 07:33

    I keep my Plat (for now) as it is turning me a healthy profit, lounge visits a handy extra 🙂

    • Polly says:

      28 Jul28 July 15:55

      Hope you are referring each other every 6 months….using your email if ness…

• john says:

  28 Jul28 July 07:02

  I like the lounge, better than GC IMHO (quieter), all thanks to your post on getting DragonPass cheaply:

  https://headforpoints.com/2017/11/26/dragonpass-discount-via-groupon/

  • the real harry1 says:

    28 Jul28 July 07:49

    Via Barclays route is far better value, considering the extras

    • Roger1* says:

      28 Jul28 July 09:04

      Harry is normally unchallengeable when it comes to facts. This time, it’s an opinion. 🙂

      For anybody with a Nationwide FlexPlus account like me, the extra benefits with Barclays are more difficult to find. Oh, and there’s no automatic age limit with NW, just a £50 surcharge for 75+, I think..

      I have the DragonPass app for strategic use such as this. Extra/guest visits cost £16. Showers (at T5 at least) cost £10!

      • the real harry1 says:

        28 Jul28 July 09:45

        Unchallengeable? 🙂 You’d be the first to say that lol. Right – thanks for pointing me to the Nationwide FlexPlus a/c – wasn’t really aware of it. Only £13/ month with decent benefits
        https://www.nationwide.co.uk/products/current-accounts/flexplus/features-and-benefits

        But where are the 6 lounge passes?, I’m struggling to see them… 🙂

      • BJ says:

        28 Jul28 July 11:10

        I am on the NW FlexPlus too. Also have Barclays current account and would switch to them for passes if I wasn’t amex plat. Reports suggest the insurance with Barclays tends to come good with little to no hassle with claims should the need arise. However, there is another cost-effective way to often get in quiet lounges nobody ever mentions 🙂

      • the real harry1 says:

        28 Jul28 July 14:29

        You’d better give a hint, BJ 🙂

      • Mr Dee says:

        28 Jul28 July 16:25

        I have the nationwide and it also comes with the ability to withdraw cash worldwide for free, thinking of cancelling it though as getting free breakdown cover with a car purchase so I would only be getting the travel insurance, mobile insurance and cash withdrawal benefits for £13 (£156 a year).

        There are no lounge passes if there were it would have been good, will look at the Barclays one but 6 months means £90 so need to check the other benefits, also having to deal with my local Barclays Bank isn’t a happy experience.

    • BJ says:

      28 Jul28 July 14:47

      @Harry: Do you take cash, I would like to use up these euros before I go home?

      • the real harry1 says:

        28 Jul28 July 14:51

        Euros? Can always use Euros lol

      • BJ says:

        28 Jul28 July 15:05

        But the price quoted in euros or whatever is not always what you might expect 😉

      • Mr Dee says:

        28 Jul28 July 16:22

        Come on tell us what deals you have had as never heard about this before?, if it some under the table/wing deal?

      • BJ says:

        28 Jul28 July 21:45

        @Mr Dee, for a travel blog it is something of a surprise to me that many readers seem oblivious to some of the greatest tavel tricks, hacks, scams or whatever but perhaps it is a generational thing. I was schooled in the glory days of the 80s, when interailing or travelling the States with little money we learned the best ways to make it go a long way. For example, do you know how to get a room in a hotel for less than half the going rate, how to get flexible student flights on majorr airlines when no longer a student, how to exploit overbooking to finance cheap travels? I miss those days, so much more fun than playing the miles and points game I have now graduated too although I now enjoy my comforts too much. More young people travel now than ever before but I get the feeling that most of them are now doing so on their parents money and benefit from the security and ease of travel and connections to home that the internet and smartphones bring. I cannot help but think they miss out on the experience, lessons and challenges of travel that my peers and i enjoyed.

• Alan says:

  28 Jul28 July 07:25

  Yep I like it too, the beef stroganoff is tasty. I get into the BA lounge (albeit have dropped to Silver) but find this much nicer given how quiet it is – handy for UK domestic flights too!

• Brian S says:

  28 Jul28 July 07:34

  My go to lounge at T5 now – not overcrowded, very decent food and drink options and more importantly……quiet :-p.

  Being selfish here but I hope they never open it to PP as that would completely kill it. On the same point I do however question the revenue of it as at peak times it has been less than half full.

  • Mark says:

    28 Jul28 July 11:25

    Might be quiet at peak times during the week, but heaving at weekend peak – especially anytime Saturday morning – in May we couldn’t get a seat for 15 min..

    • Rob says:

      28 Jul28 July 15:19

      You’re quite sure you’re talking about Plaza Premium (near WH Smith / Pret) and not Aspire (North end, near Paul Smith / Fortnums)? I have never, in 8 months since it opened, heard of Plaza Premium described as ‘busy’.

• The Original Nick. says:

  28 Jul28 July 07:41

  Totally agree with you Alan.

• Andrew says:

  28 Jul28 July 07:47

  How is one extra Clubcard point per £4 double Avios?

  • Klaus-Peter Dudas says:

    28 Jul28 July 07:53

    Trying to work that out too? Is there a trick in missing?

    • TripRep says:

      28 Jul28 July 08:43

      Yeah I was thinking Rob had got the sums wrong on this one too. Like way wrong.

      Would be nice to have a worked example showing how it’s double Avios/VS miles….

      Or maybe the headline was a copy & paste job from an old article?

  • the real harry1 says:

    28 Jul28 July 08:07

    It’s not double vs the Tesco Premium Credit card or the Tesco debit card. (1 point per £1). Standard Tesco credit card is 1 point per £4. I guess the premise was you’ll use a standard credit card & convert your Tesco Clubcard points to Avios or Virgin miles – so regardless of the conversion rate, 1 extra point per £4 is double the usual 1 point per £4.

    But if you normally get 1 point per £1, it’s only an extra 25%.

    As usual, check the math whenever TRH1 ventures a calculation 🙂

    • Genghis says:

      28 Jul28 July 08:14

      🙂 I think it’s just a mistake.
      I’d argue it’s a 25% bonus on normal Tesco spend given payment method shouldn’t come into it (eg if included, if paying by Tesco debit it would be a 12.5% bonus).

      • the real harry1 says:

        28 Jul28 July 14:28

        Mistakes – I made a few – but then again, too few to mention

  • IanT says:

    28 Jul28 July 08:44

    I think the usual rate for using Tesco Pay+ is 1 Clubcard point per £8 spent, and for this promo it has become 1 point per £4 spent.

    Hence double avios.

    This is in addition to whatever points you earn by using the card linked to your Pay+ account.

    • the real harry1 says:

      28 Jul28 July 08:53

      aha! 🙂 sounds like it’s right

    • Andrew says:

      28 Jul28 July 08:55

      The normal Pay+ rate is the same as using a Clubcard: 1 point per £1. With this promo it is 1.25 points per £1 if spending in multiples of £4. So it is a 25% bonus rather than a 100% bonus as the headline suggests.

      • Peter K says:

        28 Jul28 July 09:12

        Andrew is correct. There is no benefit to using payplus apart from not having to tender your clubcard. This bonus is only there because the app is rubbish. I think it’s not cashed payqwiq any more because people made fun of the name as it is so slow to use!

    • Alex Sm says:

      28 Jul28 July 11:28

      So, two questions:

      1) what exactly is a “faff” with installing/registering the app?

      2) will Pay+ give you more Clubcard points per £ spend than Tesco Clubcard Credit Card? Which is best to use?

      • Rob says:

        28 Jul28 July 15:18

        You can link the Clubcard Credit Card to Pay+ so you benefit both ways.

• Andrew says:

  28 Jul28 July 07:51

  Is Plaza Premium the one I can see into from the Galleries First terrace?

  • Klaus-Peter Dudas says:

    28 Jul28 July 07:53

    No, Plaza Premium is in the other side of the terminal

    • Andrew says:

      28 Jul28 July 08:56

      Ah I see. I was going to say – the one under Galleries First always looks packed when I look down.

      • Klaus-Peter Dudas says:

        28 Jul28 July 11:15

        Yeah, it’s the priority pass one, not worth the queue time even if you get in free in my opinion

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