Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Clubcard vouchers now available online … and Virgin 30% bonus still running for 3 days

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It usually takes a while for Tesco to take the Clubcard points earned in the previous quarter and convert them into vouchers. This time, though, they have been super-quick.

If you log in to your Clubcard account, you will see that your vouchers for the last quarter are there, available for redemption. Some people have also reported already receiving their postal vouchers as well – although you don’t need to wait for these in order to redeem, as the voucher code numbers are already online.

This means – rather unexpectedly, since vouchers do not normally appear in accounts until the following month – there is an unexpected opportunity to still take advantage of the 30% conversion bonus on Tesco Clubcard points to Virgin Flying Club.

There are a few rules if you want to convert to Virgin:

The offer is open to everyone

You must convert by 31st October

There is no maximum or minimum conversion, apart from the usual £2.50 minimum which applies to all deals

One converter will win 4 UK domestic flights on Little Red (woo!)

The bonus appears to post automatically with the base miles

Virgin has made real efforts recently to make economy redemptions more attractive in recent months. As I posted here, Virgin has cut taxes on many routes (New York is £120 cheaper than BA) and charges fewer miles at times (5,000 fewer for an economy ticket to New York.)

The changes to the Virgin cancellation policy have also made Virgin Atlantic redemptions more attractive.

Virgin Flying Club miles can also be converted to Hilton HHonors at a decent ratio of 1:2 (and also to IHG Rewards Club at a poorer 1:1) so this is also a potential opportunity to bump up your Hilton balance as well.  (Note that the UK Virgin website mistakenly says the conversion rate to Hilton is 1:1.  The US – and indeed all the other regional – sites show the correct 1:2)

That said, if you value Hilton HHonors points at 0.3p, as I do, then you are effectively only getting (1 CC = 3.25 Virgin = 6.5 Hilton =) 2p of value for each Clubcard point. Not outstanding, but OK if topping off a balance. The minimum transfer is 10,000 miles to either Hilton or IHG.

If you want to convert to Virgin, remember that you only have three days to initiate your transfer. I am assuming that October 31st relates to the date that you initiate the conversion, as you have no control over how long it takes Tesco to send them over. That said, they usually appear very quickly (24 hours is not unusual).


How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, the Reward+ card has a bonus of 15,000 Virgin Points):

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

A generous earning rate for a free card at 0.75 points per £1 Read our full review

You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 40,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 40,000 Virgin Points.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points

(Want to earn more Virgin Points?  Click here to see our recent articles on Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club and click here for our home page with the latest news on earning and spending other airline and hotel points.)

Comments (53)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • DANIEL says:

    yep..did mine yesterday.. cleared this morning with 30% jam 🙂

    • Thomas says:

      Same here.
      All in my account this morning having done transfer yesterday afternoon.
      Nice when it works so efficently.

  • jason says:

    Sent my first miles to ba exec club yesterday….. arrived today! no bonus but need miles!!

  • Simon says:

    On the subject of Tesco today’s the last day to get 5000 points for taking out life insurance

    https://headforpoints.com/2013/08/19/12000-avios-12500-flying-club-miles-with-tesco-life-insurance-back-again/

    • Rob says:

      Good spot!

    • whitenoise says:

      Good reminder, this prompted me to sign-up. It seems though I have been selected to go for a medical examination though which is a pain. Guess I shouldn’t have ticked the scuba diving below 40m and go inside wrecks box….

      Do you think it is still worth going ahead with it?

      • Rob says:

        Offer will no doubt be back soon, you could reapply then and forget to tick those boxes (unless you seriously want to keep the insurance).

  • taff_2003 says:

    Cleaned out my CC account into VS FC for the second time in 3 months. Starting with a zero balance 3 months ago, my FC account is starting to look nice and healthy. That bonus has really helped! 🙂

  • Richie says:

    Could we be seeing a ba 30% bonus soon

  • GlennM says:

    This is my second run into Virgin transfers with Tesco on the 30% bonus. I’ve moved a smaller tranche this time so that I can keep my window open for an Avios transfer. I did this first thing Monday AM, and they posted incl. bonus this morning. Although I’m big on BA & Avios, I have to admit I do like Virgin’s redemption discounts that they float every few months, but it seems always in August. I’ve seen those as good value for US trips, so keen to keen 100k in virgin points for diversity purposes.

    As a side, I see that you can get 500 Tesco points for a Kodak AZ251 Camera. Might be useful Christmas present.

  • Frank says:

    yeah. any signs of a BA conversion bonus coming up soon?

    • Nick says:

      I hope not, I converted everything I had yesterday. To be honest with the way things are going, I’m more concerned about them reducing the standard conversion ratio than I am optimistic about another bonus conversion.

  • Adey says:

    My points auto converted to Virgin on the 23rd October and I duly received the 30% bonus .

    On a related note, thank you Raffles. With your help I achieved over 24,000 clubcard points this period which translated to 79,000 Virgin miles – an UC redemption to US East Coast.

    Cheers,
    Adey

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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