Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Bits: the £79 Tesco printer, Qatar Airways 2-4-1 sale, Emirates status match, M&C hotel sale

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

News in brief:

Did you buy the £79 printer with 3,500 Clubcard points?

A fortnight ago I ran a great Tesco Clubcard offer.  If you paid £79 for an Epson XP322 printer, you received 3,500 bonus Clubcard points, worth 8,400 Avios.

Tesco has now reduced the price of the printer to £49 as you can see here.

The great news is that Tesco Direct has an unofficial (but widely discussed online) price protection guarantee.  If you buy something and it falls in price within 28 days, you can ring up and request the difference.

A HFP reader did just that and £30 was immediately refunded to his credit card!  This means that, even if he gives his printer away, he will have received 8,400 Avios for just £49.  You may wish to try the same.

Qatar Airways 2-4-1 sale out of the UK

Qatar Airways is currently running one of its occasional 2-4-1 business class sales out of the UK.  Full details are here.

These prices are considerably worse than some of the ex-Europe tickets we saw last week.  We are talking about £1,700 to Bangkok compared to the £800 being charged out of Copenhagen recently  However, for anyone who is more flexible on price and less keen to travel to Europe to start their trip, there might be something here.  £2,500 to Australia per person is not a bad deal when starting in the UK.

Note that availability on A380 services from London is very restricted, so try to get the Boeing 787 services instead as the second best option.  You can also book from Manchester, Edinburgh and – for flights from March – Birmingham.

Book here by 22nd November for travel before 7th July.

Qatar A350

Emirates Skywards status match

It is very rare to see Emirates offering a status match.  There is one currently running but you will need to have an address in France in order to take part.

The offer is a little confusing.  It appears that you need to hold a current top-tier card from another airline, such as British Airways Gold.  Whether you receive Gold or Platinum status will depend on an examination by Emirates of your recent travel patterns which must include substantial travel on routes flown by Emirates.

However, as Emirates is only asking for a scan of your current frequent flyer membership card, it isn’t clear how they intend to achieve this!

Emirates is not part of a major alliance, so you are only likely to benefit from a match if you fly Emirates in Economy on a regular basis and would benefit from lounge access.

Full details can be found here.  The offer ends on 30th November.  Thanks to Benedict.

Emirates A380

Millennium & Copthorne hotel sale

Finally, Millennium & Copthorne is running a short flash sale offering a headline 40% off their standard room rates at all of their UK and European hotels.

The real discount is not 40%, because that is based on the standard flexible price.  These sale rooms are non-refundable and so you should compare them to the usual Advanced Purchase rate.  You should still see a decent saving nevertheless.

You need to book by 22nd November for stays until 31st March 2016.  The sale home page is here.


Hotel offers update – April 2024:

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points?

  • Hilton Honors is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 14th May 2024. Click here.

Comments (142)

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

  • scott says:

    Do they do the same for printers bought instore i wonder ? i bought the £99 version and it is now £59

    • Tilly71 says:

      Yes

      • scott says:

        so how do i get a refund go instore or online ?

      • Tom21 says:

        I just contacted Tesco but no luck – they said that there is no price protection guarantee.

        • Mark says:

          On Tesco Direct website, it specifically says NO REFUND, so if you do get one, it is from Tesco’s charm offensive!
          ——-
          What happens if I purchase something and it is then reduced?

          If an item is reduced once you have purchased it then unfortunately we can not honour the new price. Items can be returned for a full refund then reordered for the reduced price. We apologise for any disappointment this may cause.

  • R says:

    I think they are probably inundated with refund requests at the moment.
    I paid for mine with Boost and got 2 lots of £15 of points refunded.
    Couldn’t figure out if this was good but then worked out I paid £25 worth of points for £35 worth of points and a free printer.

  • Adam Huberman says:

    Seems like the 3500 Clubcard points is now over so is there any point buying it now?

  • Andrew says:

    With the printer is there any danger they’d refund the difference but reclaim the points?

    • Mrtibbs1999 says:

      No the points were bonus, not linked to the price.

      • David says:

        Although could argue they formed part of the deal being sold and do not form part of the current offer. Not like for like, etc.

  • Nick says:

    Amazon have the same 28 Day Policy for those who buy from Amazon.

    • Nadia says:

      Thanks for this tip, just invoked it on a phone I bought last week and was kicking myself yesterday when I saw it had decreased in price. To confirm it was entirely painless to do!

  • rich says:

    Surely buying it on Amex offers a one month payment protection too. I bought two in store. Should I go to Tesco or amex

  • Dan says:

    I bought a printer on Direct for store delivery but had second thoughts about picking it up after reading “Your collection will be available until Monday, 16 November 2015. If you have not collected by this date we will refund you.” in the delivery confirmation email. The bonus points have already been credited to my account, so I wondered whether they would be taken away with the automatic refund if I didn’t collect it. Does anyone know?

    But I might collect it now it turns out to be a better deal. (and face the music with OH asking why I’ve bought a printer!)

    • harry says:

      if you don’t collect it you’ll lose the points

      • Saf says:

        From experience, if you buy from Tesco Direct and return the item, you’ll keep the bonus points. They’ll only take away the standard points. However, if you buy instore, they tend to take away the standard points and any bonus points you were given (unless off course the points no longer appear on your clubcard or have been used/transferred)

        • harry says:

          That’s true enough but the OP here needs to actually collect the item or the points get zeroed off. If he subsequently returns it, he stands a decent chance of keeping the points.

  • AdBoy says:

    £60 back on my card for the printers. Not a bad way to start Saturday! Thank you.

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

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.