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Bits: 480 Avios with Now TV box, double Avios at Chestertons, Virgin’s Manchester lounge shuts

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News in brief:

480 Avios and £10 off with a £15 NOW TV box

This was covered in more detail over at Shopper Points yesterday but it is worth a wider airing as it is a very generous overall package.

Sky’s NOWTV box turns your TV into a smart TV.  It lets you watch Sky channels without a contract and also streams catch up TV straight to your TV.  The only downside is that it won’t let you watch Netflix (get a Google Chromecast) or Amazon Prime (get an Amazon Fire Stick).

Tesco Direct is currently offering three special packs at £10 off.  More importantly, you will receive 100 Clubcard points with your order.  Even better, at present the Tesco website is ‘glitchy’ and is adding 200 Clubcard points (480 Avios) per box.

There are three packs to choose from depending on whether you prefer sports, entertainment or movies. These passes offer excellent value for money even if you ignore the value of the NOW TV box – £15 is not a bad price to pay to get access to Sky Movies for two months, for example.

Click the link below to be taken to the appropriate Tesco Direct page:

2 day passes for Sky Sports

3 month pass for Sky Entertainment

2 month pass for Sky Movies

The NOW TV offer runs until 17th January – although I would expect the ‘extra’ 100 points to disappear before then.

Double Avios at Chestertons estate agents in January

Last year, as I wrote here, estate agent Chestertons became a new Avios earning partner.

During January, Chestertons is offering double Avios for new instructions.  That would earn you 2 points for every £1 of your fee.

I certainly wouldn’t pick an estate agent purely on the back of earning a few points – it is too big a decision for that – but if all other things are equal then the deal is worth a look.  You can find our more on their website.  The deal is valid for landlords as well as anyone selling a property.

Virgin’s lounge in Manchester closes – with no alternative

Bad news for anyone flying in Virgin Atlantic Upper Class from Manchester in the next few months.

On 10th January, the ‘Escape’ lounge (pictured above) is closing for a refurbishment.  It will remain closed for 15 weeks which means it will be shut over Easter.

Virgin is NOT making a replacement lounge available.  If you are eligible to use a lounge and are flying with Virgin, you will receive a restaurant voucher to use in the terminal.

This will also impact Priority Pass customers using Terminal 2 who will have to use the Swissport lounge instead.

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.)

Category

British Airways and Avios, Tesco Clubcard, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (27)

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

  • Jason says:
    6 Jan6 January 09:27

    I wasn’t impressed with the lounge at Man, when flying to Orlando last October.
    The whole virgin experience, from arriving at the airport to disembarking the plane( albeit they did let UC and PE passengers off first) has put me off flying with them, although perhaps from London they treat UC passengers better.

    • gumshoe says:
      6 Jan6 January 15:26

      I can assure you they do. The Clubhouse at LHR is one of the best business class lounges going, plus there’s Drive-through check-in, a private security channel and an arrivals lounge.

      MAN, sadly, is very much the poor relation and we can only hope that changes once T2 has been redeveloped.

  • Tom H says:
    6 Jan6 January 10:31

    OT sorry but the groupon avios thread appears closed. Still only had 36k of my 60k avios post despite all being in one purchase. Have revalidated the remaining two vouchers as it allowed me to despite previous emails saying they were validated the first time. Anyone have sim issues,?

    • harry says:
      6 Jan6 January 12:05

      It does sound as if 2x 12000 were not validated the first time, despite appearances.

      Many of us got a message along the lines ‘this voucher has already been validated’ even though we knew we hadn’t validated them yet. So we re-validated them there & then.

      This might explain why quite a few people have not got the full amount yet.

      You should all have got 100% by now – I really don’t think that this many days later they are in the system. Particularly if other Groupon vouchers claimed on the same day have aleady been credited.

      And wasn’t there a deadline on crediting the points to IB?

      • Tom H says:
        6 Jan6 January 17:11

        Yep it’s on 9/1/16 so time is running out. Was hoping someone had made contact with Groupon.es? May just have to write it off as a lesson learned!

        • harry says:
          6 Jan6 January 17:17

          No! Just go back to your Groupon vouchers & re-validate them & send to IB (would be my first action).

          Only after that the emails

  • Anon says:
    6 Jan6 January 11:56

    Hope Virgin are building a dedicated lounge at MAN, for me lack of one is reason to leave and go via LGW/LHR and use BA with free connecting regional flights.

  • oyster says:
    6 Jan6 January 13:09

    So how do these Now TV boxes work?

    Where does it get the feed from? My aerial?

    • harry says:
      6 Jan6 January 13:23

      from your internet modem wifi signal

      • Roberto says:
        6 Jan6 January 13:45

        Newer black box can connect with cable to modem as well as wifi I understand.

        • Alan says:
          6 Jan6 January 13:54

          Indeed, old white ones were Wi-Fi only, these are that or Ethernet – reviews indicate a bit nippier on the latter.

          • harry says:
            6 Jan6 January 16:16

            got some to pick up tomorrow so I might do a comparison wi fi vs cable, cable is sure to be more reliable but by how much?

            I’m getting rid of our white boxes, maybe the local cex shop lol

      • Jason says:
        6 Jan6 January 18:10

        Do they plug into the tv via hdmi?

    • flyforfun says:
      7 Jan7 January 16:58

      Can I buy a few boxes? £15 for 2 months of movies is cheap! Or is it one per household etc?

  • Ben says:
    7 Jan7 January 04:40

    I am flying back to Doha from Manchester on QA at the end of January. Will there still be a lounge for QA business class passengers to use?

    • PGW says:
      10 Jan10 January 10:17

      I’m also flying MAN-DOH next week. QR there tell me that they have secured a section of the Escape lounge for their Business Class customers for the time being but only those ticketed in Business will be allowed in. Those seeking entry on status or other lounge club memberships will be turned away.

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