Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Garage bits: 60 Avios buying a coffee from Shell!, £5 off £50 at Esso from Amex

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

Petrol station news in brief!

Triple Shell Drivers Club points for buying a coffee

Shell Drivers Club points can be converted into Avios at a ratio of 2:1.  This isn’t necessarily the best use of them, given that they can also be redeemed for gift vouchers at a decent rate, but it works for some people.  You can learn more about the Shell and Avios relationship in this article.

Shell has special earning rates for buying a takeaway (or perhaps you can drink in?!) coffee from the Costa Express machine.  You would earn 40 Shell points for a large cup and 20 Shell points for a small cup.

Until 14th September, these rates are tripled.  You will earn 120 Shell Drivers Club points (60 Avios) for every large Costa coffee you buy and 60 Shell points (30 Avios) for every small cup.

£5 off £50 spend at Esso with American Express

A new offer for £5 cashback on a £50 Esso spend has appeared on some American Express accounts.

To see if you are targetted, log in to your American Express account and look under ‘Offers’ on EVERY statement page if you have multiple cards.

You can earn Avios points when you buy fuel at Esso.  Almost all Esso garages now let you collect Tesco Clubcard points and those convert into Avios points. 

What makes this Esso deal better than the average Amex promotion is that you can earn the £5 cashback an unlimited number of times until the deal expires on 18th September.

If your Esso has a Tesco Express attached, you should also be able to use this deal to purchase £50-worth of gift cards and receive a £5 cashback credit – plus the usual 150 bonus Clubcard points for spending £50 on gift cards.


Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

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

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

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

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

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

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

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

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

1% cashback uncapped* on all your business spending (T&C apply) Read our full review

Comments (27)

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

  • Stu R says:

    Sadly, since getting rid of our Audi, in favour of a VW Up! (as we only do 10 miles a day) I’d struggle to spend £50 in any petrol station – £34 for a full tank for me!

  • Gavin says:

    A fellow Up! driver here so no chance of spending £50 on petrol.

    • Stu R says:

      Gavin, I hope you agree the Up! is a super little car …. I can’t see me ever driving anything else from now on!

      • Gavin says:

        Absolutely! I’ve always driven small cars, as the road I live on is incredibly narrow but it’s a joy to drive. My next car will probably be an automatic so I hope the automatic version of the Up! Is just as good

    • BLT says:

      Since getting a Tesla I’ve lost all my petrol avios earning potential. Worth it though!

  • Nick says:

    If you pick up a coffee, don’t forget that you can also get 50 points (25 Avios) with most deli2go sandwiches and 30 points (15 Avios) on deli2go muffins and fruit purchases.

  • Mike says:

    Nothing on my BA Amex page. Could someone remind me what website l need to look for it on other (mbna/Lloyds) Amex cards or is it only on Amex issued cards.

  • Shelly says:

    Nothing on any of my cards or the Amex connect website

  • Ian says:

    nothing on my Amex either

  • Ben says:

    Looking at my Amex Gold, I have an offer for 1000MR points on a £500 spend at Apple.

    Anyone know whether this will apply to a gift card purchase?

    Full offer terms suggest not, but nothing in the summary and I think that was the same with the cash statement credit about a year ago.

    • Boris says:

      The problem there is finding an Apple product that is less than 2% overpriced.

  • Mark B says:

    I think you’re right

    • Rich says:

      I’ve had the same dilemma before (max 40L fill) and I bought goods from the attached Tesco to take it over £50 last year. Worked fine. (Although I think the Tesco/ Esso/ franchise relationship means it might differ from site to site.)

      Nothing on my Amex Gold or BA, nor on Amexoffers for Miles & More, United, Lloyds!

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.