Important dates for your diary – offers about to close which you shouldn’t miss (Oct ’16)

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• avidsaver says:

  2 Oct2 October 07:19

  31st October also last day to apply for Virgin White / Black Credit Card for 10,000 / 25,000 bonus.

  • Rob says:

    2 Oct2 October 08:16

    Thanks, added.

• Genghis says:

  2 Oct2 October 08:34

  Not directly points related but 18 Oct deadline to sign up for Tesco Xmas Saver. £200 ‘invested’ for £12 profit (6%). Circa 100% AER

  • Anon says:

    2 Oct2 October 09:15

    Can you then convert these to Avios/Viurgin as normal or are they in store only?

    • Genghis says:

      2 Oct2 October 09:26

      No. Just for spending in Tesco I’m afraid.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        2 Oct2 October 09:35

        Can you spend it on anything e.g. gift cards?

        • Genghis says:

          2 Oct2 October 09:47

          Not too sure tbh. Worth a try though. We do most of our shopping in Tesco anyway so worthwhile for us.

• Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

  2 Oct2 October 08:42

  Good spot. The £110.25 probably still the better deal for me though.

• Justin says:

  2 Oct2 October 08:58

  OT
  I bought £250 of M&S gift cards at Tesco on the 24th Sep. I have the activation receipts for all the cards so it looks like they were activated, however they are showing as not activated when I try and use them in M&S. Could the activation process take over a week? I’d like to avoid having to go back to Tesco and deal with their customer services/interrogation if possible.

  • Rob says:

    2 Oct2 October 09:06

    No, never heard of any taking over 24 hours and most are instant

    • Justin says:

      2 Oct2 October 09:45

      Once I bought an M&S giftcard from topgiftcards that took about 2 weeks to activate, but I’ve never had this problem with any bought from Tesco. Looks like I’ll have to call in on Monday.

      • Gavin says:

        2 Oct2 October 15:08

        M and S is instant. So is TK Maxx, Debenhams, House of Fraser. Argos is 48 hrs I think and can’t be used online

  • Justin says:

    2 Oct2 October 15:45

    Interesting… I’ve just checked the 5 cards on the M&S website and 3 are showing as valid, 2 are not. But I have activation receipts for each of the cards, showing “card activation successful” and the correct number.

    • Justin says:

      3 Oct3 October 13:04

      Update on this exciting story: The customer services people in Tesco were very polite and helpful but were not able to activate the cards. The manager tried calling M&S twice but they wouldn’t do anything. In the end Tesco gave me a refund, in cash. I guess I get to keep the clubcard points anyway 🙂
      Anyway, worth nothing that even if you get a slip saying “activation successful”, the cards might not actually have activated.

• Rupert says:

  2 Oct2 October 09:01

  31st Oct – last day to transfer diamond club
  Miles to BA

• Charlie says:

  2 Oct2 October 10:47

  OT but the MBNA T&Cs on the Virgin card do t prevent churning any longer. Has anyone had experience of this?

  • Rob says:

    2 Oct2 October 14:15

    True, they seem to have removed it – or is it a mistake? Went a few months ago. MBNA has always allowed churning with a couple of years gap irrespective of rules.

• Flightdoctor says:

  2 Oct2 October 11:39

  A bit OT but looking at finding an exEU deal in business to Orlando for the summer holidays (Jul or Aug 2017). Best I can find on the BA website is ex Dublin with American (DUB-PHL or MCO or JFK with connection to MCO) for around €1450 return with a €300 reduction using 45,500 Avios per person. These are code shares with BA flight numbers. My questions:
  1. If I pay with my BA AMEX premium plus card will I get the triple miles?
  2. Should I hold on and wait for an better exEU deal (either from a different destination and/or a bonus “part pay with miles” offer)
  3. Anyone have experience of American business from Dublin? Do they have flat beds?

  • Flightdoctor says:

    2 Oct2 October 11:40

    I mean via ORD (not MCO obviously!)

    • Martin says:

      2 Oct2 October 13:10

      We flew American Dub-Phl. It was old style seats with angled flat on the way out (but wasn’t trying to sleep anyway) and flat beds back.

• Pieter says:

  2 Oct2 October 14:33

  Very much OT: I am trying to hit the Plat Amex spending target ASAP, and am thinking of the following method: reloading the Moneycorp Explorer Card I bought when they offered £50 + £20 free in August, and subsequently cash it at an ATM. That initial purchase was treated as a purchase on my BAPP Amex. Will the reload be treated as a purchase or a cash advance? Thanks!

  • Genghis says:

    2 Oct2 October 14:45

    Good idea. IIRC, others reported directly issued Amex cards tracking as purchases. However, can you top up with Amex and what’s the fee for doing so? I can’t see it on the mobile version as an option. £150 withdrawal fee and it says only limit is £1k per day but this might have to be done over a number of withdrawals so perhaps circa 1% wastage here.

    • Pieter says:

      2 Oct2 October 15:05

      Yes – the withdrawal fee is £1.50, and I’m happy to split withdrawals and accept some wastage. I’m unable to login to my Moneycorp profile for some reason, but I’ll have to check whether reloading using Amex is possible. I’d expect it to be, given that the original purchase was possible…

      • Roger says:

        2 Oct2 October 18:00

        No unfortunately loading via Amex is not possible.
        The only option is Visa or MC.

        However I suppose one can always open another account or at least in the spouse’s name, if you are still waiting for then £20 credit to appear like me.

        • Daniel says:

          2 Oct2 October 20:34

          Logged in today…72 from 52 on my explorer card..

          They must be slowly working their way thro the applicants

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