Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Bits: get 2400 Avios for £60 of LEGO, Nobu Hotel Shoreditch open for reservations

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News in brief:

Good new LEGO deal launched at Tesco Direct

Tesco Direct has launched a good new LEGO promotion.  You will receive 1,000 bonus Clubcard points (worth 2,400 Avios or 2,500 Virgin miles) when you spend £60 of LEGO Friends before Monday night.

You may remember this memorable article by a HfP reader who set up a small business reselling LEGO bought in a similar promotion last year!  If you know what you’re doing it is possible to buy Avios very cheaply this way.

The easier option, of course, is to buy the LEGO as presents for any young girls in your life.

The list of boxes available is here

Nobu Hotel Shoreditch now open for reservations

The most anticipated London hotel opening of the year is probably the Nobu Hotel Shoreditch, just off Great Eastern Street.

Opening in June 2017, it will have 143 guest rooms and seven suites and includes a 240 seat Nobu Shoreditch restaurant.

Apparently “The materiality of the property references its Shoreditch location and the history of one of London’s most culturally rich districts” but I will leave that to you to decide.  I have seen it under construction and it does look impressive, although I have some doubts about the location given the room rates, which currently start at £238 per night pre-paid.

The hotel website launched this week and bookings are now being taken if you want to be among the first to try it out.  It is only accepting bookings from late July at present although this should be brought forward at some point.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous 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

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

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

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

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

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

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

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

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

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

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 Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Comments (41)

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

  • Daniel Evans says:

    If you factor in that it is a double Avios weekend on avios.com (4/£ at Tesco Direct) + plus paying on BA Premium Card (1.5/£) you are getting almost 3000 Avios for £60 spend.

    • Tilly71 says:

      A lot cheaper ways out there for collecting 3000 avios!

      • Daniel Evans says:

        Not if you resell at a profit.

        • Tilly71 says:

          You will be lucky, after ebay fees and postage costs etc you won’t make any profit but maybe a small loss if you very lucky.
          The race to the botom has already started on ebay, people underpricing to sell.

          • Daniel Evans says:

            Well obvs. don’t sell it on EBay then.

          • Scottydogg says:

            I done it at Christmas time , bought 2 boxes of minecraft lego and sold them through facebook . Only lost a couple of pounds but was worth it for the Avios

      • Ben says:

        But if you are in the market for Lego then you’re laughing.

        • David says:

          If you get it collected to the store they just stick the sticker on the box which is hard to get off and likely to damaged. Get it delivered if you have delivery saver and it might arrive OK. Too many damaged sets for me to bother anymore.

  • Kathy says:

    OT: Has anyone had their Economist subscription Avios turn up yet?

  • Daniel Evans says:

    I’m laughing all the way to Bangkok and back in Club World thank you very much Tesco and Lego.

    • Genghis says:

      What’s your experience in buying and selling lego? I.e. how much were you paying for your avios (or was it an overall profit)?

      • Tilly71 says:

        Genghis- ebay resell on lego has become cut throat since about 6 months back. There is a lot more people in on this game nowadays and buy multiples at a time, list them on ebay undercutting everyone to sell on as quick as possible.
        There is a lot of people like mums now in on the act probably doing it for x4 on meals out vouchers so with undercutting going on widespread most sell at a loss unless you hold onto the items for a while and then sell when all gone.

        • Genghis says:

          It all seems too much hassle and not a valuable return on my time. Much easier to get 92k avios from a couple of Amex Plats and spending £4k IMO.

          • Tilly71 says:

            Like you mentioned earlier, maybe the term “profit” is based on what most pay per avios point but not cash profit and free avios.

          • the real harry1 says:

            I could get it to work @ 0.35p/ point & maybe a bit better than that, it would rely on patience & a fair bit of work, though – & I CBA at the moment

          • Mr Dee says:

            Yes but its not a one or the other deal, you can do both, its worth it if you are Avios poor and don’t have any other options but as others have said Lego is competitive especially when Amazon is price matching Tesco.

            Lets be honest the Lego is overpriced anyway for a bit of plastic hehe

        • David says:

          Be careful not to sell too much as the tax man will be after you

          • Genghis says:

            True – frequency of similar transactions if one of the badges of ‘trade’, which could then lead to a higher administrative burden, even if you’re making a cash loss.

    • Jame67 says:

      @Daniel, then I’m afraid you are very misguided then, it is BA and Tesco who are laughing and you have been duped.

  • Sundar says:

    OT, didnt want to disturb the BA thread for today…Datapoint for Avios 250 offer for Aero Club –
    I have received the sign-up offer from AeroClub for 250 Avios in a newly created Avios account for my wife.
    I have not received the same for my already existing Avios account so far.

    • Andrew* says:

      Still waiting; no reply to previous emails.

      I think someone said they had success via Twitter…

  • Roger says:

    OT – Trouble with His-n-Her card

    Mrs Roger is angry with me as I am using “her” card to buy supermarket GCs for sign up bonus and out of blue Amex thought it was some fraudulent transaction and decided to call her.
    Poor her, had no idea what was going on. She probably doesn’t even know which card it is related to!

    • Genghis says:

      That’s happened to Mrs G a few times. Supposedly large transactions at Tesco are a fraud alert and likewise at Co-Op (was paying at Paypoint). Treat Mrs Roger well to nice flights and hotels and I’m sure she’ll come to realise she has to take the rough with the smooth.

  • Tilly71 says:

    Good luck to anyone who manages to sell lego at more than purchase prices on the high street, there must be a lot of stupid people out there who would pay more.

    • Tim Nice But Dim says:

      There are Tilly! And just because you can’t do the maths properly, doesn’t mean that others can’t!

      • Tilly71 says:

        Thanks Dim, Im fine at maths but like I said if someone has found a way to sell a product at a lot more than can be purchased from a high street retailer then good for them, hats off!

      • Steve says:

        Tim how much are you prepared to pay for miles via Tesco?

        • Tim Nice But But Dim says:

          £66 cash outlay. 2% back on that straight up. Sell for £55 worse case scenario undercutting everyone else on a £1 listing deal. Bank £25 of Avios points in addition to the 2%. Give Paypal 2%. Give Royal Mail £2.85. Quids in by about £14 by my reckoning. But I fly to get my Avios points. So what would I know?!@

          • Tilly71 says:

            So Tim, looking at your “math” as you put it your not actually making any profit and your making a loss as you sell at £10 less than what you paid and you have fees on top. Are you keeping hold of stock then as no £1 FVF promo on at mo? These sets will be more than £2.85 @ RM.
            It looks like you basing your profit margin on paying 1p per avios which is far too high for people who know their math.

          • Steve says:

            Well PayPal is 3.4% plus 20p. Its too big and heavy to go on a second class service so it would need to go via my Hermes who are just increasing their prices. Sending unrecorded is asking for trouble with chargebacks and people claiming it hasn’t arrived. Good luck storing all that Lego whilst waiting for a £1 deal on the eBay final value fees.

  • Fenny says:

    “buy the LEGO as presents for any young girls in your life.”

    Ageist and sexist! 😛

    • Daniel MacDonald says:

      Shirt-gate here we come!!!

      • the real harry1 says:

        yep it’s all Lego for girls, young girls at that

        no problem if you make your 8 year old lad wear a dress but they’ll by nature be more interested in football, biffing their enemies at school & roughty toughty computer games

        • Fenny says:

          I’m sure my mother will attest to how glad I was (not) to wear dresses as an 8 yr old. I was as likely to be out playing football as my brother and gurle lego didn’t exist, but it didn’t stop me building things.

          But why shouldn’t lads play with lego ponies and vet surgeries? They don’t have to wear dresses while doing it.

          But I will be buying my Adorable Nieces and Gorgeous Goddaughter (all in their 20s) and probably my mum, the set of Lego Women of NASA when they are released later in the year.

      • Fenny says:

        As I’ve worn a dress 5 times this century, I’m fine with knowing how many shirts I can fit in a wardrobe!

  • the real harry1 says:

    FREE17 £15 credit on Uber – new customers

    more useful – people are reporting that simply changing your card details on existing Uber a/cs gets you a £15 credit

    • Rob says:

      Someone told me last week they had got the ‘headforpoints’ £15 credit to work despite being an existing customer – perhaps that is why.

      • the real harry1 says:

        worth a few people trying it, easy to change your card details & fiddle with codes – £15 not to be sniffed at! 🙂 – not an Uber customer, myself, as we live in the sticks

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