At last – Waitrose lets you earn airline miles when you shop in-store

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• Rob says:

  21 Mar21 March 08:26

  Good point! Have added that in. Should have remembered this as I live 2 minutes walk from a John Lewis ….

  • Lady London says:

    22 Mar22 March 00:09

    Is that the one called Peter Jones? 🙂

• Graham Walsh says:

  21 Mar21 March 08:29

  Also interesting is that offer 8miles per £1 for hotels.com bookings. Also IHG is 2 points per £1 but no IHG points. However you could pay on your IHG card to get VS miles and IHG points. Interesting. Not sure how all the numbers actually stack up.

  • Graham Walsh says:

    21 Mar21 March 08:35

    That’s what the T&Cs say. Usually work, when I booked a Hotels.com Marriott room, I then got Marriott points too. Just ask nicely at the desk.

  • Leo says:

    21 Mar21 March 08:38

    Ditto.

  • Anna says:

    21 Mar21 March 09:26

    I use hotels.com – you get 8 avios per £1 plus a free night for every 10 you stay. No noticeable difference in room prices.

    • Genghis says:

      21 Mar21 March 09:37

      hotels.com for non-branded stays generally all the way (once you’ve compared actual prices) at c.18% back. For branded stays you need to weigh that up of course against points earned (which can be huge when there are offers around) and lack of status benefits (lounge access potentially saving cost of dinner etc).

• Will says:

  21 Mar21 March 08:33

  Hurrah!!
  If only Sainos could partner up. That ruddy Nectar card is pointless.

• Graham Walsh says:

  21 Mar21 March 08:36

  O/T Anyone know how to pay British Gas with Amex? Tried searching and it’s seems a firm no. They say PayPoint is cash payments only.

  • Genghis says:

    21 Mar21 March 09:00

    I pay with a PayPoint card at Co-Op, paying the min direct debit and topping up. Just ask BG to send you a paypoint card.

    • Liz says:

      21 Mar21 March 09:52

      Genghis when you pay your energy bill with Paypoint do they adjust / reduce the direct debit each month or are you paying on top of the full monthly direct debit and then getting a rebate at a later stage? I’ve just switched to EDF and thought I might ask them for a Paypoint card. EDF now take Amex but I’m not sure if they would adjust the monthly bill each month if you make extra payments online.

      • Genghis says:

        21 Mar21 March 10:00

        Hi Liz. I at least make payments to what it should be per month based on my usage but then occasionally make additional payments over and above. BG are more than happy to refund. Earned £30 last month by making an additional £300 BG payment at Co Op Paypoint on the Halifax 10% back offer. Once all gone through, I called up and gave them my meter readings and excess credit balance is now back in my bank account. All very straight forward.

      • CV3V says:

        21 Mar21 March 10:02

        BG dont automatically adjust the payment amount, but you can go into your account details and adjust yourself. BG website gives a lot of control over your payments, and ‘overpayments’. Looks like i need a Paypoint card…..

      • Polly says:

        21 Mar21 March 11:00

        Liz, cv, see if they can make your dd the smallest possible, then pre pay with the pp card, or with Amex card on line etc. Edf are flexible to deal with. They just want da money. I think if you are in credit over the monthly amount they don’t take the dd. But one thing make sure you top up 10-14 days before the dd is due, as they can call for it quite early. Feel the csa you prefer to manage your cash flow better this way! BG, SSE spark, etc all the big guns are usually ok with this payment plan. They did sound surprised when l asked for my dd to be £5 a month! When our usage was way higher!

        • Liz says:

          21 Mar21 March 12:42

          Ok thanks – will give it a try

• Alan says:

  21 Mar21 March 08:37

  According to Which? magazine’s survey of a basket of goods for February 2017:
  Morrison’s = £148.05
  Asda = £148.11
  Tesco = £156.25
  Sainsbury’s = £157.61
  Waitrose = £159.13
  Ocado = £161.86

  So, you pays your money and takes your choice. We currently use Asda as their home delivery service is by far the cheapest (£5 per month). Would the airmiles be worth the extra? Personal choice I guess.

  • Alan says:

    21 Mar21 March 08:38

    Forgot to mention, the list of items in their “basket” were all branded goods – no supermarkets own label stuff at all.

    • mark2 says:

      21 Mar21 March 08:55

      I am always very dubious about these comparisons.
      I am surprised that they found enough items stocked by all of the chains.
      IT will exclude most meat, cheese etc.

      • Alan says:

        21 Mar21 March 15:59

        If i could post an image I could show you what the items were as they link to a spreadsheet on their site.
        That was just the latest comparison. They do it every month and the cheapest 2 are usually Morrison’s and Asda (they swap around a bit), and the most expensive shop (excluding Ocado) is usually Waitrose. Some months the difference is bigger top to bottom, than others, but I guess that depends on individual offers.
        Whenever I’ve been to Waitrose I’ve always thought it was expensive but this is just anecdotal, not based on any comparisons.

  • Alan says:

    21 Mar21 March 08:47

    Interesting – personally I’ve noticed Sainsbury’s to be quite a bit more expensive than Tesco. Asda definitely cheaper, with surprisingly good fruit and veg selection (at my local one anyway).

    • Julian says:

      21 Mar21 March 09:12

      The Senior Executives won’t find Tesco or Asda any cheaper as Tesco Finest stuff costs every bit as much as the Waitrose or M&S equivalent.

      If however you look at the cheap freezer ranges or things like 500g packs of Frozen Breaded Paice or Frozen Battered Cod you will find Waitrose hugely more expensive than Tesco or Asda (and Asda are usually 20% cheaper again than Tesco on many of these products)

      Comparisons using Branded Goods are meaningless as branded goods (eg cereals especially) are usually 100% more expensive and there is very little price compteition between the supermarkets on the branded goods.

      All the price competition comes in terms of what the different supermarkets charge for own branded products but due to different pack size or meat quality etc the likes of Which will always maintain they can’t do a comparison on these kinds of product.

      So if shopping in Asda, Lidl or Aldi and buying own branded goods and avoid branded goods your shop will be 30%+ cheaper. Simple Fact.

      • Genghis says:

        21 Mar21 March 09:45

        We do most of our shopping at Tesco with online delivery (£60 delivery saver for the year) as it’s easy. I’m quite price conscious but mix and match my basket across prices ranges based on product experience. e.g. cheap everyday value yoghurt is nice, I like the Tesco normal steak but I prefer finest bacon – and it can never be any beans other than Heinz! As such, it’s probably very difficult to do a price comparison for a shopper like me – but if someone can point me in the direction of one I’d be happy to review.

        I’ve tried Asda and the in shop experience is awful and online delivery just as bad. I love Lidl but once again it involves a bit more effort to shop in store. We try to stock up on quality meat from the butcher and put in freezer and if buying lots of fruit and veg do to the market to get it for £1 a bowl.

        I’ve shopped at Sainbury’s a few times and their stuff generally seems to be more expensive. Perhaps I should relook at Waitrose given this new offer?

        • Will says:

          21 Mar21 March 14:15

          Fyi – Think Sainsbury’s/Ocado have a much more efficient delivery operation. Might be different in your area. Always find Tesco replacing loads of items.

        • Anna says:

          21 Mar21 March 16:02

          I pay £36 per year for Tesco deliveries as I’m happy with Tues/Wed/Thurs deliveries. I’ve found for at least the past couple of years any substitutions have been upgrades – my favourite so far was when they didn’t have my 1L of Gordon’s gin so sent 2 x 70cl instead :-). If you click on the special offers section it tells you all the items which are half price so you can do branded shopping very cheaply indeed.

  • Brian says:

    21 Mar21 March 08:57

    The question is whether that survey took into account offers. In my experience, Waitrose are never more expensive than Tesco – and I do generally compare beforehand, if I have the time – with Sainsbury’s being the most expensive of the three (don’t have the others nearby, so don’t generally bother with them. Plus they have things like My Offers, which brings the price down on lots of products.

• Allan says:

  21 Mar21 March 08:38

  Wonder if this is in any way related tl BA choosing M&S for onboard catering over Waitrose?

  • Rob says:

    21 Mar21 March 08:57

    I find the whole thing odd. Even the earn rate, 4 per £1, is weird.

    4 per £1 is too high. To match Tesco they only need to offer 2.5 per £1. More importantly, groceries are a massively low margin business. There simply isn’t 4% profit margin to give away so casually.

    My gut feeling is to enjoy this whilst it lasts, and potentially even stockpile gift cards at 4 per £1.

    • DRB says:

      21 Mar21 March 09:10

      Yep – a new line of business suggests short term burst of sign-up.

      • Genghis says:

        21 Mar21 March 10:04

        I’ve never read these Kantar report before. V good writing style.

    • John says:

      21 Mar21 March 10:45

      The avios/Caffè Nero offer started at 10 per £1 but eventually settled down at 5 avios per £.

      I now spend £2.95 a day in Nero rather than Costa and am credited with 16 avios.

      Every little helps (especially if there’s no Waitrose without a sea crossing).

• mark2 says:

  21 Mar21 March 08:52

  It is a Virgin Money Stocks and Shares ISA which earns 6,000 points.

• Anna says:

  21 Mar21 March 08:56

  OT – I now have the 3,000 avios bonus offer on my Amex MR Gold home page – if I refer my other half for a supplementary card will it prevent me referring him for his own card later in the year?

  • Rob says:

    21 Mar21 March 08:57

    No, you’re fine.

    • Anna says:

      21 Mar21 March 09:02

      Great – I’d hate to lose 30k avios later for 3k now!

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