Bits: Virgin Atlantic Boston spend offer, Delta / WestJet partner, 4 x Tesco debit card points

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• Jason says:

  1 Apr1 April 11:06

  OT parentpay get a last minute deal with Amex!

• James67 says:

  1 Apr1 April 11:52

  HFP readers really need to rigorously examine their tesco and avios habits in relation to the redemptions they are making. I’m convinced many (if not most) are getting poor value. The absolute maximum value I can squeeze out of a clubcard point on a CW zone 7 redemption I frequently use is 3.02p if used in conjunction with a 2for1, a little worse for the Lloyds voucher and obviously much worse for a standard redemption. Shifted our shopping to Sainsburys 6 months ago, my partner and I were both able to benefit from online introductory shopping offer, and have received a never ending flow of coupons and offers. Although I have not tracked it in detail I’m certain our return over this period is comfortably over 10% of our total shop. By contrast tesco coupons and offers have virtually dried up, return on tesco shop via clucard-avios is at best only one third of our return on shopping at Sainsburys. In addition to this we have also achieved further value from the nectar credut cards, and the nectar virgin trains offers. Admitedly, the vouchers are no longer as valuable as they were but we will be away from home much of the coming months so may switch to Waitrose or Tesco for a few months before trying Sainsburys introductiry offers, new nectar accounts all over again.

  • Alan says:

    1 Apr1 April 11:59

    Interesting re vouchers from Sainsbury’s. Agree re Tesco ones drying up – I’ve had almost nothing in a couple of years now. However price-wise I’ve found Sainsbury’s to be consistently much more expensive than Tesco so the vouchers I received from them were only reducing their prices to similar levels – all depends on local store prices I guess!

    • James67 says:

      1 Apr1 April 12:08

      It’s curious because when I shifted to Sainsburys I stuck with it because I was convinced the prices were no worse, perhaps even better, than tesco. Most people tell me same as you though.

      • Alan says:

        1 Apr1 April 12:26

        Will vary a bit depending on what you buy I guess and the local market conditions. Tesco Clubcard are investigating why I’m no longer getting vouchers!

        • James67 says:

          1 Apr1 April 13:01

          It might be local, have 3x Sainsbury, a huge Asda, Tesco extra, Waitrose, Morrisons, Iceland, Lidl and Aldi all within 15 minute drive of us. I got the impression that Sainsburys were often a few pence more expensive than tesco on many items but these. could usually all be wiped out by a single good useful offer.

        • Liz says:

          1 Apr1 April 14:57

          Alan what are Tesco doing re your lack of coupons – I wrote to Tesco a few months ago when others here were all receiving 150 pts coupons and double points etc. I never receive marketing emails on our original joint cc account which is our main account – I never get coupons – they said they would pass it on to their marketing people but as far as they could see I am all signed up to receive stuff – I just never do. Told them it would appear loyal customers like me never get rewarded with any of their offers – been a member since 1994 when it launched and do 95% of my shopping with them. Never heard anything back.

        • Alan says:

          1 Apr1 April 15:33

          Clubcard team are investigating. Had a reply mid-week saying “I just wanted to email you to let you know I am still looking into this. I’m sorry it’s taking so long; I just need to liaise with other departments and unfortunately it can take some time to get the answers you need. I will be in touch with you again within the next few days.”

          So will see what they say!

        • Callum says:

          1 Apr1 April 22:18

          “Sainsburys were often a few pence more expensive than tesco on many items but these. could usually all be wiped out by a single good useful offer.”

          But the same would apply to Tesco though – I.e. One good offer will make Tesco cheaper overall again. As someone said it depends on your shopping habits, but Sainsburys is significantly more than Tesco for me (which in turn is more than Asda).

          Out of curiosity I just calculated the savings of my last redemption. HKG-LHR in CW, BIO-LHR in ET and LHR-SCL in CW using a Lloyds voucher. Total cost 88,000 + £160. Comparing to the cheapest economy flights (with horrible connections instead of direct) gives a value of about 2.9p per Clubcard point, direct economy gives 4.6p per point and business gives about 10p per point. Though granted my redemption was such good value the operator was in disbelief and actually called someone over to their computer to come and see it, so maybe not representative!

      • James67 says:

        2 Apr2 April 08:23

        To be fair though CT in Scotland has been frozen for years. Had councils had free reign over that period it would probably be 30% more than it is now and despite that there would likely still be a funding crisis in local government. For benefit of Genghis and others who may not be familiar with system here, water is included in CT. At the bands Liz and I are paying water exceeds £600/year but even taking that into account we are still left with £2k bills for local government. Standing charges and other fees on water meters are applied in such a way that they would not benefit you unless living in a fully occupied 6+ bedroom home.

        • Alan says:

          2 Apr2 April 09:19

          Yes it’s scary how water charges have gone up – I found it weird being metered for it in Australia (separately for hot and cold water!) but found my actual usage was really low and ended up not costing much at all. For Band E it isn’t quite as big an amount, so still would be cheaper overall in London!

    • Fenny says:

      1 Apr1 April 20:39

      I can’t remember the last time I got any Tesco vouchers other than an occasional till spit. I haven’t done more than a Sunday evening milk & snack shop in Tesco for well over 6 months. Apart from a weekly email of offers that don’t appeal in the slightest as most of them are utterly irrelevant, I’m not seeing any enticement to go back to them. Aldi are far better on price and Waitrose are far better for offers and vouchers (and free coffee!).

  • Andrew says:

    1 Apr1 April 12:07

    Loyalty schemes are great, the algorithms that calculate disloyalty just brings on a raft of offers.

    I need to go shopping at some point today, in front of me I have the following vouchers:-

    £8 off £40 at Waitrose
    £8 off £40 at Tesco
    £6 off £30 at Lidl (New Aldi opened nearby)
    £4 off £20 at Sainsbury
    Along with a rather miserable 10% off at the Co-op.

    • Genghis says:

      1 Apr1 April 12:40

      The 10% at co op isn’t the Halifax spend offer is it? I paid BG st paypoint and got £30 back

      • James67 says:

        1 Apr1 April 13:06

        Thx for tip. Paying CT there tomorrow but limited to £150 per transaction.

        • Genghis says:

          1 Apr1 April 16:17

          Is it not £150 limit per Paypoint but you can put through more? Eg. IIRC BG limit is £199.99 so I put through £199.99 and £100.01 = £300 for the 10% = £30 cash back

        • James67 says:

          1 Apr1 April 18:32

          Yes, £150 for paypoint council tax in Edinburgh. PITA, have to go to a coop twicd to pag CT each month but whorth it to hit spend targets.

        • the real harry1 says:

          1 Apr1 April 18:38

          Genghis is right, my council’s Paypoint limit for CT is £200 so at Co-Op they key in 3x £200 and I put my card in once to pay £600

        • James67 says:

          1 Apr1 April 19:31

          Ok, thanks guys, I’ll give it a try tomorrow.

        • Liz says:

          1 Apr1 April 20:20

          James – like Harry says you can pay more than £150 at a time. MIne was over £200 and my Coop takes up to £200 – I just tell them to key in £200 first then the balance – you get 2 Paypoint slips but one credit card receipt for the full amount. Only positive about a £43 pm hike in CT is the pts on my Amex card!

        • Genghis says:

          1 Apr1 April 20:55

          @Liz £43 hike a month in CT? Wowsers

        • Alan says:

          1 Apr1 April 21:23

          Yep, massive hikes across the board here – partly council driven, partly SG. Well over £2,000/year for a mid-range 2-bed flat in Band E, which by comparison would only be around £1,300 in London! (using RBKC as an example – https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/council-tax/band-values-and-charges)

        • Rob says:

          1 Apr1 April 22:32

          RBKC is an oddity though. Most dense housing in UK, many kids in private schools, fewer social problems to fund (although the borough has some dodgy areas). We got our bin collection cut from 3 to 2 per week – that is the extent of cuts.

        • Liz says:

          1 Apr1 April 21:14

          @Genghis – yes £43 pm hike courtesy of SNP and Dundee CIty Council! It’s painful!

  • Genghis says:

    1 Apr1 April 12:43

    We were getting loads of £12 off £X spend at Tesco just before Xmas. I’ve even had a couple of till spits since Xmas.

    What’s your usual zone 7 route that you’re getting poor value on?

    • Alan says:

      1 Apr1 April 12:48

      I use self-scan so sadly seem to get no till splits for over a year now. However now also getting zero offers via Clubcard vouchers, which I used to get regularly before (same spending pattern) 🙁

      • Genghis says:

        1 Apr1 April 12:51

        We haven’t had coupons from the cc acct for ages. Till spits have come from self service. Strange

        • Alan says:

          1 Apr1 April 13:00

          Perhaps they’re just not bothering with issuing them locally as they don’t feel they’re under sufficient competition from rival supermarkets?!

• Ben says:

  1 Apr1 April 13:47

  OT but Rob thankyou so much for your earlier article about The Grain Store at LGW joining Priority Pass. I took a Norwegian flight to BOS yesterday and arrived very late without time to even be knocked back from the No 1 Lounge hahaha.
  Asked if Grain Store did take away, they knew all about the PP offer and with 2 of us with cards we got 2 paninis, 2 big slices of cake, 2 packets of crisps and 4(!) bottles of water for free. Brilliant deal and I prefer it to the PP lounge there!

  • Rob says:

    1 Apr1 April 15:52

    Well done!

  • Tom says:

    1 Apr1 April 18:21

    I had a pretty awful awful meal there! Was glad not to be paying!

  • James67 says:

    1 Apr1 April 18:35

    Better quality than what’s on offer in most lounges too I’d bet.

• the real harry1 says:

  1 Apr1 April 18:35

  they’re pretty stupid about all this
  https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/apr/01/airline-food-waste-landfill-incineration-airports-recycling-iberia-qantas-united-virgin

  why not just allow ‘force’ most passengers to choose their meal choice at booking stage?

  • Genghis says:

    1 Apr1 April 19:24

    Agreed. It saves money and passengers like it (I like to choose my meal ex-LHR)

  • Nick says:

    2 Apr2 April 10:53

    Because while this is a benefit you’d like, a large chunk of passengers change their flights – and by definition these are the higher-yielding ones. No matter how many Ts&Cs you put in shouting ‘not applicable if you change your flight’ you’d still annoy too many of these people. The logistics of moving catering from one flight to another (they’re built a few hours in advance) is extremely difficult and there’d be just as much waste.

• Joel says:

  4 Apr4 April 13:35

  Tesco has now reopened applications for the current accounts but new applicants need to transfer in £750 each month and have 3 direct debits in order to qualify for the 3% interest

  • Alan says:

    4 Apr4 April 15:09

    Interesting, the direct debit requirement definitely makes it more of a pain for folk, although I’m not surprised at them doing it – here’s hoping no retrospective changes for existing accounts!

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