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Bits: Avios / Tesco competition, register for the new Starwood promotion

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News in brief:

Avios / Tesco competition launched

Avios has launched a competition for anyone converting Tesco Clubcard points into Avios via avios.com.

This means that BA and avios.com are running very similar but different competitions, with different dates!

Here is the avios.com one.  Full details can be found on avios.com here and you convert via the Tesco / avios.com conversion page here.

Prizes: 2 x 50,000 Avios; 3 x 25,000 Avios; 150 x 5,500 Avios

Deadline:  convert your Clubcard points by 15th June

1 entry per £2.50 converted

As a reminder, here is the British Airways Executive Club version.  The tesco.com page to convert your Clubcard vouchers to BA is here.  As per this page of ba.com:

Prizes:  50 x 18,000 Avios

Deadline:  convert your Clubcard points by 31st May

1 entry per £5 converted (auto-converters get 2 entries per £5 converted)

Unless you have only £2.50 of vouchers to convert, or are reading this after 31st May, these competitions are virtually identical.  The avios.com one has a total of 1m Avios to give away compared with 900,000 Avios in the BA one.

The key question is – where do more people convert?  BA.com or avios.com?  You should decide which site gets the fewest (in £ terms) of conversions and use that one!

SPG Starwood Take Three promo

New Starwood Preferred Guest promotion launched

Yesterday I covered the new Marriott Rewards promotion which runs from 27th May to 4th September.  Starwood Preferred Guest, also now under Marriott ownership, has launched its own offer.

You need to register via this page of spg.com.

The offer, called ‘Take Three’, is a simple one:

double points for Sunday to Thursday stays of 2 nights or more

triple points for stays which include a Friday or Saturday night and are 2 nights or more

That’s it.  All you need to do is check that the hotel you are visiting is on the list of participating properties here.

If your goal is collecting Marriott Rewards or SPG points, there is no clear winner as to which promotion is best:

The Marriott Rewards offer is a flat 2,000 bonus points per stay from your 2nd stay with additional bonuses for trying different brands

The Starwood offer kicks in from your first stay and the size of it is based on your total earning, but requires a minimum stay of two nights

The SPG offer is a better deal for heavy spenders.  2,000 Marriott points converts into 666 Starwood Preferred Guest points.  Starwood Preferred Guest earns 2 base points per $1.

If you will be spending more than $333 on a hotel stay, you will be probably be better off choosing a Starwood rather than a Marriott property.  It isn’t totally that simple – you need to adjust for any differences in base earning and the fact that your first Marriott stay earns no bonus but subsequent ones may trigger a brand bonus on top.  In simple terms, though, put short cheap stays into Marriott and longer pricier 2+ night stays into Starwood hotels, assuming that both chains exist where you’re going.

You need to register for ‘Take Three’ via this page here.

How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards

How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards (April 2024)

There are various ways of earning Marriott Bonvoy points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

The official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card comes with 20,000 points for signing up, 2 points for every £1 you spend and 15 elite night credits per year.

You can apply here.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

20,000 points sign-up bonus and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points by converting American Express Membership Rewards points at the rate of 2:3.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Marriott Bonvoy Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Hilton Honors Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

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

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points indirectly:

and for small business owners:

The conversion rate from American Express to Marriott Bonvoy points is 2:3.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Marriott Bonvoy points. 

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Category

British Airways and Avios, Marriott Bonvoy, Tesco Clubcard

Comments (69)

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

  • Stu R says:
    17 May17 May 04:57

    How is it that Avios / BA always manage to announce any such ‘offers’ the day after the vouchers come out? I jumped straight in for a direct conversion to BA this time only to find this news in my inbox yesterday. I won 18,000 Avios on this not so long back – note to self: be more patient next quarter!

    • Dan says:
      17 May17 May 05:48

      I’ve missed out on these offers twice now through auto-converting my Clubcard vouchers to Avios. Last quarter I auto-converted to BA Exec Club Avios and the promo was with Avios.com, so this quarter I changed to Avios.com but the Avios had converted by the time the promo started. Would the advice be to not auto-convert vouchers and leave them sitting on Tesco to see what promos are launched?

      I also overshot the quarterly Clubcard limit of 30000 points by 6000 and had these removed by Tesco 🙁

      • Steve says:
        17 May17 May 06:21

        I prefer manual control. That’s some overshoot!

        • the real harry1 says:
          17 May17 May 06:31

          the general advice is never to auto-convert except if there is a special bonus involved

          missing out on double entries to this sort of competition is largely irrelevant to that conclusion

          the point being: you stay in control of your bank of Tesco points

      • Genghis says:
        17 May17 May 06:44

        Buying and selling on? I’m finding it harder and harder to get a decent club card haul.
        Manual conversion is better. What if avios.com launched a bonus but BAEC didn’t?

      • Zoe says:
        17 May17 May 06:45

        What were you buying last quarter? If you don’t mind me asking?

        • Dan says:
          17 May17 May 08:04

          There were lots of bonus points offers last quarter on Tesco Direct.

          I’ll manually convert from now on and keep an eye on my points total. I guess registering a 2nd Clubcard gets one round the 30000 limit.

          • Wally1976 says:
            17 May17 May 09:32

            I usually set both our accounts to auto convert to Virgin FC early in the quarter then turn it off late in the quarter. Usually there’s a 1000 point bonus in doing this but you keep control of your points.

        • Tony says:
          17 May17 May 19:48

          “Members are only entitled to one Clubcard account each”

          “If you have a partner, use theirs”

          I tried to sign my wife up recently and the Clubcard application wouldn’t let me proceed due to our address already being registered on another card. Any ideas?

          • the real harry1 says:
            17 May17 May 20:06

            friendly neighbour or a family member or friend

            not sure why they have this rule, as there must be thousands of houses in multiple occupancy – but you’re right – once they combined an account without asking us – different surnames as well – because it was the same address

          • Genghis says:
            18 May18 May 06:03

            Strange. My wife and I each have one and it’s not against any of the rules

          • the real harry1 says:
            18 May18 May 06:24

            we share a Tesco credit card, I think that was probably behind it now I think about it – they must have run a search through various data banks with this aim in mind

        • Tony says:
          18 May18 May 19:13

          “Strange. My wife and I each have one and it’s not against any of the rules”

          I reckon my wife would be successful if she applied with quill and ink as the website is definitely not letting me proceed past the first page due to a card being already registered at our address, i.e. mine.

  • signol says:
    17 May17 May 06:14

    You may have a typo in the article :): The avios.com one has a total of 1m Avios to give away compared with 900,000 Avios in the avios.com one.

    • Von Schmallhausen says:
      17 May17 May 06:29

      What’s this about 30000 points max? I’ve had more than that transfer across before…

      • the real harry1 says:
        17 May17 May 06:32

        so have I – but it’s pretty risky, Tesco have removed quarterly points over 30K many times in the past

        • Steve says:
          17 May17 May 06:41

          So have I but it’s better to use your wife’s card etc.

      • Genghis says:
        17 May17 May 06:46

        It’s in the T&Cs. My wife and I used to have a joint one until one quarter we were getting close to the 30k then decided to split it up

      • Dan says:
        17 May17 May 08:24

        I lost 6000 this quarter for going over. I did plead with them to give them to me as a “first offender” not aware of the rules but they pointed out my “unusual spending patterns”. I choose to drop it at that point. Lesson learned. 😉

        • Genghis says:
          17 May17 May 08:27

          Were you buying and selling on? If so how does this affect your calcs?

        • Adam says:
          17 May17 May 09:16

          Don’t call up CS if your purchases do not appear in line with a normal consumer. Your very lucky with them flagging to you your unusual spending patterns to have any points, they have closed accounts for less.

      • Rob says:
        17 May17 May 08:52

        Tesco Bank points are excluded, if some came from credit card or insurance.

    • Rob says:
      17 May17 May 08:52

      Thanks

  • Ilou says:
    17 May17 May 07:34

    For the SPG promo, there is also a 1500 bonus for Amex spg card holders at most of spg reasorts

    • Mark Spivey says:
      17 May17 May 18:45

      The key word is cardholder, so I believe you can still book you stay with another card and receive the 1500 points.

      Also I believe you receive 3x points on your stay if it starts on the weekend i.e. a Sunday night stay would provide 3x points for the rest of your week’s stay.

  • Genghis says:
    17 May17 May 08:04

    Shame I don’t have an Amex currently.
    Best to buy £50 vouchers in branch

    • jamie says:
      17 May17 May 11:19

      what? Genghis no amex?

      has someone hijacked your account?

      • Genghis says:
        17 May17 May 12:29

        You heard right. No directly issued Amex.
        I’m a churner. Like an aircraft not earning anything when it’s on the ground, I’d rather spend most of my time Amex free.

        • rick says:
          17 May17 May 13:01

          I use MBNA Amex while I am Amex-free.

        • Genghis says:
          17 May17 May 13:16

          I can’t see the offer on Amex Connect?

        • jamie says:
          17 May17 May 16:04

          understood.

          just that im surprised cause I thought you would cycle your churns to always hold at least one of the cards at any given time,

          I do the same cycle as u of of bapp/spg/platinum, but invariably either the wife or I always have a card at any given moment…

        • Brembo_87 says:
          17 May17 May 19:22

          @ Genghis- can you please PM me on Twitter?
          I am keen to get your feedback about your Bali as you suggested in previous post.
          Points Vs cash IC vs Hilton, private villas etc.
          brembo_87
          Thanks

        • Genghis says:
          17 May17 May 19:30

          @brembo_87 I’ve now followed you on Twitter

  • Alex W says:
    17 May17 May 09:02

    Can anyone recall the trick which lets you refer from Amex Plat to SPG Amex?

    • rick says:
      17 May17 May 13:02

      Would like to know this too as I want to refer a friend to SPG Card

      • the real harry1 says:
        17 May17 May 20:31

        there wasn’t really a trick

        it was sending a referral from Amex – then the recipient could choose SPG card & get the points, simple as that

        others reported it didn’t work for them

        • Alex W says:
          17 May17 May 20:38

          Thanks Harry, I’ll give it a try.

        • Alex W says:
          17 May17 May 21:10

          It seems I only get the option of Plat, Gold or Green. I can navigate to the SPG card by the links at the top or bottom of the page, but then it loses the referral code from the address bar – so presumably the referral will not be tracked.

          • Rob says:
            17 May17 May 22:15

            One guy recently claimed that it did still track. Others have not been able to replicate this.

          • Alex W says:
            17 May17 May 22:48

            Thanks Rob. I’ll risk it for a biscuit as there is a low penalty for failure!

  • James says:
    17 May17 May 09:10

    So after having a look around I presume I am right in assuming there is no Virgin bonus this quarter.

  • Mark says:
    17 May17 May 09:49

    O/T companion vouchers, I got the BAPP hit the 10k in 3 months then downgraded to standard card for a pro rata refund after my voucher hit my BAEC account. Its not saying on my free account if I hit another 10k spend I’ll get a voucher, my question is am I better to refer partner for BAPP and put the spend there bagging the referral bonus and welcome bonus for them or just put the spend on the free card? Thinking about it as I wrote this, I think I have answered my own questions.

    • Genghis says:
      17 May17 May 10:31

      You won’t get another voucher. It’s an IT error. Only one voucher per card year.
      Refer your partner for BAPP and put spend there to get referral bonus, sign up bonus (and if you’re so inclined another 241 after £10k spend).

    • Ali says:
      17 May17 May 20:24

      I’m sure it’s been answered somewhere but does the 241 voucher retain the 2 year validity after downgrading to the free card?

  • Genghis says:
    17 May17 May 10:53

    Totally OT but does anyone have any experience of moving credit limits around with Creation?

    I have the IHG Black and the IHG White with Creation. When I finally get the bonus points for the IHG White, I’d like to cancel the card but wish to transfer some of the credit limit to my IHG Black.
    TIA.

    • Paulm says:
      17 May17 May 13:01

      No experience in this but just to say that I think in their t & c somewhere it does say that if you cancel the card within 6 months they can remove the bonus points. No idea if they actually can/would do this!

    • rick says:
      17 May17 May 13:05

      Did you receive second tranche of 10K IHG points?
      I am still waiting for mine.

      Also waiting for IHG Black spend for 2017 Q1 Accelerate.
      Message from IHG CS team said I need to wait 4 to 6 weeks after spend.
      I am already more than 4 weeks now.

      • Genghis says:
        17 May17 May 13:13

        Not received second tranche of 10k yet. I’ve been told it’ll be 3 months. It’s now been nearly two so I’ll give it a bit more time.

        I had to chase for my Q1 accelerate points to be added. I spent in Jan and they then manually posted them end of April.

      • Raymond Hennessy says:
        17 May17 May 17:29

        Yes,got mine a few days ago.

    • the_real_a says:
      17 May17 May 14:57

      Oh Creation… I have five cards, each with a £5k limit, they steadfastly refuse to move around the credit limit across the cards since their platform is setup for single cards rather than a portfolio of cards. Any request for this to be reviewed by the underwriters is met with total confusion. having said that, its quite possible to get multiple cards if you need them.

    • Andy says:
      17 May17 May 16:20

      No experience of it myself, but judging by Creation getting 1* reviews for just about everything, I think you’ll be looking at an uphil struggle on that one.

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