Avios / Pizza Express deal moves from Bink to estore – at 12 Avios per £1

We gave Bink, a new loyalty app, a lot of coverage late last year.  

It was – and remains – a very clever concept, which would let you earn loyalty points in High Street loyalty schemes simply by swiping your registered credit card.  You don’t need to show your loyalty card as the shop knows it was you via your payment card.

As with many new tech products, Bink’s roll out does not seem to have gone to plan.  Whilst they have just agreed a deal with Harvey Nichols, it is not exactly a Tesco-sized contract.  The people I knew there have mainly left the business, although it is still fully functional.

I get a feeling that it may end up as a back-end solution, with retailers licensing their technology to allow shoppers to earn points via their payment card without needing the Bink app.  But what do I know?

The Avios link with Bink was via the second strand to their business.  By registering a payment card and your Avios account with Bink, you could earn Avios by spending in various retailers.

The first partner launched was Pizza Express, a year ago.  And then …. nothing.  Dixons Travel was meant to be launching as the second partner but nothing appeared.

Avios then trumped Bink by rolling out its own ‘earn Avios by paying with a registered payment card’ solution.  This was done using the Collinson Latitude platform which also powers the Virgin Atlantic ShopsAway site.

I doubt Bink was hugely happy about this.  I know the Avios side of the story but I haven’t heard the Bink side and therefore it would be wrong to comment.

Anyway …..

You no longer need to have a Bink account to earn Avios when eating at Pizza Express.

It has joined the ‘in store earning’ partners at the Avios estore.  This list also includes:

• American Golf
• Barrhead Travel
• Blue Inc
• Byron
• Caffe Nero
• Chef & Brewer
• David Clulow
• Debenhams
• Eating In
• Fayre & Square
• Flaming Grill pubs
• Heals
• Hungry Horse
• National Express
• Officers Club
• Old English Inns
• Prezzo
• Sunglass Hut

There are some slightly odd names there which I doubt fit with the core Avios / BA Executive Club demographic, but ….

You should NOT link the same payment card to both the Virgin ShopsAway and Avios estore ‘in store earning’ platforms because it causes ‘card clash’.

A special offer ….

To promote this move, you will earn 12 Avios per £1 on all spending at Pizza Express from Sunday to Thursday until 26th November.  Spending on Friday and Saturday will earn 6 Avios per £1.

This is double the standard rate of 6 Avios and 3 Avios respectively.

The offer will disappear from the Bink platform tonight.

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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:

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

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.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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.

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.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.