Will Avios switch from Tesco to Sainsbury’s?

A reader sent me across a questionnaire he received from Avios.

It is all very innocent (‘”Which of these loyalty schemes do you know about?”, “Which are you members of?”) until it comes to this:

Would you shop less at Tesco if Avios were no longer available?

followed by this:

And if you could no longer collect Avios at Tesco, but Avios were available at another supermarket near you, how would this affect the amount you shop at Tesco?

The implication here is not good!

Head for Points readers with very long memories (so you’d need to 35-ish+ I reckon!) may remember that Air Miles (before Air Miles became Avios) used to partner with Sainsbury’s.

A bit of research shows that it was 15th March 2002 when Tesco took over the awarding of Air Miles and BA Miles from Sainsbury’s. It is therefore not impossible that Sainsbury’s (via Nectar) may be looking at getting back in bed with BA.

Nectar has, after all, made a surprisingly large play of its tie-up with easyJet. This is despite the fact that the deal for redeeming on easyJet (£2.50 per 500 points) is no better than redeeming instore.

What is clear, though, is that a move back to Sainsbury’s would be a disaster. The reason is simple – Nectar has never, ever, bothered with bonus point promotions in a big way.

I never do a main shop in a Tesco without an incentive. But if there are a slug of bonus Clubcard points available, I will do it. Nectar never does this – you can only rack up points at a snails pace through your regular shopping. None of ‘3000 points for taking out life insurance for 4 weeks’ or similar!

So … we can only hope that Tesco and Avios can come to an arrangement to keep each other happy. Because, frankly, divorce would not be good for either of them, or for the kids (that’s us!).

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (June 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

We also recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card:

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

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)