Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Up to 25,000 Clubcard points (60,000 Avios) with ‘pay monthly’ phone contracts

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Tesco Phone Shop has brought back bonus Tesco Clubcard points on a number of ‘pay monthly’ phone contracts.

Take a look here for the full list.

Now, buying a mobile phone is of course a fiendishly complex task if you are determined to get the best deal. You should still shop around carefully before signing up to any of these plans.

On the face of it, though, some of the deals are looking pretty good!

At the most extreme, take the Blackberry Curve 9320.

Tesco want you to take a 24 month contract at £36 per month. That is a total of £864. The phones comes with unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and a 1GB data allowance.

25,000 Clubcard points gets you 60,000 Avios points or 62,500 Virgin Flying Club miles. If you value an Avios at 0.75p (which is my low ball valuation) then you are getting £400 back in Avios.

Let’s imagine, though, that there will be another 50% Clubcard to Avios conversion bonus at some point. You would have earned 90,000 Avios from the purchase. Your phone is then effectively free for 2 years! And don’t forget that the phone will have a bit of resale value in 2 years as well.

Even if you don’t even want or need a Blackberry Curve 9320, as long as you are willing to take a gamble on another 50% conversion bonus coming along, you are effectively buying 90,000 Avios for (£800 / 90,000) 0.88p each. Which is not at all bad.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 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:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

Huge 80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

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.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

20,000 points (ONLY TO 9TH DECEMBER) Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

30,000 points (TO 9TH DECEMBER) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

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.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

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

Comments (4)

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

  • AllTheNines says:

    Indeed, didn’t spot the key ‘all other’!

  • pakster says:

    Do these come unlocked, i.e. I would sell the new phone now (when it is worth more) and stick the SIM in my current phone, which I am quite happy with.

    • Raffles says:

      I assume they are locked to the network shown on the logo in the ad, but not certain …

  • Mrs P says:

    Thanks for this, have just bought a Samsung Galaxy and 20,000 clubcard points winging their way soon! Thinking of all those Avios waiting for me! 🙂 appreciate your link.

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

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