Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Tesco has lost the auto-convert Avios transfers – that’s why you’ve not got your miles

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It would be funny if it wasn’t for the fact that you will now have to get on the telephone and sort it out.

Last month, Tesco ran a promotion offering 1,500 bonus Avios points if you converted your Clubcard points to Avios AND set your account to auto-convert.

I did this. It was an easy 1,500 Avios for nothing, as you can easily turn off the auto-convert feature afterwards.

Tesco, unfortunately, made a big mistake.

When it sent the list of auto-convert names to Avios, they were formatted as Initial/Surname. They were meant to be formatted as First Name / Surname.

This meant that the names failed to match up with the Avios database.

This meant they couldn’t find your Avios account.

This meant that most people (perhaps everyone) who selected auto-convert have had a new Avios account opened for them, even though they already have one.

I don’t know if Avios or Tesco are going to manually go through the names or not. At the moment, all you can do is ring Avios and ask them to find your duplicate account. They will then merge it with your main account. Avios is aware of the problem and the agents can deal with it quickly, although it will take 24 hours to merge the accounts.

Do NOT ring them on the main 0844 number because you are then paying them via a premium rate for their own mistake. Ring the non-UK number instead, which is 01925 848 693, and keep pressing 1 to confirm that you are ringing from outside the UK. You appear to queue jump with this number as well.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (October 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 – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

50,000 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

10,000 points bonus – plus an extra 500 points for our readers 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

Up to 80,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

Get up to 40,000 points as a sign-up offer 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 (24)

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

  • Speedbird_abz says:

    Bit of a palaver, just been asked to scan a copy of my passport to merge my two accounts, but she hasn’t said if my Tesco points and bonus are there anywhere.

    • xcalx says:

      Call again, a friend tried online chat and was told to do this ( although she wanted passport AND drivers licence scaned), tried another agent and the accounts were merged

      • Rob says:

        I got mine merged with no ID. After all, it is not your fault!

    • R0Ck5TaR says:

      Same here, asked to send an email with scanned copy of Passport. Upon insisting on reasons, the agent explained further, saying the duplicate accounts have just initials and surname , with address details and no date of birth being transferred. And as per data protection policy they need date of birth on both accounts to confirm it belongs to the same individual to merge them.

      Sounds like bit of a hit and miss.

      Wondering if it , may not be such a bad thing after all, having mutiple accounts. Maybe use them for potential conversion/sign up bonuses?!?

      Any thoughts…..?

  • Moore1984 says:

    Used live chat to find and combine. No issues. Conversion bonus due 31 May.

  • danksy says:

    None of my avios have appeared yet from Tesco :-S

  • ringingup says:

    I just called them and they sorted everything out for me. They say that the 1500 avios bonus hasn’t been sent through yet and that it’ll be sent separately by Tesco.

  • guesswho2000 says:

    Mine wasn’t showing any separate accounts apparently, so they advised to hold on until after 31/5 to see if they turn up. I transferred all the Avios straight out into BAEC as soon as they posted, so hope that doesn’t affect anything!

  • Washing Up says:

    What’s to stop Tesco just sending through the details again, but including the fields they need?

  • Heather says:

    I’ve been told to wait for 30 days. Mine have hit my account, but my husbands haven’t and there are no duplicate accounts.

  • Gordon says:

    i just spoke with avios and they found the two auomtated tesco transfers that I set up. I had the minimum amount in each to qualify, which was 150 tesco. Thus far they have only credited me with 360 avios for each account. They said the 1500 bonus will be added at a later date. Has anyone else experienced this?

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

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