Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Get 1,200 Avios or 1,250 Flying Club miles for £5 at Tesco when you pre-order ‘Skylanders’

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Here we go again!  Some elements of this post may feel familiar.

On Tesco Direct, there is an offer for 500 bonus Clubcard points when you pre-order the video game ‘Skylanders Swap Force’ for £55-£60 on Xbox 360, Wii, Wii U, 3DS or PS3.

Back in your local Tesco store, however, the game is also available to pre-order for £5.

Tesco is currently offering 500 bonus Tesco Clubcard points when you pre-order ‘Skylanders Swap Force’ for £5! This is 1,200 Avios points or 1,250 Flying Club miles for just a fiver.

(This offer is clearly only half as good as the ‘Call of Duty: Ghosts’ offer recently.  However, you need to look at it in context – it is still a very cheap way to pick up some miles.)

How it is meant to work is that you get a display box scanned at the check-out, pay £5, and receive a special receipt. Visit the store on the day the game is released (18th October) and you are guaranteed to get a copy and a free poster and you will get your £5 back as a discount. The 500 bonus Clubcard points are credited with the pre-order payment.

As usual, there is no obligation to ever buy the game when it is eventually released. This means that you can treat this as a chance to buy some Avios points for 0.4p each.

You need to be very careful not to overdo this promotion. Tesco has removed bonus points in the past.  Someone also posted on Head for Points yesterday about having ‘Call of Duty’ points removed.

Do not buy more than one copy of each format per Clubcard account if you want to be 100% certain of not having your points taken away.  There are five different versions of the game, so that is still 2,500 Clubcard points to aim for.

The boxes tend to be on a separate stand to the usual video games. You take an empty box to the checkout, it is scanned, but you do not keep the box – it goes back on the shelf. You will only tend to find these in larger Tesco stores.

There are reports of two different closing dates, with 28th August (tomorrow!) and 8th September both being spotted on in-store shelf labels.  Let’s see.  I would be surprised if it was closed tomorrow after just a couple of days.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

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:

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

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

25,000 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

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a 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

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

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.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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

40,000 points sign-up bonus 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 (64)

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

  • andy21 says:

    Tesco Direct states the game is for 7+ years, so shouldn’t need supervisor approval which should make it easier if typing in the codes at Metros.

  • Hugh says:

    I bought COD(G) via Tesco Direct, then found out about the £5 in store, so at one stage had 2 sets of points – but i cancelled the Tesco Direct order, and still have the other points

    Have just bought 1 of these games in 3 formats, in 1 transaction @ Tesco Extra Rutherglen – the points hopefully will stay there

  • Colin says:

    Closing date on edge label is 8th September. The displays i have seen have space for 3 versions of game – not seen the 3DS or Wii U in stock/for sale in store.

  • Gavin says:

    I just brought it using the barcode in a Tesco Express and it didn’t give me the bonus points 🙁

  • Neil says:

    Managed to get the points using the barcode at self-service but all this talk of points removal has got me nervous!

    I may have (slightly) taken the piss on the CoD promotion a couple of weeks ago by buying a total of five copies (split 2/3). All points have posted correctly and I haven’t yet had the Tesco ninjas come fast-roping through my bedroom window…

    What’s the score with them removing points? I presume once they’ve been on your account for a while then you’re ‘safe’ – assuming you don’t draw attention to yourself further down the line?

    Also, have there ever been any reports of people having actual vouchers deducted or are you in the clear once you’ve made it to the end of the quarter?

  • Will says:

    I was unsure about the bagging area, so just went to the entertainment checkout. Said I couldn’t find a box and gave her the barcode. She typed it in and job done. 500 bonus points on the receipt. Thanks!

  • Winters_ says:

    Just been to Tesco and put one for each of the three formats through. Interestingly I noticed that all 3 of my £5 pre-order coupons look exactly the same (i.e. the individual coupons do not denote ‘for Xbox360 or PS3’ for example). The two COD receipts I have on the other hand specifically state the game system the coupon is for.

    My question therefore is would these be tracked on the clubcard as the same item or would they be differentiated by the different barcodes should tesco do a sweep check of multiple purchases on this promo?

  • Eric OMara says:

    Got 5 spread over 2 Club Cards. Only had £25 on me so had to leave a wii behind. Hasta Manana anyway 🙂
    Im tempted to load my son and daughters CCs too. Its starting to get expensive with all these offers.
    Thanks Raffles.

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