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HfP reader wins one million Clubcard points!

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I’m delighted to say that a Head for Points reader, who I won’t name, has won 1 million Tesco Clubcard points in a competition that American Express was running last autumn!  Well done.

He was (rightly or wrongly) considering taking the prize as 2.4 million Avios points.  However, as the small print of the competition did say at the time, the prize is NOT really 1 million Clubcard points.  Not really.

Technically, he is awarded 1 million points.  However, these can only be redeemed for purchases at Tesco.  They cannot be used for Clubcard Boost deals such as Avios or – my original suggestion – buying £30,000 of watches in Goldsmiths and selling them on!

These are the same rules that apply to Tesco’s Christmas Saver.  Tesco advertise it as giving you bonus Clubcard points, but in reality you can only spend these instore.

Luckily, Tesco has offered our winner £10,000 in £100 Tesco gift cards.  This is a good result, as – if he shops elsewhere – they can be sold on eBay easily in £100 or £200 chunks and he should end up with £8,000 in cash after all the fees.

We have had a few other Head for Points winners from competitions mentioned on the site recently.  One person won some Heathrow Rewards points via a Business Traveller competition I posted about, and someone else won a runner-up prize in the British Airways online Christmas game.  Your chances are generally pretty good in any competition I feature on here, since they are generally targeted at a very small niche.


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.

  • James Wars says:

    Congratulations to your reader. A conversion to miles would have been better, but still not a bad prize. I keep checking my Virgin account in the hope of seeing miles drop in there (50,000, was it?) from the draw they ran last quarter… No luck so far. 🙁

    • James67 says:

      +1, creates a feel-good factor. Possibly now I will be more proactive in entering the competitions. However, I’m still waiting for the ‘Christmas’ tea set I won on the BA Christmas competition 🙂 Perhaps BAs next venture will be an easter egg hunt with broken eggs to be delivery in July!

      • Richie says:

        I won the tea set aswell and I received mine weeks ag. There was only 30 of them so we did well

  • Frenske says:

    Uhm why not use the gift cards to buy stuff, food, petrol in Tesco. That should give you the over 10.000 club points in your account plus years free food. Can you use the gift card to pay for branded gift cards???

  • Matt says:

    Now there’s one guy who was probably hoping for a conversion bonus! Too bad he can’t take it as Avios, but still a great result.

  • Simon says:

    Congratulations to your reader. I hope they read your article and comments on paying your tax bill with an American Express card the other day, I’ve bought branded gift cards with Tesco gift cards before.

    If they do shop at Tesco their gift cards expire 5 years after last use so they should be able to get through a few with normal shopping.

  • dan says:

    Buy some 3v or fee-paying visa cards… cash them out and more clubcard!

  • susan says:

    Congratulations +1.

  • John says:

    Please tell us about more competitions 🙂

  • Roberto says:

    I had the winning bid for the 5 night Club Suite package in the Jumeirah Emirates Towers (Dubai)Business Traveller Charity Auction. Thank you Raffles for pointing this out!
    Have 2 upper deck seats on BA jumbo for Wednesday (upgraded with BAEC Avios).
    Looking forward to the trip.

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

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