Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

No Tesco / Avios bonus, no Tesco / Virgin bonus ….

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Love Clubcard, don’t collect Avios?  You should be reading our sister site, Shopper Points (www.shopperpoints.co.uk), which covers the latest Clubcard and Nectar offers without any distracting frequent flyer talk!  Why not check it out now?

Both Avios and Virgin Flying Club have now emailed me with their ‘promotions’ to persuade you to convert your new batch of Tesco Clubcard vouchers.

Neither should tempt you!

Tesco Clubcard

Avios

Here is the Avios (avios.com to be precise) version:

Competition to win 50,000 Avios

Ten prizes available

One entry for every £5 of vouchers you transfer

Deadline for transfers is 14th June

This offer is not yet showing on the Avios page on the Tesco website (EDIT: it is now, but it incorrectly shows the closing date as 14 May) but I doubt it is targeted.  Historically it has taken Tesco a few days to catch up.

Whilst this is certainly not an offer to justify a conversion in itself, if you were planning to convert to Tesco then you might as well do it via avios.com and not British Airways Executive Club.  You need to be in it to win it, after all ….  You can move your Avios back and forth afterwards via ‘Combine My Avios’.

Virgin Flying Club

Meanwhile Virgin Flying Club has launched something similar.

Competition to win 100,000 miles plus a ‘Guest List’ experience on your next flight (see this post to learn about Guest List)

Eight runner-up prizes of 50,000 miles

No minimum conversion amount

Deadline for transfers is 6th June

Virgin is also offering 1,000 miles for selecting ‘auto conversion’ for your future Tesco statements.  If you have a dormant Tesco Clubcard account, you can get an easy 1,000 Virgin miles here.  Go into your personal details and tell Tesco to auto-convert future points (which you won’t be earning, as the card is dormant!) to Virgin.  You will receive the 1,000 miles OK – I have done this in the past.

Selecting auto conversion will also enter you into the competition above.

Again, these offers are not yet on the Clubcard / Virgin website.

Love Clubcard, don’t collect Avios?  You should be reading our sister site, Shopper Points (www.shopperpoints.co.uk), which covers the latest Clubcard and Nectar offers without any distracting frequent flyer talk!  Why not check it out now?

Category

Tesco Clubcard, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (44)

  • avstar says:
    13 May13 May 07:35

    if i select the auto-conversion for virgin flying club today any idea when the 1000 miles will be show up?

  • SingingDwarf says:
    13 May13 May 07:39

    I logged onto Tesco.com yesterday to check my points balanace and noticed I had over 60k points in ny account.

    Upon examination, they seem to have cancelled many over my vouchers (all outstanding vouchers from previous statements) and reissued as points. I haven’t checked numbers yet, assume its all…

    Any idea why this might have happened? I hope they dont enforce the 30k cutoff!

    • Jonny says:
      13 May13 May 07:42

      It could be to protect against fraud- this is what happened to me last quarter (knowingly) as someone kept nicking my vouchers…!

      • Dan says:
        13 May13 May 07:48

        All my vouchers we fraudulently spent on Tesco Direct by someone in the last quarter. After I contacted them, they refunded them to me as points. They have now converted back to vouchers in the latest statement. Shame no Avios bonus so I’ll probably hold on them in the hope that a bonus will appear at some point in the future.

        • Thunderbirds says:
          13 May13 May 08:29

          Or until someone nicks them again…!

          • Dan says:
            13 May13 May 09:11

            Quite! But, to give them credit, Tesco were very good about refunding them and the only inconvenience was waiting for the points to get turned back into vouchers again. They also seem to have upped the security very slightly, and I now have to enter some digits from my clubcard number when I log in.

          • Stu says:
            13 May13 May 12:56

            I also had several vouchers nicked last quarter. There seem to be a growing number of thefts occuring even since the extra security measures were put in place. It suspect Tesco may be looking in the wrong place for their culprit.

    • wilfred47 says:
      13 May13 May 09:11

      This has happened to my vouchers aswell, they seem to have changed the vouchers from the previous quarter back into points.

    • Jason says:
      13 May13 May 09:28

      What’s the 30k cut off?
      I’ve had some vouchers used this week £106.50(refunded straight away)
      They also tried to use £203.50 in vouchers but these are currently blocked, so were denied.

      • Singing Dwarf says:
        13 May13 May 09:45

        From the Terms and Conditions:
        “24. Members can earn a maximum of 30,000 points in any one collection period.”

        • Rob says:
          13 May13 May 09:58

          This is only occasionally imposed, note, but it IS imposed at times. Tesco seems to use it as a stick to block people they don’t like whilst letting others sail through.

    • Matt says:
      13 May13 May 14:17

      Although Tesco have added security when you log in, stupidly you can still just go and order your ‘boost’ items and your vouchers will show up at the checkout page to select, bypassing this security check, hence why they are still being half inched. So I just spend them ASAP before they disappear.

    • Gordon says:
      13 May13 May 23:17

      Same just happened to me.

  • geoffthesaint says:
    13 May13 May 09:07

    Also had vouchers stolen and spent, refunded in the same way – canceled then added on to the latest statements total.

  • Ben E says:
    13 May13 May 09:12

    Might as well give it a try

  • jimmyjimmy says:
    13 May13 May 11:49

    Have we all but given up on a tesco pts to BAEC/Avios bonu?s – that must be 2 years now with no bonus?

    • Tim says:
      13 May13 May 11:57

      I am sure a conversion bonus will come along when it suits Avios/BA/Iberia – perhaps when they need some cash? Pragmatism dictates only converting to Avios as needed. If the conversion rate were to be reduced, months of notice would have to be given otherwise Tesco’s name would be dirt. A bonus, however, may come along at anytime.

  • Kiran says:
    13 May13 May 12:00

    Now the May quarter vouchers are out, is it safe to turn on autoconvert and then off before the next lot come out? Or does turning on autoconvert convert your current stash of vouchers as well?

    • David says:
      13 May13 May 12:10

      Auto-convert should leave your existing vouchers safe including when the sweep is made. It certainly does not result in any immediate conversion of existing vouchers.

  • David says:
    13 May13 May 12:21

    The current Tesco > Monarch voucher conversion bonus (departures from selected airports) could be worth consideration, IF your travel circumstances allow you to make use of it:
    http://www.ukpoints.com/2014/05/05/tesco-clubcard-promotional-rate-select-monarch-flights/

    You would get 2p of value per Tesco CC point, compared with 2.4 Avios or 2.5 Virgin miles, to be comparable you would need to get about 0.8p each of value from the miles, you can get more of course – but you need the exact redemption seats to be available – and there is a inherant ‘minimum flight cost’ with Avios.

    I recently booked a £39 monarch flight at MAN, the cheapest Avios redemption comes in at £87.50 (including valuing the miles at 1p each). So the monarch (promotion) route is not bad value for Tesco CC points, and a BA cash fare might not go below £69, etc..

    (i.e. if you have Tesco CC points to convert, can fly from one of the departure airports included, and monarch have flights at a good price.

    • Brian says:
      13 May13 May 13:02

      True, but it’s quite easy to get 2p of value per CC point – with redspottedhanky, for instance. So the Monarch ‘bonus’ deal is perhaps not that special – unless, as you say, you’re going to buy the flights anyway.

      • Worzel says:
        13 May13 May 13:37

        Thanks Brian.

      • David says:
        13 May13 May 13:59

        Brian – as I said it does depend on the key ‘IF’s flagged, i.e:
        *if* your travel requirements fit, and
        *if* you have the Tesco CC to spend.

        I certainly spend no where near enough on train tickets to absorb my Tesco points, and I’ve already got a good stock of RSH points from all the promotions anyway. Although like any offer, if a better one fits your personal circumstances, then you obviously take it instead.

        However if you can satisfy the IFs, especially if the flight availability at good prices and you can book in the required period, I do think the monarch offer is a reasonable use of Tesco CC points and worthy of note.

    • Worzel says:
      13 May13 May 14:23

      Thank you for your useful information David.

  • MaltaPoints Tom says:
    13 May13 May 13:05

    By way of added security from points thieves, you also now can’t access your Clubcard account from abroad, which is not very convenient when you live in Malta.

    • David says:
      13 May13 May 13:51

      Indeed, but with easy to use VPN software (such as tunnelbear – with enough free data each month to manage your account it is not much of a problem.

      Although it is also a stupid security step – as anyone attempting to do something sinister will probably be routing themselves via somewhere else anyway, and won’t be affected.

    • Czechoslovakia says:
      13 May13 May 13:54

      Or the Czech Republic. Grrrrr. Have to use an IP address re-router now.

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