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Get 1,200 Avios for £5 in Tesco with ‘Call of Duty’

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It’s back.  When will Tesco ever learn?  Hopefully not for a while.

On Tesco Direct, there is a very average offer for 500 bonus Clubcard points and £5 off when you pre-order a selection of new video games.  Fifa 15, Battlefield Hardline, Call of Duty – Advanced Warfare and Destiny are all included.  It’s an OK deal if you are buying it anyway, but nothing to get excited about.

However, in store, something MUCH more interesting is back.

Tesco is offering 500 bonus Clubcard points when you pre-order ‘Call of Duty : Advanced Warfare’, Destiny’ . ‘Disney Infinity 2.0’. ‘Fifa 15’ or ‘Battlefield Hardline’ for £5.  This is 1,200 Avios points or 1,250 Flying Club miles for just a fiver.

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. (You don’t keep the box.)  Visit the store on the day the game is released and you are guaranteed to get a copy and you will get your £5 back as a discount.

The 500 bonus Clubcard points are credited with the pre-order payment.  You have NO obligation to actually go back to the store and buy the game on the day of release.

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 airmiles for 0.4p each.

You need to be very careful not to overdo this promotion. It is acceptable to buy ONE copy of each game ON EACH FORMAT per Clubcard.  For each of the five games that means you could do a pre-order for the Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox 1 versions, netting yourself 5,000 Avios points. 

There seem to be 20 different variants available – five games across four different games consoles.  This means you can earn 24,000 Avios or 25,000 Virgin Flying Club miles for £100 per Clubcard account.

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.

It is possible that your local store will not have the special sticker up promoting the 500 points.  However, the points WILL go on at check-out.  Note that whilst the label in the image above does not mention that ‘Fifa 15’ and ‘Battlefield Hardline’ give you a bonus, they will.

(There is also a game called ‘Alien’ which is available for pre-order.  This is not included in this promotion and does not give any bonus points.  Do not buy any of these.)

If someone can provide the barcode numbers, it will also be possible to pay for these games at a self-service check-out in ANY Tesco store (except Express, as they have a different IT system) by manually inputting the bar code.  The problem is that all of the games except for ‘Fifa 15’ are age-restricted and a check-out supervisor would be required to approve the purchase.

This will also combine with the ‘£5 cashback for spending £10 in Tesco’ American Express deal that I posted about on Tuesday.

To summarise the above, this is how it works:

Visit the video games corner in a large Tesco store

Pick out empty ‘pre-order’ cases for any of the five games listed above, across any of the four formats

Pay £5 at check-out for each empty case you hand over.  Do not take the case home!

Your till receipt should show the 500 bonus points

Do NOT buy exactly the same game twice on the same Clubcard, whether in the same transaction or in different transactions.  If you do that you have crossed the Tesco ‘bulk buying’ line.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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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.

Category

Tesco Clubcard

Comments (441)

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

  • Ian says:
    12 Jun12 June 21:32

    How long does it take to get the four square money? I didn’t get the notification though…

  • CV says:
    12 Jun12 June 21:42

    The games stocked in each store seem to vary in my area, so as an update to assist folks:
    Glasgow Springburn has Destiny and COD (all formats)
    Perth Crieff Road has Fifa and Battlefield (all formats), and the display for COD (but no COD!)
    Cumbernauld has Infinity (2 formats) and (IIRC) Fifa and Battlefield

    All have 3V cards too! And yup that sums up my commute!

  • Tim M says:
    12 Jun12 June 21:45

    I have the feeling that the Disney game is only available on two formats. Has anybody got all four? Cradley Heath West Midlands has all the other fish. Didn’t look for the 3DS or Vita games.

  • Sarah says:
    12 Jun12 June 21:49

    I expected the Aberdeen Tesco Extra at Danestone to have them all but they only had Destiny in 3 formats (Both Xboxes and PS3). No advertising, shelf edge labelling or anything. Risked it and now have 1500 Clubcard points. No hassle as I used the self-scan and was buying alcohol as well. Many thanks 🙂

    • Idrive says:
      12 Jun12 June 21:56

      Sarah can you please detail the procedure to use self service tills?

      • Sarah says:
        12 Jun12 June 22:07

        I was using the service where you scan your shopping yourself using hand scanner as you go round so you can checkout quicker at the end (love this service). I just scanned the boxes and put them back on the shelf. Went through the till at the end in the usual way and as I was buying a bottle of spirits too the attendant had to come over and remove the security tag and clear me as over 18. He clocked the word “xbox” on the screen and started to say that he’d have to deal with the security on that too but I said it was only a pre-order and he wandered off.

        • Idrive says:
          12 Jun12 June 22:12

          Thanks Sarah i missed the point of the boxes i thought i could input the numbers at the till to lookup the item. I have no extas nearby so that would be the only way to avoid customer service . Thanks!

          • thesaver79 says:
            12 Jun12 June 22:14

            Remember the self checkout will expect you bag something for each game you input the barcode number for.

          • Idrive says:
            12 Jun12 June 22:16

            Hey mate how are things? So in fact,can i lookup with the codes and no boxes?

          • thesaver79 says:
            12 Jun12 June 22:20

            You can, but someone will have to verify your order and you need to get around the bagging issue.

      • squills says:
        12 Jun12 June 22:09

        You would have other items in your basket eg aspirin/ booze, put those thru first, ask the assistant to age clear you as over-18, then put thru the games (which are also over-18). The till won’t ask for clearance twice.

        You might need to ask as some tills only ask for authority at the end but you can be proactive and call over the assistant yourself after the booze goes thru.

        • Simon says:
          12 Jun12 June 22:54

          I tried that earlier today – scanned a packet of paracetamol first, but it didn’t ask the assistant to clear my age until I scanned the games.

          The assistant cleared the transaction, waited for me to pay and then said she’d take care of the cases, so she obviously knew they were pre-orders. She was very helpful and didn’t blink an eye at the fact I bought 8 games!

  • squills says:
    12 Jun12 June 21:59

    You can be sure Mr T is not losing money on this, so shrug & carry on 😉

    The publishers will be funding everything in terms of incentives. The fact we like Avios etc is irrelevant in the big scheme of things as regards overall promotion profitability.

    If you meet a Tesco Gestapo type, walk away calmly then put on your false beard & wig and give it another go 😉

    It’s not shoplifting: you’re just paying good money for their promotional items.

  • TrollBasher says:
    12 Jun12 June 22:01

    Made the mistake of manually entering the codes at a self-serve checkout and found out that the self serve terminals won’t give you the till spit for the item for if you actually intend to purchase one of these things once they become available.
    However, contrary to the Tesco Police stories above, Customer Service had no problem in refunding them all and then manually entering them again at one of their own terminals; fifteen minute of extra time, but 5,500 points richer.

    • energyuk says:
      12 Jun12 June 22:18

      Tesco Baldock Store Manager has imposed a 2 per customer on pre orders, spoke to customer service helpdesk and they said it’s at the managers discretion.

      • squills says:
        12 Jun12 June 22:21

        Put on your disguise & try another till. Come back tomorrow. Send in the wife 😉

  • Tom says:
    12 Jun12 June 22:10

    So do self service tills work or best to take it to one of the checkouts?

    • squills says:
      12 Jun12 June 22:11

      Nae bother really but self service has certain advantages if you are putting thru 18 barcodes 😉

  • CC says:
    12 Jun12 June 22:15

    Got nearly all them at Whitstable Tesco. Just missing Destiny and Disney on PS3 and XBOX 360.
    Went to the electrical section and it was all fine. Points are on receipt, not showing in account yet though.

    If anyone is planning on getting all 20 grab yourself a trolley! I stupidly took a basket, and because the games were all over the place I got in a complete mix making sure I hadn’t got the same game twice. With a trolley you can lay them out nice and organised.

    • Polly says:
      13 Jun13 June 00:00

      Just bring your list of codes to any till, they just input them, 4 or 5 at a time, different times of the day, my chaps were fine with it. Saves the hassles of bringing boxes to the tills too, which can look very obvious.

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