How to earn Avios with Shell – and win 10 x 50,000 Avios prizes

I haven’t mentioned Shell Drivers Club on Head for Points for a while, so I thought it was worth doing a quick recap.  Their new competition is a good enough excuse.

Shell Drivers Club is the loyalty scheme for Shell garages in the UK.  Joining is simple – pick up a card at a Shell station when filling up and register it online.  You earn 50 Avios just for registering your card so it is worth doing this even if you switch to a different reward later.

The scheme is simple – you earn 1 Shell point for every litre of petrol you buy, and 2 points = 1 Avios.

As well as Avios, 500 points can be turned into £2.50 of Shell vouchers or £2.50 of Waitrose vouchers. The benefit of taking Avios is that Shell converts your points in multiples of 20 (ie 10 Avios) with no minimum, unlike the 500 point minimum for other rewards.  You receive your vouchers or Avios points every three months.

So … is this a worthwhile way of collecting Avios? 

Probably not, as the sharp-eyed may have spotted above.

If you buy enough Shell fuel to get to 500 points on a regular basis, you will effectively be ‘paying’ 1p per Avios.  This is because 500 points is worth 250 Avios or £2.50 in Shell or Waitrose vouchers.  1p per Avios point is not a great deal as far as I am concerned – although clearly it is still a lot cheaper than topping up your account via a purchase of Avios from BA.

If you only an occasional petrol buyer or Shell customer, it probably is worth taking Avios points.  This is because you are unlikely to reach the 500 litre target required to trigger a £2.50 Shell or Waitrose voucher.

Even if your employer is paying, Tesco offers a better reward structure.  I outlined the best ways to collect Avios points when buying petrol in this post.  Remember that Esso now gives Clubcard points as well which convert to Avios.

Win 50,000 Avios points with Shell

Until September 30th, there is one other reason to fill up at Shell.

As long as you buy more than 20 litres of Shell V-Power Nitro+ fuel, and your Shell Drivers Club account is set to convert to Avios points, you will be entered into a prize draw.  10 winners will each receive 50,000 Avios.

It is not clear whether this competition also applies to British Airways Executive Club collectors or not.  I only know for sure that those who have selected avios.com as their collection partner will be entered.

Full details can be found here at avios.com.

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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:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

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.

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.

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.

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.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.