Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Bits: the £79 Tesco printer, Qatar Airways 2-4-1 sale, Emirates status match, M&C hotel sale

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News in brief:

Did you buy the £79 printer with 3,500 Clubcard points?

A fortnight ago I ran a great Tesco Clubcard offer.  If you paid £79 for an Epson XP322 printer, you received 3,500 bonus Clubcard points, worth 8,400 Avios.

Tesco has now reduced the price of the printer to £49 as you can see here.

The great news is that Tesco Direct has an unofficial (but widely discussed online) price protection guarantee.  If you buy something and it falls in price within 28 days, you can ring up and request the difference.

A HFP reader did just that and £30 was immediately refunded to his credit card!  This means that, even if he gives his printer away, he will have received 8,400 Avios for just £49.  You may wish to try the same.

Qatar Airways 2-4-1 sale out of the UK

Qatar Airways is currently running one of its occasional 2-4-1 business class sales out of the UK.  Full details are here.

These prices are considerably worse than some of the ex-Europe tickets we saw last week.  We are talking about £1,700 to Bangkok compared to the £800 being charged out of Copenhagen recently  However, for anyone who is more flexible on price and less keen to travel to Europe to start their trip, there might be something here.  £2,500 to Australia per person is not a bad deal when starting in the UK.

Note that availability on A380 services from London is very restricted, so try to get the Boeing 787 services instead as the second best option.  You can also book from Manchester, Edinburgh and – for flights from March – Birmingham.

Book here by 22nd November for travel before 7th July.

Qatar A350

Emirates Skywards status match

It is very rare to see Emirates offering a status match.  There is one currently running but you will need to have an address in France in order to take part.

The offer is a little confusing.  It appears that you need to hold a current top-tier card from another airline, such as British Airways Gold.  Whether you receive Gold or Platinum status will depend on an examination by Emirates of your recent travel patterns which must include substantial travel on routes flown by Emirates.

However, as Emirates is only asking for a scan of your current frequent flyer membership card, it isn’t clear how they intend to achieve this!

Emirates is not part of a major alliance, so you are only likely to benefit from a match if you fly Emirates in Economy on a regular basis and would benefit from lounge access.

Full details can be found here.  The offer ends on 30th November.  Thanks to Benedict.

Emirates A380

Millennium & Copthorne hotel sale

Finally, Millennium & Copthorne is running a short flash sale offering a headline 40% off their standard room rates at all of their UK and European hotels.

The real discount is not 40%, because that is based on the standard flexible price.  These sale rooms are non-refundable and so you should compare them to the usual Advanced Purchase rate.  You should still see a decent saving nevertheless.

You need to book by 22nd November for stays until 31st March 2016.  The sale home page is here.


Hotel offers update – April 2024:

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points?

  • Hilton Honors is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 14th May 2024. Click here.

Comments (142)

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

  • Mark says:

    Just phoned Tesco now about the printer – no issue at all having the £30 price difference refunded to my Amex card. Are Tesco on some sort of charm offensive at the moment? The chap I spoke with couldn’t have been more friendly!

    • harry says:

      they are indeed on a charm offensive – my contact in CS told me they have been instructed to say yes to everything reasonable

      • Jason says:

        Do you think they’ll give me the 26500 pts they, took off me in August, and refunded me in cash?
        Although they said I could definitely earn the points! 🙁

        • harry says:

          remind me what that was about? & I’ll venture an opinion 🙂

          • Jason says:

            They told me I could earn 60k on a merged account.
            Then they took 26.5k off us when we went over 30k. They admitted I was given misinformation and returned the points as cash….chuffed with that ……not.

          • harry says:

            No chance of review, IMV

  • CV3V says:

    Tesco – called and got £30 back, very easy and friendly staff.

    Emirates – i mentioned the status match a couple of weeks ago in the comments section. My status match to Gold came through a few days ago. Its actually of little use if flying in a premium cabin, the real value is in economy (lounge access, additional luggage, priority boarding), there are a few unwritten benefits such as getting your food order in first and being served (economy). The food service on EK economy can be very very slow. A friend with Gold status who flys from GLA a lot is often upgraded from economy to business, to the point he expects at least one upgrade per trip!

    • FormalHall says:

      When does the matched status last until? 6 months, 12 months or more?

      • Rob says:

        Not clear – I don’t know how the scheme works for status. Either a full year or rest of your current year plus a full year would be the norm.

        • Polly says:

          Rob, surely you would status match emirates, you fly with them enough. Would,you,not be able to or your wife?

          • Rob says:

            Don’t fly them in economy and they would never upgrade a family of 4 to First!

      • CV3V says:

        New status lasts until January 2017, fits with typical Emirates status timeframe.

        As Raffles mentions, not much use if flying business class but potentially very useful if in economy. Their lounges are far better than BAs, slightly higher luggage allowance and higher chance of op upgrade.

  • JC says:

    Just got £30 refunded myself. At first they said no but when I said about the 28 days they check with a supervisor and they refunded no problem!

    Thanks Raffles – what a bargain!

  • MrCinnamon says:

    Just called them and after a discussion with the Manager they have agreed to refund £30 to my credit card under their Price Promise: Kerching!

    Thanks Raffles.

    OH is sat here looking at me and saying “you have some nerve!”. That’s the attitude of someone who would contribute few Avios to our Household account if I didn’t supervise operations 🙂

    • Polly says:

      Just love your comment, it is exactly what happens in our house. Am laughing so hard here!! Even on biz, he’s not allowed to even touch a keyboard until he has asked “which airline. Which FFP am I allowed to book? ” it’s so funny, am laughing so much here even writing this comment.
      Just love this site.!!!

      • Worzel says:

        I am reminded of the occasion when Mrs Gummidge explained to a work colleague about Avios collection and the benefits. She suggested he apply for the BAPP, which he did-she did not however suggest that she or I refer him!!
        Polly I’m pleased you’re having a laugh -I was in stitches yesterday morning when I read the post on the “approaching” competition and Santa “dusting” -this reminded me of the Christmas joke. I wonder whether it was intentional?
        Like you I love this site.

    • Jason says:

      That’s why you turn left and the majority turn right. However i suspect your OH doesn’t complain when you both turn left!!!! 🙂

      • MrCinnamon says:

        Glad to know it is not just me then! 🙂 Though my plan to get the mother-in-law a Dyson vacuum cleaner for Christmas (so I could bag the Tesco Direct Cluncard points) have been thwarted at the final hurdle- the ungrateful woman doesn’t want one! Grrrrrr.

        And yes Jason, there are certainly no complaints when it comes to the the upgraded flights. Nor concerns that work colleagues think I am some sort of secret millionaire whisking us off to another exotic destination in BA First 🙂 So I shall continue to “have some nerve” 😉

        • harry says:

          My loved one is complaining hard about boxes in the kitchen, accounts etc in her name that she knows nowt about, me doing fall.

          Then she travels for free.

          Sweet 🙂

        • Worzel says:

          MrCinnamon, re the mother-in-law: as a Dyson isn’t wanted, perhaps some vouchers for a facelift clinic might be acceptable? just trying to help 🙂 .

  • GazTodd says:

    Called Tesco abit of a wait but worth it.

    Mentioned the price promise guarantee and they instantly processed the refund of £30

    Very happy. Think I will keep the printer after all.

  • Brian says:

    I would say that the Qatar 787 is better than the A380, unless you particularly want to have an onboard bar…

  • jo says:

    Just called, explained the drop in price and the delightful chap on the phone laughed mentioning that he had processed a few of these already this morning! 🙂

    £60 refund coming my way – Thanks Raffles!

  • David says:

    How are people getting their refunds, by calling?

    Also, I don’t see the bonus points in my Tesco account even though I bought the printer over a week a go, is that normal?

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