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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.
Category

Emirates and Emirates Skywards, Qatar Airways and Privilege Club, Tesco Clubcard

Comments (142)

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

  • PJH says:
    14 Nov14 November 09:41

    +1. Short wait on the ‘phone due to volume of calls but the lady couldn’t have been more charming or helpful. Took less than a minute once I was through to CS.

  • vol says:
    14 Nov14 November 09:49

    bit confused – tesco website says only 49pts will be earned…? nowhere does it say 3500….or am I missing the trick? :-/

    • harry says:
      14 Nov14 November 09:56

      too late, that offer expired

    • Kathy says:
      14 Nov14 November 10:00

      The offer was last week, and only for around a day or so. The price then dropped by £30. This article is about using Tesco price promise to claim that £30 back.

      WIshing I’d jumped and ordered one now!

    • Peter K says:
      14 Nov14 November 10:08

      The offer on points was last week when the printer was £79. The price has now dropped which is why can ask for refund but no bonus points now available at lower price.

    • The Urbanite says:
      14 Nov14 November 10:17

      The bonus points offer expired a couple of weeks ago.

  • Mark says:
    14 Nov14 November 10:15

    Called but no luck. Stated that as I bought in store there is no guarantee. Anybody else buy in store and get refund?

    • harry says:
      14 Nov14 November 10:38

      In that situation you just call again, get a different agent, put on the charm and ask again without mentioning the first call.

    • EdB says:
      14 Nov14 November 14:11

      Tesco customer services (head office) told me to go into the selling store with receipt and ask CS there for a price match to Tesco Direct. Once there I noticed the shelf price was still £79, but undeterred went to the electrical department and showed them a screen shot of the £49 Tesco Direct price.
      Said they wouldn’t normally do it but as I’d been referred to the store by HO would on this occasion.
      I was concerned they would refund the original transaction and I’d lose my bonus CC points but no. Instead they took the printer from shelf, scanned barcode as item return at £79 and then reduced price sale at £49 – without using my clubcard. £30 refunded to my Amex.
      Thanks Raffles & good luck Mark.

      • harry says:
        14 Nov14 November 17:50

        Good result

      • CV3V says:
        14 Nov14 November 18:01

        My partner was in Tesco earlier so decided to ask at customer services about a refund for the price difference, got told that you can’t just return something because it has dropped in price and trying to do so was illegal (!) – they were politely given some on the spot training (and told to stop making things up!). The way Tesco staff make up the rules as they go along always amuses me, might in part explain their downward spiral (and that their fresh produce seems to go off after a couple of days).

        Quick call to Tesco Direct and all sorted!

      • Gill says:
        16 Nov16 November 21:23

        Which phone number are you using for store bought items?
        I rang the number on the receipt which goes through to a Glasgow call centre who said that nothing could be done over the phone – go back to the store with the receipt.
        I tried this but all they could offer was to return the printer and then buy it again at the lower price.

  • Dave says:
    14 Nov14 November 10:35

    Discovered my tesco direct account was linked to old clubcard acc, helpful lady merged. Points available as normal in Feb.

    Also have realised I paid for printer on now cancelled amex Gold, so doubt I will get that £30 refund (which as processed no questions asked)

    • MrCinnamon says:
      14 Nov14 November 11:48

      You should do, Amex should refund you. Call them and ask, they are always very helpful.

    • Paul says:
      14 Nov14 November 11:50

      You should do just call amex and get a cheque or have it transferred to another amex card account if you have one.

      • harry says:
        14 Nov14 November 12:10

        You will get a posted statement for your cancelled Amex a/c showing the £30 credit and asking you what to do with it.

  • Lucy says:
    14 Nov14 November 10:46

    Thanks SO much. Great start to my weekend

  • Eastland Staveley says:
    14 Nov14 November 10:51

    Does this work on the Canon Pixma too? Have they dropped the price of that instore has anybody noticed?

  • oliuk says:
    14 Nov14 November 11:00

    Thanks so much, £30 refunded no questions asked 🙂

  • MrCinnamon says:
    14 Nov14 November 11:47

    Yep, got mine a couple of weeks ago.

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