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

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

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.

  • Toby says:
    14 Nov14 November 12:20

    Thanks Raffles, just called up Tesco and refund of £30 on it’s way.

    When I mentioned I bought a printer, she said, was that the one that has come down in price by £30. Something tells me they have had a good few calls! I did not really need to ask, but I did say the magic 7 words: Price Protection Guarantee, Request the Difference Back..

    Thanks, good start to Saturday

    • Waribai says:
      14 Nov14 November 12:24

      Yes, same here. “No problem Sir, I’ve just dealt with one of those” 🙂

  • harry says:
    14 Nov14 November 12:32

    O/T I see they’re advertising Shop Small on TV, with any luck that will encourage a few more merchants to sign up

  • Leo says:
    14 Nov14 November 12:33

    Can’t imagine Tesco will be in a rush to repeat a similar offer….but you never know.

  • Andy says:
    14 Nov14 November 13:03

    OT but has anyone applied for an Amex recently and can remember how long it took to get approved/rejected? I applied for the Platinum 10 days ago but still waiting to hear back. You’d think for a card with a £450 fee they would be a bit quicker.

    • AmandaB says:
      14 Nov14 November 13:16

      Andy – applied last week for a BAEC platinum card, instant approval. Card arrived 3 days later. I Would phone them. Dont think this should take more than a week max.

      • Andy says:
        14 Nov14 November 13:52

        Thanks AmandaB. This is the 3rd time for me and I have never get an instant approval (same for my partner). Not sure what part of my application causes this. Frustrating. I’ll give them a call. Thanks for your help.

  • MrCinnamon says:
    14 Nov14 November 13:12

    I usually get immediate responses when I appy online. I have never applied any other way.

    The one time we did not get an immediate acceptance from Amex we received a letter to say that the OH had too many Amex accounts open. That was incorrect, they had one open account in their name. We called them and it was sorted out. The cards arrived a few days later.

    The New Applications office is shut at the weekend, but call them Monday and ask how your application is progressing. Even Amex get things wrong at times.

    • Andy says:
      14 Nov14 November 13:58

      Thanks MrCinnamon. Neither me or my partner have ever got an immediate response. Not sure why I’m a homeowner for + 3 years, household income is way above the requirement, permanent job, good credit history etc. Usually we hear back in 3-4 days but it has never taken 10 days before. Thanks, I’ll call them Monday. Have a good weekend.

      • Toby says:
        16 Nov16 November 09:32

        This is the same for me, I always get ‘approval needed, please wait 10 days’ etc, yet I applied for Gold card for my girlfriend the other day – brand new address, renting, never had a credit card, mortgage or loan (although she is supplementary on my gold) and she got instant approval! She’s been rubbing it in my face since 🙂

  • AmandaB says:
    14 Nov14 November 13:12

    Dittoi TYVM for the tip off. Agent said ‘been doing this all day today!

  • Clive says:
    14 Nov14 November 13:20

    Potential 500 free HHonors

    http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/2015/11/14/hhonors-500-free/

    • yetyom says:
      14 Nov14 November 14:02

      Just signed in and got a message that “Apologies, the merchant you selected does not ship to your country”. Guess it is region/country specific.

  • Andy says:
    14 Nov14 November 13:53

    This £30 saving alone is a good enough reason to follow HFP. You’d be a fool not to!

    And the comradery of readers emailing Raffels when they have found something makes the knowledge database awesome

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? EARN POINTS WORTH 10,500 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!