Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Bits: bonus miles with Virgin Trains, 25% off SPG points, Tesco Delivery Saver free trial

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

News in brief:

50% bonus Virgin Flying Club miles on your next train booking

Virgin Trains is running a special promotion when you buy tickets on Virgin West Coast or Virgin East Coast.

On your first booking between 9th November and 6th December, you will receive 3 Flying Club miles per £1 spent instead of the usual 2 miles for purchases of Advance tickets.

You need to book on the official Virgin West Coast or Virgin East Coast websites.

It is not clear if you can earn the bonus twice (once for your first East Coast booking and once for your first West Coast booking) or if they track across both companies.

If you don’t collect Flying Club miles, you can also collect 2 Nectar points per £1 spent on either of the Virgin Trains sites.

Virgin Trains

10% – 25% saving when you buy Starwood points

With the announcement that Marriott is to acquire Starwood, it probably wasn’t the best time to try to persuade people to stock up on SPG points.  However, SPG has launched the deal anyway.

At the top end, 20,000 points will now cost you $525 (£345). These can be converted in 25,000 airline miles in the majority of programmes. The price per mile works out at 1.4p, which is certainly not a bargain but less than a lot of airlines charge for buying their miles directly.

It is especially handy if you have a Miles & More account as it is no longer possible to purchase M&M miles.

Free trial of Tesco Delivery Saver still running

I wrote last month about a one-month free trial offer that Tesco was running for Delivery Saver.  I noticed yesterday that the deal is still running which could be handy in the run up to Christmas.

This allows you to receive your online grocery deliveries free of charge (minimum spend £40).  You also get all of your Tesco Direct orders delivered for free via their ‘next day delivery’ service (minimum spend £10) and free delivery on Tesco Wine and F&F orders.

You can sign up via this link.  You need to make a note in your diary to cancel after the one month trial is up, otherwise you will begin to be charged the standard fee of £3 to £6 per month.

Comments (18)

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

  • Kev says:

    Although Tesco do free next day delivery on Direct orders, at present these are taking between 5-7 days ‘due to unexpected high demand’.

  • Jonathan says:

    OT: I noticed MR points transfer to BA has to be in increments of 500.

    I’m closing my BA Gold so want to clear out the account, has anyone found a way to use the residual points? It doesn’t seem like you can see whether other transfers have minimum increments like BA until you’ve gone through the faff of registering your accounts for that entity.

  • Stephen degnan says:

    For east coast I only see double nectar points. Pfffft.

    • Rob says:

      You will get double Virgin miles. This offer was in the latest Virgin Atlantic newsletter.

      • nerd. says:

        I don’t see any mention on their site…. I’m booking VTEC tickets fairly regularly at the minute (and already have since the 9th November) .

        In fact my first booking made on 9th November shows as only having earned 2 miles per £.

      • Olivula says:

        I just loaded up some Virgin East Coast E vouchers. They used to have no expiry date. I see they now expire after just 12 months… so you need to be sure the vouchers will be burnt in 12 months.

  • Nick says:

    I booked a last minute (Monday) train on VTEC on Tuesday. As usual points offered were big standard. I’m unclear if it’s only your first booking as a new member?

  • Nick says:

    Should say bog standard!

  • Brian says:

    OT – Rob, I assume you have seen the Club Carlson sale that is now on, offering free breakfast along with pretty good rates in London, among other places.

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

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.