Shell Drivers Club is a partner with both avios.com and British Airways Executive Club. In December, they are giving away 72 million Avios points in a major competition.
First, a quick reminder of how Shell Drivers Club works. It is a simple system. You earn 1 Shell Drivers Club point for every litre of basic fuel you buy and 2 points per litre of V-Power premium fuel. When you have collected 500 points, you can exchange them for:
250 Avios points (see the BA website for the official details, scroll down)
£2.50 Waitrose voucher
£2.50 Shell voucher
It is worth noting that, because of the relatively poor conversion rate, you may want to take the Waitrose or Shell vouchers instead. You are effectively ‘buying’ Avios points for 1p by taking the miles option, and that is not the cheapest of prices.
The only advantage of taking Avios is that it is a better deal for small spenders. If you set up auto-convert, you only need as few as 20 Shell points to qualify to receive Avios (in this case, 10 Avios) at the end of each quarter. You need to buy 500 litres of fuel to get enough points for a Waitrose voucher!
Shell has launched a big competition for Christmas
Every day until Christmas Eve, Shell is giving away 1 million Avios points to THREE people. This means that 72 people are going to become Avios millionaires!
Entering is a little tricky. You need to visit a Shell garage and pay for your fuel with Paypal via the Shell Motorist app on your smartphone. This instantly knocks out people without a smartphone or who live in rural areas with poor mobile reception!
The minimum purchase is £20.
I have never tried this app, but it apparently allows you to pay without having to visit the cashier. This could be a handy time saver and will cut down on random junk food purchases in the shop as well!
You can find out more on the Shell Drivers Club website here. Good luck – it would be fantastic if a Head for Points reader was a winner!
(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for the latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios from current offers and promotions.)
About Head for Points
WHAT A FAFF!
Oh, and BTW, your location finder i.e. GPS HAS to be on to be able to use it. Not something I have switched on all the time.
So, having spent the last 45 mins linking my Pay Pal to my Shell App (had to update my Shell App AND my PayPal account, manage the settings, etc.), whenever I fill up I have to :
1. Enter my phone code
2. Turn on GPS
3. Open the Shell App.
4. Log into my Shell App.
5. Select ‘Fill My Car’ or whatever it’s called
6. Sit in my car
7. Hope it picks up the QR…..from the car
8. Wait for it to authorise
and Hey Presto….the person who pulled in behind me has already driven passed me having paid in store!
Anyhoo, I’ll give it a bash for December for the competition.
Great prize it has to be said!
My GPS is NEVER turned on and I was able to use the app fine & complete a transaction using it last week.
It isn”t quite as complicated as you suggest. The actual steps when I used it were:
1. Unlock phone screen
2. Open the Shell App.
3. Enter 5 digit passcode.
4. Select ‘Fill My Car’
5. Scan QR code from inside the car
6. Wait 20 seconds or so for it to authorise
7. Get out of car & start filling up.
In my experience, it took about the same time as had I gone into the shop to pay and there was no queue at the till. If there was a queue in the shop, the Fill & Go would have been much quicker than queueing.
you can also use finger print recognition for the app if your smartphone supports that, saves an additional 0.5 seconds
This promo is obviously following the universal marketing rule which states: “The value of the competition prize is inversely proportional to the usability and/or utility of the service it is promoting”
And it works – for 1M Avios I will be living in my local Shell for the month of December 😀
I also used the app for the first time last week to take advantage of a £5 free refund offer from Paypal (now expired), and like many others find it a bit tedious in terms of waiting for authorisation inside the car – rushing to the pump before it times out and then waiting for the app to show you have finished Ok before driving off.
Biggest problem for me is that is ONLY uses your “default” PayPal payment option – which is usually the Bank Account one! (Other retailers allow you to choose once on Paypal site).
So if you normally use credit cards (collecting bonus points – ie almost everyone on this site I presume?) it is not much use – or I will have to remove my Bank Account from Paypal for December and set it up again afterwards!
PS Shell have responded to say they will pass this onto their team to consider!
You can change your default payment method in the PayPal app under ‘settings’!
I have used the app a few times, and apart from one station where they have the signs up but it doesn’t work I have not had any issues. Used mine and the wife’s over the weekend for the £5 off, plus we both had a bonus of 300 points which this fill up redeemed these as well.
Shell is the most convenient for the wife as it is on the way to work, and also the cheapest that is on route. We get very frequent offers with the app so the points rack up quite quickly.
The less people that enter the more chance for me 🙂
+1 its really not that difficult in my experience, and for all those sharing their dissatisfaction (they are entitled to do this obviously) there are countless others who will have no issues.
Its a good prize, you decide if its worth the price differential for Shell fuel, for a chance to win.
I must admit some of the tales of doom have made me laugh…
Simon!
You have a wife that refills the car with fuel??
I’ll suggest(well, I might suggest) the idea to Mrs Gummidge. 🙂 .
Haha it’s her car, if she doesn’t she will be stuck at the side of the road and I won’t be there to save her!!! I do have issues with her using the right card to maximise points though 🙂
I’ve also wondered if the uptake hasn’t been as high as expected.
Live had four of the £5 rebate offers so far. It seems to work up here in Edinburgh although you get some mighty stern looks when it’s busy for sitting in your car for thirty seconds after pulling up to the pump and pretty much just sitting there while waitin on it going through.
For people in areas with little reception, Shell actually provides wifi on the forecourt and when you launch the app, it connects automatically!
Well that’s good to know ! Their FAQ says you need to have at least a 3G connection so maybe the Wi-Fi isn’t universal ??
No, it doesn’t!!!
Wonder how many entrants per day, never heard of this before…
Might try at early next week, wonder if some days are quieter?
No Windows App.
lol that’s coz windows mobile is S###
I changed from Apple to Windows nearly three years ago; best thing I ever did (well not quite).
Worth it just for the decent spell checker which learns how you write and makes helpful suggestions rather than making random changes.
Switching from Apple to 2 cocoa tins and a bit of string would have been a great move! Android may be a better bet.
I can’t see why Shell think this is a good idea at all.
Sack the head of marketing?
Used it for the first time today. Quite tedious waiting for authorisation, also our Shell garage has placed the QR code partially obscured behind a pillar so I had to drive forward another 2 feet and aim the phone back over my shoulder.
What was amusing however was the chap sat behind me waiting for the pump, as I pulled off he got very excited and started pointing and shouting in his car, I think he must have thought I was not paying for my fuel!
For that priceless bit of confusion I will continue throughout December just to see how many people think I am a petrol thief!
OT sorry: Anyone have any experience of how long the bonus referral points take to post after referring someone to the BA (PP) Amex. I’ve only ever referred gold/plat charge cards or SPG before and those have posted within 3/4 days. The person was instantly approved if it makes any difference.
I know Amex officially say 4-6 weeks or something like that but wondered if anyone had any other info? Thanks
2-3 days, same as the other cards
heh heh
if I had a smartphone I might be tempted lol
might force my son to do it on my behalf @ the weekend lol
looks like your chances of winning 1 million As are likely to be better than 1/1000
I’m sure that across their entire sites they will have more than 3,000 fill and go transactions per day.
not too bad
it’s 3 winners a day though. I was right lol
No, I am sure they WILL have FAR MORE THAN 3000 transactions a day.
ie I think they will have more than 1000 transactions per prize so worse than 1 in 1000 chance of winning a prize.
Shell have nearly 1,000 sites in the UK. I bet FAR more than 3 people per day use the new app payment system on average at each site!!!
I used the app for the first time this weekend, but it wasn’t plain sailing.
I was offered a £5 credit for using the app before 30 Nov. I needed petrol on Saturday morning, so went to my local Shell station (both the Shell stations near me are listed as using the app). The first place had signs up saying Pay & Go wasn’t working. The second place had no QR code. But I needed *some* petrol to get anywhere else, so put £5 in to get my spend up (I had another offer of points if I spent £20 in total).
Drove to Rugby (on a busy Saturday morning) on my way to Sheffield. Got to the Shell station, opened the app, scanned the QR code, then spent the next 5 minutes waiting for authorisation. I think the cover over the pumps was probably blocking the signal. Got fed up and left. Pulled round the corner to find Asda were doing a “Not Black Friday” deal of 99.7p/l, so filled up.
Drove to Sheffield, looked at the appalling price of petrol at the Shell station there and decided not to bother.
Drove home on Sunday evening, via Rugby, called in at the Shell station and used the app successfully (different pump, no canopy blocking the signal) and got confirmation of the transaction.
With a minimum spend of £20, I will enter if I’m in Rugby or Leamington and need petrol, but think that the whole thing is a major faff. If it were a simple operation and the petrol was competitively priced, I’d consider it more often. But I get more points from buying coffee & muffins at the services at Tibshelf than buying overpriced petrol.
Try the Waitrose Shell pretty good prices, 1p more than Tesco
Tried to use the app on new iPhone, only 2G connection at the filling station so connection was not supported. How about Shell invest some of the money spent on this promo in making sure people can use the app first.
On my way to work I have:
Shell 1 at 105.9 but doesn’t accept Paypal
Shell 2 at 105.9 but doesn’t accept Paypal
Shell 3 at 108.9 that does accept Paypal but is a 4 mile detour
Sainsbury’s at 103.9
Hardly worth entering.
Personally my experience of using the app has been simple, quick and easy. I don’t find that I have to wait long for the authorisation, and I have usually filled up and driven off while others are still standing in the queue. I appreciate others have different experiences of using it, but it’s made my life easier. For me, Shell is the garage of choice as locally they are the cheapest, and also en route between work and home, so I don’t have to think twice about it.
There is also a staggered bonus points promotion running in December where you get bonus points every time you fill up during the month, >£30, and the more times you fill up, the higher the bonus, starting from 125 points.
Without the bonuses, I will agree that there are probably better places to collect points/miles on fuel, but the abundance of bonuses handed out by Shell on a weekly basis, put them at the top for me. Not the same for everyone, I appreciate that.
Some very back of envelope maths:
Average UK petrol and diesel consumption daily :120 million litres
Assuming a 40l fill thats 3 million fills per day
shell has 13% of the market = 390,000 fills per day
Now:
1. Not all shell stations offer fill and go (assume 66% do)
2. Most users don’t use fill and go (assume 5% do)
390k x .66 x.05 = 12,870 fill and go’s per day.
Chance of winning = 3/12870 or approx 1 in 4000.
The market share and daily fuel is accurate. Ave fill is a guestimate. the bottom 2 are plucked from my experience of shell near me and how few people seem to use fill and go when I’m there.
If you played every day thats 24/4000 or about 1/166. The price for playing – whatever the difference between your cheapest fuel source and shell is, which assuming 20 litres per day cant be more than 5p per litre = £1 per day, £24 to enter. Statistically you’d need to spend £4000 in additional fuel charges in order to win. So the cost for 1 million avios is £4000 in this case.
By coincidence, that’s pretty much the same as the tesco clubcard conversion rate!
Not sure how you get a million avios for £4000 spend at Tescos. If that were the case, most families would be flying all over the place on avios fares.
He’s not saying £4000 of spend.
He’s referring to £4000 in value of clubcard points (ie 400,000 clubcard points).
Yes, £4000 of clubcard tokens is 960,000 avios with conversion at £2.50->600 avios.
My app worked on the first day. Missing authorise the payment!
That maths might have estimated fill and go usage far too generously. It seems the transaction ID’s you get on the fill and go receipt are actually sequential.
I filled up on Wenesday at 7pm, then again on Sunday at 7pm. My Sunday Transaction was 17 numbers higher than my Wednesday indicating 17 fill and go’s in 4 days, so average = 4 per day.
My shell is on a busy road, albeit in an average town so it’s probably fairly representative. 1000 shell stations around the country, not all on fill and go (assume 66%) so daily fill and go’s by this estimate are 666 x 4 = 2664, giving a 3/2664 or 1 in 888 chance of winning, or 1 in 37 if you enter every single day! That’s jolly good odds.
Grrrr…Northern Ireland is excluded (I’m not even sure that there are any shell stations here).
Well I tried this twice. The first time £20 worked and the second time it stopped on it’s own accord at £19.72 instead of £20. Obviously I didn’t qualify for the promotion no matter what I tried.
My general thoughts are the app was a faff for me to download as it didn’t recognise my existing shell account, I uninstalled it three time before It decided to work. Neither of the petrol pumps recognised the QR code, typing the code in was fine.
I did notice like the poster above that 50 points had been added to my card for each visits. However with the lack of accuracy at hitting £20, and the lack of choosing the credit card in paypal means I shall make way for the rest of you to persevere 🙂 good luck
With regards to choosing the Carr you pay with, you need to log into PayPal (the app is easiest) go to settings then there is an in store payment option – change that to your desired card.
I always pay with the Jimmy Carr – it’s wonderfully tax efficient 😉
I have really gone out of my way to enter this competition but every time I actually find a station that you can use it at and fill up, it stops at just under £20 even though its been authorised for £20. Its really annoying as it stops at £19.80 or £19.60. A complete waste of time so far and quite a bit of effort involved a well. Ive emailed them but you usually wait about 5 days for a reply so will keep you posted.
Another data point.
The Shell receipts are sequential for fill and go (well as in my local allocated fill and go receipts sequentially for its own store)
In a 7 day period my local shell had 34 fill and go’s, and 11 of them were due to a friend and myself targeting this offer so either every store has some HfP’ers doing this and is averaging 34 fills per week, or we are distorting the data and an average would be 23 fills per week. Assuming 666 stores:
1. 34 x 666 = 22,644 fill and go’s per week, ave 3234 per day (1 in 1078 chance of winning, 1 in 45 if you play every day)
2. 23 x 666 = 15,318, ave 2188 per day (1 in 729 chance of winning, 1 in 30 if you play everyday)
I also took the liberty of emailing them to confirm that the £20 is inclusive of VAT, which it is as this was not clear in the T&C. So as long as the pump shows £20 or more, your all good.
I hope you win
Very cheesed of that despite my app authorising me to start filling, there was apparently a problem with the pump. I ended up having to pay in store.. was told to ring customer services – been on phone over half an hour to be told about ‘get out clause n umber 21’ in the Ts and Cs which says Shell is not liable for any technical errors. Grrrrrr…