Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Last chance to transfer TopCashback money into Tesco Clubcard and onto Avios

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One of the easiest ways of earning Avios points or Virgin Flying Club miles for the last couple of years has been via cashback site TopCashback.

TopCashback allowed you to take up to £50 of cashback from your day-to-day online shopping and convert it into 5,000 Tesco Clubcard points.

This means that it would turn into 12,000 Avios points – you were basically ‘buying’ Avios points for just 0.4p each.  This was repeatable every year.

It was a great deal and a fairly easy 12,000 Avios points per year for Head for Points readers.   If you had a British Airways household account you could do even better.

TopCashback announced in June that Tesco is withdrawing tomorrow, 31st July.

If you have any cashback sitting in your TopCashback account and you have yet to hit the £50 cap, you should send it across to Tesco IMMEDIATELY.

This move appears to be linked to the broader restructuring of the Clubcard scheme which is currently underway.  We have already seen the ending of Clubcard Boost ‘double up’ in store.  It has also been reported that Clubcard points will soon be instantly redeemable – like Nectar or Boots Advantage points – by swiping your card at checkout.

Interestingly, TCB said that 33% of users who chose Clubcard converted their points into Avios.  30% used them for restaurant vouchers and 20% for family day out vouchers.

That was bad news for Tesco.  If you assume that Tesco pays 0.75p per Avios point – and I think they actually pay more than that – the maths was crazy.  TopCashback sent Tesco £50 but, in 33% of cases, it had to immediately pay out (12,000 x 0.75p) £90 to Avios.  You can see why Tesco wanted out.

You will still be able to convert TopCashback money directly into Avios points.  This is an acceptable deal – you get 1.05 Avios points for every 1p of TopCashback money you convert – but nowhere near as generous as routing your points via Tesco Clubcard.

If you used TCB to earn Virgin miles then there is no alternative option.  I had heard rumours of Quidco teaming up with Virgin Atlantic but nothing has appeared.

If you never joined TopCashback and want to sign up – after all, buying unlimited Avios points for (1p / 1.05 Avios =) 0.95p is certainly not a bad deal – my refer a friend link is here.

This move could also be problematic for TCB itself.  It is generally seen as having poorer customer service than Quidco, but people put up with it because of the Tesco conversion option.  With that gone, TCB loses some appeal. Remember, however, that you can still buy Avios via TCB with zero effort for 0.95p and that is not a bad deal at all.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (38)

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

  • Robman says:
    30 Jul30 July 10:02

    Is it good practice to remove all earned cash back as soon as it becomes payable? I have used the Tesco route for £50 this quarter but still have £111 of cleared cash back ready for payment.
    After the Tesco option, what are the next most profitable or good value redemption opportunities. Or should I just take the cash?

    • Rob says:
      30 Jul30 July 10:09

      Hard to imagine anything as good as Tesco. Take Avios if you want (fairly cheap), cash, I took some as Amazon last week …..

  • Eastwood says:
    30 Jul30 July 12:17

    Hi,

    I had an expedia payment of £68.00 and a different £10 payment and couldn’t select Tesco clubcard as it went past £50. I then split the payment, kept the £68, removed the £10 and selected donate £18 to the guide dogs(I worked opposite them for a few years and saw the awesome work they do) then below I could then select Tesco club card at £50 for the max of my 5000 club card points. So, yes I gave £18 to the guide dogs but I managed to get the 5000 club card points through when I wasn’t going to get anything, unless I wanted to have £10 worth of club card points.

    Hope this helps someone else.

  • Peter K says:
    30 Jul30 July 12:35

    I had one but I chased it earlier in the month and it became payable just in time thankfully. I have another several waiting but as have moved about £48 to Tesco I didn’t bother to those.

  • Genghis says:
    30 Jul30 July 12:50

    Solution: take the 11 quid as BACS. Use the £11 to buy 11 Mr Muscle sprays using the magazine voucher (50 club card points with Mr Muscle) paying with a Lloyds Amex.
    Result: (11 x 51) x 2.4 = 1,346 avios + 11 x 2.5) = 28 = 1,374 avios (and a clean kitchen with a bit of effort).

    • Joe says:
      30 Jul30 July 15:39

      Lol Genghis. And i thought i had an issue with the points craze!!

      • Genghis says:
        30 Jul30 July 16:12

        Tesco points earning opportunities were few and far between last quarter. We’ve recently ticked over to another quarter and things are working well – first the lego 1,500 cc offer (tidy – thank you very much) and then this Mr Muscle offer. Effectively buying avios at around 0.8p (what people were paying in the recent Groupon deal) (and getting a “free” Mr Muscle cleaner). I’ve been working my way around the City’s Tescos this week taking as many as I can carry…

  • harry says:
    30 Jul30 July 14:02

    Ah – small hitch – however, good never to forget all we’re talking about here boils down to the same thing, Avios or cash

    You’re just moving it to different ‘banks’

    btw nice workaround Genghis 🙂

  • Rob says:
    30 Jul30 July 14:14

    They couldn’t. Once an affiliate scheme ends the merchant refuses to accept new claims.

    • Alan says:
      30 Jul30 July 15:05

      They should still take claims for existing transactions under the rules that were extant at the time. I’m going to be pursuing this one.

      • Rob says:
        30 Jul30 July 15:50

        But they don’t. Tesco switched affiliate agency last week, for example. If you have a problem with a Tesco transaction made before Friday 22nd it cannot be appealed.

  • Genghis says:
    30 Jul30 July 18:42

    They’re the rules I’m afraid. You should always link up a transfer ASAP (like with Amex MR linking to other reward schemes).

    • harry says:
      30 Jul30 July 19:17

      [Puts on old Auntie Vi voice] Well I did rather boringly remind you twice in the last few days, lol

      Actually, I feel sorry for you bro as it’s actually a bit unfair it works for some people but not for others.

      People have added details today, sent the points across and it all went smoothly for them.

  • harry says:
    30 Jul30 July 19:20

    31 days in July bro, give it a whiz in the morning

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