Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

How to earn 7 Avios per £1 shopping at Waitrose, John Lewis and Amazon

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As I wrote last week, Tesco has extended its gift card promotion for another few weeks.  Until 16th October, you will receive 75 Clubcard points – which convert into 180 Avios or 187 Virgin Flying Club miles – for every £25 you spend on third party gift cards at Tesco.

These purchases can be made either in-store or via the Tesco online gift card shop.

This extension coincides with a major change in Tesco gift card policy.  It is now stocking John Lewis / Waitrose and Amazon gift cards.

Avios wing 6

Here are a couple of things you need to know:

You cannot buy Amazon or John Lewis gift cards from the Tesco online gift card store – only in person, in-store

The John Lewis / Waitrose cards are only branded as John Lewis as you can see from the picture.  However, the small print on the back confirms that they can be used in Waitrose.  They can also be used at johnlewis.com.

Amazon gift cards do not need to be used for a specific purchase.  You can add them to your Amazon account as a credit balance and the money sits there until you next buy something.  Future purchases are deducted from your credit balance first with any balance charged to a credit card.

In order to add Amazon gift cards to your Amazon account, you need to visit this page of the Amazon website and input the gift card number.

I imagine that Amazon and John Lewis gift cards will remain a permanent part of the Tesco gift card range.  However, we cannot be certain that Tesco will continue to offer 75 bonus Clubcard points per £25 spent on gift cards after 16th October.

If you are a heavy Waitrose, John Lewis or Amazon shopper, it is worth picking up whatever gift cards you can from Tesco over the next few weeks.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

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

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

25,000 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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a 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, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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

40,000 points sign-up bonus 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

Tesco Clubcard

Comments (170)

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

  • Nick says:
    3 Oct3 October 06:59

    Only 5 Curry’s GC can be redeemed on 1 online purchase at Curry’s. Found this out yesterday.

    • John says:
      3 Oct3 October 07:05

      Combine in store (by buying and returning cheaper items if necessary)

      • TGLoyalty says:
        3 Oct3 October 07:51

        They will just combine the GC as service desk no need to mess about buying/returning items

      • David says:
        3 Oct3 October 08:05

        You can just get them to load your cards onto a single gift card or just order instore.

  • Ian says:
    3 Oct3 October 07:28

    Is there a maximum of gift cards per transaction?

    • Jono says:
      3 Oct3 October 07:38

      It’s 5 gift cards per transaction in both my local stores – although they are happy to do 2 transactions. In one you have to use a manned checkout, in the other you can use self-service.

  • rick says:
    3 Oct3 October 07:44

    OT-BAPP – Assuming Amex will run BAPP 25000 Avios every year from Aug/Sep to Feb following year, what is the best strategy to maximise the 2 sign ups (for self + spouse) if it can be done in the same cycle. Alternative is to have one sign up per year per person.

    • Raffles says:
      3 Oct3 October 08:35

      Amex has never followed much logic with BA bonuses. Until this year the offers tended to be for short periods. I think the fee hike to £195 has put a lot of people off hence the more frequent offers this year.

  • Ian says:
    3 Oct3 October 07:46

    Does anyone know if you can use the John Lewis gift cards to buy shopping online with Waitrose? Or is it only in-store for Waitrose?

  • Owain says:
    3 Oct3 October 07:49

    I tried to buy a £100 Amazon voucher in my local Tesco, and the woman working the till suggested I put it back and buy 4x £25 vouchers, as there was an extra 75 clubcard points on £25 vouchers, but only on them.

    I did as she suggested, but I assume she is wrong. Can anyone confirm that points are awarded on higher value cards, for each £25 spent?

    • TGLoyalty says:
      3 Oct3 October 07:53

      It’s per £25 you will get 300 for a single £100 card

    • Mr Dee says:
      3 Oct3 October 08:25

      She did not receive the next level Tesco zombie cashier training

      • Brian says:
        3 Oct3 October 09:06

        Still, at least she was trying to be helpful – that’s something!

      • TGLoyalty says:
        3 Oct3 October 20:38

        To be fair to her its worded that way so easy mistake just know that isn’t the case from buying £100 cards

    • Jeff says:
      4 Oct4 October 13:46

      Yes, I bought the £100 Amazon cards at Tesco and got 300 points for each £100 card.

  • Liz says:
    3 Oct3 October 08:07

    Signed up to Gravatar last night and added my wee palm tree! It worked!

    • Raffles says:
      3 Oct3 October 08:34

      Very nice!

    • Alan says:
      3 Oct3 October 19:16

      Haha yes, spotted that today – nice one, Liz 😀

      • Liz says:
        3 Oct3 October 21:25

        Alan – you’ve already pinched the Route 66 one! Just booked my last hotel night for our 66 trip next April using the IHG free cert. Didn’t fancy the Intercontinental in Chicago – we booked the HIX nearby at a cash equivalent cost of $830 per night – more expensive than the Intercontinental! Crazy price!

        • Alan says:
          3 Oct3 October 21:30

          Fantastic voucher value, Liz! 🙂

          Hehe yeah, it’s actually my own picture, took it on our trip not long after crossing into California.

    • Stu R says:
      3 Oct3 October 19:51

      I rather like my little dog!

  • Danksy says:
    3 Oct3 October 08:19

    It’s worth bearing in mind that if you don’t want the hassle of getting the tills in a pickle the promotion is still valid at the tesco online giftcard shop too!

    Cheers
    Danksy

    • Mr Dee says:
      3 Oct3 October 08:26

      Yes for digital cards but the £100 limit and postage charge for others is annoying

    • Stuart_F says:
      3 Oct3 October 08:27

      From the article:

      “You cannot buy Amazon or John Lewis gift cards from the Tesco online gift card store – only in person, in-store”

  • Mr Dee says:
    3 Oct3 October 08:27

    If you are a Spotify discount user i.e £5 a month instead of £10 DO NOT BUY the Spotify cards despite what someone suggested to do as they will then charge you £10 a month as its a £10 subscription card you will be buying not an account credit, Spotify support are not helpful at all.

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

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