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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.

  • Alan says:
    3 Oct3 October 19:47

    PS – I’ve just initiated a 250 Heathrow Rewards transfer to both Avios.com and BAEC as it looks like they should qualify. Would be a nice bonus to receive 1,250 if so!

    • TGLoyalty says:
      3 Oct3 October 20:37

      Thanks for the reminder, just done the same as I was holding on to some until there was a bonus – would count 2,500 for 500 a nice bonus 😉

      • roger says:
        3 Oct3 October 20:46

        Any idea on how can I earn heathrow rewards points without being at LHR?
        any other purchase/offers currently on that rewards in heathrow rewards currency?

        • Rob says:
          3 Oct3 October 21:43

          You can convert Emirates Skywards miles into Heathrow Rewards BUT the points are ring-fenced and can only be used for shopping vouchers, not moved to Avios etc.

          No other way around it unfortunately.

  • James67 says:
    3 Oct3 October 20:12

    I’ve commented on this a few times in past few weeks. I’ve had both a survey and a chat with an avios booking agent which would both suggest that avis across all IAG partners areto be consolidated in a single portal, i.e. no more BAEC, IB+ etc. October 1sg has now passed and still no AerClub. I get the feeling it might come as soon as next year.

    • Alan says:
      3 Oct3 October 20:18

      Yes I think it was one of your comments recently that tuned me in to noticing this! 🙂

  • Julia says:
    3 Oct3 October 20:20

    Just purchased £750 @£25 from tesco at Gatwick on my new HH plat card, so, avios and free extra night at the Waldorf in Rome to look forward to. Thank you Raffles!

  • Ammar says:
    3 Oct3 October 20:42

    What are people’s views on the Visa GC’s you can buy from Tesco in £25/50 denominations with fees on top, do the fees of £4 on the £50 card roughly equal the Avios generated both from Tesco/Amex and potentially with any bonuses’ Tesco offer?
    Also the benefit of reaching the 10k BAPP target
    I would use it to pay Utilities bill that don’t accept Amex or does the £4 wipe out any benefit

    Thoughts welcome…thank you

    • Rob says:
      3 Oct3 October 21:44

      I have written about them in the past. As you say, the fee wipes out the Avios but it does help push up your spend IF you can find the right places to liquidate them.

  • Dave G says:
    3 Oct3 October 20:43

    I’ve just been to try and use my last few £50 Tesco gift cards and have been told separately & unasked by two different stores that they have had an email from head office telling them not to sell Amazon vouchers due to a technical issue. Apparently customers were buying them only to get home and find they were not properly activated.

    • Bryan says:
      3 Oct3 October 21:36

      Bought an amazon card at 7pm today without problems.
      Used it immediately after getting home.

      I think there is sometimes a delay between buying gift card and it being activated. Mine was less than the 20 minute drive home.

      • Dave G says:
        3 Oct3 October 22:13

        That’s interesting. I might try a store I’ve never been to before and see if I get the same story. I wouldn’t think that only a certain regions stores are affected, surely they all run the same systems.

        • Stu_N says:
          3 Oct3 October 23:22

          £50 of Amazon vouchers bought this evening in a Tesco in Edinburgh and activated an hour or so later, no problem at all.

          • Dave G says:
            4 Oct4 October 00:14

            I just bought £200 from another Tesco store which I haven’t been to in a couple of years no problem at all. So either there is a problem with the other two stores systems specifically or they were just trying to get rid of me.

  • Fenny says:
    3 Oct3 October 21:11

    Looks great if you spend a lot with the high discount outlets. Of these, I don’t spend sufficient with any of the companies who do more than about 5%. I could be tempted by that kind of discount at Virgin wines, or if I could pay my Cineworld Unlimited subscription by gift card.

  • Bryan says:
    3 Oct3 October 21:31

    Can you load it with an amex card?

    • Alan says:
      3 Oct3 October 21:40

      Looks like can only load with debit card and 40p charge for any reloads under £200 🙁

  • Boris the Enumerator says:
    3 Oct3 October 22:20

    I make that £200k.

    Hope it was a good car 🙂

    • Andrew says:
      4 Oct4 October 09:17

      Oops, yes. 400 £50 vouchers.

      They were a right swine to count out.

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