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Bits: 3600 Avios with new £75 LEGO deal, Sunday Times £30 deal working again

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News in brief:

3,600 Avios with £75 LEGO City spend

Tesco Direct has launched a fantastic new LEGO deal.

As you can see here, you will will earn 1,500 bonus Clubcard points (worth 3,600 Avios or 3,750 Virgin Flying Club miles) if you spend £75 on LEGO City products by Monday night.

With Christmas getting ever closer, this could be a good time to stock up.

The Sunday Times Travel Magazine £30 code working again

The confusing on-going saga of The Sunday Times Travel Magazine Avios subscription promotion continues.

I won’t go into it all again although the latest developments were discussed here.

Yesterday I was told by two people that telephone agents are telling callers that the promotion is now totally cancelled, despite being featured across two pages of the current issue.  However, the good news is that – at least as at 10pm last night – the old code of STTM0916 is working again.  This will get you a 12-month subscription and 4,500 Avios for £30.

The link to subscribe is here.  I would jump in quickly if you are interested.


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.

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.

Comments (47)

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

  • Craig Scott says:

    Just completed STTM subscription. Says the 4500 avios still available. Careful when copy and pasting the code. You need to backspace to make it valid. Now looking forward to some good reading and inspiration of where to go using my increasing bank of avios.

  • Cristiano says:

    Guys,
    i’m quite new in collecting Avios and moved to the UK recently.
    I just received a message from STTM saying that who subscribed after Oct 11th won’t receive Avios.

    “Thank you again for contacting us regarding your subscription to the Sunday Times Travel magazine.
    Again unfortunately we received confirmation from the publishers of the magazine and Avios that the cut off date for the Avios promotion was the 11th October 2016. Your subscription was processed on our system on the 22nd October 2016.
    We do apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused, however if we can be of any further assistance then please do not hesitate to contact us again.”

    So how is it possible that I have (as others here I understand) a print screen stating I’ll receive them?
    Is there any way to proceed or should I stop the DD?
    Hopefully this will help others too.

    • Justin says:

      Anyone have any update on this? I too have seen it is working (and have taken subscription), are they really denying the Avios?

    • Johnnycl says:

      If you’ve got a screen shot saying you’ll receive the Avios bonus then I’d kick up he’ll if they’re trying to back out of it. Have you sent them the screenshot? Might be worth making contact directly with The Times newspaper subscription team as it sounds like the magazine subs are through a 3rd party.

      Failing that I’d cancel as you’re within the 2 weeks for distance selling regs (presumably apply here?) and lodge a complaint with ASA.

      • Cristiano says:

        Unfortunately guys the situation is the following:

        I called the customer service and they deny the Avios saying that the T&C were saying that the offer was due on October 11th.
        I have anyway a screenshot of the receipt stating the 4500 Avios and also if you call the Customer Service they offer still the Avios and you can subscribe also via phone.
        So when i called it as scam because they would take the money then after 28 days they wouldn’t communicate that clients wouldn’t receive Avios they said they will let me know…..
        I’m new in UK and not used to the legal system here but as far as i know it should be still valid the offer if it’s still advertised on phone and i have a receipt stating that the code was still working (on October 22nd)…
        Any help?

        I’m quite angry that they actually are doing a proper scam on clients and they refuse to give any help apart saying that they can’t do anything, when i asked to talk to a supervisor they refused as well.

        • the real harry says:

          The October magazine has a 2 page advert offering the 4500 Avios…for the whole of October applications

          Phone again & be pleasant

          • Cristiano says:

            Looks like i’m not the only one here with this problem that subscribed after October 11th.
            I already both emailed and called and they said i couldn’t get (as well as the others) the Avios and the publisher is not giving them anymore.

            On the phone i tried to explain that I have both the recording of the advertising on the phone (people can still subscribe on the phone even if they will never get the Avios) and the screenshot as confirm of my order.

            They simply said that I will not receive the Avios. Nothing else. I can only receive the refund. It means they advertised a scam (at least this is how i call this).

          • the real harry says:

            and try & be pleasant

            my wife still thinks being clever, snotty & condescending is a good technique when complaining (because it seems to work in her country)

            not in the UK, buddy 🙂

  • Cristiano says:

    Harry,
    I already emailed them and called their customer service.
    I started asking help on how to fix the problem, but they immediately said they didn’t mind and that i simply weren’t going to get Avios. I had to ask in case if they would cancel my Direct Debit and they wanted to do it to close the case quite quickly without giving the Avios.

    • the real harry says:

      they allowed people who made multiple applications (before the terms & conditions were changed) to get their entitlement, ie n x 4500 points

      they changed the T&Cs, restricting households to 1 bonus

      they made the promotion less favourable, making 1 bonus more expensive

      they have shown that they respect their own T&Cs but are worried about the marketing cost = they have told agents to say no

      I suggest that if you are insistent & have screenshots, you will end up getting your bonus entitlement

  • Kris says:

    I was waiting until I moved house and none of the promo codes for the Times seems to be working. Any one else had any luck recently?

    • Rob says:

      They have withdrawn it (again) and are claiming that it was a ‘mistake’ it was working last weekend. Some are having their subscriptions withdrawn.

  • Mark says:

    I applied under the 4500 point promotion on 28th September. Have had the first issue and DD taken. No Avios. E-mail sent but not holding my breath for a quick (or satisfactory) resolution.

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