How to earn Avios with your Caffe Nero coffee and other High Street retailers

Avios wants you to hit the high street and earn Avios from your in-store purchases.

Sounds familiar? We were also confused by Avios’ announcement. Do they not have a partnership with Bink to do exactly the same thing?

Two weeks ago we ran a competition with Bink to promote their new app which lets you earn Avios points when shopping at Pizza Express, with more retailers and companies soon(ish).

Now Avios has launched their own in-store loyalty initiative, an addition to their e-store, with nine shops included so far.   If you have signed up with Bink you still need to register separately for this new Avios initiative – and vice versa.

The idea is simple:

1. register your payment card on the Avios website
2. shop in specific stores, paying with your registered card
3. have Avios deposited directly into your avios.com account, based on what you spent

The retailers where you can earn Avios in store are:

American Golf (5 Avios/£1 in store – and 3 Avios/£1 online via e-store)

Barrhead Travel (2 Avios/£1 in store only)

Blue Inc (5 Avios/£1 in store – and 4 Avios/£1 online via e-store)

Caffe Nero (10 Avios/£1 in store only – obviously!)

Ernest Jones (3 Avios/£1 in store – and 7 Avios/£1 online via e-store)

H. Samuel (3 Avios/£1 in store – and 7 Avios/£1 online via e-store)

Habitat (5 Avios/£1 in store – and 2 Avios/£1 online via e-store)

Heal’s (2 Avios/£1 in store – 6 Avios/£1 online via e-store)

Officers Club (5 Avios/£1 in store only)

Did you notice the amount of Avios awarded?

I would have thought that those retailers that are on the e-store as well as taking part in the in-store programme would award at least the same amount of Avios to promote this new offer. Looking at H. Samuel, Ernest Jones and Heal’s this is not the case.

Given that the in-store rate is weak, compared to purchasing online, at H. Samuel, Ernest Jones and Heal’s, the most valuable partner seems to be Caffe Nero.

After all 10 Avios for every £1 spent can substantially improve the mileage account of a coffee addict ……

If you do want to collect Avios in-store with those retailers, you need to register your payment card and wait 24 hours before making your first purchase.

Once you have bought something, your Avios will show as ‘pending’ in the e-store within 7 days.  Purchases will be approved within 35 days and once approved will show in your avios.com account within 24 hours.

The best thing about these offers is that you can register your cards at the Avios site and then forget about it.  If you end up buying a coffee at Nero in three months time, when you have totally forgotten that this deal exists, you will still get the Avios.

Overall though, I’m not sure what the Avios agenda is here, given that they are providing competition for their existing partner Bink ……