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Bits: how to beat Travelex’s new delivery fees, three good points deals with The Economist

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News in brief:

Travelex increasing its delivery fees on smaller orders

Travelex relaunched as an Avios partner a couple of weeks ago.  You can now earn points – but only when you buy in advance via this special link – on your foreign currency orders.

Travelex lets you pre-order over 40 currencies and collection is available with as little as four hours notice.

This is what you need to know:

Collect 1 Avios for every £1 when exchanging over £300

Collect 1 Avios for every £2 when exchanging below £300

You must pre-order via the Travelex website here, for airport collection, for Travelex store collection or delivery

You can credit your Avios to BA, Iberia Plus or avios.com

Avios will be added within 14 days of collection or delivery

On 30th July, Travelex is changing its fee structure for home delivery and ‘click and collect’ and not in a good way.

The key changes are:

The minimum order for free home delivery increases from £500 to £600

‘Click and Collect’ orders under £500 will incur a fee, whilst at present anything over £100 is free

Home delivery fees are increased sharply on orders under £600

If you want to pre-order some currency and earn Avios, I recommend ordering before 30th July if you want under £600.  Do compare rates with the non-Avios Travelex site first as they can differ.

Travelex

More points-earning opportunities with The Economist

The Economist continues to throw out interesting miles and points-related subscription offers in every direction.

The current British Airways offer expires on 31st July.  This (see here) gets you 8,800 Avios with a £179 one-year print and digital subscription.  2-year, print only and digital only deals are available too.

There was, last night, an Iberia offer still showing online with 13,200 Avios.  This appears to have been a mistake, however, as it pulled very early this morning and replaced with a 4,400 Avios offer.

Accor is also running an offer.  You will receive 6,000 Le Club AccorHotels points with a £179 subscription.  Assuming you use them for hotel stays, the points are worth €120 off a future trip.  This is more than 50% of your fee returned.

Whilst you should always take professional advice, most self-employed people should be able to argue that a subscription to The Economist is a tax deductible business purchase which brings the net price down even further.

A 2-year subscription is £315 which, for a self employed person paying 40% tax, would net out at £189.  The 12,000 Accor points received, which have no monetary value as per the rules of the scheme, would get you €240 (£212) of free nights, so you are effectively being paid £33 for taking up the offer …..

Accor Live Limitless update – April 2024:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Category

Accor Live Limitless, British Airways and Avios, Iberia and Iberia Plus

Comments (30)

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

  • Simon Schus says:
    21 Jul21 July 04:25

    Re: the Iberia offer. It mentions that “In order to qualify for the Avios in this offer, you must maintain your subscription for at least one year. This subscription is non-refundable, except if you are a resident in the EU, in which case you may cancel your subscription in the first 14 days and get a refund for any part of your subscription that has not already been delivered (for the print element) or published (for any digital element) before you cancelled.” (though I’m viewing it in the USA at the moment, so the wording might be different).

    Are the points expected to post soon after purchase, or at the end of the subscription year?

    • Simon Schus says:
      21 Jul21 July 04:27

      Nope, just checked on a UK-based VPN. The wording is the same.

      I’m weighing up whether this deal is ‘worth it’ versus simply doing an BA Avios booking, but reducing the points paid by paying more.

      • Genghis says:
        21 Jul21 July 06:38

        Points post normally 40 days after sign up. Not read the specifics of this Iberia deal though I am tempted.

      • JamesB says:
        21 Jul21 July 11:03

        If there is any chance you might want to cancel the flight don’t use the cash and avios option.

        • Simon Schus says:
          21 Jul21 July 17:04

          It is for a close-in flight I’d want to take, i.e. same/next day/within the next two days, so if I book it then I’m unlikely to want to cancel. I’d probably book it 2 days in advance just so I can try to keep the 24 hour cancellation period which is void within 24 hours prior to flight.

    • Rob says:
      21 Jul21 July 09:16

      You get the points after 14 days, but it won’t take a year (unless you are very unlucky!).

  • Clive says:
    21 Jul21 July 06:04

    Economist/Iberia deal looks good but the last Economist Avios deal I used was such a multi-week headache to chase up, I couldn’t face it again.

  • Lee says:
    21 Jul21 July 06:13

    So with the money, better to currently order two orders of under 300 than one of 600. Odd.

  • Graeme says:
    21 Jul21 July 07:05

    Somewhat frustrating that the buy back option doesn’t appear to be available when using the Avios link, but is still active when simply going via Travelex’s home page. That would also be an option to get around any delivery fees had it been available, if anyone was thinking the same as I was.

  • S says:
    21 Jul21 July 07:07

    Is there any way to postpone the start date of the Economist subscription? Mine expires in October so would be good to avoid the overlap.

    • Rob says:
      21 Jul21 July 09:11

      These offers seem very common at the moment so I don’t think you’re risking much by waiting until October.

  • Al says:
    21 Jul21 July 07:25

    Noticed that the US version is 13200 Avios for USD190 (£146) – Would it be safe to put a random US address for delivery, and switch over say after the Avios have posted?

    • Sohan says:
      21 Jul21 July 09:49

      I changed my country/address mid subscription last time and there was no problem

      • Al says:
        21 Jul21 July 10:28

        How “mid-subscription” must it be? 😛 I’m thinking of switching the moment my Avios post – not sure if this would be an issue

    • Rosina says:
      21 Jul21 July 10:05

      Could I have please the link to the 13200 Avios for 190 USD, can’t find it, thanks

  • Genghis says:
    21 Jul21 July 11:03

    I’m sure when I checked the Iberia Economist link this morning is showed 13,200 avios. Now it only shows 4,400 avios unless I’m missing something?

    • JamesB says:
      21 Jul21 July 11:10

      +1, I looked this morning after reading article as I was considering it, just checked after reading your comment and it is down.

    • AlexT says:
      21 Jul21 July 12:49

      Think it has gone down… DAMN! Was going to renew my subscription….

      • Genghis says:
        21 Jul21 July 12:52

        @Economist If you’re reading this, you might want to put the offer back up to 13,200 avios. Seems like you’ve got three customers waiting here to bite…

        • AlexT says:
          21 Jul21 July 12:56

          Something tells me it was precisely due to HFP subscribers that this lapsed “offer” has been corrected…

          • Nick says:
            21 Jul21 July 13:17

            If anyone sees that the offer comes back up can they reply to this thread please!

  • KP says:
    21 Jul21 July 21:03

    Do you think I could get the bA offer with student discount on the subscription ?

    • KP says:
      21 Jul21 July 21:06

      Nvm i just checked and you cant. Only ‘regular’ option is available

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