Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

What we know about the new Clubcard conversion offers for British Airways and Virgin Atlantic

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Tesco Clubcard points from the last collection period should now be showing online at tesco.com.

If you are thinking of where to convert, we now have an inkling of what is available in terms of incentives:

If you convert to Avios via an avios.com account, you will be entered into a competition.  Every £2.50 you convert gets you one entry.  Two people will win 50000 Avios, three people will win 25000 Avios and 150 people will win 5500 Avios.  The deadline to convert to be entered is 28th February.  Details are here.

Tesco Clubcard conversion offers

If you convert to Avios via a BA account …. we don’t know.  I am willing to bet on British Airways offering a competition of some sorts but the details may not appear for a day or so.  You may want to hold off converting until you can compare the two.

If you convert to Virgin Flying Club, there appears to be a 20% conversion bonus.  I stress ‘appears’ because – whilst people who auto-convert to Virgin seem to have had a 20% bonus applied – there is no mention yet on either the Clubcard or Virgin Atlantic websites.  I would expect full details in a few days.  Keep an eye on the Virgin / Tesco website page here.

Personally ….. I am converting to Uber at the moment.  It is a ‘genuine’ 3x face value deal and our Uber spend is fairly high.  My choice is converting every £10 of vouchers into either £30 of Uber credit or 2400 Avios or 2500 Virgin miles.   This means I would be ‘paying’ 1.25p per Avios or 1.2p per Virgin mile (1p with the 20% bonus) if I took those instead and I’m not willing to pay that.

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

British Airways and Avios, Tesco Clubcard, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (119)

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

  • James says:
    5 Feb5 February 08:48

    I manually converted Clubcard vouchers to Virgin miles and got the 20% bonus.

    • Catalan says:
      5 Feb5 February 09:35

      James, can you remember what date you did the manual conversion and when it was added to your account? Thanks

    • thomas says:
      5 Feb5 February 19:51

      Me too.. Did the transfer on Saturday. Points and 25% in account Monday morning.

  • John says:
    5 Feb5 February 08:50

    MR to Hilton 50% bonus – has anyone who transferred in early Jan received it yet?

  • Brian says:
    5 Feb5 February 09:22

    Remember that Hilton is also offering 2,000 Honors points per stay at the moment – single-night stays are therefore pretty lucrative.

  • JP says:
    5 Feb5 February 10:17

    OT: If you’re on the old style “self employed only” Curve card and you lose your card and have to get a replacement one, does anyone yet know if the replacement card you get issued will be one of the new-style debit cards, rather than old style with the business credit card fee?

    • Leo says:
      5 Feb5 February 10:31

      I think the safest thing to do is to actually request that it’s a debit type. When I “re-applied” last week after cancelling the original card eons ago I was first sent the self-employed original type, so they are still sending them out. I then asked for a debit card instead which was sent with no fuss. It’s been of little use to me paying HMRC however but that’s another story.

    • Ed Chrome says:
      5 Feb5 February 10:45

      You don’t need to lose your card just tell them you want to switch.

      Me and other Director had old card now I replaced mine with Debit version (still corporate) any reason to keep the other as the old version? as in any advantage of the old business credit version against the new Debit version?

      Thanks,

      • Kevin says:
        5 Feb5 February 11:01

        Yes I asked to switch. They got back to me very quickly and are sending me the debit version. Old card was switched off immediately so worth bearing in mind in case you want to make purchases in the interim.

      • Rob says:
        5 Feb5 February 11:02

        Seems not but you never quite know with Curve. There is also going to be some sort of reward scheme on the consumer version launching in a few weeks but we haven’t had visibility yet.

  • Reeferman says:
    5 Feb5 February 10:23

    OT (Bits)
    Anyone had any experience of using 2 Lloyds upgrade vouchers to/from USA but booked at separate times (as-and-when the flights open-up at T-355)? Do you get stung for the higher taxes/fees that apply when booking separately or do AVIOS work out a way to combine the booking and only charge the r.t. taxes/fees (as per the BA 2-4-1 voucher when used in the same way)?

    • roberto says:
      5 Feb5 February 15:11

      Unfortunately its treated as two booking and you pay (slightly) more for the privilege. The only other option is risking until the returns come out and (a) phoning or (b) booking two returns.

      • roberto says:
        5 Feb5 February 15:13

        Virgin “stiffed” me to not repricing two one ways into one return recently FWIW..

        • Reeferman says:
          5 Feb5 February 16:53

          Thanks Roberto – I feared that might be the case. Seems it’s an extra £425/£450 in total for 2 people in J.

  • Nick says:
    5 Feb5 February 10:37

    Can someone please clarify a detail for me regarding Hilton Honors settings for “Points & Points” and “Points & Miles”.

    Is the setting you have on your account at the time of your booking applied by Hilton Honors when applying points/miles, or, does the setting you have on your account at the time of the stay/invoice date apply?

    This has never been an issue for me before, but I have a couple of stays coming up which were booked some months ago and I’d welcome the clarification. Thanks!

    • Rob says:
      5 Feb5 February 11:03

      I think in theory it is at point of check-out but others have different experiences.

    • TripRep says:
      5 Feb5 February 12:08

      For bookings made a while ago I tend to clarify with the receptionist and if necesary change it to the setting I desire at the time of stay to maxmise the current active promo etc.

    • Alan says:
      6 Feb6 February 13:05

      It works very reliably – changes to P+M vs P+P earning preference can be set up until 23:59 Mountain Time on the day of check-out.

      For which airline programme you credit to – that is set at time of *booking* and subsequent changes to preferred programme don’t make a difference. To change post-booking either rebook (if on flexible rate and prices suit) or tell hotel reception, they have the power to manually change it.

  • Toby says:
    5 Feb5 February 11:17

    O/T

    Does anyone know if the Plaza Premium Lounge at T5 is an option for domestic flights or if its located in the international area of the terminal (if that exists?)? I am flying to NCL on Saturday and it would be good to know if I can use the lounge.

    Many Thanks

    • Caleb Wong says:
      5 Feb5 February 11:31

      There isn’t a separate area, the lounge is in T5A, so you are good to go if you are flying from T5. Just remember to go to your correct T5 A/B/C terminal for boarding.

    • Rob says:
      5 Feb5 February 11:38

      You can use it – the domestic flights go from the main terminal building anyway. Remember that only flashing an Amex Plat gets you in, not Lounge Club / Priority Pass.

      • Toby says:
        5 Feb5 February 11:54

        Thanks Rob! I was planning on using my dragonpass card as the lounge is listed on their website?

        • Rob says:
          5 Feb5 February 13:04

          Yes, Dragonpass also accepted – didn’t mention that as few people have one.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        5 Feb5 February 23:10

        Do they actually swipe/charge the AMEX Platinum card or just look at it?

        • YL says:
          6 Feb6 February 00:41

          Not sure if there have been any changes, but they swiped my card and printed a receipt when I visited in December.

    • Alan says:
      6 Feb6 February 13:06

      No international area at T5A – that’s why they have the facial recognition system, to allow domestic and international pax to be mixed in the terminal building,

  • Highland Traveller says:
    5 Feb5 February 12:04

    OT: I have 6105 On Business Points that need to be used. I have no idea whether that is enough to for example, upgrade to CE a ET flight or anything similar? Any ideas? is there a table showing redemption rates? Thanks

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