Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

No more easy Avios or Virgin Flying Club miles via Tesco Direct as its closure is announced

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Tesco has surprised the market today by announcing that it is closing Tesco Direct on 9th July.

Whilst some products will continue to be sold via the Grocery website, it is very likely that we have seen the end of the generous points bonanzas of the past – although, to be fair, pickings have been slim over the last couple of years. 

This was always of great interest to Avios and Virgin Flying Club collectors due to the ability to transfer Clubcard points into airline miles.

Feel free to share your best Tesco Direct points deal in the comments!


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 (49)

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

  • Liz says:

    I bought a new Dyson hoover a couple of years ago when the 5000 CC pts offer was on.

  • Claire says:

    Slight OT. I received a letter from Tesco Bank just before saying they’re going to start charging 3.99% handling fee for any transactions from my Tesco Credit Card to ‘payments to prepaid of virtual cards’ – so does this affect payments made on my Tesco card via Curve or am I misunderstanding completely?

    • The Urbanite says:

      Sounds like a cash advance type charge if you’re topping up prepaid cards – and they’ll probably stop awarding points too if they do so currently.

    • Rob says:

      Curve is fine. Revolut, Monzo etc not fine.

      • Steve says:

        Rob how do you know that? I also got the letter because it says I have made these kinds of transactions before but I’ve only ever used Curve on it not any prepaid ones nor any of the other transaction types listed

        • Rob says:

          Because I chat to the Curve CEO on a regular basis. For 2 days, Mastercard was accidentally coding Curve transactions wrongly. Go back through your statements and look at the MCC code listed by each transaction. You may see a day where the MCC code changes. The code used in error is the one used by Revolut etc which is why Tesco things you are using Revolut.

        • James knox says:

          I’ve been charged a cash withdrawal fee on my tesco card after using curve to withdraw cash from ATM. Just dropped the curve team a note to find out if they can help. Also tried going back in time to change to another card. Been happily using this system for a while…

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

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