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Get bonus Avios and Virgin Flying Club miles from Tesco via the Pay+ app

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I wanted to flag up this offer again today as it is a few months since we mentioned it and it is valid until the end of the year.

Tesco has a smartphone payment app called Pay+ (previously PayQwiq, a name that was dropped when they realised no-one could remember how to spell it).

It is Tesco’s payment app which let’s you pay your shopping and automatically collect Clubcard points.  Pay+ works a bit like Apple Pay or Android Pay, but with the added benefit of automatically adding your Clubcard number to the transaction so you don’t need to dig out your blue card.

To encourage people to try Pay+, until 31st December 2018 you will get 1 extra Clubcard point for every £4 spent in Tesco.  This is a decent offer, worth an extra 0.6 Avios per £1 or 0.625 Virgin Flying Club miles for every £1 of Tesco shopping you do.  It is a bit of a faff to set up Pay+ but once you’ve done it you’re good to earn bonus miles for the next five months.

You can read more about Pay + here. You will still receive all your usual loyalty points from your credit card too.

how to earn avios from credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (June 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards:

British Airways American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and a companion voucher for spending £20,000 Read our full review

BA Premium Plus American Express card BAPP

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

Nectar American Express

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

American Express Platinum card Amex

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

We also recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company 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.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

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

Comments (139)

  • BJ says:
    28 Jul28 July 15:40

    Fairly typical offer from MBNA. Better options on both interest fee transfers and spending elsewhere.

    • Alan says:
      29 Jul29 July 08:19

      Obviously wouldn’t use for transfers as they have 3.5% fee, but given I’ve got ~£30k limit between MBNA accounts (which they’re happy to combine), it’s a significant chunk that could be locked away at 0%.

  • Wally1976 says:
    28 Jul28 July 15:49

    OT – is it acceptable to use 2 x £15 on Priority Pass (from Amex Plat) at the Grain Store (LGW) eating it in then use the same PP card to purchase another 2 x £15 worth of stuff to take on the plane??

    • Rob says:
      28 Jul28 July 16:07

      No

      • Wally1976 says:
        28 Jul28 July 21:00

        Isn’t it just the same as using your PP to enter a lounge, leave for a bit then re-enter?

        • the real harry1 says:
          29 Jul29 July 07:05

          Different business model – ie I went into No1 T3 with my 3 kids on the way out last week – they ate plenty, drank a few cans of pop (& smuggled out a few more for the plane, I think their tally was about 15 ‘liberated’! 🙂 – but even so they didn’t consume more than about £15 each – whereas my score must have been about £25-30 – and for every lounge user like me, there must be 5 people who are there for the peace & quiet as much as the odd G&T. So leaving the lounge to look around the shops & coming back later doesn’t really affect consumption (& the lounge’s costs).

          Whereas the Grain Store works on £15 limit as that tallies with what it can recover from PP. If you could scan a PP card twice and the GS got 2x £15, I suppose that would be fine. But my assumption is, you can’t scan twice.

  • Chelseafi says:
    28 Jul28 July 16:10

    As the MR points to SPG is blocked until 8th Aug, do you think I can still get points in Marriott account in time to make a booking before the rise of points on 18th Aug? I have done a successful transfer to SPG 2 months ago, so account linked so it’s usually quicker, what do you think? Also are you able to make booking on current rate to lock it in if points haven’t gone through before 18th Aug, it’s for a booking summer 19? Thanks

    • Rob says:
      28 Jul28 July 16:42

      You can book 350 days ahead I think, assuming the hotel has loaded reward availability that far out.

      I get a feeling the suspension may last until 18th to stop confusion over the transfer rates. Why open it up on the 8th?

      • Chelseafi says:
        28 Jul28 July 17:02

        Thanks, so yes I have managed to book one room for July 19 7 nights with my TP but I need two rooms now or a bigger room (its Domes of Elounda), as we are 2 adults and 2 boys aged 20 & 18. The family room I have booked says 3 adults & 1 child under 12. Now I’ve shown the boys what I have booked, they have said yes they can come!! So are you saying Rob we can book now with points yet in account for the 45k pn? The other option I would like to look at is checking with hotel to see what they could offer for an upgrade for 4 adults in one room.

        • Rachael says:
          29 Jul29 July 14:54

          We are going with 2 adults and 1×19 and 1 x16 so I can let you know as we have done the same booking. We are going the end of August and are gold but probably platinum by then.

  • Eugene says:
    28 Jul28 July 16:19

    On the Tesco Pay + deal..
    The T&Cs state you cant get double points on any awarded points gotten thru a Tesco Credit Card. Fair enough. However.. I have a Tesco Premium Mastercard which gives 1 C.Card point extra per £ spent. So the question is, If I pay using Pay + will I get the two points I normally get from using that card instore AND another point per £4 spend?

    I asked the Tesco Bank helpline , but Amex Customer Service its not. I gave up after 4 times trying to get a coherent response.

    • Go says:
      28 Jul28 July 21:41

      Yes. I use pay+ with my tesco current account card and get 1 point for using the card, 1 as the clubcard and 1 for every £4 spent

  • Eric the Half a Bee says:
    28 Jul28 July 16:56

    O/T – Rob, you have been mentioned over on OMAAT in relation to the IB 90k promo Avios now being freely available to transfer to BA. Good news for those that may be struggling to redeem within the IB program.

  • Aaron says:
    28 Jul28 July 17:13

    Hi, sorry for OT question.

    We’re currently sitting in Heathrow waiting for a BA flight to Bangkok. It’s been steadily getting more and more delayed and has now reached three hours late.

    I was just wondering what our eligibility will be like for delay compensation, given that this is a reward flight, using a BA Amex 2-4-1 voucher (not the best redemption I know, but the only one which suited us)? Are we entitled to anything? Only for the paid for flight maybe?

    • Rob says:
      28 Jul28 July 19:11

      Under EU law you are both entitled to Euro 600 and BA will pay it within a week of you submitting the online form. Avios makes no difference.

      • Aaron says:
        28 Jul28 July 19:24

        Thanks Rob, that’s great to hear and I appreciate the quick response. Although isn’t it 300 rather than 600 unless it reaches 4 hours? Or have I misunderstood that part?

    • RIccatti says:
      29 Jul29 July 03:33

      It is delay ON ARRIVAL time (vs scheduled arrival).

      I had situations when Virgin caught up in the air and landed minutes just under 3 hours delay on arrival. No compensation.

      • @mkcol says:
        29 Jul29 July 14:19

        It’s not the landing time which counts though, it’s the time the cabin door opens to allow disembarkation which counts. You may land 10 minutes under the 3 hours but then sit there 15 minutes or so fannying around waiting on a gate/stairs. Bingo!

      • Aaron says:
        30 Jul30 July 19:56

        Landed just under 5 hours late, have lodged a claim for the two of us for what hopefully should be EUR600 each.

        Will update when I hear back on the off chance anyone is interested.

  • Crafty says:
    28 Jul28 July 23:01

    OT: Hilton; stayed 2 rooms on 1 night. Points for 1 room only, which I assume is the policy.

    In future is there any way to work this so I get the points for both rooms?

  • Nick says:
    31 Jul31 July 14:26

    Tesco Pay + doesn’t work in over 1/2 the self scan tills …the older ones.
    This occurs in Brooklands and Guildford stores, so I assume it is a national problem.

    They are promoting this service via email to customers and it doesn’t seem work in all the tills
    D’OH tesco

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