Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Earn double Tesco Clubcard points on Esso Synergy Supreme+ premium fuels

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Tesco and Esso have brought back double Clubcard points with Synergy Supreme + premium fuels.

Until 31st August 2018, filling up your tank with Esso Synergy Supreme+ premium fuels will give you double the standard amount of Clubcard points.

These can be converted into Avios or Virgin Flying Club via the Tesco Clubcard website.

You can read more about this offer and the – complicated – Esso / Clubcard relationship on the Esso website.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (October 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

Get 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

30,000 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 great travel benefits – for a large 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

10,000 points bonus – plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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

Up to 80,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

Get up to 40,000 points as a sign-up offer 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 (93)

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

  • Stephan says:

    OT Platinum Travel Insurance. Is anyone aware of what the policy is for pregnant women? Wife and I are planning travelling in a couple of weeks and many policy don’t provide coverage beyond a certain weeks before due date for pregnant people but on the T&Cs for Platinum Travel Insurance there is no mention of the word pregnancy/pregnant/birth/born and even the person on the chat couldn’t find anything specific which seems to suggest it potentially covers birth outside the UK??

    Plan on calling them this morning but thought I’d the off chance I’d see if anyone had come across this before

    • Courtster says:

      I’ve replied to you with a couple of links that haven’t been moderated yet.

      I’ve spent weeks trying to find travel insurance that covers mum and prem newborn if something was going to happen abroad when we’re away in the NY for a couple of nights when 33 weeks – normal travel insurance doesn’t mention all the things you outline above because childbirth is not an illness. If you are pregnant you are going to have a baby at some point.

      That said, I’ve found 2 places that specifically mention pregnancy and childbirth. You’ll have to search for these, as I can’t add links:

      IHI BUPA Global Travel Insurance – Although I have it in writing that they only cover the mother, the newborns medical costs would not be covered. NICU costs can add up!

      Ravenhall Risk Solutions “MamAtoB” Travel Insurance – Covers everything, including newborn.

      Hope this helps

      • Courtster says:

        Also, I believe that if you were to take out one of these policies for your wife you should take it out too as otherwise you will not be able to claim on your standard policy for delays/accommodation/rebooked flights etc caused by premature childbirth

        • Stephan says:

          Thanks Courtster. I was aware of the MamAtoB insurance but only read about people signing up but not necessarily having to claim. Interesting regarding Bupa although the limitations as you mentioned could make the additional medical costs pricey! My wife will be just below 32 weeks so I thinking of going with StaySure as it seems to cover up to 8 weeks of the due date. I just thought the Platinum Travel Insurance may have be useful as we plan on upgrading, just surprised it didn’t mention pregnancy whatsoever.

          Also, as we are travelling within the EU I got the EHIC as an additional backup.

        • Stephan says:

          Just got off the phone with the insurance provider for the Platinum Travel Insurance and from my understanding is that it would cover the costs if the doctor gives the go ahead and it is within the airline policy. The reason they don’t have it specifically in their policy is because they consider an early pregnancy or issues with the pregnancy a ‘medical condition’

    • Jo says:

      Hmmm I had flights booked during my 39th week (booked before I knew abt it) – Amex plat reimbursed me no questions asked.

    • Anna says:

      Make sure you get a good policy, there was a case on TV recently where the woman had her baby very prematurely in the Dominican Republic and although they had insurance it would only cover them for treatment at the local public hospital where the facilities weren’t ideal.

  • Mud Island Mlungu says:

    OT Curve card should be reintroducing Amex back into service in the next 6 months.

    • Genghis says:

      Interesting. What’s your source? Is this part of a paid for package with hotel statuses?

      • Alan says:

        Indeed would be interested to know – still talking about it in the Curve Community but no dates yet.

        • Matt says:

          Curve community? Where is that? I can only see the (not very useful) blog

        • Alan says:

          @Matt it’s their beta community – occasionally get early releases. I’ve been part of it for about a year, sorry can’t remember how I signed up now! They run a Slack group with it. If you’re keen then ask Rob to put us in touch and I can ask them if the’ll add you.

    • Simon B says:

      now that would be great news!

    • N says:

      Source?

      I tweeted asking about the monthly fee option that was discussed in comments a few weeks ago and their reply was “We have no plans to change our free product and if we change our premium product – we’ll tell you far in advance”

      Is <6 months considered "far in advance"? Maybe?

      • Rob says:

        Curve has been emailing some users with surveys on what sort of pricing package they would accept for a card which worked with Amex ….

        • Alan says:

          Yep, remember that chat before – wasn’t sure if Mud Island Mlungu had some new intel? Would be great if it happened! 😛

  • Claire says:

    O/T it’s no longer possible to use an IHG credit card to top up Revolut, they now treat it as a cash advance. My card also wouldn’t work on Curve last week but not sure if that was a one-off.

    • Mikee says:

      I just made a £5 top-up to Revolut using my new Virgin Atlantic credit card and am waiting to see if that posts as a transaction or cash as advance.

      • DaveA says:

        I’ve done a few transfers from Virgin Atlantic Rewards Card to Revolut and it’s always been treated as a purchase.

    • Peter K says:

      Were you charged a fee? I last topped up on 24th July and was not charged an fee but wonder now if interest is accruing.

      • Optimus Prime says:

        In my experience Creation doesn’t add in the fee to your transactions until the statement is generated. Other credit card providers such as Barclaycard and Lloyds do so within 24-48 hours.

    • Frenzie says:

      This has been h case for a while (months).

    • Tony says:

      I topped up Revolut £175 with my creation IHG card on 20 July. My statement has since been generated and I had no cash advance fee or interest charged.

      When did you get charged a fee?

      • David says:

        Interest will be on your statement at the bottom and the £3 handling fee is charged a few days after top up.

        • Tony says:

          I have double checked the statement. It shows the Revolut transaction but no interest and no £3 fee. I have topped up about once a month for the past few months and never been charged.

        • David says:

          They just started, as of 20th of this month I think but yes it was free in the past but now you will pay 3% + interest.

        • Alan says:

          Still no fee showing for me from a top-up 1/52 ago…

    • Louise says:

      Is the trick to top up with curve rather than the ihg card?

      • DaveA says:

        I’ve done that in the past but Revolut add a 1.3% charge if you top up with Curve

    • Phil says:

      My curve is linked to my IHG and always works for me (today included)

  • Craig says:

    OT: Should BA buy on board receive double Avios?

    • Nick says:

      No, because the payment goes to (and is processed by) Tourvest, not BA. It’s been the same for duty free since well before buy-on-board came in at all.

  • Benylin says:

    OT: Sorry new to tbis so bare with my amateur question. I have a Gold Charge card, now going to upgrade to Platinum via the popular link. I will then hit the spending amount pretty quickly, and also refer a few people. Then I want to cancel asap to reduce the annual fee charge.
    1) will I lose all my amex points immediately? Or is there a grace period for holding the points in your account before you are forced to spend them.
    2) if I open a BA Amex via self refer before I close, can I keep my Amex points (in Amex currency not Avios)?

    I want to leave in Amex points format to retain flexibility.

    • Peter K says:

      1. You should have 30 days to spend the points after cancelling but safer to use them before cancelling as your online account is locked and you will need to ring to try to use them.
      2. No, you cannot port your points across. If you don’t use them you will lose them. You can’t store membership reward points on a non-membership rewards card.
      To keep MR points you need a platinum, gold or green card. But having one stops the 6 month countdown before you can get another sign-up bonus.

    • Matt B says:

      Neither of us has ever been charged any fee from upgrading the gold charge to plat, on my last churn I kept it for about 4 months and when cancelling they made no mention of it. In fact they sent me 3 letters afterwards about them owing me £5 due to an overpayment cock up they caused.

  • Go says:

    3 deal only seems to be for outbound flight. Not sure how it would work on one way flights (I assume it works) and how they would keep a track of it on returns

    • Alan says:

      When I read it a few weeks ago I thought it was only for UK airports?

  • Michael says:

    Is anybody still receiving the Sunday Times travel magazine even though they cancelled and haven’t been charged (for the second time)

    • Robman says:

      I am.

      • the real harry1 says:

        nope they cancelled my 7 subs at the correct time, perhaps got 1 freebie x7 but that was it

    • Nick says:

      I am as well

      • Rob says:

        No, ours dried up. Just the (unrequested) joys of Buying Business Travel now …

    • Sandra says:

      Not now but after a hassle. Cancelled well on time online but continued to receive the magazine. Checked my bank account for confirmation but didn’t check well enough. After receiving another few “free” magazines it transpired they had reinstated the direct debit (one per year) under a different reference number and a different recipient. It took several phone calls with assurances to refund to no avail before a visit to my bank solved it and money refunded. Bank said this kind of thing is not unusual with magazine subscriptions.

    • john says:

      Yes.. I was getting it, cancelled sub, cancelled the direct-debit and was still getting sent it. I e-mailed them to cancel it as I had moved and they were sending it to my old address and I was cancelling the redirection. When I did that they said I was due a refund, claimable via either Cheque or BACS. I decided I’d let them keep it since I felt a bit bad getting a refund for something I hadn’t even paid for! Their IT systems are obviously worse than BA’s! Not sure if they are still sending it to my old address though…?

  • Jeff Deeprose says:

    OT, can anybody advise how long it takes for points from a cancelled rewards flight to return
    to the account? thanks in advance

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