Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

You can now transfer ‘pending’ Tesco Clubcard points to Avios or Virgin Flying Club

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Most Head for Points readers know that both Avios and Virgin Flying Club are Tesco Clubcard partners.  This allows you to transfer your Clubcard points into miles instead of using them in-store.

It is a decent deal.  £1 of Tesco Clubcard vouchers converts into 240 Avios or 250 Virgin Flying Club miles.  This is substantially better value than using your Clubcard vouchers in-store for face value.

You can convert to Avios via this page of the Tesco website and to Virgin Flying Club via this page.  The points usually arrive overnight but this is not guaranteed.

To be honest, I prefer to take Uber credit rather than airline miles.  £1 of Tesco Clubcard vouchers gets you £3 of Uber and / or Uber Eats credit.  This is as good as cash to me which means that I am effectively ‘buying’ Avios for 1.25p if I choose them instead.  I don’t value them that highly.

But there was always a snag …..

Tesco only issued your Clubcard points once per quarter.  This meant that, if you had a large number of Clubcard points due to you, you had to wait up to 12 weeks to get your hands on them.  This was clearly no good if you had a redemption flight to book.

Tesco has now changed its rules.  You can request your ‘pending’ Clubcard points whenever you like.  You can then transfer them to Avios or Virgin Flying Club.

This is how it works.  I used the app – I am not sure if it is possible via the website too.  Here is a screenshot I took on Thursday morning, with 257 points pending.  I would not receive these before February if I waited.

Tesco Clubcard transfers to Avios

Click on ‘Turn your points into vouchers’ and you see this.  I can convert 250 of my 257 points immediately:

Tesco Clubcard transfers to Avios

I confirm and get this message:

Tesco Clubcard transfers to Avios

On Friday a voucher code was showing and I was able to redeem it immediately for £7.50 of Uber credit.  The code was in my inbox within 30 seconds and I could immediately add it to my Uber account.

There are some rules ….

There are a couple of points to note about this new feature.

The key one is that it is disabled for two weeks before your February, May, August and November Clubcard points statements are generated.  This is to stop you withdrawing your points in the period that Tesco is printing and posting your statement, which might mean that you ended up with two lots of points.

Secondly, using this feature requires you to opt out of receiving paper Clubcard statements.  Future statements will be sent by email.

You need at least 150 Clubcard points to request instant vouchers, but this is the same rule that was in place for triggering paper vouchers so no-one loses out here.

This is, undoubtedly, a genuine improvement to Tesco Clubcard for miles collectors.  It is just a shame that Tesco has gutted the Clubcard scheme over the last two years, especially with the closure of Tesco Direct and Tesco Wine, making it hard to run up substantial points balances.

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 (87)

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

  • Mart says:
    20 Jan20 January 11:14

    O/T question
    I was looking at booking a The Collection Hotel with my amex.
    I would be paying upfront for my stay with my amex,but do you still need to use your card at the hotel to receive the $100 credit ,was looking to cancel before the stay?

    • Rob says:
      20 Jan20 January 11:32

      Probably not but you may need an Amex to settle incidentals.

      Can you prepay Collection hotels? FHR for Plats is always pay on departure.

  • Ram says:
    20 Jan20 January 11:25

    O/T – just booked a business from Dublin to hk direct in March for 90k Avios plus £70, Good deal? live in London so will need to get to dublin before flight. Return is eco from hk to lon direct which was about 30k avios and circa £30

    • Rob says:
      20 Jan20 January 11:31

      On who?

    • TescoTease says:
      20 Jan20 January 14:46

      But no F out of Dublin on CX. I’m therefore unlikely to take advantage of the £300 saving. I recon I could consume the £ and Avios difference in Krug and caviar.

    • BJ says:
      20 Jan20 January 19:43

      Not really convinced for a number of reasons. First, are the flight times not such that you will need both a positioning flight and a hotel to guarantee your connection? Second, that wastes a lot of time if you can go direct from London. Time is money and lost time can be loss of a whole lot of other things you might well have done. Personally I’d have opted for First on BA direct from London which also comes with free seat selection which is handy if you are not silver or gold. Preflight dining in Concorde rooms means you can then get more sleep on plane which is great if you choose the later flight. Booked this from EDI last night and also a flight from HKG to BKK on CX J for Xmas. Total for both was 117k avios and £438 pp. Absolute bargain IMO, particularly given the prices of Xmas flights.

      • Leo says:
        20 Jan20 January 21:08

        I agree. I should also say that I wasn’t blown away by CX J on the a350 – I was flying out of LGW so didn’t even get the T3 lounge, and also I’m not impressed by DUB lounges. I’m always a bit of a grump about positioning flights, especially when you fly them in the “wrong” direction to start with!

        • John says:
          21 Jan21 January 07:33

          On the other hand If you can find a cheap business fare it’s 160 TPs rather than the usual 140

        • Alan says:
          21 Jan21 January 09:23

          Definitely depends on scale of saving. My £40 Norwegian flights plus points redemption at Oslo Airport definitely worth the £2k saving over EDI-LHR departure option, even with a bit of extra travel time!

  • Doug says:
    20 Jan20 January 12:19

    I don’t see ‘Turn Your Points into Vouchers’ on the app (iOS) could this be because I have previously opted to automatically turn points into Avios?

    • Dawn says:
      20 Jan20 January 13:13

      I’ve also always opted to automatically turn Avios into points because I wasn’t sure how it worked otherwise. Guess I’m not very clued up!

  • Martin Bennett says:
    20 Jan20 January 14:36

    It would be great if you swiped you card a just send your point that way. Instead we have to wait for them to turn to money.

  • Mark says:
    20 Jan20 January 15:49

    Coop points are only awarded on own-brand products not the full shop.

    • Lady London says:
      20 Jan20 January 17:19

      Can anyone confirm does a small transfer from Tesco stop Virgin points expiring? I was going to let a chunk of Virgin miles expire, but think I’d better try to stop them expiring till we see how flybe turns out. If not a tesco move ? of 250? then is there any other way of stopping Virgin points expiring without logging in to Virgin?

  • Peter Taysum says:
    20 Jan20 January 16:04

    I’ve always been scared to change my Tesco points as they’re “grandfathered” to 800 per £2.50 If I switch to Virgin – which I would like to as I’m just on 26000 from ISA (I think they’ve stopped it now? Or do I have to leave and rejoin?) would I lose the 800 points?!?

    Cheers

    • Mikeact says:
      20 Jan20 January 22:00

      This was mentioned earlier, and you will loose the extra…..I did an experiment to check…..don’t ask how.

    • EwanG says:
      20 Jan20 January 22:40

      In my experience you’ll keep the 800 rate. I only found out back in October that I am on the grandfathered rate. I have never had Avios selected as an option for automatically converting my points into, but I get the higher rate anyway.

      • EwanG says:
        22 Jan22 January 11:03

        Just to add that on Sunday I initiated a transfer of £2.50 of CC points into Avios. I still got the grandfathered rate of 800 Avios.
        I have changed my default setting for points from vouchers to Virgin and to Christmas Savers and back to vouchers during that time. Making those changes has not affected my grandfathering rate. Maybe I’m just lucky?

  • Keith says:
    20 Jan20 January 17:06

    O T :

    Does anybody know if there is an arrival lounge at Johannesburg Airport, will be arriving BA First Class early in the morning.

    Does anybody know if it is possible to add a flight on to a redemption ticket. For example I have a redemption booked with companion voucher from Johannesburg to Edinburgh BA. If I want to start my trip home from Cape Town can I book a Reward Flight Saver for a Comair flight via BA from Cape Town to Johannesburg and have it added to my redemption ticket so my flight from Johannesburg is protected if the Comair flight was delayed or canceled. Or do i have to pay for a new pair of tickets if I were to miss the flight back to the UK?

    Also has anyone got any experience of Comair business? Is it worth an extra 3,750 avios each?

    Thanks so much

    Keith

    • Lady London says:
      20 Jan20 January 17:33

      You can add flights to an existing Avios booking. You’d pay a £35 change fee per ticket as well as extra miles and cash. It depends if the award seat you want to add is available. If not then you can’t mix cash and award flights on same ticket. So if you were forced to buy the different flight with cash you would not be protected.

      Note also that if you are relying on eu261 then it applies to all airlines on legs flying out of Europe however on legs back to Europe then eu261 only covers you if you’re flying on a European airline.

      Where’s Harry when you need him??!

  • Lady London says:
    20 Jan20 January 17:42

    Hi, not sure if this posted previously.

    Would a small transfer of, say, 250 points from Tesco stop Virgin miles eexpiring? I’d ideally like to stop them expiring without having to log into Virgin account right now (long story)

    • Peter K says:
      20 Jan20 January 18:07

      Yes it will stop them expiring. Also an Amex transfer. Genghis replied this at 17:51 above 😊

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

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