Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Get 9,600 Avios or 10,000 Virgin Flying Club miles for £40 with a new Tesco Mobile offer

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It’s just like the old days …. a generous Tesco promotion to earn you a chunk of Avios or Virgin Flying Club miles via Clubcard.

This deal is with Tesco Mobile.

Tesco Mobile is offering a generous chunk of Clubcard points when you order a pay-as-you-go SIM card and sign up for a Rocket Pack.

A Rocket Pack is a package of data, call minutes and texts which last for a month.  There is no contract but your Rocket Pack will auto-renew unless you cancel it.  You get the points with your first Rocket Pack, so only one payment is needed.

You could move your existing SIM over to Tesco Mobile if you are not in a contract.  However, the smart thing to do is to:

order a new free SIM from Tesco Mobile

order a Rocket Pack

pop the new SIM in your phone – assuming it is not locked – and make a quick call to ensure it is treated as active

and then pop your normal SIM back in!

There are three Rocket Packs you can buy which come with bonus Clubcard points, each of which lasts a month:

Pay £10, get 3GB data / 500 minutes / 5000 texts and 1000 Clubcard points (2400 Avios, 2500 Virgin miles)

Pay £15, get 6GB data / 1000 minutes / 5000 texts and 1500 Clubcard points (3600 Avios, 3750 Virgin miles)

Pay £20, get 8GB data / 2000 minutes / 5000 texts and 2000 Clubcard points (4800 Avios, 5000 Virgin miles)

Note that no other value of Rocket Pack will trigger bonus Clubcard points.

Here is the small print:

Available to new customers only with purchase & top-up of their Rocket Pack SIM or handset. For purchases between 25 February – 28 April 2019.  Requires the linking of your Clubcard and Tesco Mobile phone number which can be done online at tescomobile.com, points issued within 28 days of satisfying eligibility requirements. Points capped at 2000 depending on value of Rocket Pack purchased. Each Clubcard number is eligible to qualify only twice.  

As you can do it twice per Clubcard account, the maximum number of points you can earn is double the limits I mention above.

If you are wondering why I have written down all the small print, it is because the Tesco Mobile website is up the spout.  

On the ‘SIM only’ home page (click here) you see this:

…. but that’s it.  When you click through, there is no more information.  Nothing.

All of the information I have published above comes from the Tesco Mobile concession inside the massive Cromwell Road shop, where I picked up a brochure and took some pictures of a promotional poster.

The rules make it clear that you can do this offer twice per Clubcard account.  This would mean, if you ordered two SIM cards and bought a £20 Rocket Pack for each, you’d earn 9,600 Avios or 10,000 Virgin Flying Club miles for £40.

(Lloyd makes a good point in the comments though. Whilst the rules say that you can do this twice per Clubcard number, are you actually a ‘new customer’ when you activate the 2nd SIM?)

Importantly, please note that the Rocket Packs roll over each month if you don’t cancel via the Tesco Mobile website.

And the situation gets messier:

The Tesco Mobile is screwed and does not allow you to insert your Clubcard number when ordering your free SIM.  Whenever I try, you get an error message.

Looking at comments on HfP yesterday, this is a known issue.  (EDIT:  looking at the comments below, some people are getting it to work today.)  The call centre encourages you to sign up now to get your SIM and add your Clubcard number later via www.mytescomobile.com.  You must do this BEFORE you order your first Rocket Pack.

I assume that if you sign up via a Tesco Mobile concession in your local store this is not an issue.

Conclusion

What we have here is an excellent offer which allows you to pick up 9,600 Avios per Clubcard for just £40.

However, the Tesco Mobile website is messed up in multiple ways.  Not only is there no mention of the offer, apart from the banner ad above, some people can’t enter your Clubcard number whilst ordering your free SIM.

You may want to persevere now.  Order a free Tesco Mobile SIM via the website here, link it to your Clubcard after you’ve registered it and then order your first Rocket Pack.  You will still have met the terms of the offer as your Clubcard will be linked to the SIM at the point of ordering the Rocket Pack.

On the other hand, you might want to take the view that, as the offer runs to 28th April, Tesco Mobile may get things sorted out and perhaps you should wait.

PS.  For clarity, whilst this article discusses taking Avios or Virgin Flying Club miles with your Clubcard points, my current preferred Clubcard redemption is Uber credit at 3 x face value.  I’d rather swap 2,000 Clubcard points for £60 of Uber credit than 4,800 Avios or 5,000 Virgin miles.  You would also have the option of taking £60 of Hotels.com credit.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 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 – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

Huge 80,000 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

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) and NO FX fees Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits 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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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 (175)

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

  • Premgenius says:

    I was able to enter a Clubcard number whilst ordering a new SIM, no error message appeared

    • Kieran says:

      Was it a Clubcard credit card number or just a generic (blue) Clubcard number? If I remember rightly, they are different.

      • Stu R says:

        Mine is a CC credit card number – I reckon it’s the 18 digit card numbers that aren’t working, the 16 digit ones seem to work fine.

  • Stu R says:

    I too was able to enter my Clubcard number. And at my legacy rate of 800 Avios per £2.50 in points, I reckon 12,800 for £40 is a steal …. thanks!

    • Alex Sm says:

      How did you manage to secure this legacy rate?

      • RussellH says:

        If you changed Clubcard Points to Avios in the olden days when the rate was 800 Avios per £2.50, then that rate is hard wired into your Clubcard Account.

        • Shoestring says:

          I thought it was also something to do with taking a card product that offered superior 800 points rate with no end date?

          anyway – I was working abroad so missed out! 🙂

      • Rob says:

        You had to spend £x,000 in Tesco over a 3-month period. This is 10+ years ago it was scrapped though.

        Legacy deals are great. Quite a few of us on here don’t pay for our BAPP cards for similar reasons.

        • Shoestring says:

          I don’t reckon I ever got anything much better than the rest of you, sad to say.

          Apart from my Orbis Investments matched £100 ISA a year ago, when I was too poorly to share the deal.

          You put in £100 – they put in £100, I am up 12% on the investment plus £100 on my little ISA Y-O-Y, that is +112% in my books so worth 11000 Virgin/ Avios points for a £100 stake any day of the week.

          They will probs repeat the offer come April 6th.

        • Shoestring says:

          blame the bloody cat that I didn’t share it but I’m sharing it now, not that there is a deal just yet – wait until April 6th

        • Spurs Debs says:

          I don’t remember that. I’ve got mine as I’ve been changing tesco points into ba points since time began. I also get a better deal than most as I get 10% of tesco purchases due to Son working for them and I get his staff discount.

        • Genghis says:

          @Spurs Debs that’s a lot of food!

        • Spurs Debs says:

          Genghis I really miss Tesco Direct lol

  • Jonah says:

    Sounds like a massive PITA if I’m being honest. But I accept that others might feel otherwise. Might just sit back a while yet.

    • Nick_C says:

      Even if it takes an hour of your time, you are paying £40 to get something worth £96. £56 net for an hours work. Worth it for me.

    • Shoestring says:

      AJonah – agreed – I think I’ll wait until I can screenshot some T&Cs. Or some people report success with the points. If I miss out by waiting, I’m not really bothered either

      • BJ says:

        Question is will the points go on immediately or when next statement is generated? Not too worried about screenshots if t&c are on leaflets and posters in-store.

        • Shoestring says:

          Maybe somebody could stick up some T&Cs images into dropbox?

        • Rob says:

          Added a link to the article with a screenshot of the T&Cs.

    • Julian says:

      Personally totally agree that unless you are an existing 1 month contract SIM only customer of another network (ag GiffGaff in my case who are also an O2 MVNO, which is the only network that has satisfactory signal inside my home) who might have good reason to need this much air time with Tesco Mobile and leave your current pay monthly SIM only product that it all sounds like a huge PITA that is not worth it for this number of Avios. If you could earn 50,000 Avios by going through all these hand springs then it might be worth it.

      So hence to me why the Iberia offer (which I unfortunately didn’t see in time) was worth all the hassle but this one doesn’t seem to be.

  • Rob says:

    With the complete cutback of clubcard point promotions,what is Tesco’s reasoning when they do decide to make it a points offer rather than a cost discount like they normally do now? Interested to know who makes this decision and what they anticipate the outcome will be?

    • Shoestring says:

      A cost discount wouldn’t really work here.

      The points incentive is there as a nice big juicy carrot to hook you in (mixing metaphors!) – then obvs they hope you remain a repeat monthly payment customer.

      The Clubcard points will have an internal cost in £££ terms. This is allocated in the marketing budget against the product concerned, seen as the cost of recruiting new consumers.

    • Mr. AC says:

      To be honest this is the rare case where the offer will work as intended for me. I have family coming over from overseas that will need a PAYG sim card. I would’ve just went with my current telco, but with the offer on the table I’ll get this sim instead (and probably will keep and renew it out of convenience, so Tesco will make back the money it used to “bribe” me).

  • Annabelle says:

    If you’re already a pay monthly customer with Tesco mobile would they see me as a ‘new customer’ in terms of this promotion?
    Thanks

    • Rob says:

      Also interested in knowing this too

    • Rob says:

      No

    • Julian says:

      I suspect it depends on whether you go to the trouble to use a different credit card and a different version of your first name to create an entirely new Tesco Mobile account. Ideally a use credit card where your first name is already displayed differently from the one you currently use with Tesco Mobile eg current name on card Mr Andrew Bloggs and name on substitute card is A B C Bloggs

      But I say all this hassle isn’t even vaguely worth it for this piffling number of Avios.

  • Scott says:

    The CC number worked fine just now for me.

    Shame I took out a new contract only last week, but will give this a go.

  • Liz says:

    I think the Clubcard numbers are something like 18 digits long but some are only 16 – if you have the shorter number you need to add two 00’s to the front of it. I do this for the monthly shopping surveys.

  • Darran says:

    Is it per number or per account? I have both a credit card Clubcard number and a blue card Clubcard number which are linked to the same account.

    • Rob says:

      Wording is ‘number’.

    • RussellH says:

      I only have one surviving Clubcard number. But when I log in, the system claims that my a/c no. is the one that was on the MasterCard that I cancelled about 9 months ago.

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

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