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

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.

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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:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

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.

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.

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.

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.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.