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Tesco Clubcard is dropping Uber as a partner – the best Clubcard redemption is going away

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The best use of Tesco Clubcard points at the moment is probably Uber and Uber Eats credit.  At least, I think it is and that is where I have been sending my points for the last 18 months.

Living in London, Uber credit is as good as cash to me.  It makes no sense redeeming £1 of Tesco Clubcard points for 240 Avios when I can get £3 of Uber rides instead.  This would mean I was ‘paying’ 1.25p per Avios if I took miles instead, and I don’t value them anywhere near as highly.

Unfortunately, Tesco and Uber are parting company.

As you can see on this page of the Tesco website, you need to convert your Clubcard vouchers to Uber by 10th July.  Nearer the time we’ll do another piece on what is best remaining Clubcard deal.

It is ironic that I found out about this literally 10 minutes after leaving a meeting where I had highlighted this as a great example of an ‘added value’ redemption which genuinely made Clubcard, and therefore shopping in Tesco, more attractive.

Category

Tesco Clubcard

Comments (213)

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

  • BJ says:
    24 Apr24 April 06:01

    OT bit (posted late last night but I guess few would see): 2000x 30day free trial of FlightClub premium service at M Lewis site

  • Bossman81 says:
    24 Apr24 April 06:21

    As well as additional flights to Mumbai, are BA likely to add any additional flights coming back the other way?

  • Alan says:
    24 Apr24 April 06:44

    Definitely going to miss this offer, used it for Uber Eats too for the first time this weekend.

    Max £1k in credit possible but vouchers valid for 6/12, so can stack things up a little with that at least…

    • New Card says:
      24 Apr24 April 07:25

      6/12?

      • Shoestring says:
        24 Apr24 April 07:28

        6 months’ expiry

        • blenz101 says:
          24 Apr24 April 07:53

          Perhaps someone can confirm but it says the Clubcard voucher you exchange has to be used within 6 months. i.e. applied as credit to your Uber account.

          Once the credit is within your account as “Uber Credit” I don’t think there is then an expiry (at least from reading the Uber website) but it isn’t 100% clear.

          Any thoughts?

          • Alan says:
            24 Apr24 April 08:31

            Yep, no expiry once applied – obviously if Uber go bust then you’ve lost the cash but hopefully not that likely.

        • Shoestring says:
          24 Apr24 April 08:04

          you have six months from the point you made the swap to redeem your Uber voucher as credit on the app. The expiry date will be clearly shown on the Uber vouchers.

      • Alan says:
        24 Apr24 April 08:11

        6 months 🙂

        • New Card says:
          24 Apr24 April 08:33

          I guess the main Q is whether what blenz101 says is correct? If the credit doesn’t expire once it’s in your Uber account, then there is definitely scope to stock up… (Not sure why anyone wouldn’t just apply the code to their Uber account straight away once they get it, so not sure why 6 months would ever be relevannt)

          • Rob says:
            24 Apr24 April 08:45

            AFAIK Uber credit has no expiry, it just sits there. There is just one combined pot of credit. At one point I had £10,000 of credit from sign-ups (I was the top Google link for Uber in the UK at one point) and none of it ever expired, we must ran it down naturally.

          • Alan says:
            24 Apr24 April 13:38

            Interesting, I thought it was capped at £1k.

          • Rob says:
            24 Apr24 April 13:57

            Credit is capped at £1k but the sign-up bonuses went into a separate pot.

          • Alan says:
            24 Apr24 April 14:07

            Ahh, thanks for clarifying.

          • Alan says:
            24 Apr24 April 13:31

            It doesn’t expire once added. As I explained though there is a £1k limit on Uber credit so the six month expiry would mean you could cash out of Clubcard points before they’re dropped as a partner but then still top up your account after they’ve been dropped as a partner.

        • Alex W says:
          24 Apr24 April 08:57

          You spent £10k on Ubers? Wow!! I would love being driven around everywhere, I hate driving.

          • Rob says:
            24 Apr24 April 09:04

            To be fair I think the nanny spent most of it running the kids around, and we only used Exec and Lux.

        • David says:
          24 Apr24 April 09:41

          How long did it take to spend £10k on Ubers?! Do they not have the tube in west London?

          • Rob says:
            24 Apr24 April 10:25

            We ran it down over a few years. This was before we had the HFP office, so I used to take one into Mayfair in the morning if I was working out of The Arts Club or the Virgin Money lounge, and the kids would get them from school in the evenings. If the kids have clubs you often end up collecting one child, taking it home, waiting, going back to the school, collecting 2nd child, taking it home. Quite a few kids at our school have a chauffeur so picking mine up in an Uber Exec was still a bit downmarket 🙂

        • Alan says:
          24 Apr24 April 09:45

          The tube is for poor people

        • Michael says:
          24 Apr24 April 10:56

          How the other half live Rob – I used to walk home from school to my terraced house and eat a tea of potato waffles and cripsy pancakes! In fact, I still do, just from a train station instead…

        • Alan says:
          24 Apr24 April 13:34

          As I’ve said there’s no expiry once applied. My suggestion is for those that have maxed out their credit.

        • The Savage Squirrel says:
          24 Apr24 April 13:46

          “At one point I had £10,000 of credit”

          I always wondered why you didn’t own a car. Now it makes sense!

        • Crafty says:
          24 Apr24 April 15:01

          Did you do Uber referrals from HFP (I wasn’t around back then to remember) or a separate interest? Very lucrative!

          • Rob says:
            24 Apr24 April 15:24

            I wrote about it a few times, but the real volume came one of the articles being highly ranked by Google.

        • Crafty says:
          24 Apr24 April 15:02

          I have a USD5 credit in my Uber account from what feels like 3 years ago if not more. It can only be used in the US which is why it’s just been sat there. So I think this indicates that if Uber credit ever does expire, it takes a really long time to.

          • Rob says:
            24 Apr24 April 15:23

            I have $12 flagged as ‘customer support’ and $3.61 marked as ‘gift card’ which have also been there for ever!

        • Lady London says:
          24 Apr24 April 16:43

          Worked with several gazillionaires in London who use the tube and generally avoid taxis. Chauffeur would be the next step and the clever ones avoid wherever possible as they like to keep a low profile.

  • ASEAN Traveller says:
    24 Apr24 April 06:55

    Hi Rob. Love the site. Just a quick observation: you keep referring to the QR 787’s as the -9. I thought they only had -8’s in their fleet (until deliveries commence of the -9’s later this year)?

    • Andrew says:
      24 Apr24 April 07:35

      They also fly A350-1000 on the Singapore route and they aren’t listed as one of the aircraft types above. And crucially all A350-1000 have QSuite.

    • marcw says:
      24 Apr24 April 07:48

      Correct, they only have 787-8 Dreamliner. Not so sure about the 787-9, but it seems (or apparently), Qatar Airways refused to take any 787-9 delivery from the Charleston Boeing factory, due to lack of quality control…. …. …. just browse the Sat. New York Times…. more info in there.

    • Rob says:
      24 Apr24 April 08:51

      Could be right ….

      • Michael says:
        24 Apr24 April 10:58

        They deffo don’t have any -9’s. I have a feeling though Rob is reprinting info from what Qatar have told him directly though.

  • Alex says:
    24 Apr24 April 07:11

    With fixed value of uber credit, tesco points look very much like nectar points, that Rob is critical of.
    I personally think this offer was too good, so not surprised at all it is being scrapped.

    • Shoestring says:
      24 Apr24 April 07:34

      Tesco points are far more flexible & not bad value for Avios/ Virgin miles, esp with a +20% promotion when they get reduced in cost to about 0.8p/ point

      Just can’t seem to earn many Tesco points any more! Nope, I’ll probably pass on the mobiles

      Nectar’s saving grace seems to be the occasional £200 Sainsburys promotion, when they are worth 1p not 0.5p – and there’s an occasional Ebay offer where you get half your Nectar points back again, though I admit I haven’t used either yet so struggling along with 0.5p valuation

      • Shoestring says:
        24 Apr24 April 07:38

        woohoo on 150 points so far this Q

      • xcalx says:
        24 Apr24 April 08:02

        I used some of the Christmas saver vouchers ( only managed 2 of the 3 £300 accounts in December) to buy mobile credit works out exactly the same as the saver deal. They were not keen to take the voucher at first but relented.

      • Shoestring says:
        24 Apr24 April 08:13

        Once Uber disappears, we might have some logic in calling Tesco conversion to Avios/ Virgin miles much *cheaper*. I have no use for the restaurant offers or anything much else in their panoply of Clubcard offers, which tend to be the 3x offers. Is there anything of wide appeal left? You can always get vouchers for the same restaurants so the 3x always was a con.

        Whereas I resisted this logic in the past, you could reasonably start to argue that the fair comparison is £2.50 of groceries vs £2.50 of airline points.

        250 Clubcard points = 600 Avios

        +20% on promo – 250 points = 720 Avios

        nominal £2.50 = 720 Avios, therefore 0.35p/ point

        Any takers for the logic (once Uber disappears)?

        • xcalx says:
          24 Apr24 April 08:17

          I have used for Rail card 3x. Cruises 3x Uber3x ( now working after 2 months of calls to Uber support)

        • Alex says:
          24 Apr24 April 08:35

          Annual ticket to legoland is a good deal, if its your type of thing.

        • Charlieface says:
          24 Apr24 April 13:13

          Europcar is a good shout. The 15% discount off rack rate isn’t the best around but it’s not bad so very close to 3x.

        • Lady london says:
          24 Apr24 April 16:50

          I thought someone said Europcar is gone from Tesco?

      • Brighton Belle says:
        24 Apr24 April 11:46

        My local Boots still has 3v cards on the peg.

    • Rob says:
      24 Apr24 April 08:50

      I’d have no problem with Avios having fixed value, if that value was 3p per point (which is the equivalent here).

      • Michael says:
        24 Apr24 April 09:14

        I see Hilton is a Clubcard Partner (UK & Ireland only though I think) – whats that redemption value like?

        • Grant says:
          24 Apr24 April 09:18

          x3 – every £2.50 of CC vouchers converts to £7.50 of Hilton vouchers

          • Rob says:
            24 Apr24 April 09:25

            We’ve done a few article on this. You are only offered the ‘Best Flex B&B’ rate, divided by 3. It is therefore ‘genuinely’ 3x if you would otherwise book a flexible rate and don’t get breakfast via status. If you would otherwise book an Advanced Purchase Room Only rate then it is a noticeably worse deal. Stays do earn Hilton points.

        • Grant says:
          24 Apr24 April 09:43

          Interesting – I just assumed it worked like a gift card that you used instead of cash.

        • Lady London says:
          24 Apr24 April 16:54

          Nope – many of the offers need to be checked carefully before buying as they restrict you to higher fare classes or more product than you’d normally want. Also some things like Railcards 10-20% discount easily available elsewhere. So multiplier is really 3 on very very few.

          Remember Tesco will be getting commission on your purchase as well guessing 10% or so.

        • Shoestring says:
          24 Apr24 April 17:07

          Europcar is gone (unless you still have a token) – but Eurotunnel 3x is still there for now, I did redeem once for a cheap return crossing but can’t be @rsed to drive these days

    • Alex W says:
      24 Apr24 April 09:00

      Don’t forget an extra point per £4 for using the Tesco Pay+ app.

  • Stu_N says:
    24 Apr24 April 07:31

    OT – We have a BA Holidays booking coming up soon (east coast USA), flights and car hire. We are not actually going to need a car after all – if I were to “forget” to collect the car on arrival, would anything bad happen? Any recent experiences?

    • Shoestring says:
      24 Apr24 April 07:35

      People have said there isn’t a no-show fee for car rentals when taken out as part of a BA package

      Definitely not the case for UK no-shows – so check the T&Cs

      • Michael says:
        24 Apr24 April 08:36

        Am i right in thinking BA holidays are sometimes cheaper when you chuck car hire in?

        • Rob says:
          24 Apr24 April 08:43

          Flight-only can be cheaper if you chuck in a car. It shouldn’t make a ‘flight and hotel’ cheaper.

      • Stu N says:
        24 Apr24 April 08:49

        Nothing explicit in the general Holidays t&cs or the additional terms on the rental voucher, but just wanted some real life experience.

        • Rob says:
          24 Apr24 April 08:54

          There have been a handful, one or two, reports of certain locations charging a Euro 50 fee. It is certainly the exception rather than the rule though and, as the car rental company is paid anyway, probably easy to challenge.

    • sunguy says:
      24 Apr24 April 09:35

      Personally, Id pick the car up and just return it early…..that covers all angles…

      Depending on your first hotel, most have free parking unless you are in the downtown area….and you can get you and your family (and more importantly your baggage) to your first hotel for “free”….

      • Stu N says:
        24 Apr24 April 09:54

        Think I’ll risk it and report back. Parking would be expensive and driving would require me to stay off the sauce on the flight which ain’t happening.

      • xcalx says:
        24 Apr24 April 10:10

        Some rental companies have Early return fee.

    • Charlieface says:
      24 Apr24 April 13:14

      I would call them directly to cancel the booking. Don’t call the airline or travel agent, they may cancel the whole package.

      • Phil T says:
        24 Apr24 April 18:29

        I did a flight and car booking for last week with BA in Munich. Never picked the car up and never heard any more about it.

  • Yagamimo says:
    24 Apr24 April 07:39

    I can’t find the ARN-BKK fare for SEK 15700… just SEK 17333. Anyone else having this problem?

    • John says:
      24 Apr24 April 07:40

      The cheaper fares may have all been purchased already

      • Yagamimo says:
        24 Apr24 April 07:52

        That makes sense – though I think the sale has just ended, as I can’t find it for any dates for the rest of 2019.

        • BJ says:
          24 Apr24 April 08:13

          Unless you are chasing TP try Finnair from regional Scandinavian airports or AMS.

    • Kenny says:
      24 Apr24 April 09:32

      I think outbound from OSLO is cheaper..

  • Anna says:
    24 Apr24 April 07:52

    OT – at the weekend I booked 3 x F award seats to Miami originating in Manchester and was “charged” 18,000 avios for the connecting flights. I’ve just spoken to BA (in the UK) who have refunded the avios and said they shouldn’t have been charged in the first place but it may have been because the booking was for 3 people and normally the system doesn’t allow this when a 2 4 1 is being used. I wasn’t aware of this but maybe it’s allowed if the 3rd person is a child?

    Also – the very nice CSA told me that BA have a phone-only offer at the moment giving 15 avios per £1 on hotel bookings which is worth knowing. I’ve booked Hilton hotels twice now with BA and still got free breakfast due to gold status, BTW.

    • BJ says:
      24 Apr24 April 08:16

      No, it’s a technical error affecting all domestic connections, discussed a couple of days ago. If it is not fixed yet they will book over phobe for correct avios fee-free.

      • Anna says:
        24 Apr24 April 08:42

        But you run the risk of the seats not being available if you book by phone. I must have missed the discussion even though I posted at the weekend about being charged the extra 18,000!

        • BJ says:
          24 Apr24 April 08:51

          True, always book if and when we can 🙂 It was at the end of the pinned BA avios pricing trial article.

    • Alan says:
      24 Apr24 April 08:30

      No it’s definitely doable – did 241 + additional redemption seat open jaw and mixed class (C/F) on outbound/inbound recently for 3 adults.

      • Anna says:
        24 Apr24 April 08:44

        I don’t think I’ve ever booked for 3 of us with a 2 4 1 before, we usually do 2 award seats and one cash booking, however Florida/Caribbean prices at Easter are astronomical so I was absolutely delighted to get 3 avios seats on the same flights!

    • LewisB says:
      24 Apr24 April 08:34

      *not 3 avios per £1

    • BJ says:
      24 Apr24 April 08:57

      Not sure how this works with chain hotels but I usually check it out for independent hotels and it has never worked. Always came out costing over 1ppa versus cheapes mainstream OTA even before factoring in other opportunities to get something back. I keep trying though, there is always a first time.

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