LNER trains drops Nectar as an earning, but not a spending, partner

East Coast rail franchise LNER has announced that it will no longer offer Nectar points to passengers from 1st August.

This is another blow to Nectar, as it struggles to retain any quality partnerships outside of Sainsbury’s / Argos.  The adoption of Nectar by many of the UK rail operators had been one of the few positive signs in recent years, but Virgin Trains lost its franchise and now LNER is pulling out.

LNER will remain a ‘spend’ partner with Nectar.  This allows you to use your points for Advanced Purchase tickets across the LNER network.  In the absence of any promotions, however, the rate of 0.5p per point is no better than you would get in-store at Sainsbury’s.

There is some good news.  Anyone who collected Nectar points via LNER in the year to 6th July 2020 will receive 2% cashback on all directly booked tickets for the next 12 months.  The money will be dropped into your LNER account in the form of a travel voucher after each booking.

The 2% credit will be generated even if part of the journey is on another rail operator, as long as it is booked via LNER and has some element on an LNER train.

There is even better news for high spenders on LNER.  Some people, and the criteria is not known, have been told they will receive 1,500 bonus Nectar points as compensation.

You can find out more about the LNER Nectar changes on its website here.

PS.  If you missed it last year, here is our review of the new LNER Azuma trains including a quick chat with LNER MD David Horne.