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EXCLUSIVE: No more Avios from Tesco Clubcard

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British Airways and Tesco have decided to part ways. The option to convert your Tesco Clubcard points into Avios is ending soon.

Nothing will change with the partnership between Tesco Clubcard and Virgin Flying Club.

Tesco Clubcard dropping British Airways Avios as a partner

When is Clubcard ending Avios earning?

The last day to initiate a transfer of your Tesco Clubcard points into Avios is 18th January

For those who receive their Clubcard vouchers quarterly, the last day to earn points via Tesco is 22nd October. This is the cut-off date for the November voucher mailing. The next mailing after that will not take place until February, at which point it will be too late to convert.

However, if you have the Tesco app, you can still collect points after 22nd October. This is because app users can turn their Clubcard points into e-vouchers at any time. You simply need to order an e-voucher with your remaining Clubcard points balance by mid January to ensure that it can be converted to Avios by 18th January.

Tesco Clubcard dropping British Airways Avios as a partner

Why is Tesco splitting with British Airways?

It isn’t made clear.

EDIT: Tesco contacted me after the publication of this article to state that it was the decision of British Airways to withdraw from Clubcard. Tesco did not want it to leave the scheme.

However, let me take a guess.

The volume of points transferred from Clubcard to Avios is likely to have fallen sharply in the last couple of years. I have no idea of the exact numbers, although we know that – in 2013 – 2.5 BILLION Avios were ‘bought’ with Tesco Clubcard points. 2.5 billion Avios represents over £10 million of Clubcard vouchers at face value.

I am guessing that number is well down. We have recently seen:

the closure of Tesco Direct, an exceptional source of bonus point opportunities

the closure of Tesco Wine plus other small non-core Tesco companies

the shrinking of Tesco Bank, including the closure of Tesco Mortgages (which earned points) and the closure of Tesco Bank current accounts to new applicants, which earned points for debit card spending

the ending of Clubcard earning at Esso garages, except those with a Tesco Express store

a move towards price discounts rather than bonus points as a way of driving sales in Tesco stores

Tesco’s loss of market share to Aldi and Lidl

Avios has not become less attractive as a conversion option – indeed, I moved back to converting the few Clubcard points I still earn to Avios after two better alternatives (Safestore and Uber) withdrew – but I imagine that the number of Clubcard points in circulation is down.

Tesco Clubcard dropping British Airways Avios as a partner

Does British Airways have a better offer up its sleeve?

British Airways was a small cog in the Tesco wheel. It wasn’t even the only frequent flyer partner – Virgin Atlantic is also in there. You can imagine why Avios may have wanted something more high profile.

On the other hand …. if Tesco was the only deal in town, it would be foolish to walk away. Surely something is up?

What could British Airways be planning?

Good question. There is no obvious solution:

Sainsbury’s? Arguably a better ‘fit’ with the Executive Club customer base, but how would Avios fit with Nectar? There is no chance of Nectar being dropped given that Sainsbury’s now owns it. Would Avios want to be a Nectar conversion partner? The old BA Miles scheme WAS a Sainsbury’s partner many years ago.

Waitrose? Potentially an even better fit with the Executive Club customer base. Waitrose is only a fraction of the size of Tesco, however. It also has no points-based loyalty programme. John Lewis Partnership has a new management team in place so you can’t totally discount this.

Marks & Spencer? It has an even smaller market share in food than Waitrose. It has also just overhauled its useless Sparks loyalty scheme, which remains non-points based, so I can’t see it making more changes so soon.

Asda / Morrisons? Unlikely. Asda has literally just been sold so I doubt it had been planning fundamental loyalty changes. Both chains have focused on price over points. The same goes for Aldi and Lidl, times ten.

Tesco Clubcard dropping British Airways Avios as a partner

What are the options, realistically?

Perhaps Avios becomes a Nectar transfer partner ….. although this would disturb the whole Avios ecosystem since many Nectar partners compete with Avios partners. The maths doesn’t work either. At present, £1 spent in Tesco earns you 2.4 Avios. Assuming a 2 Nectar to 1 Avios conversion rate, £1 spent in Sainsbury’s would only earn 0.5 Avios. It wouldn’t get many people to switch.

or ….

Perhaps Waitrose launches an Avios scheme via card-based earning …. there would be no points scheme BUT you could earn via your credit or debit card spend being tracked. Waitrose offered this with Virgin Atlantic for a while but it was never ‘official’ – Waitrose never promoted it. It would be expensive for Waitrose, however, given that they wouldn’t be getting much in the way of customer data in return.

or ….

Perhaps Waitrose and John Lewis launch a combined loyalty scheme (this is believed to be coming soon after a trial in a handful of areas). This could have some points-based element with Avios as one of a small number of partners. The John Lewis Partnership credit card could potentially also be pulled into this with its current 0.25% cashback offering 0.25 Avios an alternative.

The last option makes most sense, but is very hypothetical at the moment. We may need to wait until 19th January to find out.

Please share your craziest Tesco Avios-earning offers

If you’ve been collecting Avios seriously for less than five years, you won’t understand how fundamental Tesco Clubcard used to be.

You won’t look at the package below and shudder …..

Share your best or most notorious Tesco Clubcard deal in the comments. Most of them pre-date Head for Points (so pre-2012) so we are going back a long way.

For more information …..

Take a look at BA’s Tesco page here. At the time of writing there is nothing on Tesco’s BA page here.

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 (329)

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

  • Andrew says:
    12 Oct12 October 07:08

    Standing at self-serve checkouts typing in barcode numbers for computer game pre-orders that store didn’t even sell! Ahh memories.

    • Peter K says:
      12 Oct12 October 07:22

      I forgot this one 😂

      • FlyingChris says:
        12 Oct12 October 07:40

        Having typed in the barcode to the self checkout I remember once it alerted checkout staff to remove the security tag/box… from a pre-order purchase that they didn’t even stock.

  • Mike says:
    12 Oct12 October 07:09

    Very disappointing – did BA Exec consult members for their thoughts ? or TESCO consult ? I have circa £1000 sitting held waiting for a AVIOS bonus….

    • Alan says:
      12 Oct12 October 08:04

      Same here, been holding out in vain for a bonus!

      • Liz says:
        12 Oct12 October 10:11

        I have about £600 of vouchers. I converted a few hundred pounds worth last year under the Shell bonus offer. We have shopped in Tesco since the late 80’s. We put all our shopping and petrol spend through Tesco so I am very sad to see this go as this is one of my main areas of collecting now. As we are retired our spending is less so don’t earn so much through the credit cards. I will continue to collect and maybe build up my Virgin miles again but might do the odd shop at Sainburys and Aldi now. Yesterday’s shop was £223 – after deducting the Clubcard savings and the 10% CC Plus discount we saved £40 cash plus I had a double points coupon and a bonus 100 CC coupon so a good shopping day! Got enough Avios for a few more trips to the USA.

  • Tony says:
    12 Oct12 October 07:09

    TV boxes. Really hate missing out on the ink cartridges deal though!

    • Court says:
      12 Oct12 October 07:13

      The ink cartridges were almost cost neutral for me once I’d bulk sold them on eBay. Those were the days!

    • Roger* says:
      12 Oct12 October 07:46

      Do Avios change consumer retail loyalty? We collected Air Miles shopping at Sainsbury’s and with a NatWest credit card. When BA linked up with Tesco, my suggestions of moving to Tesco failed miserably. Mrs Roger prefers Sainsbury’s while I prefer Waitrose and Aldi (and hate Sainsbury’s) so no Avios earning here.

      Aldi have opened up locally, so I’ll opt for lower prices unless Waitrose come up with anything sensible. By the way, anybody else remember how we claimed miles from Sainsbury’s when they started? By collecting till receipts and mailing them to Air Miles – so 20th century!

      • John says:
        12 Oct12 October 07:54

        Apparently yes according to this thread.

      • RussellH says:
        12 Oct12 October 10:20

        Never had to post receipts to Air Miles. Just took them and the Sainsbury’s Card for that particular shop to the CS desk who processed the transaction and gave me a receipt stating the number of Air Miles.

    • Lady London says:
      12 Oct12 October 08:59

      I came late to the game. Sent 2 lots of cartridges. This was after reports of Tesco messing people around and starting to refuse them.

      One lot got credited for only 1/3rd of them which was ridiculous as I’d literally bought and sent them

      The other lot disappeared never credited.

      Tesco did admit they’d had some problems processing them – I think the sending address changed in between the two batches.

      Tesco refused to fix the credit and it wasnt worth paying to get my quantity signed for. So that just deepened my loathing of Tesco generally. Cheap, cheap and nasty.

  • Claire says:
    12 Oct12 October 07:12

    So no chance of a conversion bonus now then. I had been holding out converting our points. We have the old rate if 800 points per £2.50 so will convert over now. Also have a tesco bank account which was useful for a few extra avios will need to see where to move that too. Use tesco for most of my shopping but not sure now if that will continue as other club card options not really that appealing. Let’s see who avios teams up with.

  • Jimmy says:
    12 Oct12 October 07:13

    Nectar is a poor scheme. Waitrose is too expensive for me.

    You would have thought BA would want the cash at this current time.

    • Kerr Sue says:
      12 Oct12 October 07:40

      Agree with that

    • Alex W says:
      12 Oct12 October 07:51

      It won’t be a poor scheme if it converts to Avios at a decent rate…

      As someone above has said, there are so many bonus offers at the moment you can earn 4 or 5 nectars per £ at the moment.

      • John says:
        12 Oct12 October 07:59

        I can’t see it being more than 1 avios per 1 nectar, which is 60% worse than clubcard.

        It doesn’t help to think of it as nectars per £ because the main offers are personalised, for specific products that you bought in the past. If I only buy offer items I could get 50 nectar per £. It generally works out to between 100 and 400 extra points per shop

    • Andrew says:
      12 Oct12 October 08:14

      I rack up loads of Nectar points.

      It’s never ending promotions on the App, followed by the post-visit scratchcards.

      • MattB says:
        12 Oct12 October 08:46

        Exactly, between the wife and I we’ve earnt 40k nectar points in the past 11 months thanks to the app offers. I’m hoping to get a couple of hundred quids worth of TTD booze if they run the double up this year. I’ve lost track of the number of times where I get 100 points off their 28p chopped tomatoes. Any thing like that I buy and put towards my weekly food bank donation.

      • guesswho2000 says:
        13 Oct13 October 02:18

        The problem for me with Nectar was that there was never any arbitrage opportunity – 1 point = 0.5p. Tesco was completely different, even without Avios (prob still is, on a lower scale).

        Interestingly Woolies and Coles here are basically identical, in that 2,000 points = $10 = 870 QF (Woolies)/VA (Coles) miles respectively, and neither are as generous as Tesco, but we all still play the game as the bonus points offers make up for it.

        • guesswho2000 says:
          13 Oct13 October 02:19

          Actually that’s a lie, Woolies is now 2,000=$10=1,000 QF, they improved their rate a few months ago.

    • Louise K says:
      12 Oct12 October 09:02

      Sign up for the Waitrose app. They send me 6 vouchers every few weeks for £12 off £60 spend that can be used with alcohol.

      Stopped sending them over lockdown but have started again. I find they are not as expensive as I remember them to be and their quality is very good.

  • Paul says:
    12 Oct12 October 07:16

    Some of my favourites were:

    – 25 Clubcard points per piece of exotic vegetable

    – 4000 points for a console

    – points to reserve a game

  • vol says:
    12 Oct12 October 07:16

    Lego and Cluedo were *lucrative* 😁

    When I used to have lots of Lego boxes, board games and other toys in the house, the kids used to get so excited.

    My response was always “it’s not for you”

    They *seem* well adjusted so I don’t think any long term damage was done.

    #Parentoftheyear2015 🏆

  • Scott says:
    12 Oct12 October 07:17

    I would never shop in Aldi or Lidl. Don’t like their style and lack of product range puts me off doing anything beyond nipping in once a year for a chocolate bar.

    Waitrose, whilst one near me, isn’t somewhere info a big shop at. I generally use them for the odd niche product, or something on offer i.e. Meridian peanut butter at £1.87 a jar compared to £2.50 everywhere else. 63p is 63p 😉 !

    I expect a lot of people are directly spending their points in store rather than converting these days. A lot of the more lucrative conversions have gone, and it’s free money off your shop to most people.

    If I spent £50 a week in Tesco, that’s only 120 Avios at the end of the day.
    12 weeks of that and 1500 Avios isn’t a major amount – not even a one way off peak RFS. £6 off your shopping probably looks a better deal unless you know how the Avios system works.

    • RussellH says:
      12 Oct12 October 11:01

      Each to their own, of course, but the lack of product range is what I like about Aldi, Lidl and their imitators. I do not need to have to choose from half a dozen types of baked beans or tinned tomatoes.
      I like the lack of style too. Style = higher prices.

      Much more important though – the cats will only eat Aldi tinned cat food.

      • Nick_C says:
        12 Oct12 October 15:33

        Completely agree. I went to Tesco last week as a voucher plus an Amex deal added up to 20% off. Spent 40 minutes and couldn’t find half the stuff I wanted. And was shocked at the prices. Some things literally twice the price of Aldi, and even with 20% off it just wasn’t worth the trip. I can be in and out of Aldi in 20 minutes. I know exactly where everything is, its a small store, but I can get most of what I need there.

        No supermarket is perfect. Waitrose no longer sell my favourite Gorwydd Caerphilly. I couldn’t see any rillettes on the shelf, and a “partner” didn’t even know what it was.

        Will miss the Clubcard conversions though. Earned a huge number of Avios, despite rarely shopping there!

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