What are the best Tesco Clubcard travel deals now Avios is withdrawing?

Last Monday, we exclusively broke the news that Tesco Clubcard and Avios were getting a divorce.  The partnership ends on 18th January 2021.

I have a feeling that Avios has a new supermarket partner lined up.  Tesco contacted me on Monday to confirm that it was the decision of British Airways, not Tesco, to terminate the current deal.

Some of you will, I am sure, swap from Tesco to a new Avios supermarket partner if price, quality and convenience are the same.

It is also possible, however, that you will continue to use Tesco for one or more of those reasons.  What can you do with your Clubcard points going forward?

The good news is that, value-wise, you won’t be any worse off.  In fact, you may be better off.

I haven’t converted my Clubcard points to Avios for some years.  If you assume that an Avios is worth 1p (read ‘What is an Avios point worth to me?‘) then 1p of Clubcard vouchers gets you 2.4p of value if you redeem for Avios.

For a number of years, I beat this by paying a regular Safestore bill with Clubcard vouchers.  This got me 3x face value, so 3p per point.

When Safestore withdrew, I switched to Uber.  Again, I got 3p of Uber and Uber Eats credit for every 1p of Clubcard points I converted.  This was better than 2.4p of Avios.

Uber then withdrew too!  Since then my Clubcard points have been sat in my Tesco account waiting for a good deal to come along.

What are the other Tesco Clubcard travel deals?

There are, of course, many non-travel deals available with Tesco Clubcard points.  This article focuses exclusively on the travel options.

Clubcard redemptions with airlines:

Whilst Avios is withdrawing from Clubcard, Virgin Flying Club remains a partner.  You receive 2.5 Virgin Points (the new name for Flying Club miles) for every 1 Clubcard point you convert.  Occasional transfer bonuses can add 10% to 20% to this.

If you value a Virgin Point at 1p, you may be better off with one of the other deals below.

Under no circumstances should you convert Clubcard points to Virgin Flying Club with the intention of moving them on to IHG Rewards Club (1:1) or Hilton Honors (2:3).  You will lose huge amounts of value, given that I value an IHG point at 0.4p and a Hilton point at 0.33p.

Details of the Virgin / Tesco partnership are on the Virgin Atlantic website here.

Clubcard redemptions with trains, buses, ferries and airport parking:

Although no train lines are directly represented, you can get 3x face value redeeming for a Railcard.

The various ferry and cruise companies are also 3x.  I never book a ferry so I am not sure how easy it is to get discounts via other routes which would reduce the value of Clubcard.

National Express and Megabus both offer 3x face value.  You can also use Clubcard vouchers to pay for a National Express Coachcard at 3x face value.

Eurotunnel does offer genuine value.  Feedback from HfP readers is that you pay the same price as shown on their website, availability is the same as shown online and the vouchers get you a ‘real’ 3x face value as Eurotunnel rarely discounts.

APH Airport Parking is also worth considering, although you need to book for a minimum of eight days.  I don’t know how easy it is to find APH discount codes, which cannot be combined with Tesco vouchers, elsewhere.

Clubcard redemptions for package holidays:

Tesco works with many of the top groups such as Intrepid, P&O Cruises and Royal Caribbean.  These are generally at a headline rate of 3x face value.

Back in ”the old days’ when Tesco was throwing around Clubcard points like confetti, I read some great stories about people who have had ‘free’ holidays via Clubcard points.  The rules have been tightened over the years, though, and of course it is now harder to earn 10,000 / 20,000 / 30,000+ points per quarter.

Some tour operators have now capped the use of large amounts of Clubcard vouchers. Virgin Holidays has now left the scheme – back in the days when they allowed you to use unlimited amounts of vouchers, and when you could easily pick up points, it was an easy way to get a totally free family holiday.

With cruises, Royal Caribbean does not allow redemptions against flights, taxes, admin fees etc, only cruise costs.  There is a £510 per person voucher cap and a minimum cruise of 7 nights.  The upside is that the minimum spend is also £510 per person so you could cover the majority of the cost of a cheap cruise with Clubcard.

P&O now has a maximum cap of £810 of vouchers per booking (Royal Caribbean is £510 per person) which makes it more interesting for a solo traveller.  You need to cruise for 6+ days and book 90 days in advance.  With cruise deals you are generally required to book the brochure price which may often be discounted via brokers.

You need to do the sums to see if these deals make sense. How much cheaper can you get the product if you book elsewhere?

If you are staying in the UK for a while, it is worth having a look at cottages.com and Hoseasons.

Clubcard redemptions for hotels:

This is also the land of small print.  You can use Clubcard deals for 300% of face value with a number of hotel groups including Butlins, Hilton, Macdonald, Mercure, Novotel, Select Hotels of Ireland and Warner Leisure Hotels. 

In many cases, you are restricted to UK stays paying the ‘fully flexible’ bed and breakfast price.

Some brands also restrict you to weekend stays.  Mercure allows midweek stays ‘subject to availability’ although not all Mercure UK hotels take part.  Mercure allows you to book either ‘room only’ or B&B rates and you can book cheaper ‘advance saver’ rates.

With Hilton, voucher codes are valid for Hilton Hotels ‘Fully Flexible’ rate at participating hotels in the UK & Ireland.

Hilton rooms can be booked seven days a week (you must book four days in advance) at Hilton, Conrad, Waldorf Astoria, Curio, DoubleTree, Hilton Garden Inn and Hampton branded hotels, in the UK only, priced off ‘Best Flexible B&B rate’ only.  There is now a dedicated Hilton / Tesco booking website which you can find here.

Hilton allows you to book most room categories with Clubcard tokens.  This can make them more flexible than Hilton Honors points if you need a larger room or suite.

Historically you WOULD earn Hilton Honors points back when you stayed on a Tesco Clubcard rate.  There was a time a couple of years ago when some readers had to retro-claim in order to get them.  I have not heard any recent reports.

Hotels.com has the greatest flexibility, allowing redemptions at 3x face value.  The only snag is that you will not be able to earn Hotels.com Rewards in conjunction with Clubcard vouchers.  This reduces the ‘real’ value by at least 10% because Hotels.com Rewards gives, effectively, 10% of your spend back in free night credit.

Conclusion

Fundamentally, I have never been able to get my head around the small print with many of the non-Avios travel deals. The only one that I knew worked nicely for me was Uber, which has now been cut.

Hilton and Hotels.com are possibilities but not ones I have tried yet.  That isn’t to say that some of the other deals are not worth it – they just don’t work for me.

I am currently sitting on around £25 of Clubcard vouchers.  At the moment I can see myself moving them to Avios, but only at the last minute –  close to 18th January 2021 – when I am sure there isn’t a better deal out there.

If you’ve got any experience of redeeming Clubcard vouchers for travel (or other) deals for genuine bargains then do post below.  All of these deals can be found at the Clubcard ‘travel deals’ page here.

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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.