Tesco Clubcard and Avios divorce in two weeks – how should you play it?

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• Fenny says:

  4 Jan4 January 10:24

  I’d love it if Waitrose started doing Avios. I got Virgin points on my spend for a while, using the Virgin CC, but that stopped a while back.

  I sent a bunch of printer cartridges to the Tesco recycling scheme about 6 weeks ago to get the points before they stop doing Avios. Nothing so far, so I’m not holding my breath. I’ve got 251 points at the moment, but I’m not wasting another £49 in Tesco to round it up to £3. Not sure what the point of keeping the Tesco CC is any more.

  • John says:

    4 Jan4 January 10:32

    +1 on printer cartridges. Take ages to credit now (if at all).

• Vasco says:

  4 Jan4 January 10:50

  Wish they’d partner with LIDL, but of course I don’t seriously expect this. 😉

  • Rhys says:

    4 Jan4 January 10:56

    I actually quite enjoy using Lidl Plus!

    • Genghis says:

      4 Jan4 January 12:48

      It’s a decent reward scheme. £12 voucher on £200 spend in a calendar month so 6% extra on top. We only do a “big shop” about once a month but the reward scheme has meant we have changed when – i.e. once at the start of the month, once at the end to see us through the next month and then nothing the next calendar month. Spending the voucher means I even pop in for a few bits to use the voucher (as they expire after a week). Incentives, hey.

    • Navara says:

      4 Jan4 January 15:54

      Easy to sort with Lidl or any new partner.
      5/10 points per £ on the BA amex instore

    • the_real_a says:

      4 Jan4 January 17:04

      Electronic receipts are amazingly useful.

    • Vasco says:

      5 Jan5 January 22:25

      Same, but it’s a bit hard to hit the threshold when you’re living alone. Still, I’d be genuinely happy if it was Lidl, I just think it’s amazingly unlikely!

    • Alex says:

      6 Jan6 January 18:19

      Have to say Lidl has improved a lot overall over the past few years, digital receipts, food they offer are way better than before.

• Sparkley1 says:

  4 Jan4 January 10:53

  There is no point literally in saving these as hardly any benefit to it

  • Fenny says:

    4 Jan4 January 11:50

    They were kicking about and if I can get points for them, there’s always a point. Now I have to find somewhere else to recycle them.

• Aston100 says:

  4 Jan4 January 13:01

  I honestly don’t see the appeal of Waitrose.
  For similar prices, M&S are (in my opinion) superior quality.
  However, I would much rather go to a Tesco or Sainsburys to do my grocery shopping.
  Perhaps I am in a minority, but I resent the insinuation that people with money don’t shop at ‘normal working class’ supermarkets, or that people with money only live in the South East of England.

• Linda says:

  4 Jan4 January 13:11

  Thanks Rob, I had a useless £2 voucher until I read this. I applied for the faster voucher and got £8.50 into my account within three hours after downloading the points app. At my (goodbye old boy) grandfathered rate I’ve got 4000 Avios I wasn’t expecting to have. Very grateful.

• TheBrownGuy says:

  4 Jan4 January 13:35

  I would love to see nectar as BA’s partner. That would make nector amex redundant but still I think its a readymade solution for BA.

  • Rob says:

    4 Jan4 January 14:13

    It doesn’t solve the ‘we want to be a big fish’ issue though. And a conversion rate of 2:1, which is what it would be give that Nectar points are usually worth 0.5p, would mean 0.5 Avios per £1 spent in Sainsburys which wouldn’t work.

    • Track says:

      4 Jan4 January 17:17

      Rob, 0.5 Avios per £1 spent in Sainsburys — it is too expensive or too cheap?

      Given amount of Nectars in circulation + potential future shopping, it should be closer to 0.33 of one cent per £1 spent in Sainsbury’s..

      0.5 Avios per £1 spent in Sainsbury’s would be generous, also taking into account Sainbury’s more expensive than Tesco/ASDA/Lidl, and average spent per visit ends up larger.

      • Rob says:

        4 Jan4 January 21:16

        Irrespective of cheap or expensive, the bottom line is that it isn’t enough. People will not switch from Tesco for 0.33 to 0.5 Avios per £1. It simply isn’t worth the trouble.

        2.4 Avios per £1, yes. Not 0.5.

        • ECR says:

          6 Jan6 January 00:26

          Personally in these circumstances I would switch as it would be 0.5 avios per £ at Sainsbury v 0 avios per £ at Tesco. Although there are other things that are technically better value I could use Tesco points for, none of them are of enough interest to me to influence shopping habits.

• Mark says:

  4 Jan4 January 13:39

  John Lewis / Waitrose have no footprint in Northern Ireland. Personal political views aside, not a good look for a “National Flag Carrier” to exclude part of the UK with a decision to partner in that direction.

  As others have commented, M&S ticks mostly the same boxes with full UK coverage, and would finally give Sparks some sort of purpose in life for customers.

  • Andrew says:

    4 Jan4 January 15:01

    Although its name is British Airways and Northern Ireland isn’t in Britain.

    • Matt says:

      4 Jan4 January 15:48

      Northern Ireland is part of the British Isles… just not part of Great Britain.

• Nick says:

  4 Jan4 January 14:34

  If it’s Waitrose, I just don’t understand the economics. Tesco is the third biggest revenue stream into AGL, after BA (for flights) and Amex. Huge numbers of people convert to Avios, such that I just don’t think Waitrose can match the volume. They might be going for yield (if JLP will pay more per Avios), but this is the opposite strategy to everything AGL has done recently, which is ‘absolute cash in IAG’s bank now, screw the future’. And JLP doesn’t have any/much money to pay them upfront anyway. Rob’s idea that they’re going for presence sounds the most logical to me… but knowing how much Tesco spend on Avios, it’s a massive gamble as you can’t easily measure ‘marketing presence’ in £ terms and there’s no way JLP will be matching them. Unless of course they’re trying to reduce the number of Avios in circulation (or indeed get rid of the ‘riff raft’ average Tesco spender, which is I suppose also a possibility), but this is a whole other kettle of fish that would have wider implications (and I think is pretty unlikely). Guess we’ll find out soon…

  • Track says:

    4 Jan4 January 15:37

    Seems it is a massive gamble for BA / Avios Group.

    • Nick says:

      4 Jan4 January 16:47

      BA has nothing to do with it any more. It’s entirely AGL. Seriously, believe it or not, not a single member of BA staff would be able to object, whatever AGL decided.

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