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Nectar is killing (arguably) its best redemption – Caffe Nero drinks

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Caffe Nero is, perhaps oddly, the best value Nectar redemption partner. Not Avios.

400 Nectar points will get you a voucher (in the form of a QR code, saved in the Nectar app, to be scanned in-store) for ANY hot or iced drink, of any size.

With most drinks now costing over £3.50, at least in London, you are certain to get more than the usual 0.5p per Nectar point.

Redeem Nectar points at Caffe Nero

A regular Americano costs £3.60 in Central London. Using 400 Nectar points instead (which is the equivalent of 250 Avios) means you’d need to value Avios at more than 1.44p before it made more sense to transfer them there.

(There’s no point ordering a regular drink, of course, because the voucher is good for any size. Make it a large one, even if you’d usually have a regular coffee when using cash!)

Go for anything more exciting than a regular Americano – for example a £5+ frappe, or a £5.45 tiramisu latte – and you’d need to value an Avios at 2p+ before it made more sense to convert.

Caffe Nero is leaving Nectar

Unfortunately, you are running out of time to take advantage of this deal.

According to the Caffe Nero page of the Nectar website here, the last day to redeem Nectar points for Caffe Nero drinks vouchers is 18th August.

Vouchers are good for 12 months so you may want to stock up.

If you regularly buy expensive drinks (£4+) from Caffe Nero, it may even be worth transferring some American Express Membership Rewards points into Nectar. It is 1:1, so if you are getting a £4+ drink then you’re getting at least 1p per Membership Rewards points.

Redeem Nectar points at Caffe Nero

How do you redeem Nectar points for Caffe Nero drinks?

The deal is a bit fiddly to find in the Nectar app. You need to click the ‘Partners’ tab at the bottom. Type ‘Nero’ into the search box and the deal will pop up.

You can order drinks vouchers via your phone as long as you have access to your email, as 2FA is in place. Click on the ‘Saved’ tab in the app menu and it will take you to your voucher bar codes for scanning in the store.

What happened to the Marriott Bonvoy / Nectar transfer deal?

Last November, Marriott Bonvoy and Nectar announced that they would be launching a transfer partnership in ‘early 2025’.

It didn’t happen on schedule, clearly, but it IS still coming.

If this would be of interest to you, you may want to hold off converting Nectar points for free coffee until nearer the end date of 18th August in case the Marriott partnership launches before then.

Thanks to Johnie for flagging in our forum.

Category

British Airways and Avios, Sainsbury's and Nectar

Comments (109)

  • broomy23 says:
    16 Jul16 July 08:48

    As long as the Octopus codes don’t stop, I’ll be happy. There’s 2 Neros near me, 1 store makes the worst coffee I have ever tasted, and the other one is passable. The train station ones in London don’t have that problem either.

    Independents are much better, but I’m not turning down a free iced latte in this weather!

    Reply
    • JPa says:
      16 Jul16 July 09:31

      What time do they release codes as I never see them when a randomly go on the octopus app, apart from a rakuten one I got once

      Reply
      • Novice says:
        16 Jul16 July 10:29

        They seem to have sold out always now. Can’t remember the last time I got a code. I have checked all different hours from 6 in morning. It used to be easy to get them before 9 am but they are never available now.

        Reply
      • Rui N. says:
        16 Jul16 July 11:18

        For Nero needs to be at 6am prompt to get them. For Greggs, they seem to run out sometime mid-morning.

        Reply
        • Limbo says:
          16 Jul16 July 13:59

          I’ve never had any trouble getting a Nero code just after I wake up at 6.30am…

          Reply
          • Sandgrounder says:
            16 Jul16 July 17:20

            Ditto, usually start checking around 5-5.30 on a Monday, sometines they arent up until after 6.. Its valid all week once you have it.

  • Bob says:
    16 Jul16 July 09:04

    I don’t see an Octopus caffe nero code for this week.
    Maybe they also stopped offering?

    Reply
    • L says:
      16 Jul16 July 09:22

      I got mine this week. Problem is, they have limited numbers so go very quickly. I go on first thing on a Monday morning and screenshot the voucher (never been an issue)

      Reply
      • Rui N. says:
        16 Jul16 July 11:19

        They release them every week day now, so to get a Nero code you need to do it at 6am. Greggs last longer, but even those are out by 9-10am usually.

        Reply
  • ankomonkey says:
    16 Jul16 July 09:23

    Nectar is such a dull loyalty scheme. They send me messages claiming “it’s the best part of the week” when my weekly offers are communicated. The offers are generally 10 or 20 points. Meh!

    Reply
    • Peter says:
      16 Jul16 July 10:52

      Yep, useless, if you don’t buy any of these offers you get a random number of bonus points like 20.. so not worth bothering.

      Reply
      • Nick says:
        16 Jul16 July 11:05

        Nectar is great. I consistently get an average 15-20 points per £ with the bonuses included. If your points value falls the trick is to shop somewhere else that week, then they’ll go up again.

        Reply
      • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
        16 Jul16 July 14:36

        Useless for you but not for many others.

        Reply
    • Dezza says:
      16 Jul16 July 22:09

      I’m generally getting 500+ pts per week on top of the actual spend. (Helps that the IT behind it isn’t great.)

      Reply
  • Novice says:
    16 Jul16 July 09:58

    Rob, it is not only in London. Prices are similar up north.

    Reply
  • Ryan says:
    16 Jul16 July 11:02

    Sometimes I wonder if Rob puts these Nero / Nectar articles up knowing the engagement will be high – debates over the value of discounting a cash purchase (Octopus / student discount / Three (?) / Meerkat etc) 😉

    Reply
    • John says:
      17 Jul17 July 01:13

      But apparently a tiny proportion of readers actually comment, and most of the regular commenters probably don’t generate much revenue for him

      Reply
  • Aston100 says:
    16 Jul16 July 12:25

    I find some of the comments in this thread quite amusing.
    Especially from those who are clearly out of touch with the circumstances of people and the country these days.
    Just because you made a gazillion quid back in the 1950s or whatever from being a tight arse and not being faced with the challenges young people now have.

    Reply
    • Froggee says:
      16 Jul16 July 12:59

      Indeed but it is the mindset of most that any success is because of their personal genius and not luck. I am aware how lucky I have been.

      I started working in Edinburgh in 1996.

      Graduate salary of £12,500 per annum.

      One bedroom starter flat in Gorgie/Easter Road (depending on football team preference) in a tenement was £30k. These were and are pretty commoditised.

      You could get a 100% mortgage.

      Nowadays these same flats are more like £150k. Mortgages are less easy to get and I’m pretty sure graduate salaries have not gone up by 5x.

      It sucks.

      Reply
      • jj says:
        16 Jul16 July 15:41

        What you say is true, Froggee. The more interesting question is why it’s true, and the answer is that it’s a direct consequence of government policies that have largely followed the centrist consensus that is often regarded as grown up and risk-averse.

        Government has:

        – Allowed the UK population to grow rapidly without thought for the consequences on housing
        – Protected green spaces by discouraging house building, worsening the housing shortage
        – Raised the cost of new houses by insisting on higher standards for new-builds than are applied to existing stock
        – Restricted access to mortgages through strict affordability tests to ensure that only people that the regulator regards as suitable are able to get a mortgage
        – For decades, and only recently reversed, offered better tax treatment to landlords than owner occupiers
        – Imposed restrictions on lenders offering mortgages at high income multiples
        – Increased the cost of mortgages by requiring most borrowers to take advice that is expensive to provide
        – Increased regulatory capital requirements for banks providing high LTV mortgages (not yet implemented, but coming)
        – Prevented economically efficient allocation of housing through excessive stamp duty
        – Discouraged downsizing by offering council tax discounts for sole occupancy
        – Failed to address leasehold reform or excessive service charges
        – Increased the cost of moving through bureaucracy like homebuyer reports and EPC certificates
        – Encouraged increased numbers of young people to move away from their parental home and associated parental support by attending distant universities
        – Encouraged young people to enter the workplace later in life by increasing the take-up of further education
        – Increased the effective tax burden on young people through the student loan scheme

        Most of these things are regarded by many people as sensible policies in their own right, but, taken together, they have locked a generation out of the housing market.

        Reply
      • Erico1875 says:
        16 Jul16 July 17:20

        Froggie -those flats in Gorgie were only £15K in 1985 so doubled in 10years

        Reply
    • paul says:
      16 Jul16 July 13:13

      You see that’s the issue – just because the 35s and under want everything given to them they assume anyone older had it easy.

      In 1997 I borrowed what little I could get from a bank, started in business at the grottiest location I could afford and spent very little on personal treats for the first 5 years – mainly because we couldn’t afford it and also because we never got any time off to enjoy it.

      The area we could afford to buy in was really deprived and the way local kids were dragged up put us off having our own kids; as no matter how well we raised ours we knew they’d be out in the World amongst theirs. Some years later and the way the World is going we are so glad of that decision.

      That was the late-90s and the early hard work and sacrifice meant we could sell that business and trade-up, which we did until 2 weeks before Covid when we sold our last business.

      But that doesn’t happen now – younger people wont accept anything less than the effluencers have promised they can have – and when they can’t have it they comfort themselves with “stuff” that make it even harder to achieve anything.

      We didn’t get to explore the World in our 20s and 30s as some have suggested people should as we were hard at work.

      But in our 40s when hard work had bought us a debt-free home we could start to enjoy it.

      We also continued to work hard and are now semi-retired mid-50s with several rental properties giving us a nice income (yes I know we are the cause of the housing crisis and yet another reason you can’t afford a home yawn)

      We are shortly going on cruise no 76 and have enjoyed a 2 year motorhome tour of the US and Canada – all because of that early hard work and taking a gamble on ourselves.

      So, please don’t assume everyone older than 50 has “had it easy”.

      Reply
      • ken says:
        16 Jul16 July 14:11

        You have remarkable insights on all young people considering you don’t have children…

        Froggee absolutely nails it.

        Reply
      • CJD says:
        16 Jul16 July 15:04

        ‘We bought a house in the late 90s when it was comparatively much cheaper to do so and didn’t have kids, how come nobody else has the same disposable income we do?’

        Reply
      • Robin says:
        16 Jul16 July 15:16

        Surely this is posted by a Daily Mail “journalist” looking to stir up some division?!

        Reply
      • Dg100 says:
        16 Jul16 July 17:50

        Spending a high proportion of your younger years to be able to cruise later in life sounds ideal to me. I’ve cut out the coffee and I’ll sip my coffee on my cruise in 20 years.

        Reply
    • Rui N. says:
      16 Jul16 July 16:35

      Boomers, what else?

      Reply
  • TeesTraveller says:
    16 Jul16 July 16:20

    Another Nectar “enhancement”. From 25 July, members will now have to opt in via the app every week to get special personalised prices at Sainsbury’s.

    Reply
    • CJD says:
      16 Jul16 July 16:31

      Funnily enough, it’s been enhanced in that you don’t need to use Smartshop to get your personalised discount.

      I activate my bonus points offers on a Friday anyway, so hopefully this shouldn’t be too difficult to remember.

      Reply
      • Aston100 says:
        16 Jul16 July 16:52

        “Funnily enough, it’s been enhanced in that you don’t need to use Smartshop to get your personalised discount.” – This is very useful for me. I prefer not to use the scan as you shop thingy.

        Reply
      • John says:
        17 Jul17 July 01:15

        Yeah, you need to check the offers before you go shopping anyway so activating them isn’t particularly onerous

        Reply
  • tillyedwards1 says:
    16 Jul16 July 16:57

    you used to be able to earn nectar points when booking Marriott through there link on the nectar store – this has now gone, are you sure the merger is still happening ?

    Reply

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