Tesco is a major partner with BA, and offers one of the easiest non-flying ways for UK BAEC members to earn lots of miles. Details of how the Tesco scheme works can be found in “Your guide to the Executive Club, attaining status and earning Avios” sticky.
In summary, you can convert your Tesco Clubcard points to Avios in the ratio 1 Clubcard point = 2.4 Avios. (You can also earn Virgin Flying Club miles via Tesco at the rate of 1 Clubcard point = 2.5 Flying Club miles. VS miles can be converted to Hilton at a 1:2 ratio so 1 Clubcard point = 5 Hilton points, albeit with a 10k minimum conversion from Virgin. You can also go VS to Priority Club, but the ratio is too poor to be worth mentioning!)
You earn 1 point for every £1 spent in a Tesco store and for purchases online. Vouchers are issued quarterly as long as you earn at least 150 points.
The real source of bumper Tesco points are the generous promotions that are occasionally run. There is no need to move your food spend to Tesco to collect lots of Avios - you simply need to jump in when a particularly generous bonus points promotion appears, and then sell the goods on ebay! You will make a small loss in most cases but the thousands of miles will more than offset this. In late 2012, a Cliff Richard CD, for example, came with enough bonus points to get the cost of an Avios down to 0.8p - and that is before any income from reselling the items.
As with the BA Amex, you can only convert Tesco points to BAEC accounts that are UK domiciled. However, since the launch of Avios this is no longer a major restriction. Nothing stops you opening a separate Avios account at avios.com, converting your Tesco points via that account (there is no address restriction if moving to an avios.com account) and then transferring them across to your BAEC account.
It is possible to set up an auto-convert option with Tesco via the Clubcard website, which will automatically send your vouchers across to Avios each quarter. However, this is not recommended.
If you don't need the miles, it makes more sense to keep the vouchers in a drawer and wait until the next transfer promotion comes along offering 40% or so bonus miles. There are also occasional promotions on non-Avios redemptions (shock, horror) which can be excellent value - for eg in 2011 you could for a time get 4 x face value in UK rail travel via redspottedhanky.com.
The online form for clubcard vouchers for conversion can be found here:
http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/deals/product.aspx?R=237, you input the code number on the voucher - points hit your BAEC account in 24 hours. Auto-conversion is also now available again after an absence of a few years, although I personally don't recommend this - sometimes there are other excellent deals available with Clubcard points which may be a better option than Avios, depending on your needs.
Remember that Clubcard vouchers are valid for 2 years. If you do not need the Avios instantly, it makes sense to keep the vouchers in your drawer and wait to see if a conversion promo bonus comes along. In 2010, a bonus of 100% was offered for first-time converters, for example - and anyone could take advantage of this by opening a new BAEC account under a new name (same surname), converting into that and then forming a BA household account to use the Avios.
Historically, I have listed ongoing promotions in this initial post. However, as Tesco has released very few of these recently - preferring to focus on targetted bonus point codes which can only be used by the original recipient - I have removed it and left this post as more of a Tesco introduction.
Bonus points currently available on various in-store grocery products are usually highlighted at
http://www.supermarketspecialoffers....intOffers.aspx. I do not generally list such product promos (eg 50 points for buying a £3 box of teabags) separately unless they offer exceptional value for money.
The various Tesco clubs (Wine and Food) have been scrapped - this is a shame as they were an excellent source of bonus point coupons. If you have a small child, it is worth joining the Baby & Toddler Club (see
www.tesco.com/clubcard/clubcard/clubs/) as you will receive regular mailings with bonus points offers.
For a far more detailed focus on Tesco clubcard deals and extra points opportunities, you should sign up to the forums at
www.paidtoshop.co.uk, run by occasional FT'er Gizmos
The Tesco credit card
and other credit cards that indirectly earn Avios:
a) Tesco
The Tesco Clubcard Credit Card earns 1 point for every £4 spent (rounded down on a per transaction, not per statement, basis - so a £7.99 purchase is treated as £4). Points post as soon as the charge hits your account, not at month end. It works out at 0.6 Avios per £1, which is far worse than the BA Premium Plus Amex rate of 1.5 Avios per £1, but there are two reasons for getting the card:
i) some places do not take Amex, especially independent retailers
ii) if you about to trigger the '2 for 1' voucher on your Amex but would rather defer it for a few months, you can switch to your Tesco Mastercard
Note that your Tesco Mastercard also acts as a clubcard, so you don't need to carry your blue clubcard around anymore. In a Tesco store you can, if you want, have your credit card swiped for use as a clubcard and then pay using your BA Amex for maximum miles! Those of us who applied for a card before April 2006 earn miles at twice the rate of the current card - 2 points for every £4 spent. You may therefore see discussions in this thread which relate to the old cards, as many of us still have that.
You can apply via this link
http://www.tescobank.com/personal/finance/creditcards/ However, if you are referred by an existing credit card holder then both you and the referrer will earn 1,000 bonus Clubcard points.
The following FT'ers can refer you for the Tesco credit card - choose one and PM them. (To be added to this list, send a PM to Raffles.)
dannyrado
David-A
fdm1000
flibbly
higham44
hingeless
kitbag1984
LondonAndy
mobilemario
mrmarf
orudge
Pangalactic
spellinn
stifle
Whiskerxx
Note that this card is a better earner than the basic Lloyds TSB Avios Mastercard, which only earns a pathetic 0.2 Avios per £1. Frankly, you would be better off with a cashback card than using this.
b) Priority Club
There are two Priority Club credit cards. The basic card offers 10,000 PC points which can be turned into 2,000 Avios:
https://www.online-card.co.uk/IHG/Pa...e/Welcome.aspx. The premium black card offers a 20,000 miles sign up bonus (4,000 Avios) but comes with a £99 fee. The black also gives you Priority Club Platinum status for as long as you hold the card.
c) Marriott
Marriott Rewards relauched its UK credit card in 2011, see
https://apply.creation.co.uk/microsi...nseCode=MRWPPO. The sign-up bonus of 10,000 Marriott points is worth 2,000 Avios.
d) American Express Platinum Card
Amex charge cards which earn Membership Rewards points can be converted to Avios at a 1:1 ratio. The '52,000 points for a Platinum sign-up' promo is still going - see the special FT thread on this here
52,000 Avios for Amex Plat sign-up!
Historically, Amex has never offered a bonus for converting Membership Rewards points into Avios. However, in 2011 and 2012, it ran 3 promotions - first, a 40% bonus, and then a whopping 100% bonus, then another 40% bonus. There is obviously no guarantee that these will be repeated, and they may be targetted if they are, but it is worth bearing in mind - your points could be worth twice as much as you think.
e) Amex Preferred Rewards Gold charge card
There is a separate FT thread on this card (
20,000 Avios | Amex Gold sign up bonus) which has no fee for the first year and offers a bonus of 20,000 Avios (via Membership Rewards) for signing up. There is a larger bonus if you are referred by an existing member. You earn 1 MR point per £1, with 2 per £1 on foreign spend, travel spend and (year 1 only) grocery spend. This makes it the most generous Avios card earning opportunity available if you a heavy travel and foreign spender, even better than the BA Amex.
f) Amex SPG credit card
Offers 10,000 Starwood SPG points for signing up, worth 10,000 Avios. Earnings rate is 1 point for £1. If you can get to 20k SPG points, either via the card or with SPG hotel spend, you get a 5k transfer bonus so 25k Avios for 20k SPG. Quidco cashback is sometimes available, currently £40 (
http://www.quidco.com/american-expre...guest-card/?ac). Once a year this card is generally offered with a bonus of 20,000 points (= 25,000 Avios) so it is worth holding out for this.
Other Tesco offers worth knowing about:
Cash-back (exc VAT and delivery) on purchases from Tesco Wine, Tesco Entertainment, Tesco Jersey and other non-grocery Tesco sites (eg Tesco Direct, exc finance and insurance) can be earned by signing up for an account at
www.quidco.com. It also gives £5 cashback on your first Grocery spend on any specific clubcard. topcashback offers a similar service with no annual fee.
Whilst not related to Tesco, it is worth remembering that you can also get cashback on most of your travel bookings through
www.quidco.com. Hotel chains include Holiday Inn / InterContinental / Indigo / Crowne Plaza, Premier Inn, Accor, Best Western, Marriott, Jurys Inn, Radisson / Park Plaza, Britannia, Thistle, Ramada, Days Inn, Macdonald, Warner Leisure Hotels, Millennium & Copthorne, Riu, Sol Melia, Guoman, Corus, Celtic Manor, Derby Hotels, Doyle Collection, Apex, Grand City Hotels, Design Hotels, Iberostar, Travelodge Ireland, La Manga Club, Strand Palace Hotel, Corinthia Hotels, Salgar, RH Hotels and Occidental.
Major booking portals include hotels.com, Expedia, laterooms.com, lastminute.com, ebookers, Opodo, Netflights, octopus.com and Hotwire 6%. Airlines include
BA, Monarch, easyJet (packaged), flybe, Aer Lingus, Lufthansa, KLM, jet2.com, Emirates, FlyThomasCook, Virgin Atlantic, SAS, Air France, Swiss, Qatar, Etihad, Brussels Airlines, Air New Zealand, Canadian Affair, Qantas, Malaysia Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Finnair and Singapore Airlines. It is also worth a look at
www.topcashback.com for similar offers.
If you discover any new Tesco offers, post them here.
)
