As usual I had to make a T+40 days claim for a recent Tesco Wine purchase (for some unknown reason they never post automatically for me). Upon request I emailed the orginal invoice and to my surprise my claim was rejected because I had used a £15 Tesco discount voucher. This is their reply:

We are sorry but we are unable to credit the Avios you requested below to your account. Please be aware that your purchase is ineligible for rewards as stated in Gate 365 Terms and Conditions, as stated on our website :"We do not award Avios for VAT, delivery charges or voucher codes that are not promoted on Gate 365"

I responded by telling them that I nearly always use a discount voucher, that I wasn't claiming Avios for the voucher code, delivery or VAT, and that they could work out the total minus VAT for Avios purposes pretty easily (I even showed them how in case they don't know how to use a calculator ) and this was their second response:

We can see that a promotional e-coupon was used and applied to your purchase with Tesco Wine on 26/10/2014.
Please be aware that any use, unintentional or otherwise, of any promotional codes which is not promoted on Gate 365, can negate your rebate, as per the following Terms & Conditions on our website:
"We do not award Avios for VAT, delivery charges or voucher codes that are not promoted on Gate 365."

Is this a change of policy, an existing rule which has never been applied, or just plain stupidity?