T8191

😀
I never realised how much I was missing by not having had access to Tesco for 15 years!

corporate-wage-slave

Enough to get me to Vancouver in CW, I seem to recall.

Woodbinerich

I forward purchased five years of worth of Lego birthday and christmas gifts for my Niece and Nephew. Just getting to the end now.

kanderson1965

No need for the BAEC in the North, as we are all getting locked up here. 😛

Scots_Al

This may just be the end of my decade or so long dalliance with Avios, F redemptions and the like...

With the current situation and being a couple of months away from the birth of our first child, I was already about to downgrade our Amex to the basic one (and that only to keep the vouchers - we do have enough for a decent trip left) and start focussing spending on some other type of card. Amex was our primary source of Avios, with Tesco our second....

Rubecula

I remember that link and disappointment when it ended. Times change and now M&S would be my sweet spot for grocery Avios.

Shingi

Even more of a shame for those of us who had grandfather rights ie., 800 rather than 600 for every £2.50. Like Yorkshiretraveller #37 I did very well out of Tesco until they clamped down but I still managed to get a few J trips to DUR. Tesco took the scheme from Sainsbury’s all those years ago so it would be nice if they took it up again. I never did like Tesco but they had me purely for BA flights. It will be interesting to know just what the reason for the divorce is.

drwook

Hmm, I'll kick myself if there is as just 'cashed out' my small pile of vouchers for them today.

Paxing

Just yesterday my partner and I agreed to export her Clubcard points to BA and I signed her up last night! Still, I'll transfer all the balance of her vouchers to them right away. My only surprise is that it has lasted this long.

squawk

​​​​This is absolutely the content I'm here for on FT: corporate-wage-slave's sheep's culinary adventures. But only if they earn Avios! ​​​​​​​

​​​​​​​Regarding Tesco, it is a shame - although the opportunities for outsized Clubcard hauls have greatly diminished in recent years, they're still a useful way of keeping Executive Club accounts alive if you don't have any other earning/redeeming opportunities. I'm thinking primarily for family members or friends who may not fly regularly and are not in your Household account. I know my father did this a few years back.

I came late to the game of Clubcard arbitrage: other than regular spend (it's a convenient supermarket) and a current account which I used for this purpose, my only artificial spend was back in 2017 and wasn't a large one by many standards on here! Eight packs of ink cartridges at £12 each (£96), for a printer I didn't own - netting 8000 bonus points (plus 192 for the raw spend) worth £81.92 of Clubcard points.

But I didn't spend them on Avios - converting at 3:1 into RedSpottedHanky vouchers was better value for my travel patterns. £245.76 worth of train travel, even allowing for RSH's £1 booking fee, was a good return.

OverTheHorizon

I can't quite bring myself to hate Tesco (my stepson feeds his family through working for them) but I understand why many do.

Clubcard was great back in the day, with some super deals involving ink cartridges, Lego et al, not to mention points from the Tesco credit card.

But all good things must come to an end, and when we turned 50, Saga was suddenly a much better card for our frequent forex spend.

With Tesco slashing earning rates, the black card increasingly holidayed at home.

We have about £250 face value in T vouchers but a hefty 6-figure Avios balance so I guess we won't vibrate too much at this news!

Magic01273

The thing is, I'm not aware of either M&S or Waitrose offering existing "points" based schemes right now that really lend themselves to any kind of conversion from one currency to another. Unless I am mistaken and these brands do now offer actual proper loyalty programs with points currencies? I dont foresee either brand going to the trouble of spinning-up a points based program any time soon, and certainly not just to facilitate a single program partner like BA.

In terms of supermarket loyalty programs, isnt the only real candidate Sainsburys/Nectar? If so, then as far as I can tell, Nectar has always (promotions withstanding) been generally a lower value currency than clubcard points - and therefore even an eventual move to that program would very likely see poor conversion rates, right?

Im not a huge fan of Tesco (prefer Sainsburys personally) but as an earning opportunity, I can see any other players stepping in with such a strong offer

star_crazy

well that's easy, i'll just stop using Tesco from mid January, Avios was pretty much the only reason I used them still

Confus

For ‘standard’ shopping / CBA user, yes Nectar is lower value. But for anyone who actually shops there and is willing to log into their app once a week, there are bonus offers galore - for example I recently got 40 points for buying a carrot, 150 for a squash and 80 for buying eggs. It’s nothing in the world of printer ink and birds eye meals, but stuff I’d most likely be getting anyway and my Nectar balance tends to shoot up pretty quickly. I’m all in if they’re the new Avios partner.

JAXBA

Indeed, in the early 90s, the joint Sainsbury's/BA promotion was 'check out to check-in'