FlyerTalk Forums - Tesco and BA [2008 archive]

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 “The Ultimate BA Guide” sticky. In summary, you can convert your Tesco Clubcard points to BA Miles in the ratio 1 Clubcard point = 2.4 BA Miles.

As with the BA Amex, you can only convert points to BAEC accounts that are UK domiciled. Bear this in mind if you are considering moving your account to Europe to benefit from the lower tier point thresholds. However, Clubcard vouchers are valid for 2 years so you can save them up until a suitable time for you to move your account back to the UK.

The paper form to mail in clubcard vouchers for conversion can be found here: https://www.britishairways.com/execclub/tesco/form.html or you can do it online at http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/deals/product.aspx?R=237 by inputting the code number on the voucher - points hit your BAEC account in 24 hours.

Special Promotions – December 2008

1. Tesco Grocery

None at present

2. Tesco DVD Rental (expires 31 January)

1,000 points when you subscribe for 3 months via www.tesco.com/rentalq Cheapest package is £3.97 a month so you are basically getting 2,400 miles for £12, which is a good deal - plus some DVD rentals as well!

3. Tesco Direct

None at present

4. Tesco Insurance (expires 7 January)

See: http://www.tescofinance.com/personal...rrerid=tesco20 1,000 points when you take out life insurance, mortgage insurance or critical illness cover. Limited to new applicants only - not sure if this means you can't apply if you've applied and cancelled before. The key is to take out the cheapest life assurance policy possible (you can't get it lower than £5 per month whatever level of cover you request) and then cancel as soon as the points hit by cancelling your direct debit - in theory, you qualify for the points after making just one £5 payment. You are absolutely NOT obliged to keep the policy for the five year term! In theory, you should also write to them when you cancel to confirm the cancellation - a simple one-line letter is enough. When applying, say you are in perfect health to avoid the need to get your doctor involved in the application process, which will happen if you disclose a poor medical history. This will obviously invalidate the policy if you die but hopefully this won't be an issue!

5. Tesco Entertainment

None at present

6. Tesco Credit Card

None at present

7. Tesco Diets (comes and goes!)

1000 points when you join Tesco Diets for a minimum of ten weeks. This promo comes and goes all the time - look at www.tesco.com/diets and see if it is currently showing on the home page.

8. Tesco Green Living and other e-mails (expires 28 December)

25 points for free when you sign up for various Tesco e-mails at: www.tesco.com/email-signup

9. Tesco Broadband

1,000 points when you sign up at www.tesco.com/broadband/ Use code 60233 when applying, does not apply to the Tesco Value package. Deadline unknown - if you can see the offer on the page above its probably OK!

10. Tesco Child Trust Fund (on-going)

Earn 250 points when you open a Tesco Child Trust Fund and a further 250 points if you set up a direct debit to make further contributions. Note that this is an equity-based fund not a cash-based fund. See: http://www.tescofinance.com/personal...fund/index.jsp

11. Recycling (offer on-going)

Tesco offer points for recycling old mobile phones (300 points if they turn on, 100 points otherwise) and inkjet cartridges (100 points). You need to pick up a green plastic postage-paid envelope from the leaflet rack in-store. The website says that there is a maximum of five phones per clubcard per year but this is no longer the case. More valuable mobiles can be recycled via www.tescomobilerecycle.com. You get 300 points PLUS some cash, depending on the value of the phone.

12. Tesco clubs

The best of receiving regular 'bonus points' coupons is to sign up for the various Tesco clubs. If you join the Tesco World of Wine, Food Club, Baby & Toddler Club or Healthy Living Club (see www.tesco.com/clubcard/clubcard/clubs/ to join), you will receive regular mailings with bonus points offers. The Wine Club is especially generous with each mailing usually containing 200 - 400 points of offers.

13. The Tesco Clubcard Credit Card

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 BA Miles per £1, which is far worse than the BA Premium Plus Amex rate of 1.5 BA Miles per £1, but there are two reasons for getting the card:

a) some places do not take Amex, especially independent retailers
b) 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.

(Totally OT, as this has nothing to do with Tesco but I don't think this is in any other sticky: you can also get 2,000 BA Miles by applying for the free Marriott Rewards credit card at http://www.marriottrewardscard.co.uk...e=stdMediaCode. You get 10k Marriott points for applying which can be transferred into 2k BA. Exactly the same can be done with the Priority Club card: https://www.online-card.co.uk/ihg/pa...ginCode=PW0104 However, if you're looking for an alternative to the BA Amex, the BMI Amex is an excellent proposition with a 20,000 mile sign-up bonus - see the BMI forum for details.)

Other offers worth knowing about:

3% cash-back (exc VAT and delivery) on purchases from Tesco Wine, 7% on Tesco Entertainment and Tesco Jersey and 3% on 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.

If you were planning to book flights or hotels through lastminute.com, it is better to book them through the tesco.com link, under the ‘Holidays & Flights’ tab, to lastminute. You earn 1 Clubcard point for every £1 you spend, on top of your usual credit card bonuses.

Other cashback deals:

Whilst not related to Tesco, it is worth remembering that you can also get cashback on most of your travel bookings through quidco.com. The current rates for the major chains are: Hilton 6%, Eurostar 4%, Marriott 4%, Paramount 6%, NH Hotels 8%, Intercontinental Group 5%, Travelodge 3.6%, Ramada Jarvis 10%, Sheraton 2%, Macdonald 5%, Jurys Doyle 5%, Accor to 7%. Expedia and most of the portals also offer cashback through Quidco. Airlines offering cashback include Virgin Atlantic, FlyBE, KLM, Air France, Singapore Airlines, Air South West, Emirates and Austrian. Hertz, National and Thrify offer cashback on car rental. These cashback offers do not affect your ability to collect points or miles for your trip. If you are booking at an InterContinental, Holiday Inn, HI Express or Crowne Plaza, you get c£14 per booking cashback via pigsback.com which probably beats quidco, although strictly speaking you cannot claim PC points for a stay and get the pigsback money.

If you discover any new offers, post them here and I will update this first post as we go along.