OT: Boots Advantage Programme
 

Hi,


Ok, this is a bit cheeky... :D

I've noticed some mention of Boots/Advantage here in the past.

I'm currently working with a loyalty scheme from the inside, and would welcome any comments or observations anyone on this forum has on the Boots Advantage Loyalty Programme.

Is anyone a member? Are there any frustrations, or opportunities for programme change? Are you happy with the promotions, mailings and deals?

Any feedback would be welcomed, here or via PM.


Regards,
Yossimills

Yes, I find it very frustrating that you can't exchange Advantage points for BA Miles.

Right, now that we're back on topic ...

:D

As is traditional, we'll give this a run here before moving to a more appropriate forum.

Swanhunter
Moderator, BAEC

I am also disappointed that, as a Boots Gold Advantage card holder, I am no longer able to pre-book the till I would like to pay at. And last week, someone at an adjacent till had a screaming baby, and I have not yet received a refund of my purchase in compensation ;)

More seriously, for the OP, as I'm afraid to say with almost all shop loyalty schemes, I forget my card 50% of the time, and don't really get overly excited (no Tesco's nearby to build up the BA Miles, you see, for all those who are shaking their heads in disbelief)...

Benefits (as someone who spends a lot on nappies and baby stuff!) -

a) effectively 4% cashback, doubling to 8% on selected brands (eg Pampers) if you register with kids club. Idiot proof scheme. HOWEVER, it only works because Boots is now price competitive with Waitrose these days. If Boots was more expensive than Waitrose then I wouldn't bother shopping there for baby stuff - as it is they seem to price match and therefore Boots is cheaper with the card.

b) easy to use the points - you can use them to pay for anything at Boots. Only wierd tweak is that the purchase must be smaller than your points balance - you can't part-pay for items with points.

c) no opportunity to use points more effectively (the equivalent of Tesco Deals) which may be a missed opportunity

d) occasional postal mailings offer extra points on various things, but the coupons have a very annoying habit of being rejected by Boots tills - big lack of joined up thinking

e) oddly, the fact that Boots is able to give 4% cashback to card holders always made me think that Boots was somehow ripping people off because its profit margins must be too high if it can happily give away 4%!

f) I occasionally feel a bit of a twat faffing about for a loyalty card that will get me a paltry 40p back on a £10 purchase - it somehow seems too much trouble (although we still have the card). For this reason, I never bothered with one in pre-baby days even though I've always bought stuff in Boots.

Have to agree 100% with this. I mean how many loyalty cards are you supposed to carry around with you? Homebase, Tesco, Sainsbury & Boots are all places I frequent. I give my wife the Boots receipts and she adds them to her account when she remembers. I've lost my nectar card. My Homebase card has an uncanny ability to disappear and reappear at will and Tesco is the only one i'm consistent with, usually because I use the credit card rather than the classic club card.

How about creating a multi-loyalty card that allows you to accrue through several stores with a single piece of plastic???

I think that's a peculiarity of Homebase cards - I found three of them hiding in a drawer the other day...

I guess that's what Nectar was meant to do, but the number of stores seems to fluctuate (and I've yet to find anything useful to do with the 211,000 points I've got accumulated!

a) Indeed. The 4% cashback is the main seller of this scheme.

e) I'd reflected on that from time to time as well. Perhaps someone should come up with an escallating loyalty scheme, where your rebate ammount goes up and down with level frequency of spend?
[Although as someone who spends most of his actual time outside of the UK that really would hurt me!]

I was meaning a single piece of plastic that could be presented at POS and at Tesco credit points to clubcard, Sainsbury to nectar, Boots to Advantage etc etc.

Everyone gets their data to mine, everyone gets their points to keep and it's only one piece of plastic to worry about.

Priority Club have something similar in that you can get a PC card custom made with various other FF scheme numbers on the back.

Homebase does this and Tesco used to...

[EDIT: Swiss Tony clarified his own post!]

Re: need to carry bits of plastic:
Perhaps it could be done on an opt-in basis by having you register your payment cards with the scheme?

I think that the UK Government is trying to do something similar, and peole have some very real concerns... ;)

Please keep the comments rolling in, guys!

I'm not familiar with the homebase scheme, but I recall how Tesco used to work.

However I was envisaging the variation swings being far bigger than anything I've seen applied before!

The Mrs has a card and it does seem to be one of the more generous/useful loyalty schemes. It's certainly sufficiently worth it to her that she forces the card into my hand on the odd occasion that I shop there.

The ability to exchange points for BA miles would be good though.. :D

The same goes for Nectar too!

Nectar is very close to becoming a farce, since the cashback element is basically 1%. That really isn't worth the trouble of carrying around a card. In Scotland they are currently trialling a reduced 0.5% Sainsbury's cashback!

However, it saves itself (for me) because
a) I use the points for gym sessions at 500 points a time for Cannons City, one of the UK's most impressive fitness centres, and so the points are worth more than 1p to me;
b) I get points from two Talk Talk contracts that literally turn up with no effort on my part
c) Nectar runs 5-6 100 point surveys a year which take 30 seconds to complete for easy points
d) you get points on Amazon purchases via Nectar E-Stores, and Amazon is not on Quidco, BA E-Store etc

I can't understand why anybody shops at Boots- the prices are way higher than the supermarkets! The "loyalty scheme" is effectively being paid for by the inflated prices.

Ok, I actually like the Boots scheme, principally because it lets me buy random forgotten toiletries at airports without having to spend any money :D The 4% is a reasonable rate of return as well, making it worthwhile for even small amounts.

The points kiosks are great if I'm doing a pre-trip shop (although the get xxx points for a £10 shop seem much harder to come by) so likely to be spending a significant amount. More offers on the shelves, rather than having to go through the kiosk would be easier though - but I've also done all my address changes at the kiosks so it is a very useful thing to have around.

And kosky, I shop at Boots because they have a better selection of more medical and protective things than even the big supermarkets - and because I love their suntan/protection brand.

LOL ok i think that Soltan is possibly the must disgusting smelling suncream I have ever smelt!!! I'ma Nivea man myself. Still, each to his/her own.:p

The 4% cashback is good, but I effectively get this with Tesco, so most toiletries are bought there, which is handy for conversion to BA Miles.

If Boots bettered Tesco's offer to convert points into miles or other things (a-la Tesco clubcard scheme) then I'd definitely reconsider buying all toiletries from Boots. I guess it would also come in handy when buying gifts.

Not higher than Waitrose (unsurprisingly!)

Working at Heathrow, Boots is the cheapest way to buy lunch. Sandwich, crisps and a bottle of coke all for the grand total of £3.49 using the meal deal option!

Being a FTer i have worked out that to get most bang for your buck you should go for the:

Triple/Quadruple Sandwich pack £2.90
Chocolate Brownie £1.25
can of red bull £1.80

so you get £5.95 worth of food for £3.49! + 4% cashback!

and before i forget, buy 5 meal deals and get the next one free!

i dont think theres much you can buy £3.49 nowadays at the airport so kudos to Boots and the meal deal!

Are airport staff allowed to use WorldPoints cards? - that ups the cashback even more!

And don't forget the "buy 5 in a month, get 6th free" on the meal deals. That drops the price even more!

I've just logged on and thought somebody had discovered a way of converting Boots points to miles, or AAt leAAst AA miles. :(

I've used my Boots card for some time and have about £150-worth, having never redeemed any. Registering the card online at http://www.boots.com/webapp/wcs/stor...&storeId=10052 produces regular points coupons in the post, a little like Tesco except they are useful. :eek:

Retail margins are high. If stores can offer what is claimed as 20%, 50%/up to 70% off, there is room to manoeuvre, so 4% is a reasonable way to seek repeat business.

General: there is no way that we will see a combined loyalty card across the majors for competitive reasons. The Nectar card had one supermarket chain, one fuel chain, one department store etc.

Specific: re Nectar - just think of accrued points as payment for travel and the like that you were going to do anyway.

Ive got a Worldpoints card which gives me double points so every £1 i get 3 BMI miles. I give it to my entire team when they go and buy coffees and lunch. Also comes in handy when buying some big items from HMV, Dixons, swarovski for the missus, etc. i bought a Nintendo Wii for £200 and i got 400 worldpoints which comes to 600 BMI miles!

i generally average around 50 worldpoints per day!

Tangental point - consider setting yourself up as an Amazon Affiliate. For the time it takes to log out, get the stock code and paste it into the browser you'll get 5%-7.5% rebate. Paid for my Amazon Prime and much, much more last year.

I see where you're coming from, but this is probably like years gone by where Fenwicks, M&S and John Lewis all said "We won't take anyone's credit cards - if you want to pay on credit, you have to use our store card".

'cos that one held up well, didn't it!

And to refer to an earlier post, perhaps that's where the government is getting it wrong. Incentivise people to have their privacy destroyed with a few premium flights each year and they would be onto a winner. :p

i'd like a Boots scheme which has quirks where you occasionally get the chance to buy 2000 tubes of toothpaste which equates to 2 longhaul First returns on BA.:D

We most definitely are, though like most of my colleagues half the time I forget to hand it over. I could get so many more £5 vouchers than I do :rolleyes:

As for Boots - I mainly use mine at the airport. I'm ashamed to say I rarely look at the prices as if I need something I need it, and at the airport especially there's nowhere else that sells the things that Boots do.

The cashiers there are pretty good at reminding you to use your card and their points are easy to use.

Would be better if I could get BA miles with them though ;)

Simple really, I would like a second card.

My wife has an advantage card and rather than have to go through the faff of getting a 'validated receipt' each time I shop without her, I would like a second card linked to her account.

Why not run two accounts? - Because you can't use the points as part payment.

You can of course get bmi miles (750 per £5) and VS miles (500 per £5) :).

Useful for non-regular BD and VS fliers who need to extend the life of existing miles - one points redemption every now and again keeps the miles from disappearing.

Or maybe they should allow Household Accounts....any purchases using points could be proportionally deducted from each individual account.

I like the meal deals - for those who are really heavy meal-dealers perhaps they should have a GUF2 (Gourmet Upgrade for 2) benefit after you reach 20 meal deals in a calendar month .

Back to the topic at hand, I would be quite happy if there was a way to convert Boots Advantage points into BD miles. :)

Me too ;) In all seriousness I think there should be a way to link an account to a credit card so whenever it's used you get the points. Tesco do something similar as you can use your Tesco credit card as a clubcard without actually purchasing the goods using the credit card - saves having to carry around your clubcard - like others here I've always forgotten the card it seems.

Interesting thread

I have one but can no longer find it. Somewhere in a drawer. I should dig it out or reapply, which I am sure I can do. Have just looked in my wallet. It has 24 different cards. It really is too many!

I have a grumble...

I have been collecting Boots points for a while and they do stack up quickly with various bonus points bonuses.

So when it was time for a new toothbrush I splashed out on the top Braun Oral-B model. It was something like £69.97 so 6997 points. I had 6000 on the card. When it swiped I joked how I was £7 short and would have to put it back.

Turned out that was the case as the till was unable to do a points plus cash transaction so you can only pay in full with cash or with points. Not a mix! How bleedin stupid is that!

I ended up having to baby some baby feeding bottles as they had 1500 bonus points. Then after buying the toothbrush asked for a refund on the bottles.

What a farce. Not used it since and buying my toiletries in Tesco now with the shopping.

Have you still got the points? Oral-B are half price at the moment IIRC.

That was half price! It is a marketing gimmick. Implying it was worth £135!!!

Yes I bought it after buying flippin baby bottles! :rolleyes:

Well, you never know when you might need some baby bottles :D :p

Best thing about the Boots scheme is if you have a pay-as-you-go mobile phone.

With a double points voucher (from mailing) and one of the bonus weekends (spend £50 and get 1000 points) that means on a £50 topup, 200 normal points, doubled to 400 plus 1000 extra = £14 value. That's a £28 discount on my phonecalls and 75 BA miles, with spend counting towards the next 2for1 amex voucher.

The scheme works OK for me, but I don't often use my points. When they had a wider range of services - dentist, more opticians etc I earned a lot more.

I find that only a few stores have the machines where you can insert your card and get vouchers on the spot for bonus points. I'd more of those in more stores.

I too would like a way to convert the cash to something useful - like airline miles, or hotel stays or some form of non-boots discount vouchers.

Usually use the points when we need some expensive electrical device that Boots stock.

The cards seem to be a bit flaky as I think I have had 6 new ones in the past few years.