For a limited time, you can get more free flight points when you exchange your Tesco Clubcard vouchers.
Tesco and Avios have teamed up to offer 50% more Avios points when you exchange Tesco Clubcard vouchers between now and the end of August.
This means that £2.50-worth of Tesco Clubcard vouchers can be exchanged for 900 Avios points, instead of the usual 600. So exchanging £25-worth of Clubcard vouchers, plus a £27 fee to cover taxes, will get you a free return flight to European destinations including Amsterdam, Berlin, Genoa, Lyon, Milan, Paris and Prague.
You need to have converted your Clubcard vouchers into Avios by 31st August to get this bonus.
Credit cards where you can earn Avios
If you shop at Tesco regularly and pay by credit card, you can earn even more Avios by paying with one of a number of credit cards.
The Lloyds TSB Duo Avios combo gives you an American Express, which pays one Avios for nearly every £1 you spend, while the MasterCard pays one Avios for around £5 spending. The card has a representative APR (the typical annual amount of interest and charges you would pay if you don’t pay off the balance in full each month) of 15.9%.
Or there’s the British Airways American Express, which offers one Avios for roughly every £1 you spend. Right now, you can also earn 1,000 bonus Avios when you spend £500 in the first three months after your card is activated. The card has a representative APR of 19.9%.
There are also a couple of fee-charging options. The Lloyds TSB Premier Duo Avios combo gives you an American Express card, where you can earn 1.25 Avios for nearly every £1 spent, and a MasterCard where you get 1.25 Avios per £5 spent. The annual fee is £50, although Lloyds is currently halving this, so you only pay £25 for your first year. But unless you spend a lot on your credit card, you’re unlikely to reap the rewards.
There’s also the British Airways American Express Premium Plus, which charges £150 a year. Spend £3,000 on the card in the first three months and you’ll get a bonus of 30,000 Avios.
Again, you’ll need to spend a lot of money on the card to justify the annual fee, even with the bonus Avios, particularly when you bear in mind you need to pay taxes for the flights as only the flights themselves are free with Avios now.
It’s also worth noting that American Express isn’t accepted everywhere.
There’s also the Tesco Clubcard card for purchases, which offers one Clubcard point for every £4 spent, which you can then convert into vouchers to spend on Avios.
So you’ll need to spend £1,000 on the card to earn 250 points, which equals a £2.50 voucher, or 600 Avios. The card has a representative APR of 16.9%.
Other airlines' cards
The BMI credit card duo is also worth looking at, as it currently offers a bonus of up to 20,000 destination miles when you spend just £250 within the first 90 days. That would be enough for two free flights to Europe, although again you’ll need to pay taxes. It pays 1.5 miles for every £1 you spend on the American Express card and 1.5 miles for every £2 spent on its Visa companion.
However, it’s important to point out that BMI’s Zone 1 is smaller than Avios’s, as it only goes as far east as Germany and Austria. And with BA buying BMI in April, the rewards scheme may well be incorporated into Avios in the future, so you may want to use the miles sooner rather than later. The BMI cards have a representative APR of 16.9%.
There’s also the Flybe MasterCard, which offers one Rewards4All point for every £250 you spend on the card. If you collect 16 points, you’ll get a free return flight within the UK or Ireland, and 24 points will get you a free flight to Europe (excluding Spain, Portugal and Croatia).
If you sign up now, you can get a free Bonus Essentials return flight to Europe (excluding Spain, Portugal and Croatia), where you just pay taxes. Spend £500 within the first 90 days and you’ll get a second return flight, again with just the taxes to pay. The card has a representative APR of 18.9%.
As with all reward credit cards, all of the cards mentioned in this article are only a good deal if you pay off your balance in full each month.
More on travel and holidays
14 things you must do before your holiday
What does an EHIC really cover?
How to get top travel insurance for your holiday
Should you pay for a buy back rate when exchanging currency?
The best debit cards to use abroad