Get 2,400 Avios when you buy the new Samsung Galaxy Tab from Tesco Direct

Tesco Direct are offering 1,000 bonus Clubcard points (= 2,400 Avios), when you buy the new Samsung Galaxy Tab A – available in black or white – for £229.

Promotion ends: 28 June 2015

Key features:

• Operating system: Android 5.0 Lollipop
• Screen resolution: 1280 x 800 pixels
• Screen size: 9.7″
• Battery life: Up to 15 hours
• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (1.2 Ghz)
• Storage capacity: 16GB
• Wi-Fi: 802.11a/b/g/n
• Bluetooth: 4.0
• Memory card slot: microSD (up to 128GB)
• Front-facing camera: 2 Megapixel
• Rear-Facing Camera: 5 Megapixel

The bonus points will automatically be applied when you get to the checkout stage.

Remember, you can get free delivery if you choose ‘Click+Collect’ and orders can now be collected from any store.

Full details of the range available can be found here.

Get 1,500 bonus Avios when you join the BA Executive Club and take a Domestic or European flight

If you aren’t already a member of the British Airways Executive Club (and you really should be if you fly with them – even rarely), BA are running a promotion offering 1,500 bonus Avios when you become a member and take a return Domestic or European flight.

Join, book and fly before: 15 July 2015

To become a member simply visit here, click ‘Join the Club’ and complete your details.

If you have registered to use the BA web site, but are not yet a member of the Executive Club, you can also get the bonus. In this case you need to click ‘Join the Club (registered customers)’.

In both cases you must ensure that the promotional code ‘ECSOMD’ is entered when signing up.

Once your account is validated, book any British Airways return flight from London to Europe and complete the journey before 15 July 2015. The bonus Avios (plus the standard Avios you would earn anyway) will then post to your account.

Note:

• Open to any person who is not an existing BA Executive Club member, is resident in the United Kingdom and is aged 18 or over
• You must sign up via the special link here and ensure that the promotional code ‘ECSOMD’ is entered
• The promotional code cannot be retrospectively entered after enrolment
• You must quote your Executive Club membership number at the time of booking your flight
• A qualifying flight is a published or corporate negotiated net fare return flight in any of the selling classes departing from London Heathrow, London City or London Gatwick and flying to any BA destination in Europe
• The promotion does not apply for travel on flights operated by any other BA franchisees, codeshare partners or oneworld Alliance members
• All booking classes on short-haul routes in Europe and BA domestic routes are eligible as qualifying flights
• Flights for both the outbound and inbound parts of the journey must be booked, ticketed and purchased in the UK and must depart from and terminate upon return within the UK, and all travel must be completed within the promotional period
• Any change in travel arrangements after the date of booking will not be eligible for any Avios bonus unless the revised travel arrangements also constitute a qualifying flight completed before the end of the promotional period
• This promotion cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer

Get double points or double miles with the Hilton ‘Double Your HHonors’ promo – extended

Hilton HHonors have decided to extend their ‘Double Your HHonors’ promotion, which was due to finish on 31 May. It offers a choice of either double points or double miles.

Valid for stays until: 31 August 2015

You need to register to take part in this promotion and you can do that here. You will also find full details and the terms and conditions on that page.

The good news is that all hotels in the group will now participate in this promotion. Up until 31 May there was a large list of non-participating properties.

Hilton HHonors previously announced that they were going to cut the number of their global promotions over the year to two. It would appear that they have changed their mind on this, though no official announcement to this effect has been made.

Important:

• Once you have made your choice of double points or double miles it is not possible to change this again during the promotion, so think carefully before making your decision.
• In order to get double miles you must have your ‘MyWay’ earnings style option set to points & miles (not points & points). You must also have a preferred airline selected in your HHonors profile. Double miles are only available with the normal participating airlines.

Note:

• Double points means you will receive a bonus equal to the number of base points earned during a stay
• Bonus points earned on Base Points do not count toward tier qualification
• The usual rules apply to ineligible rates for earning points

London City Airport details new £16 million Western Pier redevelopment

Work has begun on a £16 million redevelopment programme at London City Airport, that will transform the airport’s Western Pier, which houses 70% of its departure gates.

The airport was designed for tens of thousands of passengers when it was built in 1987, rather than the millions that use it today. Lack of space has increasingly become a problem.

The new Western Pier will create a bright, open-plan space with modern seating, electronic boarding gates, workspaces, quiet areas and charging points. The area will increase in size by around 84%, (approx. 1,780m²), with space for new retail and food & beverage outlets, and accommodate 600 additional seats. Work is expected to be completed by Summer 2016.

An artist’s impression of the new West Pier

The work is able to be carried out under ‘permitted development’ – which means it does not need planning permission. This work is not part of the City Airport Development Programme, which I featured here. Planning permission for that was blocked by London Mayor Boris Johnson. London City Airport has mounted an appeal against that decision.

Declan Collier, CEO of London City Airport said: “We are creating more space, more seating, and more comfort for our passengers.” He continued: “People choose LCY for its unrivalled location so close to central London, the speed of check-in and arrivals, and for the quality of the experience here. Without development, that experience was at risk of being compromised, but this multi-million pound investment will make the new Western Pier a cutting-edge extension of the departure lounge, with a business-class feel throughout, that is accessible to all.”

Get 360 Avios for £50 of Pay.com prepaid Visa cards at Tesco

One of the most popular articles ever published on this site was on 3V prepaid Visa cards, now rebranded (following a takeover of the issuing company) as Pay.com Gift Cards.

Available from Tesco, they are part of an ongoing offer of a bonus 150 Clubcard points (=360 Avios) for every £50 you spend on gift cards (excludes Tesco / Blinkbox branded gift cards).

Although you can benefit from this bonus on the majority of the gift cards Tesco sell, the Pay.com Gift Card is perhaps the most useful, as you aren’t so restricted in where you can use it. What you buy in the shop is not an actual Visa card, but a card with a code that you can use on the Pay.com web site. This code gets you a ‘virtual’ Visa card that you can then use online only.

The newly rebranded Pay.com Gift Card and the old 3V card

Tesco do also sell physical prepaid Visa cards that you can use both online and in shops etc. The disadvantage of these is that they add a fee when you buy the card. The £25 card ends up costing you £27.95 and the £50 card £53.95.

The beauty of the Pay.com card is that there is no fee added. The £25 card therefore costs you just the £25 value it holds. Unfortunately there is no £50 version available, so you would need to buy two cards to get the bonus Clubcard points for a £50 gift card spend.

One of the best ways of using the Pay.com cards is at Amazon. Simply buy a £25 gift voucher code to be emailed to yourself. Then redeem that in your Amazon account. You will then have a credit balance that any future purchases will deduct from. You can also use this method to “mop up” any spare balance you have left on a 3V card. Amazon’s site says the minimum amount you can buy is £1, but if you just click “other amount” it lets you put in any figure. I have bought 71p’s worth without any problem!

Pay.com cards cannot be used for most financial sites, but they seem to be accepted by most utility companies, TV licensing, etc. so could be used for paying off bills. You could of course also buy more gift cards! Sites like High Street Vouchers and Love2Shop accept them. This could result in the funny situation of you getting Clubcard points for buying the Pay.com card, then Nectar points for using the gift card you bought with it!

Following the takeover by Pay.com, cards have been in very short supply, as stocks of the old 3V cards were run down and not replaced. Thankfully the new format Pay.com cards are now appearing in shops and should be freely available again.

I would advise you not to buy any more than four Pay.com cards at one time, as Tesco’s IT can throw a wobbly if you try to buy too many at once! It can lead to cards not being activated properly at the checkout and a lot of hassle trying to get it sorted out at Customer Services.

More information on the Pay.com Gift Card can be found here.

Get a 100% bonus when you buy or gift Hilton HHonors points

Hilton HHonors have launched a promotion offering a 100% bonus when you buy or gift HHonors points.

Promotion ends: 17 June 2014

Strangely, the HHonors website is still showing a previous promotion when you click though to the buy points page (including old dates). However, when you click on the ‘Buy now’ button the new promo will load.

This is an unusually high bonus from Hilton. Normally, buying points does not make a lot of sense, unless you are short of points for a redemption, or want to stop existing points from expiring. However, with a 100% bonus, this is a good deal – especially for those times when cash room rates are high.

Full details and the page to buy / gift can be found here.

Note:

• Each HHonors member account may buy up to 80,000 points per year (excluding bonus points)
• Points purchased do not count towards elite tier qualification
• Buy and gift transactions are final and non-refundable
• Offer cannot be combined with any other offer
• Points will be posted to the recipient’s Hilton HHonors account within 24 hours (but usually show almost instantly)

 

Get 4,000 bonus Avios per long-haul / 500 bonus Avios per short-haul return flight with BA, Iberia & Iberia Express

British Airways have a new promotion offering bonus Avios, for both short-haul and long-haul flights – in any selling class.

Book and travel by: 14 July 2015

• Get 500 bonus Avios on short-haul (including domestic) BA-operated flights, plus Iberia and Iberia Express flights to Madrid, Tenerife North, Las Palmas and Palma de Mallorca
• Get 4,000 bonus Avios on any long-haul BA-operated flights

You can earn the bonus for a maximum of 4 return flights.

For more information, including full terms and conditions, and to register for this promotion, see here.

Note:

• Promotion only open to residents of the United Kingdom or Republic of Ireland.
• You must register before making an eligible booking.
• You must quote your Executive Club membership number at the time of booking and also at check-in for each outbound and return part of the journey.
• A qualifying flight is a published or corporate negotiated net fare return flight, departing from: London Heathrow, London Gatwick, London City, Belfast, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, Isle of Man or Dublin.
• The promotion does not apply to travel on flights operated by any other BA franchisees, codeshare partners or oneworld Alliance members.
• The qualifying flights for both the outbound and return parts of the journey must be booked, ticketed and purchased in the UK or Republic of Ireland, and must depart from and terminate upon return within the UK or Republic of Ireland, and all travel must be completed within the promotional period.
• The bonus Avios are in addition to the normal Avios that would be earned on a flight.
• Avios will be credited to your account within 24 hours of completion of each qualifying flight.
• If you change your travel arrangements after the date of booking you will not be eligible for the bonus Avios unless the revised travel arrangements also qualify under the terms and conditions of the promotion