What ways could I use Tesco vouchers/is it worth it?

[Rachandgarry]

Hi all,

Just wondering if there is any sensible way to incorporate my Tesco clubcard vouchers in to booking our 2013 holiday. This is something I've never done so I'm a bit clueless, sorry.

At the moment we have about £170 of actual clubcard vouchers. We get quite a few each quarter though, so that will go up reasonably well as the year goes on.

We would like to travel 21 March 2013 (+/-1 day) either Manchester or LGW. 2 adults and 1 child aged 6, for either 14 or 15 nights at Caribbean Beach Resort.

I know I can use them as reward tokens with Virgin Holidays but their price is horrendous, so am hoping that when the DIY options come out, it will be lower. Would it then be worth using the vouchers a different way?

Thanks for anyone who takes the time to reply

Rachel x
Edited to add: Sorry, just realised this post sounds quite lazy.. I have looked on the Clubcard website, and can see that I could use reward tokens on packages through Cosmos, Funway and Virgin Holidays, I am more confused by what options we have for using clubcard vouchers for flight only bookings or upgrades. Thanks

 

[rosh]

The only way you could use Clubcard vouchers for flight only is by converting to either Avios or Virgin Flying Club Miles.

There is currently an offer until the end of March where for every £2.50 of vouchers you convert into Avios you get 1000 Avios instead of the usual 600. Flights are 50,000 Avios or 25,000 Avios plus £200 per person (plus taxes and charges, around £250 I believe) so you would need £125 per person in Clubcard vouchers for each flight. This is not a great cost saving when you consider how much the vouchers are worth if used in other ways.

You can also convert to Virgin Flying Club miles. For just £8 of Clubcard vouchers per person you can 2000 miles which is enough to get a Virgin Miles and Money flight (this saved us £80 per person on our October flights)

You can also use the vouchers for Avios to use to book car hire (we used these through BA executive club to get our car hire for less than half price)

Or you could triple the value of the Clubcard vouchers to use with the other current car hire partners, Europcar and Affordable Car Hire.

If you are set on a Disney package, the Virgin Holidays option may be best - but with only £170 of vouchers (and only 2 more mailings until you're 6 months out to earn more vouchers, which you would need to convert in full before even booking) you will only save £510 on the full cost of your package

 

[casinocolin]

We used our Tesco Vouchers to buy Avios points currently giving you 1000 points for £2.50 in Tesco Vouchers a Bonus of 400 points till 31 March 2012.

We have upgraded 2 BA flights from Orlando to Gatwick from WT+ to Club World by spending £32.50 of Tesco Vouchers giving us 13,000 avios points. We already had 12,000 avios points from a previous return flight to Orlando, giving us a total of 25,000 points (You need 12,500 points to upgrade one flight) This has saved us £949, a good return for £32.50 of Tesco Vouchers.

Your £170 of vouchers converted before 31st March will give you 68,000 points enough to upgrade 5 single journeys.

 

[Grumpy old man]

Hi I have used Tesco vouchers to help pay for my last 3 holidays with Virgin once to New England twice to Florida including my tripI have just booked.

Originanly you could use an unlimeted amount against the price of the holiday and vouchers used to be worth 4 times face value now that really was good. But like everything in life Tesco/Virgin are making it less attractive with vouchers now worth 3 times face value and the maixmum you can spend with Virgin holidays is £525 per person.

Now I used £1050 for the 2 of us this may for a 16 night holiday on I drive we only had to pay another £700 for the rest of the cost that I think is a great deal. I looked at the Avios and now because you have to pay tax converting Tesco Clubcard tokens to Virgin Holiday vouchers was by far the best deal.

Look at ways of maximising what you have we sorted through all our old Mobile phones before xmas sent them to Tesco and go 10000 points!!!

As you have quite a bit of time before you go I would wait and save your Vouchers and see how much you can get off by the end of the year.Also not saying this always happens but I tracked Virgins prices all year and they dropped quite a bit come January this year saving us at least £300.

 

[Disney Princesses LW]

Hi I have used Tesco vouchers to help pay for my last 3 holidays with Virgin once to New England twice to Florida including my tripI have just booked.

Originanly you could use an unlimeted amount against the price of the holiday and vouchers used to be worth 4 times face value now that really was good. But like everything in life Tesco/Virgin are making it less attractive with vouchers now worth 3 times face value and the maixmum you can spend with Virgin holidays is £525 per person.

Now I used £1050 for the 2 of us this may for a 16 night holiday on I drive we only had to pay another £700 for the rest of the cost that I think is a great deal. I looked at the Avios and now because you have to pay tax converting Tesco Clubcard tokens to Virgin Holiday vouchers was by far the best deal.

Look at ways of maximising what you have we sorted through all our old Mobile phones before xmas sent them to Tesco and go 10000 points!!!

As you have quite a bit of time before you go I would wait and save your Vouchers and see how much you can get off by the end of the year.Also not saying this always happens but I tracked Virgins prices all year and they dropped quite a bit come January this year saving us at least £300.

I am too am saving up my Tesco clubcard points that I currently get annuallly at xmas. I am not planning to cash them in for another 18 months/2 years. I currently put petrol, shopping etc and have quarterly 4000 points. I plan to visit Florida in 2014 so any tips on how to get extra points are welcome. I am doing the best thing "saving" my points until nearer the time.???
Thanks sorry for all questions

 

[Grumpy old man]

Hi Disney Princess just keep doing what you're doing.Would suggest Money saving expert site for Tesco tips.It has worked out fine for me but remember they do keep changing the rules and suppliers on Clubcard.With Virgin for instance you used to be able to use the vouchers for all brochures anywhere Virgin went(we went to New England a couple of years back) As of 1/1/12 you can only use Tesco vouchers for Florida(great!) Caribean and West coast USA.SO the risk is that Virgin and Tesco may stop altogether oneday I suppose. You can use vouchers with Cosmos holidays as well but the deal is not as good.

 

[princessmummy]

Hi there.

I have been saving my tescos vouchers for 2 1/2 years and have just cashed them in for £1000 worth of vouchers off VHs.

I did deliberate long and hard about using them for avois/ virgin miles but as I have to travel in summer hols and travel with LOTs of notice, as I run a business, I wasn't sure I'd be able to get the dates I needed.

I am about to book a virgin villa for end august 2013, and the fact that I can pay what remains of the balance off gradually between now and then is a huge plus! If I had done it DIY I would have had to pay for everything up front....

 

[Rachandgarry]

Hi there,

Thank you for all the replies Let me apologise for not acknowledging them sooner (how rude of me!) but I've had a ****ty few days since I posted my question. My Dad's house was burgled while he was staying down here with us (100 miles away) and he is 75 and lives on his own so myself, DH and DS went to his house with him and helped him reset everything, re-secure the house where they'd broken in etc. I'm still devastated now, as it was my childhood home, and I hate the thought of him being there on his own. Anyway, thanks again for the replies...

The only way you could use Clubcard vouchers for flight only is by converting to either Avios or Virgin Flying Club Miles.

There is currently an offer until the end of March where for every £2.50 of vouchers you convert into Avios you get 1000 Avios instead of the usual 600. Flights are 50,000 Avios or 25,000 Avios plus £200 per person (plus taxes and charges, around £250 I believe) so you would need £125 per person in Clubcard vouchers for each flight. This is not a great cost saving when you consider how much the vouchers are worth if used in other ways.

You can also convert to Virgin Flying Club miles. For just £8 of Clubcard vouchers per person you can 2000 miles which is enough to get a Virgin Miles and Money flight (this saved us £80 per person on our October flights)

You can also use the vouchers for Avios to use to book car hire (we used these through BA executive club to get our car hire for less than half price)

Or you could triple the value of the Clubcard vouchers to use with the other current car hire partners, Europcar and Affordable Car Hire.

If you are set on a Disney package, the Virgin Holidays option may be best - but with only £170 of vouchers (and only 2 more mailings until you're 6 months out to earn more vouchers, which you would need to convert in full before even booking) you will only save £510 on the full cost of your package

Thanks for your thorough reply there. I agree it seems a bit wasteful when you consider what the vouchers can get you in other rewards. The car hire is an idea, though, thanks. I can't see the package idea being worth it, with us having so few vouchers saved.

We used our Tesco Vouchers to buy Avios points currently giving you 1000 points for £2.50 in Tesco Vouchers a Bonus of 400 points till 31 March 2012.

We have upgraded 2 BA flights from Orlando to Gatwick from WT+ to Club World by spending £32.50 of Tesco Vouchers giving us 13,000 avios points. We already had 12,000 avios points from a previous return flight to Orlando, giving us a total of 25,000 points (You need 12,500 points to upgrade one flight) This has saved us £949, a good return for £32.50 of Tesco Vouchers.

Your £170 of vouchers converted before 31st March will give you 68,000 points enough to upgrade 5 single journeys.

Loving this idea!! How had you booked your BA flights in the first place? Would it matter where/when/how I book the flights? How soon can you book the upgrade (i.e. is there much risk I could be left with loads of avios points and no upgrade?)

Hi I have used Tesco vouchers to help pay for my last 3 holidays with Virgin once to New England twice to Florida including my tripI have just booked.

Originanly you could use an unlimeted amount against the price of the holiday and vouchers used to be worth 4 times face value now that really was good. But like everything in life Tesco/Virgin are making it less attractive with vouchers now worth 3 times face value and the maixmum you can spend with Virgin holidays is £525 per person.

Now I used £1050 for the 2 of us this may for a 16 night holiday on I drive we only had to pay another £700 for the rest of the cost that I think is a great deal. I looked at the Avios and now because you have to pay tax converting Tesco Clubcard tokens to Virgin Holiday vouchers was by far the best deal.

Look at ways of maximising what you have we sorted through all our old Mobile phones before xmas sent them to Tesco and go 10000 points!!!

As you have quite a bit of time before you go I would wait and save your Vouchers and see how much you can get off by the end of the year.Also not saying this always happens but I tracked Virgins prices all year and they dropped quite a bit come January this year saving us at least £300.

Thanks for that info. Do you mean end of 2012? I don't really want to wait that long, because we're going over the Easter holidays so I need to get it booked when I find the right prices really. We used to make sure we did all the Tesco extra points codes, but they're not doing as many of those now grrrrr.

I am too am saving up my Tesco clubcard points that I currently get annuallly at xmas. I am not planning to cash them in for another 18 months/2 years. I currently put petrol, shopping etc and have quarterly 4000 points. I plan to visit Florida in 2014 so any tips on how to get extra points are welcome. I am doing the best thing "saving" my points until nearer the time.???
Thanks sorry for all questions

Hi Disney Princess just keep doing what you're doing.Would suggest Money saving expert site for Tesco tips.It has worked out fine for me but remember they do keep changing the rules and suppliers on Clubcard.With Virgin for instance you used to be able to use the vouchers for all brochures anywhere Virgin went(we went to New England a couple of years back) As of 1/1/12 you can only use Tesco vouchers for Florida(great!) Caribean and West coast USA.SO the risk is that Virgin and Tesco may stop altogether oneday I suppose. You can use vouchers with Cosmos holidays as well but the deal is not as good.

Would agree with pp, Disney Princess - its a good idea but there is the risk Tesco could stop their rewards through Virgin and/or Cosmos. Of course, they might add them with Thomas Cook or First Choice or someone - there's no way to know. Just keep that in mind. Its not as if you'll get stuck with Tesco vouchers you can't use, there are always loads of ways to use them.

Thanks again everyone - I'm hoping to find out more about the upgrade options.

Regards
Rachel

 

[Tinkerbell1989]

We used £16 of vouchers, which worked out to be 4000 miles... This made the flights £250 each plus taxes (about £555 each).

If you do miles + money, you can only use 2000 miles per person, and seeing as we didn't have enough to book a Virgin Holiday, we've gone Virgin Atlantic for flights and Disney for hotel. Worked out cheaper for us!

xxx

 

[Rachandgarry]

We used £16 of vouchers, which worked out to be 4000 miles... This made the flights £250 each plus taxes (about £555 each).

If you do miles + money, you can only use 2000 miles per person, and seeing as we didn't have enough to book a Virgin Holiday, we've gone Virgin Atlantic for flights and Disney for hotel. Worked out cheaper for us!

xxx

Hiya

<waving at you from a few miles away, I'm also in Bristol!>

How did £250 get to £555??? That is so ridiculous. How did you book the flights and use the m+m? Did you book it on the VA website, or the Tesco website?

Thanks hun
Rach x

 

[casinocolin]

Rachandgarry

You can use Avios to upgrade to the next cabin when you make a cash booking with British Airways or you can book flights then upgrade at a later date through manage your booking. Upgrades are dependent on the type of booking you have and there must be availability in the class you want to upgrade to. You could be left with the points but you have up to three years to use your points before you lose them but just before the three years is up if you purchase more points you keep them for a further 3 years. There is availilabilty to upgrade on BA flights for early Septemer 2012 but there is no telling how long before they all go.

Here is the link to the BA site explaining how to upgrade;

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/spend-avios-flights/public/en_gb

 

[madmumof2]

I change mine into Avios miles. I got a fair bit then wasted some :S But I did get our London hotel for the night before our flight for free with avios miles which saved me £200.

I could have had car hire too but that was part of my package.

Right now I have enough for a flight to and from Florida for just me! lol We go every 2 or three years so hopefully by the time we go again we'll have enough for us all and get a free holiday!

 

[Tinkerbell1989]

Hiya

<waving at you from a few miles away, I'm also in Bristol!>

How did £250 get to £555??? That is so ridiculous. How did you book the flights and use the m+m? Did you book it on the VA website, or the Tesco website?

Thanks hun
Rach x

Aww how exciting you being so close! Whereabouts in Bristol? I'm Stoke Gifford, near Parkway station... although I'm moving to Taunton soon!

£250 went to £555 because of taxes and all the other things they charge you for. Sorry, I should have explained that a bit clearer!

We transfered the vouchers on the Tesco website into Flying Club miles... and then booked it on the VA website.

I hope that makes a little more sense!
xx

 

[finmummy]

I found out from Avios yesterday that if you have Avios points you can use them against Thomsons/Cosmos and Thomas Cook package holidays to Florida. I don't know what the actual discount is, but you need to ring Avios sales team to find out. However these 3 tour companies fly into Sanford rather than MCO? I have the same problem with my tesco vouchers, but going to see how much m&m flights are when released and go from there. But I will look into the BA flights aswell, thanks for that link.

 

[Rachandgarry]

Rachandgarry

You can use Avios to upgrade to the next cabin when you make a cash booking with British Airways or you can book flights then upgrade at a later date through manage your booking. Upgrades are dependent on the type of booking you have and there must be availability in the class you want to upgrade to. You could be left with the points but you have up to three years to use your points before you lose them but just before the three years is up if you purchase more points you keep them for a further 3 years. There is availilabilty to upgrade on BA flights for early Septemer 2012 but there is no telling how long before they all go.

Here is the link to the BA site explaining how to upgrade;

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/spend-avios-flights/public/en_gb

Thanks for that, this does seem like a possible way to do it. Can't wait for flights to come out!

I change mine into Avios miles. I got a fair bit then wasted some :S But I did get our London hotel for the night before our flight for free with avios miles which saved me £200.

I could have had car hire too but that was part of my package.

Right now I have enough for a flight to and from Florida for just me! lol We go every 2 or three years so hopefully by the time we go again we'll have enough for us all and get a free holiday!

LOL, or you could just make a run for it and have a solo trip; I'd love that - so much peace and quiet!!

Aww how exciting you being so close! Whereabouts in Bristol? I'm Stoke Gifford, near Parkway station... although I'm moving to Taunton soon!

£250 went to £555 because of taxes and all the other things they charge you for. Sorry, I should have explained that a bit clearer!

We transfered the vouchers on the Tesco website into Flying Club miles... and then booked it on the VA website.

I hope that makes a little more sense!
xx

Cool! I'm just up in Thornbury...I go to Stoke Gifford all the time because I run support groups for Autism in Bradley Stoke, and often do my shopping in Sainsburys Filton! What a small world it is! My DH works in Taunton most of the time, he's a civil engineer for Somerset Highways.

That increase is ridiculous just for taxes and charges!?!?!?

Thanks for clarifying it though, as soon as the flights come out to book (for March 21, 2013) we'll definitely look at these as options!

xxx

I found out from Avios yesterday that if you have Avios points you can use them against Thomsons/Cosmos and Thomas Cook package holidays to Florida. I don't know what the actual discount is, but you need to ring Avios sales team to find out. However these 3 tour companies fly into Sanford rather than MCO? I have the same problem with my tesco vouchers, but going to see how much m&m flights are when released and go from there. But I will look into the BA flights aswell, thanks for that link.

Oh that's interesting. I wonder which works out better value if you choose a Cosmos package - using Avios points, or straight clubcard vouchers turned in to reward tokens? When are you hoping to go?

Thanks again all, so excited for the flights to come out!

Rachel xx