Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Bits: 500 Avios from Tesco, Aer Lingus launching Philadelphia, new Amex Hong Kong lounge

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

News in brief:

Get 500 Amex points or Avios when you spend £10 at Tesco

A few readers have been in touch about a very generous offer which has appeared on their American Express online statements.

Once you have registered, you will get 500 Amex points, or 500 Avios, when spending £10 or more at Tesco by 3rd December.

Neither one of us has this offer (unfortunately), but it’s worth checking your Amex account for it, across all of your cards.  The offer is valid once for the first 50,000 members who save it to their card so it can’t be that rare!

Aer Lingus to launch Philadelphia flights this week

There are strong rumours that Aer Lingus will launch a new route to Philadelphia this week.  It will run four days a week from March 2018, using a Boeing 757.

This would be another excellent low-cost Avios redemption from Dublin to the US.  As a reminder – although we will run through all this again when the route is officially confirmed – business class redemptions for Avios on Aer Lingus tend to have under £100 of taxes and charges.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

Getting airport lounge access for free from a credit card

How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (April 2025)

Here are the five options to get FREE airport lounge access via a UK credit card.

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with two free Priority Pass cards, one for you and one for a supplementary cardholder. Each card admits two so a family of four gets in free. You get access to all 1,500 lounges in the Priority Pass network – search it here.

You also get access to Eurostar, Lufthansa and Delta Air Lines lounges.  Our American Express Platinum review is here.

You can apply here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for the first year. It comes with a Priority Pass card loaded with four free visits to any Priority Pass lounge – see the list here.

Additional lounge visits are charged at £24.  You get four more free visits for every year you keep the card.  

There is no annual fee for Amex Gold in Year 1 and you get a 20,000 points sign-up bonus.  Full details are in our American Express Preferred Rewards Gold review here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard gets you get a free Priority Pass card, allowing you access to the Priority Pass network.  Guests are charged at £24 although it may be cheaper to pay £60 for a supplementary credit card for your partner.

The card has a fee of £290 and there are strict financial requirements to become a HSBC Premier customer.  Full details are in my HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard review.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard

A good package, but only available to HSBC Premier clients Read our full review

Got a small business?

If you have a small business, consider American Express Business Platinum which has the same lounge benefits as the personal Platinum card:

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

You should also consider the Capital on Tap Pro Visa credit card which has a lower fee and, as well as a Priority Pass for airport lounge access, also comes with Radison Rewards VIP hotel status:

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

PS. You can find all of HfP’s UK airport lounge reviews – and we’ve been to most of them – indexed here.

Category

Aer Lingus and AerClub, American Express Membership Rewards, American Express Platinum card, British Airways and Avios, Tesco Clubcard

Comments (126)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Simon says:
    4 Oct4 October 07:36

    While it may be due to bitterness that I didn’t get this Tesco offer, does it really help any of our causes when Amex drop another 25million Avios in to the system.? Even on a 50% take up. that is another 100 Club World Return Redemptions used up…..

    • Alex W says:
      4 Oct4 October 09:48

      I doubt 500 Avios is enough to tip 100 people over the edge between affording a redemption and not. It’s a nice top up, though.

  • Ade says:
    4 Oct4 October 07:45

    Can i ask a question about supplimentary cards?

    The tesco offer has appeared on my wifes BA card, an account on which i have a supplimentary card. How do these offers wirk with supplimemtary cards

    A) its only the main card that can activate the offer…

    B) any card on the account can activate the offer

    C) they stack, and both cards can activate the offer seperately

    Thanks

  • Mark says:
    4 Oct4 October 07:47

    Does any now if the BA Platinum card gets you into the Amex Centurion Lounges?

    • filipino_chino says:
      4 Oct4 October 08:21

      If you mean the BA Premium Plus (black card) then no, but the Amex Plat does…

      Just been in the Centurion lounge in DFW… it was very good.

  • Neil says:
    4 Oct4 October 07:48

    Got it on my Gold and my wife’s BAPP. Rarely goto Tescos following an argument with the store manager years ago, but will make an exception for an easy 1000 Avios!

    • Anna says:
      4 Oct4 October 07:55

      No need to go in just order £10 of socks or whatever from Tesco Direct.

  • Alan says:
    4 Oct4 October 07:49

    Nope. Nothing on my new gold card.

  • Amit says:
    4 Oct4 October 08:01

    O/T any active QR promo codes, or EY that I can use on a multi city trip? Have tried google but cannot find anything
    Thanks

  • Mark says:
    4 Oct4 October 08:21

    Is the Amex lounge in Sydney the same chain? They let me in there with my BAPP. When i tried the same in Miami they said they were too busy and only accepting Platinum on that day.

    • filipino_chino says:
      4 Oct4 October 08:22

      As far as i am aware it’s only Platinum holders and not BAPP card holders too.

  • Tom says:
    4 Oct4 October 09:02

    I didn’t get the offer on my card but someone very kindly posted the link for the offer. I chopped it into my browser after logging in ad then the offer appeared in my account. I was at Tesco last night so I used my card and got an email immediately saying that I had redeemed the offer. Result!

    • Scarlett says:
      4 Oct4 October 09:35

      Hi Tom, would you mind sharing the offer link (if you still have it) please? Really appreciated, thanks 🙂

      • Down the Back says:
        4 Oct4 October 09:42

        +1

      • Sarah says:
        4 Oct4 October 10:02

        Thanks, although I just get this message when I try that: We are sorry, it doesn’t happen often, but offers are currently unavailable. Please try again later.

      • Nicole says:
        4 Oct4 October 10:24

        Thanks! I’ve managed to use it to add the offer to one of my cards, but can’t add to others as the URL has no way of distinguishing which card I’m on – says I’ve already saved the offer no matter which account I start from. Oh well, 500 points anyway, thanks again!

      • Allycat says:
        4 Oct4 October 10:42

        I have successfully added it to three or four cards using the method above, but have noticed that the offer says 500 AVIOS on the Amex Gold Card. The Amex Gold Card does not offer Avios, it offer Membership Reward points so I wonder if it will work if and when I try to spend on those cards. Should be OK on the BAPP card. I assume that there is a different offerId code for the Gold cards which would then say 500 MR points ?

        Can anyone capture that offerId string when they activate the offer on a Gold Card ?

      • ADS says:
        4 Oct4 October 11:20

        “We are sorry, it doesn’t happen often, but offers are currently unavailable. Please try again later.”

      • Doug says:
        4 Oct4 October 11:49

        I think it is missing this bit:
        offerSourceId=FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF&offerFullfillType=COUPONLESS

        I don’t have this “FFFF” part, but if someone could give me that 🙂

      • gs says:
        4 Oct4 October 13:19

        Many thanks. Worked for me.

      • TripRep says:
        4 Oct4 October 13:22

        Doug – don’t think you need the offerSourceId

      • Liz says:
        4 Oct4 October 14:38

        Me and technology are not getting along at the moment cos I can’t get this to work either.

      • the real harry1 says:
        4 Oct4 October 14:44

        @ Liz – have you got a HUKD ID?

      • Liz says:
        4 Oct4 October 15:31

        No Harry I don’t!

      • Louise says:
        4 Oct4 October 17:54

        I get the following error when trying to save to my Platinum Card

        ‘Unable to save offer at this time – please try again later’

    • RTS says:
      4 Oct4 October 14:05

      Do you have the offer ID?

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? GET THE ONLY FREE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!