Put a British Airways or Virgin Atlantic Reward Flight In Your Shopping Basket

Posted by Reward Flight Finder on March 23rd, 2021

British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are old adversaries. Now their rivalry has taken to the supermarket aisles. But with some clever moves you could be picking up a knockout deal when you checkout.

Ok, enough of the tortuous mixed metaphors. It’s no secret that you don’t actually have to fly to pick up points which you can exchange for British Airways or Virgin Atlantic reward flights. However, as Reward Flight Finder recently reported, the UK’s two largest supermarkets are now each aligned with a different airline. Until recently, you could exchange Tesco Clubcard points for either BA Avios or Virgin Points. However the Tesco loyalty programme now has Virgin Atlantic Flying Club as its exclusive airline points partner. Meanwhile Nectar, the loyalty scheme used by Sainsburys, has joined forces with British Airways, making it easy to exchange Nectar points and Avios, via the British Airways Executive Club.

So, in simple terms, when you shop at Tesco, you can earn Clubcard points, which can be exchanged for Virgin Points, which in turn can be redeemed for Virgin Atlantic reward Flights. Likewise, if you shop at Sainsburys, you can earn Nectar points which, you guessed it, can be redeemed for BA reward flights. Better still, both supermarkets have been running a variety of promotions, boosting the number of points per pound you can earn. But there’s another simple way to get even more points, when you do your weekly shop: Pick the right credit card to pay with.

Now, if you are a Virgin Flying Club reward flights fan, you might consider Virgin Atlantic’s own Mastercard, to boost your Virgin Points balance across your transactions. Sainsbury’s Bank offers a Nectar credit card, as do American Express, which will sweeten your Nectar balance when you use them. Amex also offers two BA credit cards, that will earn you Avios on your spend. However our favourite choice is to use an American Express card which earns Amex Membership Rewards. You earn one Membership Reward Point point per pound spent with these cards, which you can then exchange one for one for either Avios or Virgin Points, giving you greater flexibility. Always check what promotions are available, since Amex regularly offers generous points sign up bonuses and most of the aforementioned cards offer various earnings boosting offers from time to time.

So, let’s look at some real numbers. Once we can all travel again, New York is likely to become one of the top cities for Brits to fly to once more. 20,000 Virgin Points can be exchanged for a return, off-peak, economy class ticket to New York (at peak times you’ll need 40,000).

I live alone, I don’t have a car and I spend roughly £60 a week on groceries at Tesco. Last year, using an American Express Gold Card and a Clubcard, whenever I bought my weekly groceries, I earned a combined total of 14,605 points, across my Amex and Clubcard. That would be enough for a one way flight to New York, however if I had a partner, a family, bought fuel at Tesco or had signed up for any of the sign-up bonuses or double points deals available, I would easily have been able to get the 20,000 points required for Virgin Atlantic reward flights to New York and back.

If I’d shopped at Sainsbury’s and converted my Membership Reward Points to Avios, and converted my Nectar points, I would have needed 13,000 Avios for a one way, off peak economy ticket to New York, 26,000 for the round trip. You only have to pay taxes and fees for Reward Flights, so you can save money and premium cabin classes can become affordable too, since the tax difference is normally lower than the airfare difference.

Nectar points can be earned at other shops too, including Argos and whenever you buy fuel at either Esso or Sainsbury’s service stations.

One other point to note, BA recently introduced Reward Flight Saver deals on long-haul flights. So it’s also worth looking at the taxes you would need to pay for a reward flight, versus the total price you would pay using a combination of both Avios and cash.

So, as you can see, it’s not impossible to earn enough points for a long-haul reward flight to New York, just by being clever with the way in which you buy your weekly groceries.

For the latest reward flight availability and points prices, check out Rewardflightfinder.com.

Airlines Featured: British Airways Virgin Atlantic