{"id":158595,"date":"2025-11-25T10:05:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T10:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/158595\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T10:05:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T10:05:08","slug":"free-flights-for-cornflakes-how-to-use-your-tesco-points-with-aer-lingus-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/158595\/","title":{"rendered":"Free flights for cornflakes? How to use your Tesco points with Aer Lingus \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who wouldn\u2019t want a free flight to the sun or a city break on the back of their grocery shopping? Earlier this month, Tesco<\/a> announced Aer Lingus<\/a> as its new Clubcard rewards partner, promising cheaper flights for shoppers. <\/p>\n

But is the new scheme any good? And how much will you actually have to spend in Tesco before you would be entitled to a free flight?<\/p>\n

In the war of the supermarkets, Dunnes Stores has deployed its \u20ac5 or \u20ac10 vouchers \u2013 plus reward vouchers, which have a cash value \u2013 while Tesco has stuck with its Clubcard rewards vouchers scheme. <\/p>\n

This means that every time you use your Clubcard (often, probably, given the pricing differential for Clubcard users versus other shoppers) you get points. Purchases of food, fuel \u2013 including home heating oil with Certa \u2013 Tesco Mobile and clothes all accrue points, though you won\u2019t get points on tobacco-related products, infant formula or alcohol. <\/p>\n

For every \u20ac1 you spend in store, you\u2019ll get one point. You also get one point for every \u20ac2 spent on fuel, or two points for every \u20ac1 on Tesco Mobile. You\u2019ll need a minimum of 150 points to get vouchers. You can also access these vouchers as they arise on the Tesco app, and you can check your entitlement via your MyCard account<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How to spend them<\/p>\n

The vouchers have a cash value so you can opt to put them against your weekly grocery shop bill, or save them all to use in the run-up to Christmas, for example.<\/p>\n

Alternatively, you can allocate them to one of Tesco\u2019s reward partners. These currently include days out \u2013 such as Beyond the Trees in Avondale and Airfield estate in Dundrum \u2013 eating out in restaurants such as Milano and holidays. <\/p>\n

Often, you\u2019ll find the service provider Tesco includes in the scheme offers a further incentive. With Milano, for example, for every \u20ac1 in vouchers, it will give you \u20ac3 to use. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe opening of a new Milano restaurant last year, bringing the number to 19, contributed to the increase in profits. <\/p>\n

The rewards scheme used to offer very attractive tickets to Dublin Zoo but this partnership came to an end last month after 10 years. Dublin Zoo says that if you do have codes already for the zoo, they will remain valid for six months from the date of issue.<\/p>\n

But what about Aer Lingus?<\/p>\n

The new partnership doesn\u2019t have a cash value so you won\u2019t be able to transfer your vouchers straight into a monetary sum to be spent with the airline. Instead, you\u2019ll get Avios points, the airline\u2019s loyalty scheme. For every \u20ac2.50 in Tesco vouchers, you\u2019ll get 600 points. <\/p>\n

If someone spends \u20ac200 a week on their shopping for 45 weeks of the year, that will be a total of 9,000 Clubcard points, which is about \u20ac90 in Tesco vouchers. <\/p>\n

Under the Aer Lingus scheme, this will translate to 21,600 Avios points \u2013 but what can you do with that?<\/p>\n

\"AerGraphic: Paul Scott Avios points<\/p>\n

First, you can use your points to help reduce the cost of a flight you\u2019re booking, inclusive of taxes, fees and charges, by opting for the \u201cPay with Avios\u201d option. This will give you a discount on your flight; it might even cover the full cost. <\/p>\n

Or you can book a reward flight. The points for these are fixed, which gives you some certainty as to how much they will cost, as shown in our table. A business class flight from Dublin to Canc\u00fan in Mexico, for example, will cost 75,000 points one way, while you can get to Paris from Dublin or Cork for 4,000 points, off peak.<\/p>\n

Our aforementioned family of Tesco shoppers could book a romantic spring trip for a couple to Paris and just pay the taxes on a return trip, or they could almost cover the cost of a one-way trip to Malaga this summer (7,500 points peak) for a family of three.<\/p>\n

It is likely best to check how much a flight would cost through Aer Lingus\u2019s regular booking page before booking a reward flight \u2013 as you might do better. <\/p>\n

For example, you could fly to Toronto from Dublin (one way) on Monday, January 19th for \u20ac391 cash. But if you used \u20ac33 worth of Tesco vouchers, it would only cost you \u20ac145.07 in taxes and charges. <\/p>\n

Upgrading your current booking is another option. If you want to upgrade to business class to the east coast\/centre of America, it will cost you 37,000 points off peak (so \u20ac154 in Tesco vouchers). Going to the west coast will cost 46,250 points for an upgrade.<\/p>\n

You won\u2019t be under pressure to spend your Avios points. According to a spokeswoman for Aer Lingus, your points won\u2019t expire as long as your account is active \u2013 which means either collecting or spending Avios at least once every 36 months.<\/p>\n

Earning Avios points with Tesco is not the only option. Every time you buy a flight with Aer Lingus \u2013 or its partners, American, British Airways and United \u2013 you will earn points. Your points will be added to your account once your flight has flown.<\/p>\n

For every \u20ac1 you spend, you will get three Avios points. So a \u20ac500 flight to New York will give you 1,500 points. <\/p>\n

If you book with a partner airline, points are based on distance flown and fare class. So a business class trip to South Africa with British Airways could give you more than 15,500 in points, as there is a 250 per cent uplift for business class. <\/p>\n

You could also consider buying or gifting Avios points, earning up to 47 Avios points per \u20ac1 spent this way. A gift of \u20ac59, for example, will give the recipient 2,000 points, \u20ac189 will give them 8,000 points. <\/p>\n

And you can also earn points with Aer Lingus\u2019 reward partners. With Booking.com, for example, you can earn six Avios for every \u20ac1 spent. So a \u20ac1,000 hotel booking will give you a further 6,000 points. With Marks & Spencer, you can earn 12 points for every \u20ac1 spent, eight points per \u20ac1 with Brown Thomas, and 10 points per euro with B&Q. Uber, Aircoach and Avis are also Avios partners.<\/p>\n

Tesco partners: Other options<\/p>\n

If you decide the return with Aer Lingus isn\u2019t worth the use of your vouchers, there are plenty of other options with Tesco. <\/p>\n

Using them to reduce the cost of your shop is always a good use. But you might find you can do better with another reward partner, some of which offer as much as three times the value of your voucher. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe buck moon rising over the Poolbeg Lighthouse in Dublin Bay as Irish Ferries vessel James Joyce passes. Photograph: Tom Honan <\/p>\n

Travel partners other than Aer Lingus include Irish Ferries, which triples the value of your voucher in multiples of \u20ac5 \u2013 so \u20ac5 then is worth \u20ac15 with the company. Stena Line and Royal Caribbean offer a similar return, as does hotels.com<\/a>. So, \u20ac50 in vouchers could turn into a \u20ac150 discount with these operators. <\/p>\n

Or how about a dinner out? In addition to Milano, which has branches around the State, Early Table has just signed up to the platform. You can double your voucher here with \u20ac5 in vouchers giving you five credits. Early Table promises it works with more than 200 restaurants, offering discounts of as much as 50 per cent off your food bill. <\/p>\n

To book, you will need to use one credit per diner. For example, on Saturday, December 6th, you can save 30 per cent on food and drinks dining at 8pm at Old Fashioned Sam\u2019s on Harcourt Street, 30 per cent off Lobstar in D\u00fan Laoghaire at 5.30pm and 25 per cent off The Guinea Pig in Dalkey.<\/p>\n

Eating midweek gives greater choices. For example you can get 30 per cent off One Ballsbridge at 6pm on Tuesday December 9th.<\/p>\n

Or at Odeon cinema, you can use \u20ac3.50 in Clubcard vouchers to get a kid\u2019s ticket, or \u20ac5 vouchers for an adult. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who wouldn\u2019t want a free flight to the sun or a city break on the back of their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[601,89105,89106,34320,72,61,60,89107,33160,89108,12055,4013,6114],"class_list":{"0":"post-158595","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-aer-lingus","9":"tag-aircoach","10":"tag-b-q","11":"tag-brown-thomas","12":"tag-business","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-irish-ferries","16":"tag-marks-spencer-ms","17":"tag-odeon-cinema-group","18":"tag-stena-line","19":"tag-tesco","20":"tag-uber"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}