The Points Mistakes I Made (So You Don’t Have To)

I talk a lot here about what works. But today I want to talk about what didn’t. Because I’ve made so many mistakes with points. Some of them cost me a few hundred points, and some of them cost me thousands.

The good thing is, every single one of them taught me something. So let me tell you about them, and hopefully you won’t make the same ones.

Mistake 1: Spending my Nectar and Clubcard points at the till

For years, I used my Tesco Clubcard points for money off at Tesco, and my Nectar points for money off at Sainsbury’s. It felt like a nice little treat at the checkout.

And then I found out that Clubcard points can become Virgin Points, and Nectar points can become Avios. I was devastated. I’d been swapping such valuable points for pennies.

Let me show you what I mean with Clubcard. £1.50 in Clubcard vouchers is worth £1.50 at the till. But the same £1.50 becomes 300 Virgin Points. And when I checked, a one-way flight from London to LA was from 9,000 Virgin Points. That’s the difference.

And with Nectar, it’s the same story. The funny thing is, Sainsbury’s isn’t even where I do my weekly shop. It’s the Sainsbury’s Local near our house, the one we pop into every now and then when we run out of vegetables, or need some fruit for the week. And even so, in the last year alone, I’ve converted 6,500 Avios from Nectar.

A big part of that comes from the Nectar app. Every week, I unlock my personalised offers before I shop. There are bonus points on products I already buy. For example, this week, if I buy sweetcorn, I get 40 extra points, on top of the normal 1 point per £1. There’s also Your Nectar Prices, with discounts on things you normally buy, so I pay less and still earn points. And sometimes there are bigger challenges. When I wrote this, for example, there was a “Count up to Christmas” challenge: collect 1,000 points before 3 November and get an extra 1,500 bonus points.

All of those points can become Avios. Imagine if I’d kept spending them at the till!

What I do now: I never use my supermarket points for shopping. Nectar goes to Avios, Clubcard goes to Virgin. And before I go to Sainsbury’s, I always open the app and unlock my offers. If you want to see exactly how I convert my Clubcard points, I wrote about how I turn my Tesco Clubcard points into Virgin Points.

Mistake 2: My first credit card

I’ve told this story before, but it has to be here. When I decided to get my first credit card in the UK, I applied for the free British Airways American Express. I got a 5,000 Avios welcome bonus, and I thought I was doing amazing.

It was a terrible deal. Because with Amex, whether you get a welcome bonus depends on which of their cards you’ve had before, and in what order you apply for them. So that tiny 5,000 Avios bonus stopped me from getting much bigger bonuses on other Amex cards later. (I wrote a post about it, if you want to know the order I’d apply for the cards if I was starting today!).

What I do now: Before applying for any card, I check the rules first. Which bonuses will I lose access to? What’s the best card to start with? If I could go back, I’d start with a card with a much bigger welcome bonus. I talk more about that in the post about why I started collecting points.

Mistake 3: Losing 15,000 Virgin Points over about £10

This one still hurts.

When I applied for the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card, it had a boosted welcome bonus of 30,000 Virgin Points. 15,000 points when you first used the card, and another 15,000 when you hit the minimum spend by a certain date.

I wasn’t paying attention. The deadline came, and I was short. By about £10, maybe even less.

I even got in touch with Virgin on the chat. I wish I could find that conversation to show you, but I couldn’t find it on my phone. I was literally begging the lady: please, it’s only £10! And there was nothing she could do.

So I got the first 15,000, but lost the other 15,000. Because of £10.

What I do now: When I get a new card, I write down the minimum spend and the deadline, and I set a reminder on my phone a couple of weeks before. And I always aim to spend a little more than the minimum, because a refund can come in at the last minute and push you below it.

But please remember: only spend what you were going to spend anyway. A welcome bonus is never worth buying things you don’t need, or paying interest.

Mistake 4: Choosing Avios instead of the upgrade voucher

We have the Barclaycard Avios. We used to have the Plus, the paid one, and today we’ve downgraded to the free one. (But that’s a story for another post!)

With either card, when you hit the spending target, you get to choose a reward: a British Airways cabin upgrade voucher, or 7,000 Avios. The only difference is how much you need to spend: £20,000 in 12 months on the free card, or £10,000 on the Plus.

And we chose the 7,000 Avios. Big, big mistake.

The upgrade voucher lets you upgrade a reward flight to the next cabin. So you can go from economy to premium economy, or from premium economy to business, paying the Avios for the lower cabin. On a long-haul flight, that’s worth so much more than 7,000 Avios.

It does have its rules, of course. It only works on British Airways flights, and they need to depart from London, for example. But even so, I’d choose the voucher today.

What I do now: Before choosing any reward, I do the maths. What can I actually do with each option? Most of the time, the voucher wins.

Two things I do get right

Okay, it’s not all mistakes! There are two things I always do, and they save me a lot.

I fly out from Madrid

When I go to Brazil, I often fly from Madrid instead of London. Why? Because the UK has one of the highest departure taxes in the world, called Air Passenger Duty. In business or premium economy on a long-haul flight, that’s £244 per person. Just in tax.

So I take a short flight from London to Madrid, also on points, and fly to Brazil from there with Iberia. The short flight still pays a small UK tax, but much less. And in my experience, if I want a bit more comfort, flying premium economy or business with Iberia from Madrid costs me much less than flying from London.

On my last trip, in economy, London to Madrid cost me 8,000 Avios plus £27.40, and Madrid to São Paulo, 13,650 Avios plus £128.90.

But on the way back, I usually fly straight from Brazil to London. The airport taxes in Brazil are much lower, so it’s worth going straight home.

I always check peak and off-peak dates

British Airways and Iberia have peak and off-peak dates, and the same flight can cost a lot more Avios on a peak date. So I always check the calendar before I book.

And here’s something some people might not agree with. Sometimes, when it makes sense, we take our son out of school for a day or two, because the price difference is huge. That’s our decision as his parents, and I’m not telling anyone else to do it. Schools have their own rules, and you can be fined for unauthorised absence, so it’s something every family has to decide for themselves.

What I’ve learned

Points are a learning process. Nobody gets it all right from the start, and I definitely didn’t. But every mistake made me more careful. And honestly, a lot more organised!

So if you’ve made some of these mistakes too, don’t beat yourself up. Just don’t make them twice!

And if you’ve made a points mistake I haven’t mentioned here, tell me in the comments. I’d love to know I’m not the only one!

Lots of love, and see you next time! Xx

Fly Smart Club is an educational website. The content in this article is based on my personal experience and is for information only. It is not financial advice. Card benefits, fees, welcome offers, taxes and terms can change, so please check the latest details with the provider and consider your own circumstances before making any financial decision. Some of our articles contain referral links. If you sign up through one, Fly Smart Club may receive a reward, at no extra cost to you.