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With elections for the European Parliament (and some local elections) taking place, plenty of reports in the media have focused on whether the gap between different political parties has widened or narrowed and what the priorities of voters are.

Who gets surveyed to compile these figures? Well if you look in the corner of the TV screen or the newspaper graphic you will often find a significant number are conducted by ‘YouGov’. And YouGov will pay you to participate.

YouGov logo - what the world thinks

With the Scottish independence referendum rapidly approaching and the countdown to the next UK General Election well underway, now is a great time to get started. Or if you have an opinion on airport expansion, etc. Keep Reading…

Monarch expand Tesco offer to all UK airports

Monarch Airlines have expanded their current Tesco Clubcard conversion offer to cover all UK airports (adding London Gatwick, Luton and Birmingham to the previous Manchester, Leeds Bradford and East Midlands).

They have also extended the offer to allow bookings until 16th June (you need to convert with Tesco by the 14th). You can obviously fly well after that date. Read More…

TopCashBack adds direct Avios conversions

Leading UK cashback site TopCashBack has added a new conversion option allowing people to take their earned cashback as Avios points – into either the BA Executive Club or the Avios.com scheme.

TopCashBack UK Logo

There is a 5% conversion bonus, so you are effectively paying 0.95p per Avios point, so not the cheapest route to ‘buy’ Avios points – but a welcome reliable addition. Although you should certainly buy your annual £50 at 0.4p per Avios via Tesco first (see below). Read More…

Tesco clubcard promotional rate for select Monarch flights

Until the end of May, Tesco are offering an enhanced rate for converting clubcard points into Monarch Airlines vouchers – to book on scheduled flights departing from Manchester, Leeds Bradford or East Midlands Airportnow expanded to all UK airports.

Monarch Airlines Aircraft

The enhanced rate will give you £20 of Monarch credit (for such flights) in return for £10 of clubcard vouchers. If you would otherwise convert your £10 of clubcard points into 2,400 Avios or 2,500 Virgin Flying Club miles, the promotional Monarch rate may appeal (even if the normal rate does not) as you can use the Monarch voucher at face value on cash seats, unlike airline miles.

Read More…

RocketMiles one-day only American Airlines joining bonus

RocketMiles – the hotel booking site which allows people to earn airline miles when booking hotels – has a one-day bonus offer for new sign-ups who want to collect American Airlines miles and book this weekend, stay by the end of the year.

Rocket Miles logoIf you join *and* make your first booking by 23.59 on Sunday in Central Time USA – which I think is 6am on Monday morning UK time – you will get a bonus of 3,000 AA miles on top of the (up to) 5,000 AA miles per night you could earn from a normal booking.

Read More…

How to get some signup cashback on credit cards that don’t offer it

When you apply for a credit card there two types of bonus to look out for: Signup (and spend) bonuses provided by the card provider, and secondly money from cashback sites for applying for the card via them. Frequently both are available, but some good credit cards are notably absent from the cashback sites.

Currently the Virgin Atlantic credit cards have a great joining bonus, but if you look on cash back sites such as TopCashBack or Quidco you will notice they are absent. Similarly the Tesco credit card (a great non-Amex route to collect Avios points) is absent.

But there is a ‘Simple’ solution to get some cashback from applications… Read More

Last day to enter the Virgin Atlantic Perfect Storm

Today is the last day for a ‘perfect storm’ combination of Virgin Atlantic promotions.

Despite having no history in Virgin Atlantic Flying Club myself nor any existing points balance with them, I decided this was a combination of offers that was worth doing to get myself a ‘diversification pot’ – i.e. a usable balance of miles in another scheme to help with reward seat availability.

(And if you don’t have a Flying Club account yet, let me know as there is a refer-a-friend scheme!)

But remember these offers finish today!

Firstly the easy ones: Read More…