From Miles to Smiles Stylish travel for professionals seeking luxury at affordable prices
Since I joined Top Cashback I have earned over £400 in cashback of which I’ve claimed £376.70.
I have converted this as follows:
| Date | Payout | Payment | AVIOS Conversion |
| 14-Sep-16 | British Airways Executive Club | £35.44 | 3,544 |
| 01-Apr-16 | British Airways Executive Club | £102.41 | 10,241 |
| 03-May-16 | British Airways Executive Club | £84.88 | 8,488 |
| 13-May-16 | British Airways Executive Club | £31.25 | 3,125 |
| 10-Jun-16 | British Airways Executive Club | £33.67 | 3,367 |
| 25-Jun-16 | British Airways Executive Club | £7.83 | 783 |
| 18-Jul-16 | British Airways Executive Club | £40.06 | 4,006 |
| 15-Aug-16 | British Airways Executive Club | £36.13 | 3,613 |
| 04-Apr-16 | Tesco Clubcard | 500 points | 1,200 |
| 23-May-16 | Tesco Clubcard | 769 points | 1,800 |
| Total | 40,167 |
Firstly £371.67 converted into 37,167 British Airways AVIOS. The rest transferred to Tesco Clubcard resulting in 1,269 Clubcard points. I then converted these points into British Airways Executive Club points at the rate of 250 Tesco Clubcard points to 600 British Airways AVIOS. I thus earned an extra 3,000 AVIOS in this way.
The earnings rate per pound for these options works out at 240 per £1 for a conversion via Tesco Clubcard (woo hoo!) and 100 per £1 for a direct conversion to British Airways. Clearly the latter is much more attractive but Tesco being spoilsports limited the amount that could be converted to £50 in cashback and have now ended their relationship with Top Cashback.
What if I was to simply take the cashback and purchase AVIOS?
So how does this compare with what I could buy with my £376.70? Would I be better off simply taking the money and buying my own AVIOS?
Hell no! Based on rates as at September 2016, this would buy me just 22,000 Avios for £367. OK so I have £9.70 leftover for a trip to Starbucks but alas I am 18,000 AVIOS worse off.
It’s fair to say that hands down then, you are better off converting your cashback directly to airmiles and not taking your cash to purchase AVIOS.
Or you could obviously go ahead and run with the cash to fund your spending on your next trip. That will certainly fund a few cocktails!
How does Top Cashback work?
If you are unfamiliar with Top Cashback, how to earn more AVIOS quickly with Top Cashback gives you the lowdown whilst this post considers how shopping can be rewarding (coming from a girl who hates shopping, unless it involves a trip to a foreign destination!). I know, weird right?!
If you haven’t yet signed up and that’s enough to whet your appetite, go ahead and sign up here.
Your experience?
Perhaps you have used Top Cashback or another cashback scheme and have some insight to share with us. We would love to hear from you in the comments below.
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I am not sure is I understand completely about Top Cashback I guess I will have to look into it a little more. My guess is that you get “cash” back from spending money. First question is can anyone make use of this or only people from the UK. Are the stores that participate worldwide or only in the UK? I mean we don’t have Tesco’s where I live and although BA does fly into my city, the places to which I can go when flying BA out of my city is pretty limited so can those Avios points be used or converted to Oneworld?
Great questions. Top cash a key exists in the USA as well but I’m not sure about other countries. Any points converted to AVIOS can be used with any oneworld partner.
Oh thank you for this. I’m always so confused by these points and travel cards. Typically I just go with a straight out miles card. But I think since the rules have changed so much, one of the points cards would be more versatile and actually more practical.
We use Mr Rebates, similar model. Using these sites, overlaid on a shopping site/portal/etc, along with a credit card that offers a nice bonus on that type of shopping (i.e. staples, amazon, department store, etc) is a HUGE way to manufacture some serious miles. Just make sure you don’t buy things you don’t really need to get the miles….kinda defeats the purpose of saving your money for travel.
Great post!
I could not agree with you more
I’ve never heard of Top Cashback. I like the idea of getting rewarded for purchases that I would be making anyway. Thanks for sharing your tips on how to get the ultimate value from the program.
I hadn’t heard of Top Cashback until I read this post, it definitely sounds like I need to investigate further! Does it only work in the UK or can you use it around the world? And does it only work with AVIOS points?
It exists in the US Also and points for AVIOS can be used with any oneworld partner.
I’ve never heard of Top Cashback before today – is it primarily a UK thing? I’ve started using E-Bates, but I’m not sure it works the same way. This is a really helpful post for those who are (or want to) using Top Cashback – definitely seems like a direct conversion to miles! I’ll check ’em out and see if it would be something good for me- cheers!
I had no idea that you could convert cashback scheme’s into airline miles, and would have never thought! Thanks for the run down Anne 🙂
Great tips for maximising your points! I used to live in the UK and USA and loved these programs, but now I’m in Australia I have very few options. Hopefully that will change in the next few years though!
These are great tips! I haven’t ventured into the world of travel hacking yet- but something tells me I need to! x