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Hello and welcome to Smart With Points, the podcast all about travelling smarter using miles and points. I'm Jack, and if you've been too busy hanging tinsel and panic-buying gifts to keep up with travel news, I've got a festive treat for you today. PizzaExpress has just become the first UK restaurant where you can both earn and spend Avios. Yes, you heard that right. You can now rack up points whilst demolishing a Dough Balls starter and an American Hot. Whether this is brilliant or bonkers, well, that's what we're here to discuss.
Let's dive straight into the details. This partnership went live on the 1st of December two thousand and twenty-five, so it's brand new. And the earning rate is genuinely impressive. You'll collect three Avios for every pound you spend at PizzaExpress when you pay with a pre-registered payment card. Just to put that into perspective, that's double what you'd earn on the Barclaycard Avios Plus card, which gives you one point five Avios per pound, and it's triple the standard Capital on Tap earning rate.
So how do you actually set this up? It's fairly straightforward, but there are a few steps you need to follow. First, make sure you're a member of The British Airways Club. It's free to join if you're not already a member. Then, visit avios dot com and navigate to My Account, then Registered Cards. From there, you can link any UK, US, or Ireland-issued Visa, Mastercard, or American Express card. Here's the crucial bit, you need to wait at least twenty-four hours before dining because the card needs time to register in the system. Once that's done, just pay as normal, either via your server, using Pay at Table, or through the PizzaExpress Club app. Your Avios should appear in your account within seven days of dining.
Now, before you rush off to your nearest PizzaExpress, there are some important exclusions you need to know about. The biggest one is that digital wallets don't work. You must physically tap or insert your registered card. That means no Apple Pay, no Google Pay. I know, it's frustrating, especially since most of us have moved to digital wallets for convenience. But if you want those Avios, you'll need to dig out your actual plastic card.
Other exclusions include PayPal, YoYo Wallet, and store cards, which aren't eligible. Airport restaurants are excluded, specifically the ones at Gatwick and Edinburgh. Delivery and collection orders don't qualify either. Supermarket PizzaExpress products don't count, which makes sense, they're a completely different operation really. And here's an interesting one, alcohol only qualifies when purchased alongside food. So you can't just pop in for a bottle of wine and expect to earn Avios.
The really beautiful thing about this partnership is that the three Avios per pound stacks on top of whatever your underlying credit card earns. Let me give you some examples. If you register your Barclaycard Avios Plus card, you'll earn three Avios from PizzaExpress plus one point five Avios from the card itself. That's a total of four point five Avios per pound. If you use your American Express Gold card, you'll earn three Avios from PizzaExpress plus one Membership Rewards point per pound, which is transferable to Avios at a one to one ratio. Or if you register your Capital on Tap card, you'll get three Avios from PizzaExpress plus one Avios from the card, totalling four Avios per pound.
Just to give you a practical example, a fifty pound family meal could net you between one hundred and fifty and two hundred and twenty-five Avios depending on which card you use. Over the course of a year with regular visits, that actually adds up quite nicely.
Now let's talk about the redemption side, and this is where my enthusiasm cools considerably. You can convert your Avios into PizzaExpress vouchers at a rate of one thousand Avios for five pounds. That works out to zero point five pence per Avios. To put that in perspective, a short-haul economy flight can typically get you one penny or more per Avios. Business class redemptions often yield one point five pence or more per Avios. And peak business class flights to the US can push towards two pence per Avios. So you're looking at roughly half the value, or even less, compared to saving your Avios for flights.
There are also some redemption restrictions worth noting. Vouchers are single-use only, so if your bill is less than the voucher value, you don't get change. There's a maximum of two hundred and fifty pounds in vouchers per day, which is up to five vouchers. Vouchers expire after six months. You can't combine them with other PizzaExpress promotions or Club rewards. And here's the kicker, you can't earn Avios if you're paying with a voucher. So you'd miss out on the earning side entirely.
That said, there are a few scenarios where spending Avios on pizza could be reasonable. If you have a small Avios balance that wouldn't be enough for flights, this could be a way to get some value from it. If your points are about to expire and you need to use them, pizza might be better than nothing. If you genuinely have more Avios than you can realistically use for travel, which is a nice problem to have, then why not? Or if you want to treat someone to dinner using points rather than cash, that could make sense for some people.
But for most of us who are focused on maximising value, I'd stick to earning here and redeeming elsewhere. If you do need to burn some expiring points, the Avios Shop might offer better value depending on what you're after.
Let's look at the bigger picture for a moment. This partnership is part of IAG Loyalty's broader strategy to make Avios a lifestyle currency rather than purely a travel rewards programme. We've already seen the Avios Shop expand to over three hundred products, and the BA Shopping Portal continues to offer solid earning opportunities with various retailers. PizzaExpress is described as the first restaurant partnership, which suggests we might see more dining options joining the Avios ecosystem in the future.
Whether that's a positive development depends on your perspective. More earning opportunities are always welcome, that's great. But I'd rather see IAG maintain the value of Avios for flights than push low-value retail redemptions. The worry is that if they dilute the currency too much with poor-value redemption options, it could affect the overall perceived value of the programme.
So what's my bottom line on all this? The earning side of this partnership is excellent and definitely worth setting up if you eat at PizzaExpress with any regularity. Three Avios per pound, stacking with your credit card rewards, makes for a compelling proposition, especially with Christmas meals coming up. Maybe you've got a family gathering planned, or you're meeting friends before the new year. If PizzaExpress is on the agenda, you might as well earn some points whilst you're there.
The redemption side? Unless you're sitting on points you can't otherwise use, save them for flights. At zero point five pence per Avios, you're leaving value on the table compared to even basic economy redemptions.
If you haven't already, make sure you've got a strong Avios-earning credit card setup. We've got comprehensive guides on the best Avios credit cards and business card options on our website to help you maximise what you're earning on everyday spending, including your next Dough Balls and American Hot.
That's all for today's episode. Thanks so much for listening to Smart With Points. If you found this useful, please do subscribe to the podcast. You can find us on all major podcast platforms, or head to our website at smartwithpoints dot co dot uk. And don't forget, if you're interested in any of the credit cards we mentioned today, you can find links in the shownotes.
Before you go, a quick word about our sponsor. Looking for the best award flights? Use AwardTravelFinder dot com to search availability across Qatar Airways, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and more. Try it for free with our link in the shownotes.
Until next time, keep collecting those points and using them wisely. Cheers.