Any Tesco 'Clubcard deals' I should avoid?

I use my clubcard vouchers for magazine subscriptions (real bargains here - only need £8-10 of vouchers to get subscription for 12 months) and have also traded them for Goldsmiths the jewerllers vouchers - saved up my tokens over 12 months and managed to get over £400 to spend on myself - bought a nice necklace and earrings - well chuffed!

It's the same with package holidays. If you don't pay with deals, you get discounts such as free child places. If you pay with deals, you don't get any of the discounts.

It's only worthwhile if you have a high amount of deals to pay for all or a high proportion of the holiday.

Yes, this is something we found as well. Last year we used £600 of our points for Butlins for a 4 days break in the summer (we could have never afforded a holdiay at Butlins otherwise) but if we had booked the same break online the day before then it would have cost us £285. Bearing in mind how long it takes to save the vouchers I wish I had saved them and paid cash or gone somewhere else in all honesty.

The most deceptive thing about all of this of course is that when you check the deals website it gives you a link to the website of the company accepting deals and the price it gives you the price you think you are going to pay. And this in my eyes is totally wrong.

I am only ever saying my vouchers for 'big' holidays now otherwise it is not worth it.

PS. You can always return the vouchers unused and get them credited to your card to use again and book the same break later towards when you need to go as it will be cheaper again online!!

Oh yes, in regard to airmiles.

2 years ago we did have a lot of points (£1600) and wanted to use these for Florida. If we had used them on airmiles then we would have enough for 4 return flights with added cash payment of £1200!! Now the flights only cost £1500 if I was buying them off the website. So it would of meant using £1600 voucher of deals to pay for £300 towards flights. I beleive that you still have to pay the taxes on the flights, it only covers the flight costs.

I would never use them for Airmiles but maybe people who get business airmiles use CC to 'top up' and this makes it worthwhile. For us it was better to use them for the holiday as we had to top up with around £480 for a 14 day holiday.

Even if you don't want their accomodation then use them for cheaper than cheap accomodation and flights and then pay for your own accomodation at the resort you want.

As an example, (in our more flush days way back when, LOL!!) we wanted to stay at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge for 7 days, Expedia quoted us £980 for 7 days. Virgin wanted..... and I still do not beleive this, for a LOWER standard room, listed on the holiday breakdown..... £2500 for the same time and the same week. How on earth is this justified?

But anyway, lets say we had booked with Virgin for this holiday we would have needed just shy of £6000 for this particular holiday. If we had done it ourselves we worked out we could have had the flights for £1250 online, the Disney accomodation via expedia (they give free transfers from the airport to resort saving the transfers price as we don't drive) for £980 in AKL, another 5* resort for £550 (£1000+ for the same in Virgins brochure) so almost half the cost. of course, if you have managed to save £5k in vouchers then of course Virgin will get them but even if they get half face value from Tesco then they are still onto a winner!!

So if this info helps in paying for your flights then do it that way. Don't be hasty in booking and write everything down first to make sure you are getting the best deal if you are parting with any cash towards your holiday!