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Has a 2nd Lloyds Avios Rewards upgrade voucher appeared in your Avios account?

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I’ve had numerous emails from readers in recent days who have found a new upgrade voucher appearing in their avios.com account courtesy of their Lloyds Avios Rewards credit card.  

If you didn’t get an email telling you it was there, it is worth checking anyway.  It will say:

Lloyds Bank Avios Rewards Upgrade Voucher
Valid from 29/09/2018
Expiry date 31/10/2019

It isn’t clear what is happening here, but it is a widespread situation.  My best guess is that this is part of the process of closing down the current cards.

Or, of course, it could be a mistake.

Lloyds was struggling to find a sensible plan which would allow them to close the cards.  They are being forcibly replaced with ‘next generation’ Mastercard-only Lloyds Avios Rewards credit cards which are substantially different from what you have now.

The new Lloyds Avios Rewards Mastercard will offer:

No annual fee

0.4 Avios per £1 you spend in the UK

0.8 Avios per £1 you spend outside the UK

0.4 Avios per £1 transferred on a balance transfer (this is a new benefit – Lloyds Duo Avios cardholders used to get Avios on balance transfers but Lloyds Avios Rewards cardholders did not)

….. plus an extra 25% bonus for Club Lloyds current account holders.

The bad news is:

There will no longer be a generous Amex card option

Overseas spending is no longer free – you will pay 2.99% on FX spend

There will no longer be an upgrade voucher

Because most cardholders will have their old card closed part-way through their membership year, it would be unfair to stop them getting a final upgrade voucher.

Lloyds may have decided that the cleanest thing to do is to give every cardholder their current year voucher.  It may also be a gesture towards Avios Rewards cardholders who are annoyed by the loss of 0% FX fees and the voucher.

Perhaps you should spend it quickly, though, just in case it is an error.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (147)

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  • Voucher says:
    5 Oct5 October 17:14

    Lloyd’s voucher T&Cs appear to have changed

    Can’t currently book two one ways for same person

    Eg One person travelling
    Outbound LHR – NRT
    Return HKG – LHR

    Avios.com staff saying has to be booked as a return itinerary thus no tax saving ex HKG

    Apparently terms used to state:

    UPGRADE VOUCHERS CAN BE USED TO UPGRADE EITHER 2 ONE WAY FLIGHTS OR 1 RETURN JOURNEY BOOKED ON A BRITISH AIRWAYS MAIN LINE SERVICE

    But now say:

    UPGRADE VOUCHERS CAN BE USED TO UPGRADE EITHER 2 ONE WAY FLIGHTS FOR 2 PEOPLE TRAVELLING AT THE SAME TIME AND TO THE SAME DESTINATION OR 1 RETURN JOURNEY BOOKED ON A BRITISH AIRWAYS MAIN LINE SERVICE

    Anyone aware?

    • Yawn says:
      5 Oct5 October 22:24

      It was always two one way flights of people travelling together, I believe. So if they changed it, it’s only a clarification.

    • Shoestring says:
      5 Oct5 October 22:25

      Significant change to the T&Cs – if true – but as the 2-4-1 is disappearing with the demise of the card, hardly earth-shattering

    • the_real_a says:
      6 Oct6 October 15:32

      That’s always been the case to my knowledge, although if you called up since the points discount was a manual override you could persuade them to do anything.

      By the strictest interpretation 2 one ways (different PNRs) were never allowed. However, an open jaw return on a single PNR was allowed. I was always told that you needed to fly from the same avios zone, however i know people who booked a a legal open jaw defined as “The geographic distance between your original landing airport and your new departure airport must be SHORTER than either of the two flights.”

      Rob covered this here https://headforpoints.com/2017/10/01/how-to-book-open-jaw-redemption-with-avios/

  • Nick says:
    5 Oct5 October 17:40

    O/T – I’m still really confused about all this avios.com
    stuff if anyone can explain it would be appreciated !

    The avios from the Lloyds cards goes each month into my avios.com account and I manually transfer it to my BAEC HHA but I thought these accounts were meant to be closed by now? ????‍♀️

    Also have one voucher in my avios.com
    Account which I got back in august so I didn’t get a second one.

    • Anna says:
      5 Oct5 October 18:06

      Not all avios.com account are closed yet. Mine is still open and I am moving any avios which are still trickling in over to BA myself as I don’t trust them not to get lost in the ether when my account finally does close!

    • Rob says:
      5 Oct5 October 18:39

      They should have been closed but for some reason it is dragging on.

      • Will says:
        5 Oct5 October 20:49

        Same IT team as Marriott perhaps. I joke, it’s pretty shocking how very big entities can be so misguided in rolling out changes in platforms.

  • Ronster says:
    5 Oct5 October 18:30

    Good evening all

    Can some one kindly tell me where about in my avios account, I can view the upgrade voucher and its end date?

    I did see it a few months back.

    However now, I cannot see it anywhere and wonder if anyone can tell me under which section,
    I should be looking.

    Many Thanks

    Ronster

  • Bob says:
    6 Oct6 October 06:18

    No email but checked both (my wife’s and mine) accounts to find both had new vouchers. Already used our normal £7000 spend ones. From previous experience we don’t trust Lloyds so will have to keep our fingers crossed
    Lloyds statement is reminding me that next month is the annual anniversary £24 due in November
    Also stil got both Avios accounts with Lloyds spend going in but transferred the other avios so what’s happening
    Lloyds Amex going and Avios closing? When i wonder

  • Desmond Reid says:
    6 Oct6 October 10:40

    Got a note from Avios via twitter after I had asked them to clarify the situation as I had 2 vouchers posted to my account. Here is the response.
    “Hi Des. It has been brought to our attention that some vouchers have been issued in error. We will however be honouring all vouchers that have been issued and customers will be able to redeem them as per the normal channels. Thanks Shane.”

    • Nick Wilson says:
      6 Oct6 October 11:02

      That’s great news Desmond! Thanks for sharing this!

      • Shoestring says:
        6 Oct6 October 17:00

        Hi Des, thanks for drawing that to our attention. Obviously some vouchers have been issued in error, we’ll have to put that right, many thanks again for your tweet. Thanks Shane

    • Chris Palmer says:
      6 Oct6 October 16:20

      Absolutely excellent. Thanks so much for posting, Desmond.

    • Graham Walsh says:
      6 Oct6 October 16:21

      That is great news.

  • Graham Walsh says:
    6 Oct6 October 16:27

    Just noticed this on my Lloyds Avios Statement

    Direct Debit Changes
    If your payment due date falls after 26th of September 2018 your Direct Debit will no longer be reduced by any additional payments you’ve made in that statement period. Instead, we’ll treat it as an extra payment on top of your usual Direct Debit amount. This change means that any additional
    payments to your account will no longer affect your Direct Debit payments, helping you pay off your balance more quickly

    • ADS says:
      6 Oct6 October 23:19

      i saw this in their new terms a couple of months ago – it’s a nasty little change in my opinion !

      i asked them why they’re making such an unhelpful change – but they couldn’t come up with a reason.

  • James says:
    7 Oct7 October 08:32

    The loss of the upgrade voucher kills this completely 🙁

    They should be congratulated for honouring their 2nd upgrade voucher mistake. Iris very, very decent of them and they should be made a fuss of for doing so as they certainly would get bad PR if they’d gone the other way.

  • Callum says:
    8 Oct8 October 12:15

    This is clearly falling on deaf ears as I’ve corrected this about 5 times but you still keep saying it!

    LLOYDS AVIOS REWARDS DOES GIVE AVIOS FOR BALANCE TRANSFERS

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