Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Lloyds Avios upgrade vouchers are being extended to October – if you ask

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

We may not have written about the Lloyds Avios Rewards credit cards in a long time, but the cards are still out there – albeit with a new format – with people who had them before they were closed to new applicants.

Whilst Lloyds no longer offers this, many HfP readers will still have an unused upgrade voucher that they got as an annual bonus with the credit card.

I won’t bother going over how the voucher worked for the benefit of new readers, because it is essentially the same as the new Barclays Avios Rewards voucher. We explained how the Barclays Avios Rewards upgrade voucher works here.

The key differences are:

  • The Lloyds upgrade vouchers were only valid for one year, whilst the Barclays upgrade vouchers will be valid for two years
  • The Lloyds upgrade vouchers could be used in either direction, whilst the rules say that the Barclays vouchers can only be used on flights from the UK – although we won’t know if this is true until people start using the vouchers in 2022
  • The Lloyds vouchers were lost if you cancelled your booking, whilst the Barclays Avios Rewards vouchers are given back to you if you cancel your flight

Avios is extending unused Lloyds vouchers until 31st October

The good news if you have an unused Lloyds Avios upgrade voucher is that Avios is extending them until 31st October 2021.

From what I can tell, as I don’t have one of my own, you need to call Avios to request this. It is not being done automatically. Don’t ask, don’t get.

How do you contact Avios?

You might find the online chat function to be the easiest way.

Go to avios.com and change the country from UK to Ireland. A live chat icon will pop up.

Without wishing to state the obvious, if you try to do this at 9am on Thursday at the same time as a few thousand other HfP readers then you may have trouble getting through …..

Remember that 31st October 2021 is only the booking deadline

Don’t panic about having to fit in a flight this Summer in order to use it. The expiry date of a Lloyds voucher is the booking deadline, not the flying deadline. This is the opposite to how the British Airways American Express companion vouchers work.

Since the British Airways booking window is 355 days, you will be able to fly up to mid October 2022.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (55)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • whiskerxx says:
    25 Mar25 March 10:49

    for information – i had two vouchers which I had forgotten about and which expired in November and December 2020. I used chat in February to ascertain whether they could be reinstated. The chat operative said they could not do that, but directed me to customer services. I emailed them and the vouchers were reinstated within an hour!!!!

    • PaulC says:
      25 Mar25 March 11:01

      What was the email address you used?

      I had a voucher that expired 7th March but by the time I tempered to ring up the day before (Saturday) they were closed and only reopen Monday after my voucher had expired so left it. On the phone now to them to try get it reinstated, the old Avios on hold music!

  • aDifferentSimon says:
    25 Mar25 March 11:22

    Mine had long expired. However when I called a couple of weeks ago to ask about an extension they explained that as it had expired during covid times it was left in a dormant state and they could extend it until 31/10. So do call if yours had expired post March ’20 and you had forgotten about it.

  • planeconcorde says:
    25 Mar25 March 11:33

    In February 2020 I used a Lloyds voucher (due to expire June 2020) for a booking 355 days in advance for travel in January 2021. Long haul to the USA return. Both the outbound and return flights were still expected to operate as they had been in the preceding three months. 5 days prior to departure both flights were still expected to operate so I called Avios.com to cancel. I wanted to rebook for flights January 2022, but they weren’t open for booking at that time. The agent refunded all taxes and charges originally paid. No £35 cancellation fee was taken, which was a surprise as per Ts and Tcs I was expecting to be charged the fee as I was cancelling. Avios was refunded too, but was left in my Avios.com account not transferred back to BA Executive club. In January 2021 I was told I could re-use my Lloyds voucher with a book by date of 31st March 2021. In February 2021 I called again to book my January 2022 flights with the Lloyds voucher. The booking was made by phone without any complications.

  • Nigel W says:
    25 Mar25 March 11:49

    Further to my previous comment, has anyone managed to allow Avios.com to allow you to move the destination to a different ‘zone’?

  • Eldar says:
    25 Mar25 March 12:32

    My Lloyds upgrade voucher was extended via chat until 30 October, not the 31st. When questioned, the friendly chat agent explained that their call centre will be closed on Sunday 31 October, which is why the booking must be made by 30 October. Good to know!

  • Luke says:
    25 Mar25 March 12:58

    I’ve just been told my voucher (which was extended previously with a new expiry date to Nov 2020) cannot be extended as I didn’t call to extend it before it expired in Nov?!?! does that sound right?

    • whiskerxx says:
      25 Mar25 March 13:26

      see my note above, that is exactly what happened to me initially

    • Rob says:
      25 Mar25 March 13:40

      I’d say so, yes. You can’t extend something that has expired. You could have called earlier – back in November they were extending to March 2021 I believe.

      • Luke says:
        25 Mar25 March 14:15

        Thanks Rob, it just seems odd there was no notification to request an extension at the time? i was told when it was originally extended that it wouldn’t be extended further past November
        . It seems a bit of a haphazard approach.

  • Brian W says:
    25 Mar25 March 14:49

    I have two of the Lloyds Companion vouchers, similar to the Upgrade ones and used online chat to check the expiry dates on them as a double check. Lady ordered to extend them both to 31st October without me asking for that. Really helpful to be honest and the chat function is definitely the best way to contact Avios IMHO.

  • George K says:
    25 Mar25 March 15:16

    I’ve got two of these vouchers, used in combination with the 50% avios sale which meant that I bagged return tickets to Rio and Seoul for 39k avios each. Both flights cancelled, with the latter route pulled completely.

    This rung up multiple times and was told different things by different people, but to keep it short, I’ve successfully rebooked Rio for October 2021 (maximum original ticket validity) with no extra Avios or taxes due (I was expecting to get hit with the new Heathrow tax, but no).

    Seoul was supposed to be next month and I’m still weighing my options. Other destinations within the same band are HK, Mauritius, Sao Paolo, Tokyo (the agent has also mentioned Osaka, Lima and Bangkok, but I suspect they are reading from an out of date document) which don’t make it easy to choose. I think a refund will be in order for this one, (and the ability to use the voucher for a fresh booking beyond Oct 2021) unless someone has a better idea…

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

NEW: Sign-up bonuses boosted to 3,000 and 18,000 points

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!