Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Got Barclays Avios Rewards AND the Barclaycard Avios Plus card? Get four airport lounge passes

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This article has been sponsored by Barclays

As you have hopefully seen on HfP by now, new Barclaycard customers can currently earn up to 50,000 Avios when they sign up to the Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card before 30th May and spend £3,000 within three months. New customers only.

Here are the legal aspects of this offer:

The representative APR is 77.6% APR variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases is 27.9% variable.

It is important to note that terms and conditions apply to this offer. The approval of your application depends on your financial circumstances and borrowing history, so do the terms you may be offered.

Representative example – most accepted customers get:

  • 77.6% APR representative (variable)
  • 27.9% purchase rate p.a. (variable)
  • Based on a £1,200 credit limit
  • £20 monthly fee

The card comes with DragonPass Premier+ membership

As well as the lucrative welcome bonus, the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard credit card comes with a number of additional benefits.

Barclays have continued to develop these since the launch of the cards a year ago. In October, Barclays introduced two new airport lounge benefits for Barclaycard Avios Plus cardholders and we wanted to cover these in a bit more detail today.

Barclaycard Avios Plus cardholders can now get discounts for themselves and their travel companions at thousands of airport lounges worldwide via DragonPass, the lounge aggregator.

You will receive a complimentary DragonPass Premier+ membership.

DragonPass Premier+

Here is how the DragonPass Premier+ membership currently works for Barclaycard Avios Plus cardholders:

  • You can book unlimited discounted passes for £18.50 per guest to access selected airport lounges worldwide, including Plaza Premium lounges
  • To guarantee entry, you can pay an extra £5 at some lounges to pre-book a slot

All Barclaycard Avios Plus cardholders are eligible for the DragonPass Premier+ membership.

If you have the free Barclaycard Avios credit card you do not get discounted lounge access, although you can still use DragonPass independently to purchase lounge entry at non-discounted rates.

Please note that terms and conditions apply.

Four free lounge passes if you add Premier Banking with Barclays Avios Rewards

There is now an additional lounge pass benefit for anyone who holds both a Premier Banking Current Account with Barclays Avios Rewards and the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard.

You will receive four free lounge passes to use at anywhere in the DragonPass network, per year. This is worth (£18.50 per guest x 4) £74.

Your ‘year’ is counted from the date you open the second qualifying Barclays product – either Premier Banking with Barclays Avios Rewards or the Barclaycard Avios Plus card. This becomes your membership anniversary.

Each pass gives one person access to a participating lounge. You can use your passes as you wish as long as you are travelling – either for yourself, on four separate trips, or for yourself and to guest anyone you are travelling with.

You can also use these passes for additional benefits such as a meal voucher or spa treatment in some locations.

This benefit comes at no extra charge and is included as part of the monthly fees you pay for Barclays Avios Rewards and Barclaycard Avios Plus. Remember Barclays will give you £5 back into your current account every month if you open Barclaycard Avios Plus for £20 a month and switch on Barclays Avios Rewards as a Premier customer for £12 a month.

Barclays Avios Rewards

To join Premier Banking, open a Premier Current Account and either:

  • Pay in a gross annual income of at least £75,000 or
  • Have a total balance of at least £100,000 in savings with Barclays, in Barclays UK investments, or in a mix of both

If your payments or balances drop below what you need to stay with Premier, Barclays will let you know. Remember you also benefit from a £5 fee discount each month if you hold both products. This is paid as a cashback credit into your Premier Banking account.

Conclusion

To benefit from the DragonPass Premier+ membership and buy lounge passes for just £18.50 per person, you will need to be a Barclaycard Avios Plus cardholder.

For the four free lounge passes, worth £74, you will also need to have a Premier Banking Current Account with Barclays Avios Rewards.

If you are yet to take out the Barclaycard Avios Plus card, a 50,000 Avios welcome bonus on offer makes this a good time to make the leap.

Representative example – most accepted customers get:

  • 77.6% APR representative (variable)
  • 27.9% purchase rate p.a. (variable)
  • Based on a £1,200 credit limit
  • £20 monthly fee

Full details of the 50,000 Avios bonus offer can be found on the Barclaycard website here.

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

Comments (38)

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

  • Wally1976 says:

    My free passes weren’t awarded and I had to query it with Barclays. I think it didn’t happen automatically as my accounts weren’t properly linked. Anyway, I now seem to have ended up with 8 free passes (shhhh, don’t tell anyone). In the DP app it says:

    Dual Reward Benefit

    Cardholder/guest free pass: 4 remaining
    Purchased pass: 4 remaining

    (I haven’t paid anything.)

    I look forward to using these when I take the family away in August 😁.

  • Boddingtons says:

    Do you need a dragon pass card or do you just show the credit card at the lounge?

    • phantomchickenz says:

      Just the app is sufficient. Credit card won’t do it.

  • Alan says:

    The state of lounge entry in the UK is ridiculous. Very few other places do you have to buy an entry pass AND pay an extra £5 to guarantee entry.

  • Cool Guy says:

    Don’t know if anyone has used Dragon Pass app lately but when I tried to use it recently, the app was not working and not letting me sign in. Guess this has been going on for some time and doesn’t help when you are at the airport lounge trying to show your membership card.

    • phantomchickenz says:

      Used the app at LCY 3 weeks ago for a free 15 minute massage (it was good!). Worked fine.

  • Richard E says:

    Completely forgot about this benefit.. so I fished out the email with my membership number (which I’d been sent when I joined Barclays), and followed the instructions to register on the app….

    And my account was immediately suspended (despite an email saying that I was “all set” after completing registration).

    Marvellous. I have emailed support and received an auto reply saying that they will get back in 2-3 business days.

    Pretty lousy.

  • moody says:

    If you cancel your Avios plus card but keep the account open, will these passes disappear?

  • David S says:

    I just wish Barclaycard would give the bonuses to Hilton card holders if they sign up. Until then I’m committed to the Hilton card

  • Pau says:

    Does anyone know, once you’ve qualified for the 4 free passes, if you cancel your card do you get to keep them for future use.

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

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