How does the BA upgrade voucher from Barclays Premier and Barclays Avios Rewards work?

How does the upgrade voucher issued with Barclays Avios Rewards to Barclays Premier customers work?

I am spending some time this week looking again (after a lengthy gap) at the Barclays Premier and Barclays Avios Rewards current account partnership, so you can see if it is worth signing up.

There is a 25,000 Avios bonus for signing up for a free Barclays Premier current account and opting in to the £12 per month Barclays Avios Rewards add-on.

Our overview of Barclays Avios Rewards is here.

You can sign up on this page of the Barclays Premier website.

Ignoring the generous 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus for new Barclays Premier customers, Barclays Avios Rewards works like this:

• you pay £12 per month
• you get 1,500 Avios per month
• you get an British Airways Avios upgrade voucher every 12 months

Today we are looking at the upgrade voucher and how it works.

For clarity, these are identical to the upgrade vouchers that you receive each year with two Barclaycard Avios Mastercard credit cards. We reviewed the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard here and reviewed the Barclaycard Avios Plus card here.

How does the Barclays Avios Rewards British Airways upgrade voucher work?

The full details are on this page of ba.com. If there is any divergence between that page and what I write below, trust ba.com.

Put simply, you receive a voucher which can be used to upgrade ONE return Avios flight for one person, or TWO one-way Avios flights for two people

Rather than cutting and pasting 37 bullet points from ba.com, I have broken down the key items in various categories.

When do I earn a Barclays Avios Rewards upgrade voucher?

You receive your voucher in your British Airways Executive Club account within five working days of making your 12th monthly Barclays Avios Rewards membership payment.

Additional vouchers will be issued every 12 months as long as you continue to be a Barclays Avios Rewards member.

You will be able to see your vouchers online on the same page of ba.com which shows your British Airways American Express companion vouchers.

Is there an alternative to the voucher?

Yes. You can choose to receive a bonus of 7,000 Avios rather than an upgrade voucher.

Most people should choose the voucher but the 7,000 Avios option will work for some. This will include people who don’t earn enough Avios each year to maximise the value of the voucher. You can change your decision each year if you wish.

Who can use the voucher?

This is important. The voucher is semi-transferable.

Whilst the flight must be booked from the account of the person who receives the voucher, the flight can be booked for anyone.

The usual restrictions apply if you are in a British Airways Executive Club Household Account – the flyer must be in the Household Account or on your Friends & Family list.

What do I pay when I use the voucher?

Let’s get one thing clear. THIS. IS. NOT. AN. UPGRADE. VOUCHER.

I call it an upgrade voucher. Barclays calls it an upgrade voucher. It is NOT an upgrade voucher.

In practice, this is how it works.

You go to ba.com and book a flight using Avios. If you choose to apply the voucher, the Avios you are charged is the sum required if you had booked in the next lowest cabin on the aircraft.

Instead of an upgrade voucher, it is really a ‘book a flight but only pay the Avios you would have paid if you had booked in the next lowest cabin‘ voucher. This isn’t very catchy, so we pretend it is an upgrade voucher.

This DOES make a difference, because:

• the taxes and charges due are the taxes and charges of the higher cabin, since that it what you are booking into (this bit should be obvious), and

• you do NOT need Avios availability in the lower cabin, only in the higher cabin (this bit is NOT obvious)

You are NOT booking 2 x World Traveller Plus seats with Avios and then upgrading them using the voucher. You are booking 2 x Club World seats with Avios and using the voucher to reduce the cost of the Avios component to that of the next lowest cabin.

Let me repeat – you do NOT need Avios availability in the lower cabin. You DO need Avios availability in the cabin in which you intend to fly.

Hope that’s clear …..

What are the restrictions on the flights I can book?

• You can only book British Airways operated flights, with a BA flight number. This includes the City Airport flights operated by BA Cityflyer and the Gatwick flights operated by BA Euroflyer.

• You cannot use the voucher to book with Qatar Airways, American Airlines or other partners

• You cannot use the voucher on franchise partner SUN-AIR

• All flights must depart from the UK

• The voucher is only valid on Avios flights. You cannot use it to upgrade a cash flight.

• You cannot book in First Class. The highest upgrade you can get is to fly in Club World / Club Europe, paying the Avios required for World Traveller Plus / Euro Traveller.

• The voucher can only be used on ‘full’ Avios bookings at the standard base price. You cannot choose a ‘sliding scale’ option of using more or fewer Avios than the base price in return for less or more cash. For a short haul Club Europe redemption, for example, you MUST choose the ‘Avios + £25 cash return’ option and pay the Economy Avios amount plus the £25.

• You cannot use a Barclays Avios Rewards voucher in conjunction with a BA Holidays booking, in the same way that you cannot mix a standard Avios redemption or a companion voucher with a BA Holidays booking

Can I combine my upgrade voucher with a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher?

No, not on the same ticket.

Obviously a family of three could unofficially combine an Amex 2-4-1 voucher and a Barclays upgrade voucher on the same trip. Two seats could be booked with the American Express companion voucher and the third seat booked with the Barclays Avios Rewards upgrade voucher. You would need to make two separate bookings to do this.

Can I upgrade an existing Avios booking?

No.

This is an important restriction. You cannot book a World Traveller Plus ticket on Avios and then ring up BA to upgrade it to Club World if two Club World seats open up later. You would need to cancel the original booking and make a fresh one.

How long is my voucher valid for?

You must complete the outbound segment of your flight within 24 months of the issue date.

Can I have multiple vouchers?

You can only earn one Barclays Avios Rewards upgrade voucher every 12 months. However, as you have two years to spend them, it is possible that you may have two in your British Airways Executive Club account at the same time.

Even if you have two Barclays Premier accounts (one sole, one joint), you can still only earn one upgrade voucher per year.

You can earn additional upgrade vouchers from the two Barclaycard Avios Mastercard credit cards if you hit the annual spend target. You can learn more about, and apply for, two Barclaycard Avios Mastercard credit cards here. We reviewed the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard here and reviewed the Barclaycard Avios Plus card here.

You CAN use two Barclays Avios Rewards or Mastercard vouchers on the same booking if you have two in your account.

How to apply

Our article from yesterday explains the criteria for being accepted for Barclays Premier in more detail.

You can find out more about Barclays Avios Rewards, and open a Barclays Premier account, on this page of the Barclays website.

PS. If you are reading this but are not a regular Head for Points visitor, please consider signing up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters. They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and deals to improve how you travel. To sign up, visit this page of the site or click any of the ‘Subscribe’ links on this page. Thank you.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2025)

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:

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

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.

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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

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.

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