Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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

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

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.

Barclays Avios Rewards upgrade voucher reviewed

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.

Barclays Avios Rewards upgrade voucher reviewed

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 …..

How to earn Avios from Barclays Premier

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.

Barclays Avios Rewards upgrade voucher reviewed

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.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (February 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:

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

Get 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

30,000 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

50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

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

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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.

Comments (70)

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

  • James W says:

    Well, Mrs and I seem to have a few of these, and I recently used one for a one way LHR/NCE for next summer which is a MASSIVELY expensively route in £££ so we saved money big time. I think we paid £25 plus a few avios for a flight that was £800 a person (I’m approximating but you get the drift). I did the other way on points – well over 5p a point. Shame is that BA will be watching this……

    • QFFlyer says:

      They’re (BA) well aware, they committed to releasing a certain number of reward seats on each flight, and there will inevitably be some which give you outsize value.

    • Lumma says:

      It’s only really 5p per point if you would have still booked at £800 cash. I did lyon on points when the cash fare was £600 one way but the alternative would have been not going

      • david says:

        But it is 5p Lumma. We would always then get a better return on Avios if we just stayed at home as we wouldnt be spending them.

  • NorthernLass says:

    There’s loads of discussion on the various aspects of the Barclays voucher in the “Barclays avios” forum section, e.g.
    https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/cabin-upgrade-voucher/page/9/

  • Paul says:

    These vouchers are pretty useless given they restrict pricing to the ‘full avios’ amount. Quite frustrating I didn’t clock this earlier. Now sitting on 4 of these vouchers that I’ll probably let expire.

    • Rob says:

      For long haul this is the best option. It is only short haul where it usually isn’t.

    • Sam says:

      The vouchers are what let this card down. The fact that only 7k avios are offered as an alternative tells you everything.

    • Johnny Tabasco says:

      These vouchers are far from useless. I’ve had a couple and been able to save quite significant amounts of money using them. It confuses when I see people say they are useless, I’m never sure why this is.

  • Professor Yaffle says:

    West coast US return in CW for £470 plus 130k miles in July seems like a damned good deal to me. Yes, I know that 5 years back that would be standard pricing without the voucher, but thems is the times we live in…

  • SammyJ says:

    Slightly o/t but I received the following email about my account last night and I’m not entirely sure what it means – anyone know?

    “Blue Rewards benefits are now included with Premier

    Hello ,

    We’re making a small change to your Barclays Avios Rewards T&Cs

    From today, 4 September, Premier customers will get all the benefits of Blue Rewards. So we’ve updated the Avios terms and conditions to reflect that Premier accounts (including joint accounts), will need to be separated from Blue Rewards to join Avios. This won’t affect any of your Blue Rewards benefits – you’ll still have those with Premier.

    You don’t need to do anything

    This email is just to let you know what we’ve changed, but if you’d like to see your T&Cs, you can find them in your Barclays app – just tap ‘View your Avios’ then ‘Manage your account’.”

    It’s the bit about separating it that is a bit confusing – not sure whether we get the blue rewards benefits or not? I’m probably being a bit thick.

    • Paul says:

      In other words….we still get our 1,500 Avios per month. Is that right? This is the key point for me.

    • Littlefish says:

      Interesting. I think this removes one of the reasons for not switching to Avios rewards, as Blue rewards used to be worth more than 1500avios – £12. Still a couple of other elements to think over (like why do I want the Barclays App?) but maybe there is merit to Avios rewards now. Still unsure tbh. The Club Europe gotcha is poor.
      Now, if the annual voucher opened up extra reward space even in a lesser way to the BA Amex then that’d be a game changer.

  • SG says:

    These vouchers are useful but it’s very frustrating that – by default – you have to pay the full Avios amount without any of the pricing options you get with regular Avios bookings. This is a fault that needs to be rectified as it makes these vouchers a much less attractive prospect for short haul.

    • Mikeact says:

      It’s not a fault as such, but the flexibility as per a regular Avios booking would be beneficial, particularly long haul if you don’t have a pile of Avios to use.
      We are lucky enough to have way over seven figures and happy to use the maximum Avios required against this voucher….and still save a considerable amount v cash.

  • QFFlyer says:

    “‘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, really it’s a discount voucher?

  • CJD says:

    I wonder if when First comes under RFS that the ‘can’t be used to upgrade to First’ stipulation will change.

    Presumably the voucher can’t be used in First is because (to take a LHR-JFK example) using a voucher to book a return in F would result in you paying 160,000 Avios instead of 136,000.

    • Rob says:

      It’s possible. I agree there is no real logic otherwise, unless it is to throw a bone to Amex.

      • Alex G says:

        Pretty sure Amex would not want the Barclays voucher to be as good as the Amex one. The Barclays voucher works in a similar way to the old Lloyd’s voucher.

        • Rob says:

          It’s a bit better – Lloyds voucher was not returned to you if you cancelled your flight.

        • CJD says:

          I don’t think it is regardless of whether First becomes an option – it’s one of the main reasons I only use my Barclaycard as a backup rather than chase the voucher on it because I can’t see any scenario where it’s better than the Amex voucher.

          • jj says:

            It’s not better than an Amex voucher, but it’s better than nothing. Two of these each year plus two Amex vouchers cover most of my Avios bookings…perfect!

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

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.