Barclays Upgrade Voucher vs Amex 241

[yonasl]

Hiya,
I find myself with:

2 x Barclays upgrade vouchers that will expire in around 20 months
2 x 241 Amex vouchers (1 me, 1 my partner)

I do not have a ton of Avios (close to 400k) and as silver do not mind sometimes flying Y or PE as I get to enjoy the lounge, bulkhead seat, etc.

I value the 241 highly for 2 reasons:
– can use IB to south america (less avios and cash just by adding a MAD one way)
– can book the outbound and then wait a week or two and book the inbound later (call and get the avios back)

So struggling to see what the Barclays vouchers would be good for:
– I understand they are bad value for CE which I wouldn’t really fly unless I was trying to get extra TPs
– Only valid on BA
– Flight needs to be from the UK one way or a return. So cannot book out/in bound separately and do the 241 trick of calling and getting avios refunded

But could I be missing a sweet spot for the Barclays vouchers (BA routes with large availability in PE or J?)? I will certainly keep the Barclays premier (1,500 avios a month for £20 is not bad value) but downgrade to the free Visa (1 avios per £)

[danstravel]

Whilst the use cases for the the Barclays Upgrade Voucher are limited, they do exist.

There is no issue using them for CW in routes with high frequency year round (JFK, LAX, SFO, DOH) and also in routes that are low popularity (EZE, PVG, Smaller US Cities etc.)

For more popular routes (SIN, HKG, HND, CPT, JNB, DXB) there should be no problem using them in PE – which for someone with status shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

I for example found it fairly easy to use one of my vouchers for a CW trip to YYZ in Easter ’24 – 85,000 Avios and £365 which I think was a good deal. My other voucher that i want to use for HND is a different story though and I may need to settle for PE – but with Silver status – it should not be too much of an issue.

[NorthernLass]

If you’re travelling with a partner you can certainly use the Barclays voucher one-way for 2 of you, then book the return separately when it’s released as there won’t be a voucher involved with that. This actually gives a great deal of flexibility, e.g. we are using the upgrade voucher for MAN-LHR-DXB in December then returning DOH-MAN on QR.

They can be good value in CE when cash prices are very high, but obviously better for long haul.