Barclays voucher use and comparison with AMEX 241

[LT73]

I had 2 Barclays upgrade vouchers in my account and have just managed to use them to book two club world return flights to the USA. Thought I would share my experience and compare the results with the Amex 241 voucher.

My route is NCL>LHR then LGW>MCO (unfortunately have to change London airports but never had an issue)

Last year we used an Amex 241 voucher and this trip cost us 125,000 AVIOS + £1723.84 in taxes.

This same trip has just cost me 190,000 AVIOS + £900 in taxes and of course my two Barclays upgrade vouchers.

So that’s 65,000 more AVIOS but £823.84 less cash (equivalent to ~1.3p per AVIOS)

I have always been able to make this booking easily online with the Amex 241 voucher but I needed to phone the executive club to use the Barclays upgrade vouchers as my booking contained a domestic connection. This was recognised by the staff as an issue with their IT system and no telephone booking fee was charged.

Process was relatively straight forward although the initial quote was 208,500 AVIOS + £901 due to their IT systems and the domestic connection. Call staff (spoke to two different ladies as I was cut off on the first attempt) both spotted the error and manually updated the quote to 190,000 AVIOS + £900.

Paid the fee on my BAPP card so should get 2700 AVIOS back for the pleasure!

[zapato1060]

Yes its a shame Barclays use only the highest Avios option. Crazy to think MAD-MIA with Iberia using the 241 would be £400 and 85k for 2x people all in. Off-peak.