Best Avios / financial / creative options ?

[Mikeact]

Morning. My wife has just received notification of her first Barclaycard voucher. Trying to figure out the best way to use this with a family wedding next year on the US West Coast.
All we know at this stage, is an overnight in Business back to the UK, which we would use the voucher for.
So using the voucher, is it a question of mix/match for a return award..Business out, using regular Avios, and the voucher back (PE Avios ) ?
And should we call to book as charges will be far less round trip as apposed to two one ways.
Finally, any other creative ideas?
Thanks.

[FatherOfFour]

IIRC the voucher can only be used ex-UK – so you’d need to use either UK-US-UK for 1 (return) or UK-US for 2 of you.

[Froggee]

Being creative with the Barclays voucher is unrealistic I’m afraid. The best you can hope for is to be able to use it successfully!

Assuming you are a couple (i.e. you don’t have undeclared kids travelling with you also) and want to be on the same PNR, you have one option for what you suggested which is to phone up to book to use it and hope you get a very competent agent. A lot of agents appear to struggle to book using the vouchers and you are aiming for a mixed class booking which makes it trickier for them. Upgrading the return leg is feasible from reports on here but seems more difficult given the wording of the terms and conditions.

It should not matter which leg you upgrade given RFS pricing but there is a chance it might given peak and off-peak rates so check what these are i.e. do dummy bookings for your dates. If your dates are not yet available, check the peak calendar and do dummy bookings for peak/off-peak depending on your dates:

https://www.headforpoints.com/2023/07/25/2024-british-airways-peak-and-off-peak-avios-flight-dates/

Assuming that the pricing is the same out and back then the easiest thing to do would be to book the two of you out using the voucher online which should be easy to do (pay WT+ Avios and Club surcharges). Then you could book the return leg as a normal Club Avios booking, also online without needing to call.

The only downside to this is if you wish to cancel you would need to pay 2x2x£35 rather than 2x£35.

But for an easy life, this is what I would be doing…

[Lady London]

Would the return from the US still attract outsized surcharges if booked standalone, I wonder. Are there RFS seats from US now that would get around that?

[Mikeact]

Thanks. I’m thinking of one of the two, booked through the call centre.

1 Book return LON – SFO for 2 people. Business Class and try to request BA to take PE Avios only for the return RedEye overnight.

Or 2…(unlikely)
Book as above but PE both ways, and request BA to ‘upgrade’ Business Class on the return.

I did think of playing around with two separate one ways but the costs and if the Barclaycard has to be used ex UK, in this scenario, doesn’t seem to make much sense.

Any thoughts?

[NorthernLass]

It has been posted that you can call to book the return trip in one go and use the voucher to upgrade 2 pax on the inbound leg, and the journey does originate in the UK. Not all CS agents will be aware of this though!

[Froggee]

@Mikeact I’m not sure if I’m missing your problem.

You do know that the redemption fare is now exactly the same with BA booking two one-way redemptions as it is for a return? (This is assuming you are eligible for RFS which I’m sure your wife will be as she will have earned Avios with Barclays.)

Do some dummy bookings online and you should see that assuming you wish to go business class each way, you can achieve this online by making two separate one-way bookings and it will be the same price as if you phoned up.

Specifically, if you want to book the two of you return in business with Avios, off-peak it would cost 400,000 Avios +£900 at the highest Avios level.

Booking it was two one-ways would also cost 400,000 Avios + £900.

Using the Barclays voucher on the one-way outbound would reduce its cost to 135,000 Avios + £450 so the total would be 335,000 Avios + £900.

This is exactly the same price you will pay if you call up and booked business class return (your option 1) using the voucher to upgrade the return leg (if the agent can do this).

Option 2 should also be possible but you will need to call and find a highly competent agent.

[Mikeact]

@froggee Really appreciate your time and effort.

I slipped up on my option 1, as if I’m booking Business both ways,might as well use the voucher going out…no need to hassle the agent for the return !