Cabin upgrade voucher – only shows higher avios, less cash option?

[tblank19]

I have a question around the Barclays Cabin Upgrade voucher, recently earned through the Barclays Avios Plus card.

Whenever I go to book using this voucher (via the Book and Upgrade tab or from selecting the voucher on my account homepage), the results seem to only offer the option for use of higher avios but lower cash. Unlike companion voucher or standard avios bookings, there is no ability to view “more pricing options” and select one of the different combinations of avios/cash later on at checkout, when using the Barclays voucher it seems to only offer one option, which maximises use of avios and minimises taxes. For example, if I search for LHR to JFK in Club World (upgraded from premium economy class) for 1x person return on Off Peak dates, the only option is 85,000 Avios and £350 in taxes. My understanding is the amount of Avios under usual terms would be 26,000 one way x 2 = 52,000.

Another example within Europe, would be LHR to Lisbon (searching in Economy, to be upgraded to Club Europe), once I find Club Europe avalability on Peak Dates, it shows total Avios required of 25,500 and taxes of £1 with no option to adjust this.

Note that I have found this to always be the case with the Barclays voucher and not something which has only cropped up since the BA changes to RFS announced yesterday.

Wondering if anyone else has this issue and any solutions to revert to paying the normal amount of Avios?

Thanks

[NorthernLass]

From what you’re saying it looks as though the BC upgrade voucher has also fallen victim to the new RFS pricing on long haul routes! On short haul it was only ever possible to use it by paying the maximum avios option, there are numerous discussions on here about this. There’s no way to amend the pricing.
We probably need some more data on this but if this is indeed the case it makes BC a much less attractive option.

Rob mentioned yesterday that there would be implications for BC so there may be an article in the works.

[NorthernLass]

You might want to change the thread title to show that you’re referring to long haul routes or people will assume you’re highlighting the already-known issue with RFS.

[duggie1982]

I booked earlier this week with BC upgrade voucher GLA-LAX for 65000 avios and £850 taxes but now when I check its 95000 avios and £450 taxes. I would have rather have done the £450 option with extra avios

Do you think I can cancel or rebook for the new pricing option?

[NorthernLass]

@duggie1982, you should be able to do this, subject to the £35 pp fee, but it might be worth calling BA and asking what the system shows when they try and do it as this is uncharted territory atm!

It would be interesting to know if there’s any impact on the connecting flight – though these now seem to be genuinely free under the new pricing system.

[smblcklck]

@NorthernLass If I get a spare hour I volunteer to ring BA about my LHR > SIN Barclays booking. If my maths is right I should save £400 for 19k Avios by cancelling and rebooking

@duggie1982 please report back if you get anywhere before I do!

[duggie1982]

On hold with the bronze line at the moment, will report back

[duggie1982]

Cancel and rebook they have advised so going to do that now, no fee waiver for the £35 unfortunately but with the value of nectar v avios the rebook will save me around £125.

[duggie1982]

Quick update, they managed to do a change rather than cancel but still cost me the £35 fee but all under the same booking and she sent it away to get the £400 refund.

Happy days and thanks and sorry @tblank19 for hijacking your post

[smblcklck]

@duggie1982 fantastic! I will try to call them today, any particular tips on what to ask for?

[duggie1982]

@smblcklck Just asked them to look at my current booking as the RFS change yesterday ment that the cost is cheaper, she knew exactly what i was talking about.

Just to mention that they checked to make sure there was still available seats in club before she was going to cancel and rebook (but later in the call she confirmed they could do It via a change rather than cancel and rebook)

[smblcklck]

duggie1982 wrote:

Just to mention that they checked to make sure there was still available seats in club before she was going to cancel and rebook (but later in the call she confirmed they could do It via a change rather than cancel and rebook)

No joy for me unfortunately, said I could benefit but it would have to be a cancel and rebook. And given the lack of availability on this route the agent strongly felt I’d lose the seats.

I wonder if your success was down to their being other CW availability on your route & dates?

(sorry I accidentally reported your post when trying to quote!)

[duggie1982]

Thats unfortunate

There was more availability in CW as they checked when they thought it would need to be cancelled and rebooked, but she went away and came back saying can do it by amending the booking, but not sure if that still needed availability to be shown.

[smblcklck]

They did say its still early days with these changes and to a lesser extent the voucher. Indeed at first the agent was convinced the new RFS pricing wouldn’t apply to the Barclays vouchers until she confirmed with someone that it does (@tblank19 hopefully that answers your question).

I think I’ll wait and see if anyone else has any success with this, or, cancel for alternative route / date

[pelicanicecoffeeolaf]

Indeed I can’t see any way to choose fewer Avios and more cash. This seems quite a serious problem then, hopefully they get on it soon. I wonder if it’s still possible to book alternative Avios/cash combinations via phone?

[NorthernLass]

pelicanicecoffeeolaf wrote:

Indeed I can’t see any way to choose fewer Avios and more cash. This seems quite a serious problem then, hopefully they get on it soon. I wonder if it’s still possible to book alternative Avios/cash combinations via phone?

You can’t choose fewer avios and more cash on a RFS booking using the BC upgrade voucher, this has been one of the major issues with it from the outset and the subject of numerous posts on here.

[pelicanicecoffeeolaf]

NorthernLass wrote:

pelicanicecoffeeolaf wrote:

Indeed I can’t see any way to choose fewer Avios and more cash. This seems quite a serious problem then, hopefully they get on it soon. I wonder if it’s still possible to book alternative Avios/cash combinations via phone?

You can’t choose fewer avios and more cash on a RFS booking using the BC upgrade voucher, this has been one of the major issues with it from the outset and the subject of numerous posts on here.

Ah I see, thanks for clarifying. I suppose I never noticed as I don’t pay much attention to short-haul redemptions. That makes the voucher extremely unattractive to me then (and I already have 2 of them). I wonder if BA would make any changes to address this, but who knows… I wonder if Barclays is unhappy about it.

[davet]

I wonder if this was all planned out or just a coincidence as the LHR – SIN route the taxes shot up and have now become RFS that is only £6 less than 2019 but the avios is now 30k more, so while it seems like a good return on Wednesday tax prices, those taxes had risen 40% in 24 months

[smblcklck]

Wanted to update that SIN availability opened up this afternoon for the following week to my booking, so called up and swapped them, taking advantage of the new pricing. So things turned out alright in the end.