Cabin upgrade voucher

[Erico1875]

So the Upgrade voucher can only be used on “British Airways” operated flights.
These exclude the “BA City Flyer” flights from EDI. i.e to Florence or Palma.
My choice is therefore use upgrade voucher for 2 0W transit via LHR.
44000 Avios + £2. or bin upgrade voucher and fly direct on City Flyer for £40K Avios and £1 with the option to reduce Avios with more cash.

[NorthernLass]

Does it specifically say they exclude CityFlyer – the old LLoyds vouchers could be used on these, though the MAN services didn’t last long enough for me to benefit from this?!

[sloth]

NorthernLass wrote:

Does it specifically say they exclude CityFlyer – the old LLoyds vouchers could be used on these, though the MAN services didn’t last long enough for me to benefit from this?!

The t&c specifically state cityflyer are included however in practice when you try to book it’s not accepted on these flights…complaints to Barclays and BA yield nothing as they don’t care

[NorthernLass]

Have you tried to actually book it over the phone? I’m sure BA doesn’t care but a CS agent might well be able to make the booking for you.

[sloth]

NorthernLass wrote:

Have you tried to actually book it over the phone? I’m sure BA doesn’t care but a CS agent might well be able to make the booking for you.

Tbh I’ve only tried online as was trying a speculative booking, will try on the phone when I actually want to book

[Erico1875]

TBH. Id rather poke my self in the eye with a fork than attempt to phone BA for anything😉

[NorthernLass]

Me too – I’ve managed to mainly avoid the painful experience but couldn’t see any other way to add a MAN connection to my booking so bit the bullet the other day. I was on hold on for 30 minutes on the Silver line and then the agent refused to do it …! I just booked it separately in the end, it’s not worth the misery of trying to reason with them.

[davet]

I’ll be booking with mine on Friday for the wife and child, assume I will have to phone up then as if I have to use the vouchers separately it would not let me book my son without an adult on the booking – what a pain

[jamesturk]

Just earned one of these. Given I’ll be flying from Belfast, I take it as others have said, I should call BA Exec club to book, rather than online? If I search for Belfast to Dubai for example, it doesn’t bring up any availability.

[CamFlyer]

I hit 10,000 miles on the Avios Plus card in October or November 2022. At some point, I recall seeing a voucher in my account. In Dec 2022, I downgraded to the free card. The voucher seems to have disappeared from my EC account (the page where one Dan selectva voucher when booking a flight)–i only see 2 Amex vouchers available. Have I somehow lost the voucher on the downgrade? Am I looking in the wrong place?

[NorthernLass]

Go to the home page of your BAEC account and scroll down the page, you should be able to see it above your current bookings (or where they would be, if you don’t have any), and select it from there. If you need to do multiple searches you’ll need to go back to this page and start again, otherwise the system defaults to one of your Amex vouchers and you can unwittingly end up booking with that if don’t spot it!

Also, don’t start from the “book and upgrade” page as that gives ridiculous prices.

[CamFlyer]

NorthernLass wrote:

Go to the home page of your BAEC account and scroll down the page, you should be able to see it above your current bookings (or where they would be, if you don’t have any), and select it from there. If you need to do multiple searches you’ll need to go back to this page and start again, otherwise the system defaults to one of your Amex vouchers and you can unwittingly end up booking with that if don’t spot it!

Thank you – found it!

[duggie1982]

NorthernLass wrote:

Also, don’t start from the “book and upgrade” page as that gives ridiculous prices.

@NorthernLass – is there a better way as I always start on that page?

[NorthernLass]

Does it not give you silly pricing though? I accidentally did a dummy booking from there a few weeks ago and got quoted about £2k in taxes for CW to DXB. I assumed it was because this is actually the page for booking cash tickets and upgrading with avios but BA’s IT could just have been having one of its wobblers at that time.
When I started the booking by selecting the voucher from my account home page, I got charged 85k avios plus £350, which was what I was expecting!

[dipesh1990@outlook.com]

Can you open jaw with this voucher?

[ringingup]

Has anyone managed to use on a short haul route with the old pricing?

[NorthernLass]

Open jaw – yes but need to call.

Short haul – there’s only ever been one pricing option with the upgrade voucher (max avios plus £1), it’s been a disappointment from the outset!

[ringingup]

NorthernLass wrote:

Short haul – there’s only ever been one pricing option with the upgrade voucher (max avios plus £1), it’s been a disappointment from the outset!

Pointless, I know, but I emailed BA to express my disappointment.

[ad4mlon]

Not sure what to make of these vouchers in comparison to the PremPlus Amex, got 2 of them but can’t seem to use them both on the same booking to get 2person return. Tried a dummy run and it is quoting me 100k avois and £550 to go return to Japan for one person club world, so 2 people if I managed to get it working (might have to phone) would be 200k plus £1100. that’s exactly the same as the Companion vouncher just a bit more of a faff to use

[kelltoria]

My Barclays app said that I met the criteria for my “not an upgrade” voucher and that it would appear within 5 working days in the BAEC account. Two weeks later and it’s still not their, do I need to contact Barclays or BA?

[jamesturk]

Contact Barclays – they will have an Avios support team that should be able to assist

[Froggee]

I just had a fairly smooth experience making a booking using the upgrade voucher.

Granny Froggee wishes to visit a fellow widow in America (getting old sucks) and there were flights in J with Avios that suited her. As a bonus these were on off-peak days.

EDI-CVG could not be booked online as many have observed given the LHR connection. After the usual recorded messages advising that I should only proceed with my call if I was stuck in Kazakhstan following an emergency diversion, I was straight though to a real life person albeit on the gold line.

The agent knew exactly what to do with the only comment of note being that there are a few more processes to follow when using the Barclays upgrade voucher.

As has been commented on, the pricing for the route was limited to the maximum Avios option being 85,000 for WT+. I hadn’t realised that on top of this, they charge the cash component from the J redemption fare (J is 160,000 + £350 vs 85,000 + £280 for WT+) so it was 85,000 + £350. The extra £70 isn’t exactly a game changer.

For what it’s worth if I’d not had a Barclays voucher, then I believe the best J option would have been 1000,000 Avios + £850 although there is not much between this and 160,000 + £350 given I am Avios rich.

But based upon my preferred J redemption pricing it is a saving of £500 and 15,000 Avios. This seems a good use of the voucher and more than justifies the annual fee I pay for having my Barclays Premier account (it costs me ~£100 for the £100,000 of investment trusts that I hold there if I ignore the monthly Avios purchase expense).

So all good. I certainly don’t feel stuffed by the change to reward flight saver.

The agent was highly competent and when I said I hope to get her whenever I call again, she laughed and gave me her name.

[NorthernLass]

You always pay the surcharges for the cabin you travel in, it’s only the extra avios that the voucher covers. I agree it can be good value when cash fares are very high, or you just want to book an outbound journey for 2 (i.e. return on a different airline).
Hope Granny Froggee and her widow friend have an awesome. I hope they are going to Vegas or something equally outrageous.

[emmaw5782]

Hi all,
I can’t find the answer to this anywhere so hope someone can help me!
I have booked Gatwick to Orlando next summer, I need to add a return from Cancun to Gatwick (available this Friday). I have an upgrade voucher but am getting the error that the journey has to start in the UK… obviously it does, but we are coming back via a different airport.

Has anyone managed to use the upgrade voucher for an inbound flight from a different airport? Otherwise, I haven’t yet booked our domestic flights from Orlando to Cancun, so could this be a way round it? Would I then be able to upgrade on the long haul return?

Any help gratefully received for my Friday morning phone call!

Thanks,
Emma

[Reney]

Emma, are you saying you have already booked the outbound using the upgrade voucher, and you just need to add the inbound? In which case you need to call to get it added.

If you meant you booked the outbound WITHOUT using the voucher then it would indeed be an error cause as far as the system believes you are just trying to book a one way flight from outside of the UK using a voucher that specifies flying from the UK.