Can I redeem my BA cabin upgrade voucher IF I cancel my Barclaycard Avios Plus?

[robmegg@outlook.com]

Hi all.

My wife and I have each earned a BA cabin upgrade voucher through Barclay Card Avios Plus with both vouchers sitting in our Exec Club accounts. I would like to cancel the Barclay Card Avios Plus cards PRIOR to booking and using the voucher, but unsure if I can redeem (Book, then travel) both our upgrade vouchers? I have trawled both BA and Barclay card T&C’s, spoken to them both. BA were unsure, Barclay card said yes we can but they could not email me any confirmation.

The BA terms state ‘remain a member’, but does not specify which, or is it both (clearly BA Exec needs to remain) : ‘To be eligible to earn the Cabin Upgrade Voucher, you must be both a member of the British Airways Executive Club (“Member”) and a Barclays Premier Banking or Wealth customer who has joined Barclays Avios Rewards. You must remain a Member in order to redeem your Cabin Upgrade Voucher’. This last sentence is UNCLEAR.

Anyone have any experience or knowledge of using (booking OR travelling) the upgrade with BA after cancelling Barclay Card?

I hope the above makes sense.
Rob

[memesweeper]

Hi

You’ve posted this in ‘housekeeping’ — I’d be inclined to re-post in the BA or Barclays forums.

Also, you may want to create an account that does not use your email address as the username. You may get unwanted attention.

[JDB]

There is a rather ambiguous phrase in the BC upgrade voucher terms that states:- “Members must remain eligible for this promotion at the time of travel.” The consensus is that you can cancel or downgrade your card without any problem, although I’m not surprised Barclays won’t give you a definitive answer.

I assume you are not participating in the 100k Avios promotion as obviously you would render yourself ineligible for that if you cancelled your BC Avios Plus now.

[Froggee]

Come on @JDB – it isn’t ambiguous, it’s just rubbish.

The Ts & Cs specify eligibility to earn the voucher. They specifically define “a Member” (capitalised) as pertaining to membership of the BA Executive Club and once they’ve done this “Member” has nothing to do with Barclays.

I don’t think even Creation’s counsel could argue that you are ineligible to use the upgrade voucher if you’ve ceased a relationship with Barclays!

This isn’t a bespoke legal document but Ts & Cs for punters like my goodself and the OP. It has to be clear. I think it is pretty clear – I suspect the lawyer in you is looking at the imperfect drafting and pretending there is some wiggle in the meaning as an academic exercise…