Family of 3 and companion / upgrade vouchers

[captainhowie]

Hi all – apologies if posted / answered before.

I am a family of three. I hold the BAPP and Barclays avios cards.

I have many vouchers of many flavours. I understand they can’t be combined in one booking.

However, when I heard that you could use the new voucher for a 50% off I thought great we can still all travel for what is 241 pricing BUT….does that work?

Assuming in future I have two NEW BAPP vouchers can I use one as companion for wife and child, and one as 50% off me (or any conbo thereof). Or must I be on both tickets?

Currently I’m stuffed as it has to be that travels and I can’t pass anything to my wife – so it may be club for me with a kid and economy for her on A paid ticket unless anyone has any ideas? (I may splash to premium for her 😉 )

Thanks,

[Reney]

I have just posted my experience using the Barclays voucher on someone else:
https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/using-the-barclays-voucher-on-someone-else/

This is what I did to book 3 people on avios (all 4 people on the same household account)
– find a flight with 3 availabilities
– Person A has an old 241 amex voucher. Person A travelling with B used 241 to book return online
– Person D has a Barclays voucher, calls avios line to book the same return flight for person C to travel.

I think you can replicate this by you and your child using one 241 and your wife using your Barclay card voucher, you just need to call to use it.

I am not sure your suggestion of using 2 new style vouchers in your name works, i.e. use one as 241 and another as 50%. Whilst my solution is good, the Barclays voucher does not open up I class seats.

Have you considered changing your voucher earning strategy? Rotating Amex BAPP between your wife and you. Not clear from your posting why she doesn’t have one, but given Amex allows household income, she will qualify for one even if her income is low. You can hold a BAPP, as soon as you earn a BAPP, refer your wife, she opens one and earn a BAPP. Hold that until you qualify for the sign up bonus again and have her refer you.

[BJ]

As you’ve already figured you need a strategy so that you and your wife both have vouchers in the future to keep things simple. However, if I am not mistaken the Barclays voucher can be used to book a ticket at 50% discount for another so you are not stuffed (others will confirm hopefully). However AFAIK the new amex rules do not allow you to book at 50% for another (or do they…others?), only for the voucher holder. Note that even if you can do this with your Barcs voucher it will need to be on two tickets, one amex ticket for you plus child, and one Barcs ticket for your wife.

[Reney]

I am sure in your version if you are in club with the kid in terms of the ticket, the flight attendants may let you swap seat with your wife 😇. Whether you are willing to is something else.

[AJA]

As far as I understand it you cannot use two BAPP vouchers to book for three people in the way that you want. It is either use one voucher and pay full Avios for a 3rd (on a separate PNR) or use two vouchers to book for 4 people and use the equivalent Avios for 2 people.

Your problem is that both vouchers are in your name and you have to be the lead passenger on each of them unless you use two to book for 4 people.

The ability to use the new 2-4-1 as a 50% off for one passenger is only available to the holder of the voucher. You can’t use it like the Barclays voucher (issues that @Reney points out aside) to pay for another passenger.

[degsy]

I’ve just made a similar booking today. 4 of us flying to Seattle (one-way) in Biz. I used an Amex 2-4-1 to cover me and my daughter, then a Barclays Upgrade voucher to cover my wife & son.
Booked as two separate bookings but I was able to do it all online (we are all in a Household account which I suspect made things a bit easier).

[BJ]

@Reney, just to confirm person D held the Barcs voucher but did not fly and got 50% discount for person C to fly? Two PNR, did they link them?

[Reney]

@degsy – is the Barclay voucher in your wife’s name? If it is in your name for the life of me I could not figure out how to book online using that voucher for someone else. Would love some guidance.

@BJ yes, voucher earned by D but is not coming, used the voucher on person C. It is an upgrade voucher so technically paying the premium economy rate so not exactly 50% off. A&B’s came to 125k avios plus tax, person C was 65k avios plus tax.

Two separate booking, I did not ask them to link the bookings. I was planning to ask in the forum whether it was worth it. The other bookings are my parents so no children involved, by the time we fly we will all be blue level so what’s the benefit of linking our reservations?

[Reney]

My response from last night seem to be lost.

@BJ: Person D is not coming on the trip. Not 50%, the Barclays voucher is an upgrade voucher, it was close thou, the 50% voucher would have been 2.5k avios less. Yes 2 Separate booking reference. Since we are all adults, no one is more than blue level, is there any benefit to calling and linking the bookings?

@degsy Is your Barclay voucher in your name or your wife’s? If the former did you need to do anything special to use it on your wife and kid? I couldn’t get it to work online.

[degsy]

@Reney – the voucher is in my name not my wife’s. And no I didn’t need to do anything special to use it for them – at the step in the booking process where you are asked to confirm the names of the travellers I got the option of selecting anyone from my HA. So all very slick for BA given its IT reputation.
I suspect a phone call is needed though if you are looking to use it for someone not in an HA.

[Reney]

@degsy. Thanks, my person was also in the same HHA, but that option never came up. I was fairly sure I got right to the end of the process too. Maybe I will play around next time I earn the voucher again. But thanks for confirming, I’m sure it will be useful for others who ask the same question at a later date.

[degsy]

@Reney – I booked it on the app and it was at Step 3 (presumably it’s exactly the same step sequencing on the website). There’s a question about whether the person paying is one of the travellers – I marked this ‘no’ which triggered a drop down list of all my HHA members

[Reney]

@degsy, yup the same box is on the website too, I also clicked no but it did not trigger a list of people. 🤷‍♀️