Maximising benefits

[jkstanbrook]

Hi all! I’ve been following head for points for some time but still very much a novice and learning – I’ve been collecting both avios and amex rewards for many years without spending much yet as I always thought I’d save them for my honeymoon to go all out (business or even first class to Japan, from the UK!). We are getting married next year so the time is coming and I just wanted to ask advice in maximising our spending from now on. I think I’ve got all the right credit cards for me at the moment and have a decent 100,000 avios and 105,000 amex currently. We both have the new avios barclaycard so hoping to hit the spend amounts to get the free upgrade voucher we can use for our honeymoon flight. I am now wondering if it is worth upgrading my amex card (which is currently the free AMEX Rewards Credit Card), possibly to the British Airways American Express® Credit Card to also try and get the companion voucher. My main Q therefore is:
– Can you use 2 upgrade vouchers *and* the BA companion voucher on the same flight booking? If not, would it be possible/beneficial to book 2 separate flights (i.e. 2 singles out, then 2 singles back), and use each of the vouchers that way?
We are not massive earners and don’t do loads of travel (at least long haul) so the cards with big annual fees are not viable for us but if I am hoping to do an avios redemption for our honeymoon flights, is it worth switching to the free BA Express® Credit Card to get an upgrade from economy (which I presume only gets us to premium economy rather than business) or the Premium Plus BA card that we would be able to upgrade to business or even first? I presume I wouldn’t get the sign up bonus on either card as I have the AMEX Rewards Credit Card, or would I still as I don’t have the BA Amex card?
Hope that made sense, thanks for any advice!

[yonasl]

The Barclays “upgrade” voucher is not really an upgrade voucher haha …

Basically you simply pay the Avios of a lower class on your higher class seat.

For instance:
Economy: 10,000 Avios (no seats available)
Business: 20,000 Avios (1 seat available)

With you voucher you can book that business seat for 10,000 avios (you do not need availability in economy)

I would go for the Amex card. You pay £250 a year but can cancel anytime so you can:
– Get the card £250 pro rate fee for one person (the other can get a free card)
– Spend £10,000 to get the 241 voucher
– Cancel as soon as you get the voucher. You can now use your ~200k avios to book a flight

Meanwhile if you went the Barclays route you would need to:
– Get a card each £250 each
– Spend £10,000 each to get an upgrade voucher
– Book 2 tickets separately using one voucher each
– Plus you have to deal with Barclays

[NorthernLass]

You can’t mix and match vouchers and also atm it seems like you can’t use 2 Barclaycard upgrade vouchers on the same booking. To get best value you’d be best off getting the BAPP (the free card only gives you a 241 in economy now) and triggering the 241 companion voucher if you can do this in time to use it for your booking (see the various guides on here about that). For Japan you’ll need to book very far out, probably as soon as the flights are released at T-355 as it’s a very popular route.

[Reney]

I thought I would have a look at the pricing to give you more info about what options you have. I can find 2 business seat out to Tokyo in May but nothing higher than PE on the way back on BA. If you are set on business class or above only and dates are pretty set for next June ish. Per NorthernLass you will pretty much have to call at Midnight as soon as the flights are launched. Given your timing, not clear if you will earn a BAPP 2 for 1 in time?

If you can’t then it seems like you are locked into using one Barclays upgrade voucher for the way out. Assuming you are earning that in time. On the way back, I don’t think you can use the Barclays upgrade voucher (i think flights have to be from uk). So you have to pay in full, taxes should be lower and you can look into redeeming via Japan airline instead of BA which has a lot more availabilities (but can’t use vouchers on non BA flights).

My account is not letting me price up avios redemption, but it is not clear to me if you currently have enough avios to redeem 2 Biz out using one Barclays voucher and 2 biz back without vouchers. You should try pricing some up to get an idea how much avios you need and how many days you have before the flights are released for redemption.