Swapping to Avios Plus card and downgrading spouse

[Sudz74]

I have tried to work out timings for swapping up to Avios Plus card and downgrading OH but have got confused!

OH has currently has the plus card and long ago triggered but not chosen the upgrade/7,000 Avios points (realise this wasn’t optimal but £20 fee has been covered by 50% points and neither of us qualified for BAP Amex nor keen on whopping Platinum fee). My year with basic card is up and I will upgrade (Inc 5,000 points with £3,000 spend).

So my query is, should we upgrade/downgrade simultaneously or upgrade and wait for a certain point in the month? From memory the fee is taken and balance made up around 18th each month on OH card and used to the beginning of the month for me. (Though perhaps fee is applied as soon as I upgrade?)

Also, should he choose between the upgrade/7,000 points before downgrading?

Thanks in advance and apologies if I sound too lazy to work this out for myself, my New Year’s resolution might be to stop overthinking things but I’m unlikely to succeed…

[AndrewT]

Card switches are always implemented on the next statement date, so work out your timings around that.

Most importantly, you MUST redeem the voucher and confirm it’s safely in your BA account (or that the 7K avios have been added to the pending transfer total if you choose that) before the card switch takes effect. Otherwise you will lose it when the spend tracker resets.

[NorthernLass]

Have you both got the offer to change to the other cards in the app?

[Sudz74]

Thanks both – have now triggered the extra points for OH so thanks for prompt. (Have failed to get value out of upgrade voucher in past as we mostly travel SH)
Yes, good point @NorthernLass, I have upgrade option (plus offer of 5,000 points for £3k spend in first 3 months) and he has 1,000 points for £1k spend to downgrade.

Can confirm that for me the upgrade option became available a year after downgrade by the way.

I will try to be more proactive this year and probably downgrade after bonus is triggered. Would be nice to think we can’t possibly manage the £30k per annum spend but the past year has proved otherwise. (Though I guess it’s not per annum as a downgrade would restart the year so it’s £10k in under a year and then £20k in under a year.)

[SteveJ]

@Sudz74 have you ever had a SUB with your Barclaycard Avios before? If so you won’t get the 5k points, the SUB is a once in a lifetime thing unless you cancel the card entirely and wait 2 years.

[Sudz74]

SteveJ wrote:

@Sudz74 have you ever had a SUB with your Barclaycard Avios before? If so you won’t get the 5k points, the SUB is a once in a lifetime thing unless you cancel the card entirely and wait 2 years.

Yes, had the very generous SUB a couple of years ago. Quite reasonable not to get a further one though odd the app shows it. Thanks

[SteveJ]

Sudz74 wrote:

Yes, had the very generous SUB a couple of years ago. Quite reasonable not to get a further one though odd the app shows it. Thanks

When you click through to the next page it shows you each of the ‘features’ of the upgrade, at that stage it is made clear that no SUB if you’ve had one before.