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Ok,
My wife’s upgrade voucher landed yesterday from the Avios Mastercard so I’ve plugged some numbers so you can compare the Avios Mastercard upgrade voucher against a straight up redemption and the 2-4-1…
I looked at a long-haul route (LHR to JFK) and a short-haul route (LHR-CDG), both in off-peak.
OFF-PEAK
LHR to JFK
===
Regular Pricing:
===
Economy Pricing: 50000 Avios + £ 100.00, 38000 Avios + £ 180.00, 26000 Avios + £ 290.00, 19500 Avios + £ 340.00, 13000 Avios + £ 400.00, 9100 Avios + £ 480.00Premium Pricing: 52000 Avios + £ 530.16, 41600 Avios + £ 620.16, 36400 Avios + £ 660.16, 31200 Avios + £ 710.16, 26000 Avios + £ 740.16, 20800 Avios + £ 770.16
Club Pricing: 100000 Avios + £ 990.16, 90000 Avios + £ 1,230.16, 75000 Avios + £ 1,500.16, 65000 Avios + £ 1,730.16, 57500 Avios + £ 1,830.16, 50000 Avios + £ 1,930.16
===
Barclays Upgrade Voucher
===Economy to Premium: 26000 Avios + £ 492.06
Premium to Club: 52000 Avios + £ 842.06
===
2 adults (for comparison) on Amex 2-4-1
===Economy 2-4-1: 26000 Avios + £ 668.32
Premium 2-4-1: 52000 Avios + £ 1,060.32
Club 2-4-1: 100000 Avios + £ 1,980.32 (seriously, £1k in “taxes” each?!?)
—
LHR to CDG
===
Regular Pricing:
===
Economy Pricing: 18500 Avios + £ 1.00, 17000 Avios + £ 9.00, 14500 Avios + £ 18.00, 9500 Avios + £ 35.00, 7400 Avios + £ 65.00, 5900 Avios + £ 85.00Club Pricing: 30000 Avios + £ 1.00, 28500 Avios + £ 9.00, 23500 Avios + £ 25.00, 17000 Avios + £ 50.00, 13000 Avios + £ 85.00, 10500 Avios + £ 125.00
===
Barclays Upgrade Voucher
===
Economy to Club: 18500 Avios + £ 1.00===
2 adults (for comparison) on Amex 2-4-1
===
Economy 2-4-1: 9500 Avios + £ 70.00Club 2-4-1: 17000 Avios + £ 100.00
It seems the voucher, as it currently stands, is completely useless short-haul. There is no option to pay £50 and 9,500 Avios for this short haul route. I’d certainly not be interested in wasting an upgrade voucher to spend £34 less in cash and £90 more in Avios!
The voucher uses the same Avios price point on long-haul however as the 2-4-1 voucher even if the amount in “taxes” differ side-by-side with a regular booking in the upgraded fare.
Interesting… So a short haul upgrade only goes off the £1 taxes and fees option? Given those options on a straight Club booking I’d probably go for 13,000+£85 (although 17,000+£50 is slightly better if you apply the Nectar 0.8p/avios base valuation).
Against that I’d view 18,500+£1 as £84 less in cash and £55 more in Avios. Obviously 9,500+£50 would be better.
If you paid £240 over a year in card fees for the voucher and 5000 additional avios on a £10K spend (not that your wife did if she has a voucher already!!!), applying my usual 1p/avios valuation that’s £190 for the voucher. Upgrading a shorthaul to CDG clearly doesn’t make a lot of sense then in that scenario unless the card fees are a sunk cost and you find yourself with no better way of using it….
Even if 9,500+£50 was an option, LHR-CDG was never going to drive much value from an upgrade voucher anyway.
I wonder if some of your taxes & fees figures for JFK are skewed by ba.com presenting higher figures than it actually goes on to charge?
I took the main search page figures… If it changes after that then my figures are wrong (and BA really shouldn’t be changing prices like that!).
The Barclays Upgrade figures are correct because it doesn’t give you a price until you click through and get an actual quote.
I am guessing the upgrade voucher doesn’t work in reverse like the old Lloyds voucher so can’t be used on HKG-LHR route nor ex-EU to reduce surcharges.
- This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .
I am guessing the upgrade voucher doesn’t work in reverse like the old Lloyds voucher so can’t be used on HKG-LHR route nor ex-EU to reduce surcharges.
Just looked for you.
You are correct.
Sorry, your BA Barclays Cabin Upgrade Voucher is available for travel from the United Kingdom only. Please select a departure city or airport in the United Kingdom.
You are correct.
Sorry, your BA Barclays Cabin Upgrade Voucher is available for travel from the United Kingdom only. Please select a departure city or airport in the United Kingdom.
That’s worth knowing, and potentially makes it substantially less useful. Of the five Lloyds vouchers we earned, we used one for a one-way back from Dubai (having flown out on a Etihad redemption) and at one point also had a one-way booked from Singapore that got cancelled due to the pandemic.
I’m a bit surprised given that Amex 2for1s can now be used for journeys starting outside the UK – that’s less useful of course to those of us in the UK who want the benefit on a return (unless doing an ex-EU).
I took the main search page figures… If it changes after that then my figures are wrong (and BA really shouldn’t be changing prices like that!).
The Barclays Upgrade figures are correct because it doesn’t give you a price until you click through and get an actual quote.
Yes, Rob noted that was happening the other day, and it appears that Virgin Atlantic took the headline figures and copied them…. The taxes and fees should be the same in all cases; I believe £842 is now correct (though eye-wateringly high for a “reward” flight).
Typically using 2xupgrade vouchers for a WT+->CW off-peak return requires slightly more avios than a 2for1, and you have to earn two vouchers of course. For peak bookings the gap is bigger (the converse of the slightly bizarre scenario where using Avios for Upgrade on peak bookings requires fewer avios than it does on off-peak bookings).
Given the inability to use them on bookings starting outside the UK, if there are two of you travelling with one voucher each that also probably puts you on two separate bookings which isn’t ideal (unless the call centre can do something around joining them together).
It looks there are some clear downsides against the way the Virgin voucher upgrades work, though much better availability , a much more extensive route network and (in my view) better hard product still all work in BA’s favour.
From the T&Cs:
A Cabin Upgrade Voucher is an e-voucher that entitles you to a cabin upgrade for two passengers on a one-way journey or one passenger on a return or one-way trip, when you make a reward flight booking (“Cabin Upgrade Voucher”). Airline taxes, fees and carrier charges must be paid on all tickets booked. Outbound travel must have commenced before the expiry date on the Cabin Upgrade Voucher. You may redeem your Cabin Upgrade Voucher for journeys consisting of multiple sectors, however where an upgrade is not available for all sectors and you choose to redeem your Cabin Upgrade Voucher, you will not be entitled to reuse or partially use the Cabin Upgrade Voucher for future bookings.
[…]
In order to be eligible for an upgrade using the Cabin Upgrade Voucher, bookings must be reward flight bookings, paid for using full Avios redemption where you pay with your Avios plus a cash amount for taxes, fees and carrier charges. There must be availability in the cabin class you want to upgrade to for such reward flight booking. Members must pay for the base cabin in Avios. Bookings paid for using ‘Avios and Money’, ‘Pay with Avios’ and full cash bookings are excluded and will not be eligible for an upgrade using the Cabin Upgrade Voucher.
Airline taxes, fees and charges, or Reward Flight Saver (“RFS”) cost if applicable, must be paid on all tickets booked at the time of booking. The member will be personally responsible for any tax payable for them as a result of this offer. Members who upgrade their journey using the Cabin Upgrade Voucher will have to pay airline taxes, fees and charges or RFS costs applicable to the cabin class that the Member upgrades to. For more information on RFS visit ba.com.
Cabin Upgrade Vouchers can be used on both short haul and long haul Reward Flights.It specifically says short haul and RFS is included. This would not be the first time the IT implementation and the T&Cs are not aligned with BA’s vouchers. In normal times I’d be inclined to call up and ask for a normal redemption price, then ask for the voucher to be applied, a human agent might not be as limited in what they can do. Having said that, who wants to call these days?
- This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .
I’m sure it was intended to be used for RFS bookings – after all that would cost them less than people using them on CW long haul. BA’s IT is distinctly dodgy in places and I bet this is one of those occasions. This has actually worked in my favour recently as the new RFS long haul booking process let me add a domestic connection in CE for no avios or cash to a RFS from MIA – LHR. Cost for 3 of us booking that leg for cash would have been £600!
I’m sure it was intended to be used for RFS bookings – after all that would cost them less than people using them on CW long haul. BA’s IT is distinctly dodgy in places and I bet this is one of those occasions. This has actually worked in my favour recently as the new RFS long haul booking process let me add a domestic connection in CE for no avios or cash to a RFS from MIA – LHR. Cost for 3 of us booking that leg for cash would have been £600!
long haul RFS??
Yes – it’s a thing now to some US cities. Can be a good deal if you’re relatively avios rich and fancy £50 surcharges to NYC and others.
I posted about this last week and someone suggested that this behaviour matches that on other upgrade vouchers – eg GUF2 (I wouldn’t know as I have no status). So perhaps this won’t change to provide more options for short haul flights… That would be a shame as that’s my most likely use case for my vouchers.
One point to note that may have been obvious if you have used vouchers before is that BA Cityflyer flights from LCY are not eligible as it only works on BA not its wholly owned subsidiary BA Cityflyer. I had not realised that (in fairness I had not thought about it before).
I am my other half both have a Premier Bank account and two vouchers. Is there anyway, one of us can book the outbound and the other the return?
@dace I believe that you must make one booking each so either two return bookings for one person or two one-way bookings for two people (I am not sure if there is a benefit to one or other option? Maybe better to have two one-ways?)
The voucher can only be used ex-UK so not able to start outside UK.
Yes – it’s a thing now to some US cities. Can be a good deal if you’re relatively avios rich and fancy £50 surcharges to NYC and others.
Yes – it’s a thing now to some US cities. Can be a good deal if you’re relatively avios rich and fancy £50 surcharges to NYC and others.
Yes – it’s a thing now to some US cities. Can be a good deal if you’re relatively avios rich and fancy £50 surcharges to NYC and others.
,Could you give us an idea which other cities, Anna?
Good point – didn’t think of that! Two separate return bookings it is
The voucher can only be used ex-UK so not able to start outside UK.
LL – I’m not even going to try and quote you there! Definitely to the major eastern ones – NYC, BOS, ORD, MIA. Seems to apply to WT and WTP at the moment. I haven’t checked any others yet. Rhys did an article on RFS to NYC a bit back. The quirk that lets you add a domestic connection, in CE, for nothing, is obviously another benefit for us though I’m sure it’s an IT error which will be amended at some point!
Mentions all long haul routes but it’s from 2020 so may have been impacted by the pandemic.
- This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .
LL – just checked LAX and RFS in economy off-peak is 30k avios plus £75.
LL – just checked LAX and RFS in economy off-peak is 30k avios plus £75.
Cheers Anna
Want to fly from LON to MRS one way for 2 with Upgrade Voucher and the price quote is 19,500 + £1, doesn’t give me any choice like 10,500 + £50, tried calling up customer service and they said they only have the £1 on their side too.
Standard economy redemption is 10,500 + £35, Business redemption is 19,500 + £50
Effectively I’m paying 9000 points for £49, effectively 0.54 pence per point.
BA really need to look into this, making the Upgrade Voucher not worthwhile.
- This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .
There are 3 different threads on this subject today alone, it probably needs a dedicated one given that it does indeed seem to be an IT shambles.
shock horror, cant possibly be ANOTHER tech issue 🙂
There are 3 different threads on this subject today alone, it probably needs a dedicated one given that it does indeed seem to be an IT shambles.
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