Upgrade voucher seems pointless (for me)

[tomahawk]

I’m thinking of getting the free Barclaycard, should spend about £30k/yr on it so the avios will be welcome.
However as I already have the premium amex card and trigger the 2for1 each year I am struggling to work out when I would use the Barclaycard upgrade voucher – for any given journey it is always better to use the 2for1 (I only ever redeem for long haul business class). Booking in WTP to then upgrade to CW seems a clear waste of avios (unless you are swimming in them of course). I could pay cash for one leg of a trip and then avios for the return and use it but then the one way cash price is extortionate (again, talking long haul only). Are others in a similar predicament?

[NorthernLass]

Take the 7k avios instead?

[yonasl]

I still think that the best combo is the free Barclays card and the paying Barclays premier account (if you have the earning to afford it):
From the account:
– You get 1,500 avios a month
– you get 7,000 extra a year
From the card:
– you get 1 avios per £ where you cannot use your Amex

If you just get the paying card you pay £20 a months for it and get 0 avios unless you spend money. With this you get 25,000 avios a year for just £20 a month.

[yonasl]

As for your conclusions on the voucher. Same as mine, to pay the highest avios cost of the lower class is silly (specially when they use the vary high avios low cash combo). The Amex 241 is enough for 1 trip a year.

[jj]

@tomahawk, I think that you have concluded that if you make only one trip a year, you don’t need two vouchers. That seems pretty obvious.

I’d go further. If you make two trips, the Barclays voucher remains useless as you’d be better to have two BAPP cards – one for you, one for your partner.

For couples, the Barclays voucher becomes useful when you make 3 or more reward trips a year.

[Cat]

If destinations in the Iberia network are of any interest, you can use the Barclaycard voucher to get you to Madrid for fewer Avios (but in Club Europe, so in a seat with a bit more space), but then use the 241 for the long haul leg, but pay lower taxes and fees with Iberia.

It works for me!

[Bill_B]

If you use two vouchers to upgrade two people (eg. from the credit card plus Premier) it’s basically the same as a 2 4 1 on long haul flights, except you can’t use Iberia. But yes I think the Barclays voucher is more attractive to solo travellers.

[tomahawk]

I think our best bet would be the 7000 avios. It seems to make more sense to stockpile avios for use with future 2for1’s in case our future spending reduces and our stash starts to run down. It’s not much of a reward in itself but the main benefit will be the avios earned on the card spending, which will certainly help.

[Michael C]

Took me 23 months to be able to use it! But that was because I was waiting to combine
it with a 241. Agree it would have been v easy to get value if just me.
Another has just arrived with the 7k option, but even a quick Euro trip with CE upgrade
would be more than that, so guess I’ll hold onto it for another 23 months!

[Reney]

The beauty of this voucher is that depending on your cycles – you might want to time your application to your earning time vs BA earning year – once you have met the earning threshold, you have to go to the app and choose the voucher or the points. You have until your BA tier points earning year end to select before they force the voucher on you. So if you have earned the voucher nice and early, you can let it sit and decide if you have a need for it, if not take the points.

Also you can use the voucher on other people, which is a huge plus of this compared to the 2for1. Also if you want, you can always take a break from BAPP and use this card exclusively to earn the bonus again.

It is a free card, you are already making the spend. Just see this as the freebie. You don’t have to use it. Yes there are plenty of people who think it is pointless, Rob did an article on it a few weeks back and there were quite a bit of rant in the comments – you are not alone.

But there are a few of us who do find good use for it. So far I have used two of them, an unexpected trip seems to pop up and having a spare voucher around saves me points. I only earn a 241 every 2.5 years as I take Amex breaks.

[tomahawk]

That’s handy not having to make a decision til the year end. Thanks for pointing out that article I’ll look it up.

[Royback]

I have used a Barclays voucher for my wife & I to position for a one way (transatlantic) cruise