Wrong pricing for return leg: Barclays Upgrade Voucher

[Dave Spart]

Hi there,
I’d appreciate some advice on a problem I have encountered booking the return leg of an upgrade voucher.

A few weeks ago I booked an outbound flight LHR-ATL using a Barclays Upgrade voucher to upgrade from PE to CW. Cost was 67,500 Avios, which is the correct PE Avios price.

I also booked two CW tickets using a companion voucher: the cost for that was 100,000 Avios (again, correct, I think). These show as separate transactions in my BAEC account.

Last night I called to book the return leg. Couldn’t get through on the US line, so tried the Australian, ie Indian) call centre. I couldn’t get the date I wanted, so changed to a day early, which had 1 CW and two PE seats left.

I put the companion voucher seats in PE (hoping more CW seats come available soon, which I can swap to). I was told this would be 67,500 Avios. The seat I was using the upgrade voucher for, I put in the CW seat. The agent was adamant that this would be charged at 100,000 Avios, not the 67,500 I expected.

She checked it with her colleagues several times. In the end, I gave in, and paid – hoping that I could come on here, get some advice and possibly phone the UK line to get it sorted,

So far, the 100,000 cost she charged me has not been debited from my account, while the additional companion voucher cost has been. Does anyone have any advice? Would the UK line be able to sort this out?

Many thanks

Dave

[NorthernLass]

Just to clarify – you booked the outbound for one person, online, using the Barclaycard upgrade voucher, and you then wanted BA to add the return using the other “half” of the upgrade voucher? It’s a bit confusing trying to isolate this from the rest of your post!

But I would probably wait a few days and see if any avios are debited and how many.

[Dave Spart]

Hi there NorthernLass.
Apologies if my post was hard to read – I wanted to be complete!

Yes the main issue is as you describe. I had understood that you could add return legs to Barclays upgrade voucher flights, just like Companion Vouchers.

Still no charge posted to my account, so I guess I will wait and see what eventually appears!

Dave

[NorthernLass]

Is the flight showing in MMB with the return leg added?

[Dave Spart]

Yep it’s all there!
Just no Avios debited.

[NorthernLass]

At this point I would just wait and see then …

[QwertyKnowsBest]

Just be sure it’s ticketed.

[Dave Spart]

Thank you both.
It has now been charged to my account, at the full CW Avios price.

Does anyone have any insight into why we can’t use Barclays Upgrade tickets on the return leg by phone?

Thanks

Dave

[Anna]

You should be able to – this sounds like a mistake. It’s a pain, but if you call BA again and hopefully speak to someone who knows about the upgrade vouchers, they should be able to sort this out for you.

[zio]

As per today’s open jaw thread, training seems to be lacking among BA agents when using Barclays upgrade vouchers.
If I have understood your booking correctly I agree with @Anna that another phone call is in order.
My data point: 2 weeks ago I booked LON-AUS online with a BUV. 67500 avios + £225. Phoned yesterday to add the return. Charged 67500 + 225 as expected. Agent clearly knew what he was doing; all completed inside 15 mins including wait time.

[Dave Spart]

Thank you very much – I will call again and see what I can do!