Barclays Avios rewards

Ybe

Is Barclays Avios rewards generally worth it? I believe you pay £12 per month and get 1500 Avios every month and a cabin upgrade voucher once a year.  

WillPS

Ybe said:

Is Barclays Avios rewards generally worth it? I believe you pay £12 per month and get 1500 Avios every month and a cabin upgrade voucher once a year.  

Depends if you value 18000 Avios + either 7000 Avios or a (limited) cabin upgrade voucher above £144/year or not.

I personally value it based on what it'd be worth as Nectar points, which is £125 - so definitely not worth it for me.

Ybe

WillPS said:

Ybe said:

Is Barclays Avios rewards generally worth it? I believe you pay £12 per month and get 1500 Avios every month and a cabin upgrade voucher once a year.  

Depends if you value 18000 Avios + either 7000 Avios or a (limited) cabin upgrade voucher above £144/year or not.

I personally value it based on what it'd be worth as Nectar points, which is £125 - so definitely not worth it for me.

I guess it depends if you fly with BA often? Otherwise the Avios are useless. 

WillPS

Ybe said:

WillPS said:

Ybe said:

Is Barclays Avios rewards generally worth it? I believe you pay £12 per month and get 1500 Avios every month and a cabin upgrade voucher once a year.  

Depends if you value 18000 Avios + either 7000 Avios or a (limited) cabin upgrade voucher above £144/year or not.

I personally value it based on what it'd be worth as Nectar points, which is £125 - so definitely not worth it for me.

I guess it depends if you fly with BA often? Otherwise the Avios are useless. 

Not really, there are other redemption paths, like Nectar. 

It depends if you value 25000 Avios points (or 18000 + a cabin upgrade voucher) above £144. If (like me) you don't, forget it.

Ybe

I’ll likely be doing a long haul flight with them in February and I currently have 14000 Avios. So the Avios rewards could be a good deal for me by then. 

Ballard

If you’re keen to get a chunk of Avios by then, you may want to look at an Avios credit card by either Barclaycard or American Express if you don’t already have these. Spend a certain amount in 3 months and they would credit you with a decent amount of free Avios, on top of the points per spend.

Both cards have free and fee options. I had a fee paying Barclaycard initially but downgraded to the standard once I’d earned the bonus Avios. You can’t downgrade the Amex and get a refund of the annual fee (although the fee might be waived in the first year).

Having said all this, I believe that the best way to redeem Avios is to get a long haul reward flight in business class and you’re unlikely to find any for February at this late stage. Part paying Avios isn’t the best way of using them but you’d be able to see what your options are by looking at a dummy booking. 

Ybe

Ballard said:

If you’re keen to get a chunk of Avios by then, you may want to look at an Avios credit card by either Barclaycard or American Express if you don’t already have these. Spend a certain amount in 3 months and they would credit you with a decent amount of free Avios, on top of the points per spend.

Both cards have free and fee options. I had a fee paying Barclaycard initially but downgraded to the standard once I’d earned the bonus Avios. You can’t downgrade the Amex and get a refund of the annual fee (although the fee might be waived in the first year).

Having said all this, I believe that the best way to redeem Avios is to get a long haul reward flight in business class and you’re unlikely to find any for February at this late stage. Part paying Avios isn’t the best way of using them but you’d be able to see what your options are by looking at a dummy booking. 

I don’t spend that much on credit cards though. I’m thinking I can upgrade to business from premium economy using the Avios at least one way from the Avios id collect by then. 

Ybe

Actually I just realised I wouldn’t have collected enough Avios for that even with 1500 Avios a month. And upgrade with Avios depends on reward flight availability.