Barclays Avios Rewards account

Goooner22

Hello All,
Just thought I would share my experience of a recent issue with the Barclays/BA Avios rewards account. 
Having signed up for and paid my £12 per month for this account I received my Avios points and my cabin upgrade voucher after the 12 month initial period. Guess what? Trying to use the upgrade voucher is almost impossible due to restrictions by BA and without an awful lot of hard work on your side.

Although Barclays refer you to the T&C's when signing up the account, who actually reads them right? (life lesson - you should!). You will find that there is a clause about 'subject to availability'. What does subject to availability mean you may ask, well after an awful lot more digging it turns out BA only offer a maximum of 4 seats on each flight for business class and with the voucher only lasting 12 months it is almost impossible to book and use the voucher.

I have made a complaint to Barclays and BA. Barclays are stating I should have read the T&C's surprise surprise, but even then the T&C's state the 'subject to availability clause, they don't state the number of seats available unless you go digging elsewhere on the BA website. Barclays also state this is an issue for BA to deal with as its not down to Barclays!!!! even though I pay Barclays for the privilege!

Its about time that someone made them clearly state that the use of the reward voucher will only enable you to gain access to a maximum of 4 business class seats for any flight and you will only have 12 months to try and use them. Barclays have a responsibility to explain this at the outset not just hide under the T&C's banner when the reality dawns!

Have any of you faced this issue at all?

apcd2

BA frequently offer more than 4 business class seats for Avios. For example next week there are at least 6 business class seats available for Avios on almost every single flight to Paris. Avios seats have always been subject to availability though. They're harder to find to popular tourist spots in the summer holidays and easier to find to random city destinations in the middle of November.

Making the most of Avios requires some flexibility. If you insist on flying to destination X on date Y then you'll likely end up disappointed. Requiring more than 4 business class tickets makes this even more difficult! If instead you have a range of destinations in mind and can travel at less popular times then there's great value for money to be had.

apcd2

Regarding your specifics about a complaint against Barclays I really don't see that you have a case. The upgrade voucher is clearly described as entitling you to upgrade a one way flight for two passengers or a return flight for one passenger so quite clearly it can't be applied to four or more passengers. That said there's nothing to stop you using the voucher on a flight for one passenger and then making a seperate booking for everyone else. If the exact flights you want aren't available then again that's not Barclay's fault. If instead of a BA upgrade voucher Barclays gave you an Amazon gift voucher you wouldn't blame Barclays if the item you wanted was out of stock.

Goooner22

I think you have missed the point entirely! I am not trying to book 4 tickets. I am trying to use one upgrade voucher and pay for my wife. The point is, and I quote BA specifically here (and their website) they only offer 4 Avios seats per flight. This was never mentioned on any of the Barclays marketing material when taking out the account!

MyRealNameToo

Goooner22 said:

I think you have missed the point entirely! I am not trying to book 4 tickets. I am trying to use one upgrade voucher and pay for my wife. The point is, and I quote BA specifically here (and their website) they only offer 4 Avios seats per flight. This was never mentioned on any of the Barclays marketing material when taking out the account!

I used Avios to book a flight that would have cost over £10k but it actually only cost me $5... unsurprisingly with that scale of saving available Avios bookings are popular and go quickly. Airline status can also impact what's available for booking by airmiles, in some cases extra/early seats are available to those with top tier status before being opened up to less frequent/loyal fliers. 

It sounds more than a little naive to think a voucher can be used on any flight at any time and naivety aside, you inevitably clicked to say you had read and agreed the terms which clearly does state its subject to availability. 

Personally have used various vouchers and Avios points for many business and first flights but having flexibility around when and where makes success much easier plus short notice can also help with airlines sometimes adding extra seats later if demand has proven to be below expectations.