Leveraging Barclays and Barclaycard to earn points
Back in 2021, Barclays launched two Avios-related products: its Avios-earning credit card and the Avios add-on for its Barclays Premier accounts. The cards were a much-needed competitor for the American Express Avios cards and offer some interesting perks. They’re easy to use and understand, and are a good option if you don’t want to go down the Amex route or want to switch.
What does Barclays offer?
- Two Avios-earning credit cards that get you points and offer an upgrade voucher.
- A bank account subscription pack that gives you points each month and an annual upgrade voucher.
While the Upgrade vouchers aren’t quite as good as the Amex Companion Voucher (more on this later), it does mean you can avoid Amex altogether if you want to earn points and have a mechanism for reducing the number of points you need for flights.
The Barclays Premier bank account
Barclays offers a “Premier” bank account that comes with a number of perks.
There are some requirements for having a Premier account. You need to pay into the account a gross annual salary of £75,000 a year, or have at least £100,000 of savings with Barclays.
The Barclays Premier account costs £12 a month. You will, however, earn 1,500 Avios per month, which will be transferred directly to your BA account. If you value Avios at 1p/point, that’s the equivalent value of £15 of points for a £12 payment.
When you open a new account with Barclays, you’ll get 25,000 Avios if you engage the bank account switching service. This will effectively make the Barclays account your main account.
On the anniversary of your account opening, you can choose between either 7,000 Avios or a British Airways cabin upgrade voucher as a reward. In almost all cases, the cabin upgrade voucher is the better option.
You can also earn additional Avios:
- 700 Avios per month if you have a Barclays mortgage
- 150 Avios per month if you have Barclays life insurance
Both rewards are relatively low, and in most cases, Barclays products are unlikely to be the cheapest on the market. The Barclays Premier mortgage sometimes has fractionally lower rates than the standard mortgage products, but the Premier mortgages typically have much higher overpayment limits. You may also be able to access mortgages at a higher income multiple with Premier.
The account also has additional perks:
- Free access to Apple TV.
- Access to Barclays Experiences at the Co-op Arena (Manchester) and the O2 (London).
- A “dual holder” perk, if you also have the Avios Plus credit card, which I talk about in a moment.
The Barclaycard Avios earning credit cards
Barclaycard offer two Avios-earning credit cards:
- The free Barclaycard Avios card (no monthly fee).
- You earn 1 Avios per £1 you spend
- Spend £20,000 in a year to earn a Cabin Upgrade voucher
- The Barclaycard Avios Plus card, which has a £20 monthly fee
- You earn 1.5 Avios per £1 you spend
- Spend £10,000 in a year and earn a Cabin Upgrade voucher
- You will also get Dragonpass Premier+ membership but no free passes.
You can only have one of the above cards at any time; there is nothing stopping a couple from having one free card registered to one person and a second Premium card registered to the other.
The 1 or 1.5 Avios per £1 you spend, Barclaycard will round each transaction to the nearest pound. That means if you spend £10.50, you will earn 11 Avios. If you spend £10.49, you will earn 10. On the Premium card, if you end the month with half an Avios point, they will round that up.
If you have both a Barclays Premier account and the premium Barclaycard Avios Plus card, you’ll get a rebate of £5 paid into your bank account each month, effectively reducing the monthly card fee to £15/month.
Free lounge passes with the Barclays “dual holder” benefit.
If you have the Avios Plus card, you’ll get complimentary access to Dragonpass Plus. This does not give you any free lounge access. Instead if just allows you to pay for access to lounges.
If you have both the Avios Plus card AND the Barclays Premier account, you’ll get four free lounge passes every year. Whilst it can be difficult to get access to lounges using a card, you can also use passes to get a discount at airport restaurants.
This new feature, launched in December 2025, lets you get value from your complimentary passes if you don’t need them or can’t use them for lounges. Even if you don’t swap your pass for a discount, you can get 10% or 15% off in many eateries thanks to your Dragonpass membership.
There’s a reasonable range of restaurants across UK airports:
- At Heathrow Airport you can get £18 off at Leon (T2), Jones The Grocer (T2), The Curator (T3), Spuntino (T3), Joe’s Coffee (T4), Wild Olive (T4) and (Giraffe (T5). All of those also offer between 10% and 15% off if you don’t want to use a lounge pass.
- At Gatwick you can get £18 off at Sonoma and Sussex House Kitchen in the North terminal, and Giraffe, Joe’s Coffee House and Wonder Tree in the South Terminal. All restaurants also give you the option of 15% off without using a pass.
- At Stansted, you can get £18 off at Sunny Side, Terracotta and The Perch. All three also offer 10% off as an alternative to using a pass.
- At Luton you can get £18 off at The Smithfield, the Hawker Barand Sandfords. All three also offer 15% off as an alternative.
- At Manchester Airport, you can swap a lounge pass for £18 off at the Apiary, Bridgewater Exchange, Archie’s, San Carlo, Pot Kettle Black and many more. You can even get an £18 discount at KFC.
- At Birmingham Airport, you can use the dining discount at Giraffe, or get 15% off at both Giraffe and the Indian Brewing Company if you don’t want to use a lounge pass.
- At Glasgow Airport, you can get £18 off at the William Beardmore, Frankie and Benny’s, Tennent’s Bar and the Caledonia. All also offer 15% off without using a pass.
- At Edinburgh Airport, you can get £18 off at Brewdog, Seoul Bird and Icons. Only Brewdog offers 15% off as an alternative.
I wrote a longer article on the Dragonpass restaurant discount, which also features a breakdown of restaurants you can use through that card, and the Priority Pass card, which has a similar scheme.
What is the ultimate Barclays setup?
With both a Premier account and a Barclaycard, you could earn:
- A one-off 25,000 Avios bonus for opening a Premier account.
- A one-off 25,000 Avios bonus for getting a Barclaycard Avios Plus, and spending £3,000 in the first three months.
- 18,000 Avios per year from the Premier account
- Two annual cabin upgrade vouchers. That’s one from the Premier account, one from the Barclaycard Avios Plus card (assuming you spend £10k on the card in a year)
- Four annual lounge passes with Dragonpass.
That’s what we have, but I was already a Barclays customer, which made the switch easier. Whether that is right for you depends on your finances.
What is the Barclays Cabin Upgrade voucher?
The Cabin Upgrade voucher is similar to an Amex Companion voucher, but with some notable twists. IT effectively allows you to book a flight with British Airways, and the Avios you need are equivalent to booking a cabin below. The end result is that you need fewer points for flights.
- Book a seat in Premium Economy for the points rate of Economy
- Book a seat in Business Class for the points rate of Premium Economy
It’s worth saying that if you plan to travel in Economy, then the voucher has no purpose. You also cannot use it to get a first-class seat. Only the Amex Companion Voucher allows that.
There are a few other rules to consider:
- You can only use the voucher on British Airways. The Amex Companion Voucher can be used on Iberia and Aer Lingus (although it’s hard to do so).
- You will still pay the taxes, fees and carrier-imposed surcharges of the higher cabin. The voucher only reduces the points needed, not the cash element.
The upgrade voucher does not unlock additional availability. The Companion does, and that can be very useful.
Flying in a couple? You need two vouchers
The Cabin Upgrade voucher will upgrade two legs (outbound, and return) for one person. A companion voucher is effectively worth double, as it allows you to book a return flight for two people, for the Avios price of one.
In general, the Barclays Cabin Upgrade voucher is weaker than the Companion Voucher, but it is still better to have it than not. It is, however, more achievable. The Amex Companion Voucher requires £15,000 of annual spend, whereas the Barclaycard Cabin Upgrade voucher requires £10,000 on the premium card.
There are no spend requirements to get an Upgrade voucher on the Premier bank account; you simply need to retain the account for a year while paying for the Avios pack.
Is it worth getting a Barclaycard or Premier Account?
If you’re serious about collecting Avios, it’s a good way to build your balance and earn valuable Cabin upgrade vouchers, but there is a cost. They have a combined monthly fee of £28. That’s £12 for the Barclays Premier account and £20 for the Barclaycard Avios Plus, minus the £5 dual benefit cashback.
That’s not an insignificant fee, and you’ll only get one Cabin Upgrade voucher unless you hit the £10,000 spend required on the Barclaycard.
Switching your bank account is a hassle, even with the automated switching service. I was fortunate to already be with Barclays, so moving to the Premier account was seamless. If you’re already a Barclays customer, then it’s an easier ask.
What you do get, beyond the voucher and the Avios, is access to Apple TV, four free lounge passes (if you take up the bank account and the card), and a credit card accepted more widely than American Express.
Ultimately, for most Avios collectors, picking a side (Amex or Barclaycard) makes more sense. A year ago, I would have suggested that Amex had the stronger hand, but with the increases in annual fees, the erosion of benefits and the issues I’ve had with them over the last year, I’m more on the fence than ever. Perhaps I’ve just been lucky, but in my two-odd years of being a Barclays Premier and Barclaycard customer, I have not had a single issue.
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