Do I have to take the Barclays cabin upgrade voucher as soon as I've earned it?

That may sound like a funny question, surely I have to take it as soon as I've earned it? Not quite.

There are two ways to earn a Cabin Upgrade Voucher, and the answer is different for each.

If you've not come across it, the Barclays cabin upgrade voucher lets you book a seat in one cabin while paying the Avios price of the cabin below it. So a Club World seat will cost you the Avios rate for a World Traveller Plus seat. You do unfortunately need to pay the taxes and fees in the higher cabin. We've written a full guide to how it works and where it's worth using, so this post is only the bit about timing.

How you earn one

The first way is via the Barclaycard Avios credit cards, where you'll have a spending target to meet in your card year. These are £10,000 on the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard, or £20,000 on the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard.

You can earn one voucher per card year. Once you've hit the target, further spending doesn't earn you a second one, and the count resets on your card anniversary rather than rolling anything over. Only the main cardholder gets the voucher, although spending on any additional cards counts towards the target.

The second way is Barclays Avios Rewards, the paid add-on to a Barclays Premier current account. You earn a voucher every 12 months. So if you hold a Barclaycard Avios card as well, you can earn two a year, one from each.

The credit cards

Hitting the spending target doesn't send a voucher straight to you. Instead a button appears in the Barclaycard app instead, offering to send it to your British Airways Club account. You press it when you're ready.

This is key to know because the 24 month expiry starts on the date the voucher lands in your BA account, not the date you hit the target.

There is a limit though. If you haven't pressed the button by the end of your card year, Barclaycard issues the voucher for you, because it's time to earn another one! I currently have one waiting to be claimed in the app, but I'm delaying it as long as possible to stretch out the validity.

With Avios Rewards

This voucher is issued on your Avios Rewards anniversary and appears in your BA account within about five working days, so the issue date isn't yours to move, unfortunately.

One thing I haven't mentioned here is that you can choose to take a cabin upgrade voucher or instead choose to receive 7,000 Avios. Why haven't I mentioned it? Because that would spoil a future article!

Sam

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