--- title: "Barclaycard Avios Plus Review UK 2026 | FlightLogic" description: "The Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard earns Avios at the same 1.5-per-£1 rate as the far pricier BA Amex Premium Plus and reaches its upgrade voucher at a…" url: https://flightlogic.co.uk/reviews/barclaycard-avios-plus-review-uk/ lastModified: 2026-07-03 source: FlightLogic (flightlogic.co.uk) licence: "Content © Elite Digital AI Solutions Ltd. Cite the URL above and the page author." --- # Barclaycard Avios Plus Review UK 2026 The Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard earns Avios at the same 1.5-per-£1 rate as the far pricier BA Amex Premium Plus and reaches its upgrade voucher at a lower spend threshold — but skips the companion voucher that makes premium BA Amex cards worth having for couples. ## Who should skip it Verdicts mean naming who this is NOT for. From this review's own findings: - No companion voucher — the single benefit that makes BA Amex Premium Plus worth its fee for many flyers is simply absent here - Lounge access is a discounted-entry Dragonpass scheme, not free access, unless you also hold a separate Barclays Premier account The Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard earns Avios at the same 1.5-per-£1 rate as the far pricier BA Amex Premium Plus and reaches its upgrade voucher at a lower spend threshold, but it skips the companion voucher that makes premium BA Amex cards worth having for most UK travellers, and its lounge access is a paid-discount scheme rather than a true free perk. Worth it only if you're a high spender who specifically values the upgrade voucher over a companion ticket — everyone else should do the maths against Barclaycard's free Avios card first. Call it a solid 6 out of 10: competent, not compelling. ## Pros - 1.5 Avios per £1 on all spend matches the much pricier BA Amex Premium Plus earning rate - Upgrade voucher unlocks at £10,000 annual spend — a lower bar than the £15,000 needed on BA Amex Premium Plus - Welcome bonus of Avios on signup plus minimum spend gives new cardholders a fast head start toward a reward flight ## Room for Improvement - No companion voucher — the single benefit that makes BA Amex Premium Plus worth its fee for many flyers is simply absent here - Lounge access is a discounted-entry Dragonpass scheme, not free access, unless you also hold a separate Barclays Premier account Booked and paid for with cash — FlightLogic does not accept press trips or comped stays unless explicitly disclosed here. **Annual Fee** £240/year (£20/month) **Rewards** 1.5 Avios per £1, upgrade voucher at £10,000 annual spend **Important:** FlightLogic is not a financial adviser and does not currently earn commission on credit cards. This guide is educational information only — always check the issuer's own terms, eligibility checkers and fees before applying. 18+, subject to status. Credit is a commitment: only borrow what you can repay in full each month, because interest charges erase every reward on this page. Photo: FlightLogic original Image strategy: Original capture — Mastercard prop, avoid logo-only SVG hero. The Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard sits in an odd spot in the UK travel card market: a genuine paid-tier earner from a high-street bank, going head-to-head with the more established British Airways American Express Premium Plus. On paper the headline rate looks identical — 1.5 Avios per £1 spent on both cards — but the two products get there in different ways, and the differences matter more than the marketing suggests. Barclaycard charges its fee monthly rather than annually, working out to roughly £240 a year, and applies it whether or not you're travelling that year. That's a meaningful ask before you've earned a single Avios. Where this card earns its keep is the upgrade voucher. Spend £10,000 in a card year and you're issued a voucher that lets you book a reward flight in a higher cabin while paying the Avios rate of the lower one — a genuinely useful perk if you fly BA long-haul with any regularity, and one that arrives at a noticeably lower spend threshold than the £15,000 required for the equivalent on BA Amex Premium Plus. Don't want the voucher, or don't fly enough to use it? You can take 7,000 Avios instead, though that's a fairly modest consolation prize for a year of five-figure spending. New cardholders are also offered a welcome bonus of Avios points for signing up and hitting a minimum spend within the first few months — check the live offer before applying, as these thresholds and bonus sizes move around and Barclaycard has recently tightened the eligibility rules on how soon repeat applicants can requalify. Lounge access is the part of this card most likely to disappoint if you don't read the small print. It isn't a Priority Pass-style free-access perk — it's a Dragonpass membership offering discounted entry, typically in the low twenties per visit, which saves you money on the walk-up rate but still costs you money every time you use it. The only way to get genuinely free lounge visits — four a year — is to also hold a Barclays Premier current account with Avios Rewards attached, which most Avios Plus applicants won't have and won't want to open just to unlock the benefit. Treat the lounge access as a modest discount scheme, not a perk that offsets the fee on its own. The card's most conspicuous absence is a companion voucher. This is the single benefit that makes BA Amex Premium Plus worth its own hefty annual fee for a lot of UK travellers — a two-for-one reward flight voucher that can be worth hundreds of pounds in saved fares — and Barclaycard Avios Plus simply doesn't offer an equivalent. If a companion voucher is the reason you're shopping this category, this card was never going to be the answer; it's playing a different game, built around the upgrade voucher and a slightly lower entry spend for it. There's also a 2.99% fee on non-sterling transactions, which is unremarkable for this class of card but means you shouldn't be reaching for it abroad — pair it with a fee-free debit card for spending overseas and keep this one for UK-based earning. Avios earned on the card land directly in your British Airways Executive Club account and behave exactly like any other Avios — redeemable for BA reward flights, upgrades, and (at generally poor value) the Avios airlines partners across Iberia, Aer Lingus and the oneworld alliance, or transferable in the other direction from partner hotel and car-hire schemes. Where this card genuinely competes is against Barclaycard's own free Avios card, which earns 1 Avios per £1 with no fee at all. The maths is straightforward: on the Plus card, the extra 0.5 Avios per £1 needs to be worth more to you than £240 a year, which in practice means you need to be spending somewhere north of £15,000-£20,000 annually before the paid tier clearly beats the free one on earning rate alone — before you even factor in whether you'll use the upgrade voucher or the discounted lounge visits. ## Before you pack — pre-trip essentials Flight and hotel links convert late. Finance, FX, insurance, and gear decisions happen weeks earlier — when professionals budget for long-haul stays. These picks fund FlightLogic without touching editorial scores. ### Budget the trip before you book flights Educational UK travel credit card comparisons — Avios, Virgin Points, lounge access, and Section 75 protection. FlightLogic does not earn commission on credit cards. ### Cover before you pack What UK travel insurance must cover for a flight booking, GHIC vs insurance, pre-existing condition screening, and FCA-authorised providers to get quotes from. ### Avios & companion vouchers Week-by-week educational roadmap for UK households — companion-voucher break-even maths, UK261 documentation, and how Avios cards fit a stack before your first long-haul. ### Is Barclaycard Avios Plus worth it? Only if you value the upgrade voucher over a BA companion ticket — earns 1.5 Avios/£1 like Premium Plus but skips the 2-for-1 companion perk. Written by [Alex Turner](https://flightlogic.co.uk/authors/alex-turner/) Editor, Credit Cards & Points Strategy Alex leads FlightLogic's credit card coverage, testing welcome offers and running real-world break-even math on annual fees. He models every card he reviews against his own spending, not theoretical scenarios. ## More Credit Card Reviews