Exciting new Barclaycard UK Avios credit cards

A couple weeks ago, Barclays released a new pair of co-branded credit cards that are almost certainly the best non-Amex rewards cards currently available in the UK.  These two cards are the Barclaycard Avios MasterCard (no annual fee) and Avios Plus MasterCard (£20/month = £240/year).  Barclays has recently been expanding their relationship with British Airways, as they also offer a Barclays Avios Rewards bank account.  If you have this account, the £20/month for the Avios Plus MasterCard is reduced to £15/month (£180/year).

I provide the information here just to give people a vague idea if the rewards offered by the card might make sense for them to consider the card.  All information should be confirmed with the card company before applying.

Welcome Offer

The no annual fee Avios MasterCard is currently offering a welcome bonus of 5 000 bonus Avios (British Airways reward points) after spending £1 000 In the first 3 months.  The Avios Plus MasterCard is offering 25 000 bonus Avios after spending £3 000 in the first 3 months.  One of the big plusses of these cards is that you can get the bonus Avios, even if you already hold a BA Amex card.  The downside is that if you currently hold a Barclaycard (or have held one in the last 6 months), you are not eligible for the welcome bonus.  This policy is substantially more generous than Amex (where it’s 24 months).

Earnings

The Avios MasterCard earns Avios at a very straight forward rate of 1 Avios per £1 spent.  I generally value BA Avios as being worth about £0.01 (1p = 1.3 ¢) each, which means this card offers approximately 1% back on spending.  The Avios Plus MasterCard is also straightforward, with an earning rate of 1.5 Avios per £1 spent, for roughly 1.5% back.  Unlike the BA Premium Plus Amex card, the Avios Plus MasterCard does not offer bonus Avios on BA purchases.

These cards both charge an industry standard 2.99% foreign transaction fee, which will wipe away all the value of the Avios.

Benefits

These Barclaycards offer the opportunity to earn a Cabin Upgrade Voucher after meeting a spend requirement (£20,000 on the Avios MasterCard and £10,000 on the Avios Plus MasterCard).  The BA Amex cards offer instead companion vouchers after meeting a spending threshold.  A Cabin Upgrade Voucher is used to upgrade 1 person by 1 class of travel, assuming there is reward availability in the cabin into which an upgrade is desired.  This means that you can upgrade from World Traveller (economy) to World Traveller Plus (premium economy) or even Club World (business) to First Class (first).  Upgrades with Avios are simply the difference in the cost between award tickets in the relevant classes of travel.  The highest difference in Avios cost is from World Traveller Plus to Club World on BA’s service to Sydney at an off-peak time (60,000 Avios).  Upgrades on flights from London to the US range from 20,000 to 30,000 Avios.  By comparison, the Amex Companion Voucher could be worth up to 400,000 Avios (return first class flight to Sydney at a peak time) if 2 first class tickets can be found.  My first trip in BA First Class (to Dallas) was made possible with a companion voucher off a BA Premium Plus Amex card that provided 100,000 Avios in value.

If you travel predominately by yourself, like me, however, the upgrade voucher is more easily used, which is a big plus. 

Examples of using these cards

These cards have flat earn rates, which means analyzing their returns is more straightforward than for the Amex BA cards. 

Card	World Traveller (£556) Total Avios (% return)	Hotel night in Oxford (£181/night)	Points values (WT/Hotel)
No rewards card	2 728 (4.9%)	2 200 MP (7.3%)	£27.28 / £13.20
Avios MasterCard	3 284 (5.9%)	2 200 MP + 181 Avios (8.3%)	£32.84 / £15.01
Avios Plus MasterCard	3 562 (6.4%)	2 200 MP + 271 Avios (8.8%)	£35.62 / £15.91
Gold Card	2 728 Avios + 1 112 MR (6.9%)	2 200 MP + 181 MR (8.3%)	£43.96 / £15.91
BA Premium Plus	4 396 (7.9%)	2 200 MP + 271 Avios (8.8%)	£43.96 / £15.91
Marriott card	2 728 Avios + 1 112 MP (6.1%)	3 506 MP (11.5%)	£33.95 / £21.04

Are these credit cards right for you?

The answer to if you will get value out of these cards depends on how often you fly British Airways and if you value reward flights.  If you’re spending less than £10 000/year on your card, you won’t earn a cabin upgrade voucher, and so the Avios Plus card might not be worth it just for the extra Avios (4 999 Avios for £240 is a bad deal).

To offset the Avios Plus MasterCard’s annual fee (without the upgrade voucher), you’d need to spend £48 000/year, which is quite substantial.  In addition, if you don’t fly BA very often, it may be difficult to accrue enough Avios for reward flights to get real value out of the Avios earned from these cards.