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I am trying to book 2 return reward tickets for BA Manchester to Abu Dhabi for March 2026 using 2 Barclays reward voucher – 1 for the outbound and 1 for the inbound. This is my first time using these vouchers although I have used Amex 241s lots of times previously. For the flights I’m looking for, both the domestic leg and the long haul leg are showing available as reward flights just using avios but when I try to use the Barclays reward voucher they show nothing available. Flights from Heathrow to Abu Dhabi do show as available using the Barclays vouchers but when I try to add the domestic leg, they all disappear. I seem to recall this being a problem when the Barclays vouchers were first brought out but had understood this had been resolved. I’m assuming I will have to phone and book. Any experience from others would be appreciated. Finally, am I correct in understanding that, for a long haul reward flights, the domestic connections are free as per with Amex 241 reward bookings. Many thanks in anticipation.
I haven’t done this as I don’t have these vouchers but my understanding is that you need to use both vouchers outbound from the uk then the other halfs on the return if that makes sense. Vouchers need to be used from uk
I think you can call and do the whole process or if you need to nab the long hall then do that and then ring up to add the domestic. Pretty sure it was Froggee who did this from Scotland to somewhere long hall but can’t remember where and I’m a bit rubbish at search. The short hall should be free I think and probably no fee if you cant do this online yourselfThanks for that Neil.
For the flights I’m looking for, both the domestic leg and the long haul leg are showing available as reward flights just using avios but when I try to use the Barclays reward voucher they show nothing available. Flights from Heathrow to Abu Dhabi do show as available using the Barclays vouchers but when I try to add the domestic leg, they all disappear.
When I last tried, you couldn’t book itineraries with domestic connections online. I don’t think this has changed, but someone might be able to share more recent experiences.
For my last Barclaycard-voucher booking, last summer at T-355, I booked LHR-HKG outbound online and then phoned to add the domestic GLA-LHR leg. There was no charge for this.
For the return, I phoned at 00:00 GMT at T-355 to add the HKG-LHR inbound leg to the booking. Because of the late flight time from HKG (23:00), which means that the flight would land the next calendar day, I actually had to phone back the following day to add the domestic LHR-GLA leg, as those flights hadn’t been released yet. The domestic flight was again added at no charge.
Yep – you have to call for domestic connections as computer says no because one upgrade is WT+ to Club and the other is Economy to Club (assuming this is what you wish to do).
When you call make sure you listen to the menu options as if you end up on the general Avios booking line they will likely be clueless.
There is no charge for the domestic connection. They may well say that there is in which case push back gently saying that you have done this before and it is included under reward flight saver. If they insist just agree to pay it if it is a few quid. It may well not be charged.
Assuming you want to book the return leg later, your problem as already stated is you cannot book a one way to the UK with these vouchers. So the path of least resistance is to make two separate one-way bookings from Manchester to Abu Dhabi, one for each passenger.
Then when the return is available you call back and add the return onto each booking. A skilled agent should be able to apply both vouchers to two passengers for the outbound booking but if you get an unskilled agent then they will just stuff you.
This is the post referred to:
https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/cabin-upgrade-voucher/page/9/#post-722409
So thinking about it, your best course of action might be to see if you can book Heathrow to Abu Dhabi for both passengers using the:
“search for a book and upgrade from Heathrow to Singapore for four. Select my flight. Proceed. Close the window showing one Barclays voucher ticked so I can proceed a second time at which point it then allows me to also select the second Barclays voucher. Because that is so intuitive. But I now have all four of us on one PNR. Woo hoo!”
method in linked post which should get you both on same PNR one-way. I have not done this though. If both vouchers disappear then it has probably worked. Then call within 24 hours and add on the Manchester connection which should be free and there should not be a change fee if within the 24 hours and there should not be a telephone booking fee as you could not book online.
It is a royal pain in the butt but I can confirm that I am currently in Singapore having used two Barclays vouchers for four people one-way which sadly isn’t what you want to do…
Good luck!
You can upgrade Y to PE with a domestic connection online, but not PE to CW. BA will book it or add the connection on the phone, but it certainly is a PITA!
Many thanks for the comprehensive feedback. Phoned yesterday and the operator knew what to do and it was all booked including free seat reservations using Royal Jordanian status. Interestingly the addition of the RJ number was not automatically recognised but they knew what to do to override this. Well pleased.
With the reference to domestic connections being free, does this only apply to the point of departure or does this also extend to free domestic connections at the point of arrival? Thanks.
Only U.K. domestic connections are free, and as you can only use the vouchers on BA, it wouldn’t be eligible in other countries anyway.
If you mean can you book e.g. EDI-LHR-JFK-LHR-EDI with free domestic connections, then yes!
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