Originally Posted by flarmip

All of the "upgrade" vouchers (they're really just an Avios discount) you get with Barclays and Barclaycard are the same, regardless of whether they're earned by hitting the spending targets on the free or paid card, or by having Avios Rewards for 12 months on the Premier current account.

The main advantage of the paid card is, as you say, the higher Avios per £ earning rate as well as the fact that you can earn a voucher for £10k spend, rather than £20k. I imagine the former will be far more feasible to reach for most people than the latter. Holding both Avios Rewards and the paid card also gives you 4 free DragonPass lounge passes per year.

Of course if you know you will spend £20k (but not £30k, which would get you two vouchers if you switched to the free card after £10k), value an Avios at 1p, and don't care about the lounge passes, then you might decide the paid card isn't worth it for you