Originally Posted by
Sabe59
I’m aware the Barclays upgrade vouchers are really just a way to book an Avios reward flight in the higher cabin with the Avios needed for 1 cabin down. So when you add up the taxes and fees payable and the need to buy a separate return flight with an Avios reward booking
In general using Avios to discount the price of a cash ticket is a very poor rate of return, something like $0.005 per Avios. Only do it if you have no other use for the Avios or have lots of Avios and use just 1000 of them to get £10 off a flight.
If you book a reward flight using Avios, you have to pay a tax and charges element, but the flight element is free. When booking in J class or short notice Y this can often give north of $0.012 value. Using a Barclaycard reward to book J and pay W Avios can bump this up to about $0.02. So they are very different beasts. So much so, that even at the hideous price to purchase Avios, it is often going to be better to book a pure Avios reward and use the voucher than to use the Avios to discount a cash price.