Does the Barclays Travel Plus Pack make sense for Barclays current account holders?

This is our review of the Barclays Travel Plus Pack, offered as an optional paid extra to Barclays current account holders.

If you have your bank current account with Barclays, you may be interested in taking a look at the Barclays Travel Plus Pack add-on.

In general, buying an ‘add-on’ pack to your current account from your bank is a waste of money.  The services you get will usually not outweigh the cost.

This one, however, is a bit different if you are a regular traveller.

What does the Barclays Travel Plus Pack include?

Full details of the Travel Plus Pack are here.

Travel Plus Pack costs you £18 per month.

In summary, you get:

Worldwide family travel insurance

RAC comprehensive breakdown cover in the UK and Europe

Airport lounge access

I am normally sceptical about ‘free’ travel insurance offers since the cover is often poor and can land you in trouble if you rely on it and have major problems.  Barclays claims that the travel insurance in the Travel Plus Pack has been awarded a 5-star rating by Defaqto, however, so it may well be all you need.  Feedback from readers confirms that the insurance is good and does cover many pre-existing conditions.  This is very rare with ‘free’ policies.

Note that each account holder and their domestic partner must be under 80 years old and the partner must live with the account holder.  All trips must start and end in the UK and last no longer than 31 days.

A series of changes in early 2019 also improved the other parts of the package:

The car breakdown now covers cars of any age (the previous age limit was 11 years) and the ‘five call-outs per year’ cap was lifted

The airport lounge benefit increased from 800 lounges to 1,000, due to natural growth in the access offered by its partner DragonPass

Is the Barclays Travel Plus Pack good value?

To get maximum value, it makes sense to just sign up for six months, covering your main annual travel period.  You would be paying £108 (£18 x 6) for six airport lounge passes and comprehensive travel insurance.  You could then cancel and reapply the following year.

As an airport lounge visit can be valued at £15-£20 (you can rarely buy access for less, and £20 is the ‘additional guest fee’ for American Express Platinum and Preferred Rewards Gold card holders), the travel insurance and RAC membership are effectively free.

Or, put another way, if you usually pay £100 for family travel insurance then the airport lounge passes are free.

If you already have a Barclays current account, you should think about whether the Travel Plus Pack would work for you.  Full details are here.

I wouldn’t necessarily want to keep it all year, however.  The annual cost is (£18 x 12) £216.  This compares poorly with an American Express Platinum charge card which has a £575 fee but comes with unlimited airport lounge access for two people, travel insurance, Eurostar lounge access, Hilton / Marriott / Radisson / Shangri-La / Melia hotel status and 30,000 Avios or other miles for signing up.  My full review of Amex Platinum is here.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – December 2021 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit or charge card, here are our November 2021 recommendations based on the current sign-up bonus. 

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the top current deals:

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers.

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and a long list of travel benefits Read our full review

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending:

Barclaycard Select Cashback Credit Card

1% cashback and no annual fee Read our full review