Wonderful writeup!

I had a few followup questions:
Is the CCR card valid for 1 year or the rest of your membership year + the following year? Example: I will hit my 5K TPs in August. My membership year ends in Oct. Would the card be valid till the following August or October?

Also, as I understand it, the requal is 3K TPs but the 2xGUF1 is 3.5K TPs. so it would make sense to do a TP run to get those extra 500TPs for the 2 upgrade vouchers, correct?
And I assume the GUF isn't like the Jokers where I'll get another 2 upon my membership renewal (example like above, the GUFs in July/Aug and again in Oct)


I'm looking forward to attaining GGL

When you first get the CCR card it is valid for:

the rest of that membership year + full membership year + up to end of month in the month after your membership anniversary

I am not sure what you mean by your membership year ends in October? Your status cards will expire at the end of a month but your membership year ends on the 8th of a month. Anyway if we assume your membership anniversary is 8th October and you hit 5000 TPs in August this year, your CCR card (and GGL card) will be valid until 30 November 2017.

Up to you whether you think it is worth going for. No you just get GUFs when you hit the target TP levels.

thanks for the quick response. Yup, its 08/Oct, and that's great that the CCR card will be good till 30/Nov/2017. That'll give me some use out of it.

Added updates for the 6000 TP jokers, and to clarify further about the expiration dates of CCR and GGL cards. Thanks for the feedback!

I'm afraid I don't yet know. Perhaps one of the more experience GGL members knows definitively? If not, I can ask once I reach the status.

one joker is required per PNR / booking so unless you were somehow able to add the 5th person onto the booking, you need a new one.

I had the scenario of wishing to make 2 bookings for a total of 5 pax (3 travelling on cash plus GUF, 2 travelling on Avios plus GUF) and was told that such a scenario would require 2 jokers as it couldn't all be done on the same booking / PNR.

Can we update the Joker information section to explain the rules? I.e. Does the GGL member need to be one of the passengers on the booking or can you book for someone in your HHA etc? I'm sure this question has come up a few times but can't find the threads nor can I remember the answers! (Think the GGL member has to travel on the booking).

The T&Cs seem to imply that you have to be one of the travellers, but I've successfully used a joker when booking reward travel for two people who were not even in my HHA.

The Joker may be used for anyone, the doner does not need to travel.

And any old kebab will do.

Ha ha ha, I'm still grounded so you can certainly see where my mind is at the moment :D

Just a data point. Received my GGL pack yesterday (new qualifier), without CCR card. This seems to be contrary to information in the thread.

They do indeed come separately.

EDIT: on reading the guide I can see why it may be unclear

You receive one pack with your GGL card & tags, and a separate letter which includes your CCR card.

High level, first world gradual retirement worries and GGL question!
I have averaged just around 7,000TP for many years - currently LT 115,510 but am now semi-retired. This TP year, finishing on 8 March, I will have 5,030 TP, sufficient to achieve CCR until April 2017. For some reason I had thought that LTGGL = LTCCR but am sure that isn't true. Since next year I am likely to get 3,500TP - does that mean that I don't get to drink out of the hallowed black coffee mug from May 2017?

As I understand it, and I'm not quite there yet, with LTGGL you do have CCR access for life.