Sep 16, 2017, 2:32 pm
Last edit by: Prospero
Summary
This is a guide to gold upgrade vouchers which BA issues. In the wiki there are a number of frequently asked questions, and in the posts below there is a lot of detail and information on these vouchers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is a Gold Upgrade Voucher?
Gold Upgrade Vouchers are awarded when you reach certain Tier Point levels and allow you to an upgrade to the next travel class.
Q: How do I qualify for a Gold Upgrade Voucher?
You will be awarded a Gold Upgrade Voucher for Two (GUF2) when you reach 2,500 Tier Points. Two Gold Upgrade Vouchers for One (GUF1) are awarded when you reach 3,500 Tier Points. You have the option to choose another two GUF1s at 7,000, 8,000 and 9,000 Tier Points.
Q: When will I know I have a voucher?
The voucher will appear on your BAEC homepage when you hit the required Tier Points in the same place as any Amex 241s that you may have.
Q: How long is the voucher valid for?
The voucher is valid for 12 months must be redeemed within one year of its issue.
Q: Do I have to travel by the expiry date?
No. You must book your ticket by the expiry date so you can travel up to 355 days after.
Q: Can the voucher be extended?
If you do not redeem the voucher within twelve months you can request an extension. Extensions are usually granted for a further six months.
Q: Where can I use the voucher?
You can use the voucher for a one class upgrade on any BA published fare on flights operated by BA.
Q: Can I use the voucher for a one way ticket?
Yes. The voucher can be used for a one way booking. FT opinion may say that this is not a good use but your individual circumstances will influence this.
Q: Where can I upgrade to?
You can upgrade to the next cabin on any BA flight:
- Euro Traveller to Club Europe
- World Traveller to World Traveller Plus
- World Traveller Plus to Club World
- Club World to First (where fitted on the aircraft)
As the voucher will upgrade you to the next available cabin, an economy (Euro Traveller / World Traveller) booking would upgrade you to Club Europe (from ET) on the short haul flight and World Traveller Plus (from WT) on the long haul flight.
Q: I haven’t got a companion. Can I still use a GUF2?
Yes. You can use a GUF2 on your own for a single or return journey. GUF2 can be divided to two GUF1 meaning that if you want to use it as a solo traveller, ask first through customer service to divide it.
Q: Does the voucher have to be used in conjunction with a paid fare?
No. Gold Upgrade Vouchers can be used either with a paid fare or a journey booked with Avios.
Q: Can I use the Gold Upgrade voucher with an Amex 2-4-1 voucher?
Yes. You can combine a GUF with a companion voucher (also known as a 2-4-1). This is a great way to really get a really good value use for the voucher as you will save a very large amount of Avios.
Q: Can I use the Gold Upgrade voucher with a Lloyds voucher?
No. A Lloyds voucher cannot be combined with a Gold Upgrade voucher.
Q: Can I UuA a ticket and then use my GUF voucher?
No. Tickets can only be upgraded using the Gold Upgrade voucher or Avios, not both.
Q: Are bookings made with the Gold Upgrade voucher flexible?
Only if the underlying ticket is in a flexible bucket. For example a J ticket upgraded to First will be flexible according to the original ticket rules. The same applies to redemption tickets.
Q: Can I use the Gold Upgrade voucher on another oneworld airline?
Yes, currently only with AA when certain conditions of use are fulfilled.
Q: Is the voucher valid on franchise operated flights?
Yes. Gold Upgrade vouchers are available for British Airways and franchise operated flights only.
Q: Can I use the voucher on an itinerary that includes non-BA flights?
With a booking direct with BA this is fine. For a TA booking you can’t include non-BA flights. However, there are the occasional reports of a few slipping through where some Travel Agents have managed to apply a GUF to a booking which includes both BA and non-BA flights on BA codeshares.
Q: Can I upgrade an existing booking?
Yes. Please call the BA Service Centre to do this.
Q: Do I have to travel myself when I use the Gold Upgrade voucher like the Amex 2-4-1?
If you book with BA you can use the voucher for any other person or persons. However you must pay for the booking yourself either through your account on ba.com or through the Service Centre. If you book through a TA then the voucher owner must travel on the booking.
Q: If I cancel the booking will I get the Gold Upgrade voucher back?
If you cancel more than 24 hours before departure then the voucher will be reinstated to your account if the original validity has not expired. If you cancel within 24 hours then the voucher will not be available for further use. Any refund on the other part of the ticket will be subject to the original fare rules.
Q: Does there have to be Avios availability in the upgraded cabin to use the Gold Upgrade voucher?
No. There only needs to be discounted revenue fare availability in the cabin you are upgrading to (A for First, I for Club and T for WT+).
It used to be the case that you had to book through a Travel Agent to achieve this, and that direct bookings with BA required Avios availability in the cabin you are upgrading to. With changes to GUF2 made in 2019, this is no longer the case.
Q: Can I book the outbound leg using an Amex 2-4-1 and GUF2 and then add the inbound when it becomes available?
Yes. This can be done in the same way as adding a return leg to a booking using the Amex 2-4-1 voucher.
Q: Can I use the Gold Upgrade voucher on flights that do not originate in the UK?
Yes. Flights do not have to originate in the UK. A GUF can be used on an ex-EU booking - there is no requirement to start and finish in the UK or your Executive Club resident country.
Q: Can I use two GUF1s to upgrade two classes?
No. Nice try
Q: Can the Gold Upgrade voucher be used by anyone in the Household Account?
Any Household Account Member who earns Gold Upgrade vouchers must redeem them personally. Gold Upgrade vouchers are not part of the Household Account pool and cannot be redeemed by another Member of the Household Account. Household Account Members who earn Gold Upgrade vouchers are subject to applicable Household Account redemption rules, whereby the Gold Upgrade vouchers can only be used for members within the Household Account. These upgrades cannot be allocated to Executive Club Members under age 18. An upgrade earned by a member under 18 is allocated to the Head of that Member's Household Account, but the head must be a gold card holder. If the head is not a gold the voucher is effectively lost since it can’t be allocated.
Q: Will I earn Tier Points and Avios with the Gold Upgrade voucher?
Yes. You should earn tier points and Avios in line with the original selling class of the booking and not based on the cabin you upgraded in to - although sometimes mistakes do seem to happen and you do end up earning based on the cabin you upgraded to. As a reward booking doesn’t earn any tier points or Avios you won’t earn anything from a reward booking to which you had applied a GUF.
Q: I have more than two people in my booking. Can I just upgrade two of them?
No. A GUF can’t be applied to a selection of passengers on a booking, and has to cover all of them - you can’t end up with a booking for four people where two are still in CW and the other two are upgraded to F. If necessary you can as BA to split the booking so that those not being upgraded are under one booking reference, and those being upgraded by the GUF are in a new separate booking reference.
Q: Does an infant use an available upgrade?
No. If an upgraded booking contains an infant travelling on an infant fare, the infant will be automatically upgraded with the adults. Child fares will be subject to the same rules as adults.
BA Gold Upgrade Voucher Discussion and Wiki Thread
Apr 24, 2022, 4:32 am
#571
Join Date: Jan 2013
Programs: BAEC GfL
Posts: 335
On the website I think it will only look for reward availability.
You can use revenue selling class availability to book, and you can do that directly with BA now. You don’t need to go through a TA for that. But if relying on revenue selling class availability you will need to call.
You can use revenue selling class availability to book, and you can do that directly with BA now. You don’t need to go through a TA for that. But if relying on revenue selling class availability you will need to call.
May 2, 2022, 1:13 pm
#572
Join Date: Sep 2004
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 458
Hi, I have been reading the thread on GUF2, trying to understand if I can use it in the following way:
Book using Avios from WT+ into CW. From the thread, using GUF2 in this way, if there is no award availability in CW, I can still use it for 'I' class fare bucket? Is that correct?
Also, I want to book for family members who are not in my household account...I earlier thought that GUF2 can be used for someone else, but the conditions (below) seem to suggest GUF2 can only be used for members in the Household account? If thats the case, do i simply add them to my HHA?
Thanks in advance for help.
15. Household Accounts: Any Household Account member who earns Gold Upgrade vouchers must redeem them personally. Gold Upgrade vouchers are not part of the Household Account pool and cannot be redeemed by another member of the Household Account. Household Account members who earn Gold Upgrade vouchers are subject to applicable Household Account redemption rules, whereby the Gold Upgrade vouchers can only be used for members within the Household Account. These upgrades cannot be allocated to Executive Club Members under age 18. An upgrade earned by a member under 18 is allocated to the Head of that Member's Household Account.
Book using Avios from WT+ into CW. From the thread, using GUF2 in this way, if there is no award availability in CW, I can still use it for 'I' class fare bucket? Is that correct?
Also, I want to book for family members who are not in my household account...I earlier thought that GUF2 can be used for someone else, but the conditions (below) seem to suggest GUF2 can only be used for members in the Household account? If thats the case, do i simply add them to my HHA?
Thanks in advance for help.
15. Household Accounts: Any Household Account member who earns Gold Upgrade vouchers must redeem them personally. Gold Upgrade vouchers are not part of the Household Account pool and cannot be redeemed by another member of the Household Account. Household Account members who earn Gold Upgrade vouchers are subject to applicable Household Account redemption rules, whereby the Gold Upgrade vouchers can only be used for members within the Household Account. These upgrades cannot be allocated to Executive Club Members under age 18. An upgrade earned by a member under 18 is allocated to the Head of that Member's Household Account.
May 3, 2022, 4:24 pm
#573
Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: LHR
Programs: BA GGL, HH Diamond, IHG Diamond Amb
Posts: 375
So I’ve just realised I have a GUF2 expiring on Thursday and getting through to BA isn’t getting any easier so with the flights i want in hand does anyone have any experience with TAs that can do a booking with the GUF for me?
May 3, 2022, 9:57 pm
#574
Join Date: May 2014
Location: BRU
Programs: BA GGL, TK E (*G), ITA exec
Posts: 4,091
Hi, I have been reading the thread on GUF2, trying to understand if I can use it in the following way:
Book using Avios from WT+ into CW. From the thread, using GUF2 in this way, if there is no award availability in CW, I can still use it for 'I' class fare bucket? Is that correct?
Also, I want to book for family members who are not in my household account...I earlier thought that GUF2 can be used for someone else, but the conditions (below) seem to suggest GUF2 can only be used for members in the Household account? If thats the case, do i simply add them to my HHA?
Thanks in advance for help.
15. Household Accounts: Any Household Account member who earns Gold Upgrade vouchers must redeem them personally. Gold Upgrade vouchers are not part of the Household Account pool and cannot be redeemed by another member of the Household Account. Household Account members who earn Gold Upgrade vouchers are subject to applicable Household Account redemption rules, whereby the Gold Upgrade vouchers can only be used for members within the Household Account. These upgrades cannot be allocated to Executive Club Members under age 18. An upgrade earned by a member under 18 is allocated to the Head of that Member's Household Account.
Book using Avios from WT+ into CW. From the thread, using GUF2 in this way, if there is no award availability in CW, I can still use it for 'I' class fare bucket? Is that correct?
Also, I want to book for family members who are not in my household account...I earlier thought that GUF2 can be used for someone else, but the conditions (below) seem to suggest GUF2 can only be used for members in the Household account? If thats the case, do i simply add them to my HHA?
Thanks in advance for help.
15. Household Accounts: Any Household Account member who earns Gold Upgrade vouchers must redeem them personally. Gold Upgrade vouchers are not part of the Household Account pool and cannot be redeemed by another member of the Household Account. Household Account members who earn Gold Upgrade vouchers are subject to applicable Household Account redemption rules, whereby the Gold Upgrade vouchers can only be used for members within the Household Account. These upgrades cannot be allocated to Executive Club Members under age 18. An upgrade earned by a member under 18 is allocated to the Head of that Member's Household Account.
I don't know the answer regarding the HHA, sorry...
May 5, 2022, 4:24 am
#575
Join Date: May 2012
Location: SXE
Programs: QF LTG, VA Gold, BA Gold, HH, SFSC
Posts: 502
My TA (in AU) does all my GUF bookings. Hopefully you can find a local one that can help you.
May 19, 2022, 1:08 pm
#577
Join Date: May 2014
Location: BRU
Programs: BA GGL, TK E (*G), ITA exec
Posts: 4,091
Oh, wow, seems to be true
https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb...ditions-of-use
Effective from 19 May 2022
What's changed?- Gold Upgrade vouchers can now also be used on American Airlines flights (with some limitations on the ability to upgrade particular cabin classes).
May 19, 2022, 1:13 pm
#578
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,944
May 19, 2022, 1:17 pm
#579
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: LON
Programs: Mucci, BAEC, Eurostar
Posts: 3,291
According to this post, there's no Y to W upgrades, but all the rest seems available, sorry Karfa !
https://londonairtravel.com/2022/05/...ican-airlines/
https://londonairtravel.com/2022/05/...ican-airlines/
May 19, 2022, 3:17 pm
#580
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA GGL, A3 Gold, M&M SEN, FlyingBlue Gold, AS MVP Gold, Hilton Diamond, IHG Spire Amb
Posts: 902
Sadly there's no indication that C/A classes would work on AA metal, which means it's U/F, which is pretty non-existent on interesting routes!
May 19, 2022, 4:13 pm
#581
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Las Vegas
Programs: BA Gold; Hilton Honors Diamond
Posts: 3,227
So presumably to use on AA marketed and operated flights wholly within the US we're going to have to phone BA to book so it will be ticketed as 125- but the flights will be the AA prime flight numbers rather than BA codeshares? Equally I'm assuming that they'll be able to be booked if there's I class available and not just Avios availability?
May 20, 2022, 3:25 am
#583
Join Date: Jul 2013
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, Hilton Diamond *, IHG, Couples Romance Rewards
Posts: 2,350
May 20, 2022, 3:26 am
#584
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,944
i am not clear what availability you need to upgrade the AA flight? is it a specific selling class or reward availability?
new terms re upgrading on AA https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb...ditions-of-use
new terms re upgrading on AA https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb...ditions-of-use
Gold Upgrade vouchers on AA*
- Members with a Gold Upgrade voucher can now use this to upgrade on flights operated and marketed by American Airlines, or marketed by British Airways and operated by American Airlines.
- Gold Upgrade vouchers on AA are a single cabin class upgrade available on a single or return booking. For example:
- Premium Economy to Business
- Business to First
- Economy to Business (where Premium Economy is not fitted on the aircraft)
- However cabin class upgrades from Economy to Premium Economy are not currently available
- Vouchers can be applied to AA operated transatlantic and US domestic flights only.
- Upgrade vouchers can be applied at the time of booking or retrospectively to an existing booking. The Member must call their Local Service Centre to make the reservation, there is no option to waitlist for the upgrade. It must be available to book from the relevant availability. If no availability exists, the Member may call back and check availability at a later date.
- To upgrade a new or existing booking please contact your Local Service Centre at least 24 hours prior to departure. Gold Upgrade vouchers cannot be redeemed at the airport.
- It’s possible to upgrade a maximum of 6 Sectors per booking; Travel may not originate from or transit though the same city more than once in each direction. Bookings may contain a mix of British Airways and American Airline Sectors (including American Eagle). Other carriers may also be on the Itinerary but may not be upgraded using a Gold Upgrade voucher.
- Gold Upgrade vouchers can be used in conjunction with any published fare sold directly by British Airways for travel on American Airlines. Upgrading on American Airlines Reward bookings is not permitted.
- Gold Upgrade vouchers cannot be used in conjunction with any bookings that have already been subject to an upgrade (Avios points for Upgrade or Gold Upgrade vouchers), or any other promotions/offers.
- Rules of the ticket are governed by the original fare paid.
- When a Member books Gold Upgrade vouchers direct with British Airways the Member must pay for the ticket, but is permitted to give the ticket and upgrade to someone else. When a Member books through a travel agent, the Member must also travel on the itinerary.
- The Member and/or those travelling using Gold Upgrade vouchers will be personally responsible for any tax payable by them as a result of this offer.
- Gold Upgrade vouchers are not an entitlement to travel and are subject to Reward capacity restrictions.
- Cancellations: If you cancel your upgraded booking, the rules of the original ticket apply. If a cancellation is made more than 24 hours before departure, your Gold Upgrade voucher(s) will be reinstated, provided the Gold Upgrade is within its 12 month validity period. If a cancellation occurs within 24 hours of departure, the Gold Upgrade voucher(s) will be invalid for further use.
- Infants: If an upgraded booking contains an infant travelling on an infant fare, the infant will be automatically upgraded with the adults. Child fares will be subject to the same rules as adults.
- If using your Gold Upgrade voucher(s) on an existing booking and your ticket has already been issued, it will take 24 hours to re-issue the ticket.
- Standard booking lead times apply for your area. Members are responsible for paying additional taxes, fees, charges and airline surcharges.
May 20, 2022, 3:31 am
#585
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: London
Programs: BA GGL / GfL
Posts: 3,257
I have e-mailed the GGL team with the following questions and will post the response once it is received:
1) What Fare Classes need to be available on an AA flight in Business and First to be able to upgrade using a BA GUF (i.e. with BA it is I class and A class, what is the AA equivalent you need?)
2) If a GUF has been used on a cash fare to upgrade the BA portion of a multi flight itinerary, can the same GUF then retroactively be used to upgrade the AA portions if the relevant fare class is now available?
3) I believe the flight can be under a BA or AA flight number if operated by AA, can you confirm that is true?
4) Finally, can you confirm does the ticket have to be issued on 125 (i.e. BA ) stock to be eligible for GUF usage across BA and AA flights?
I know the last question has already been established as having to be on BA stock, but might as well get confirmation.
I also just received this e-mail with good news on AA Avios earning:
And that’s not all. Now when you fly with American Airlines, you’ll collect the same amount of Avios as you would when travelling with British Airways, no matter where you fly or in which cabin. So, you’ll earn up to 125% more Avios than you would have done before.
So it seems having to get BA codes on U.S. flight is no longer a requirement for extra Avios.
Pilot37
1) What Fare Classes need to be available on an AA flight in Business and First to be able to upgrade using a BA GUF (i.e. with BA it is I class and A class, what is the AA equivalent you need?)
2) If a GUF has been used on a cash fare to upgrade the BA portion of a multi flight itinerary, can the same GUF then retroactively be used to upgrade the AA portions if the relevant fare class is now available?
3) I believe the flight can be under a BA or AA flight number if operated by AA, can you confirm that is true?
4) Finally, can you confirm does the ticket have to be issued on 125 (i.e. BA ) stock to be eligible for GUF usage across BA and AA flights?
I know the last question has already been established as having to be on BA stock, but might as well get confirmation.
I also just received this e-mail with good news on AA Avios earning:
And that’s not all. Now when you fly with American Airlines, you’ll collect the same amount of Avios as you would when travelling with British Airways, no matter where you fly or in which cabin. So, you’ll earn up to 125% more Avios than you would have done before.
So it seems having to get BA codes on U.S. flight is no longer a requirement for extra Avios.
Pilot37