BA Gold Upgrade Voucher Discussion and Wiki Thread
 

This guide is an attempt to bring together all the information and provide a thread focused on gold upgrade vouchers.

Acknowledgments
Although I have started this thread, the idea of doing the guide and most of the work and credit for putting the guide together goes to @srbrenna so it is really his guide rather than mine. I offered to post the thread as I have put all the screenshots in the picture hosting site I use.

Other related FT threads
There are also a few other related threads which are relevant to the vouchers:

BA Amex companion/2-4-1 voucher guide
GGL beginners guide - for information on jokers
Understanding GUF2 - previous GUF orientated thread

Contents

Earning the vouchers
Gold Upgrade Vouchers are awarded when you reach certain Tier Point levels and come in two flavours.

• At 2,500 Tier Points you will be awarded a Gold Upgrade Voucher for Two (GUF2) which entitles you and a companion travelling on the same booking to an upgrade to the next travel class. You can use a GUF2 for one person but obviously this will lose some of the value of the voucher.
• At 3,500 Tier Points you will be awarded two Gold Upgrade Vouchers for One (GUF1) which you can either use individually to upgrade yourself to the next travel class on two trips, or you can use both together to upgrade you and your companion in the same way as you would use a GUF2.
• If you fly enough you have the option to choose another two GUF1s at 7,000, 8,000, and 9,000 Tier Points.

The voucher should appear on your BAEC home page within a few days of hitting the threshold. The vouchers are valid for one year from the date of issue but can be extended for six months on request. It seems that the best time to do this is within the two week period before the expiry date and you can do the extension by calling BAEC.

Your GUF vouchers will show on your BAEC homepage in your “My eVouchers” table just above the section showing “My upcoming flights”. The “My eVouchers” table will not appear at all until you have at least one live voucher of some kind.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...923/BhPVkg.png

If you click on the “More voucher information” link you will be taken in to another page which shows more details on your current vouchers and used/expired vouchers.

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The wording can be a bit confusing regarding the benefit earned bar on the right hand side of your BAEC home page but this is what it means:

“Gold Upgrade Voucher (1)” is the GUF2
“Gold Upgrade Voucher (2)” is the two GUF1s

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...922/s5QIdP.png

Using the vouchers
Gold Upgrade vouchers must be used within 12 months from the date of issue - but can be applied to flights up to 355 days in the future - the actual date of the GUF’ed flight doesn’t have to be in the validity period of the voucher. However, making a booking including a GUF beyond the original validity date of the voucher can be difficult - and if the booking is cancelled beyond the original validity date of the voucher the GUF is not returned.

There are two ways to use a Gold Upgrade Voucher. The easiest way is to book through BA. This requires redemption availability in the upgraded cabin and can be done on ba.com or through the Service Centre. The second is through a Travel Agent (TA). Why would you do this? Well because a TA doesn’t need redemption availability and can book the Gold Upgrade Voucher into a revenue bucket which is a big advantage.

A GUF can be applied to:
- BA issued tickets (can include other carriers but only BA flights would be upgraded)
- TA issued (on BA stock) booking with only BA flights

A GUF cannot be applied to:
- TA issued (on BA stock) booking with other carriers
- Tickets issued on non-BA stock

Additionally the TA has to issue the ticket in the country of your BAEC membership.

You can't apply a GUF to a BA marketed and non-BA operated flight even if the ticket is issued on BA (125-xxx) stock. The flight must be both BA marketed and operated.

Booking with BA
To use the voucher when doing a booking directly with BA there has to be reward availability in the cabin you want to upgrade in to for the number of passengers who are to be upgraded. Reward availability can be easily checked by doing a dummy booking on ba.com. If there isn’t reward availability in the cabin you want to upgrade to then you can’t use the GUF - however BA do release extra reward seats sometimes and potentially right up to the date of the flight so keep checking regularly.

GUFs can be used with any published fare sold directly by BA. However, it excludes group bookings and those sold as part of a packaged holiday.

For a booking direct with BA the GUF can be applied at the time of booking or can be applied at a later date.

If you make an Avios booking and apply the GUF at the same time then you only need availability in the upgraded cabin, not the original one. However an Avios booking that is made first and later upgraded will need availability in both cabins.

If the underlying booking is a revenue one then you only require reward availability in the cabin you want to upgrade to regardless of whether you apply the GUF at the time of booking or sometime later. There is no limitation on the original selling class to which the GUF can be applied. You can check for reward availability by doing dummy reward bookings on ba,com, or using third party tools like expertflyer or rewardflightfinder (which has now replaced baredemptionfinder).

Revenue & GUF and Avios & GUF bookings can be made online via the reward search engine. In the Book flights with Avios search page use the “Book and upgrade” tab and pick from the “Use Gold upgrade and Avios” and the “Use Gold upgrade and cash” options.

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Once you select your flights you may get a pop up to select which voucher you wish to apply if you have several to choose from.

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And once selected you will be taken to the quote page where it shows you are using a GUF on the booking.

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Using the online booking engine should work for simple return bookings, but for complex bookings (e.g. multi-city or open jaw) you would have to call the Service Centre to book and apply the GUF.

For an existing booking there is no way to apply the GUF online so you would have to contact your Service Centre to do this.

Dual Inventory Fares (DIF) and going from WTP to CW
These new DIF fares have appeared from around mid-2016. They are a new type of fare to BA which effectively is almost like a POUG except the cost of the upgrade is included in the booking. They seem to be appearing mostly when purchasing WTP seats, and need inventory in both an economy and premium economy booking class. There have been difficulties with the fare mostly around attempting to upgrade in to CW using a GUF, and getting a correct price when trying to do this on BA.com.

If you try to use a GUF to upgrade from WT+ to Club the online booking engine on BA.com will not quote the dual-inventory WTP fare as the base fare from which you're upgrading. It will quote the regular T class fare instead. The workaround is to book the WTP fare online and then call the Service Centre to have the booking upgraded using the GUF.

There is more discussion of DIFs in the linked posts:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...ta-matrix.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ount-code.html

Booking with a domestic connection
When trying to book and upgrade using a GUF via the tool on the left-hand pane of the BAEC home page the booking engine won't apply the upgrade to domestic flights. They will remain in ET and not CE and the itinerary won't price. The workaround here is to use the "Book and Upgrade" tab under "Book flights with Avios".

Booking with a TA
You can use a GUF with a booking made by a TA. Many BA customers only book through a TA, and if using a GUF with a TA booking wasn’t allowed these customers would find GUFs to be completely useless.

The TA booking must be on a BA ticket (i.e. one starting 125-xxx). The booking must only contain BA flights (see January 2019 update below on this point) and you need to be one of the passengers on the booking.

For TA bookings the GUF must be applied at the time of booking. You can’t apply the GUF at a later date to an existing booking.

UPDATE January 2018 - the restriction to TA bookings no longer applies. If you book with a TA you no longer need to apply the GUF it at the time of booking. You can apply the GUF at any time by contacting BA directly up to 24 hours before your flight to process the upgrade. However, it is not yet clear whether this later applied GUF could only use reward availability rather than revenue availability, and it is not clear whether the intention is to stop TA applied GUFs completely. Further updates to follow in due course.

It is expected that these GUFs applied to TA bookings when done direct with BA would only be able to use reward availability and not the revenue selling class availability as noted below. However, it is expected that a GGL member could use a joker to force reward availability in order to apply the GUF. It is also expected that any eligible TA booking would need to be on a BA stock ticket (ticket number starting 125-...), and include only BA flights. For the similar UuAs applied to TA bookings the rules have previously said that the TA has to issue the ticket in the country of your BAEC membership as well. However, apparently this is not enforced consistently so hopefully this shouldn't be an issue. See these two posts for more information on that point https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/29280847-post33.html & https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/29282377-post38.html

For now the existing TA & GUF booking route (as described below) still remains open - i.e. booking with a TA and applying the GUF at the time of booking using revenue selling class availability. However, With BA now allowing GUFs to be applied at a later date directly with BA the logic for this existing route no longer remains so time will tell whether BA will stop it in future.

UPDATE January 2019- previously it was the case that if a TA submitted a booking to BA for GUF approval and the booking contained non BA flights, the booking would be rejected. However, as of the start of 2019 there are reports of a change of policy and that bookings containing non BA flights are now getting approved for GUFs. Obviously only the BA flights get upgraded.

TAs can’t see or use reward availability so the only type of booking where this works is for a revenue & GUF one. You can’t book with a TA for reward & GUF bookings.

Since a TA can’t use reward availability, instead they use revenue selling class availability - this is a big advantage since there tends to be better availability for revenue seats. Availability needs to be present in the cabin you want to upgrade in to, and the specific selling classes needed are:

• World Traveller Plus - T selling class
• Club Europe/Club World - I selling class
• First - A selling class (noted A class has been removed from the DXB and BOS route so it isn't possible to apply a GUF via a TA for those two routes, see this thread for more information)

You can check availability of these revenue selling classes by doing a dummy revenue booking on ba.com for the date and flight you are interested in, or use a third party service like expertflyer.

There is also more information which you can supply to your TA at the BA trade support site here:
https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb...d-card-upgrade

Using a Gold Upgrade voucher with an Amex 2-4-1 voucher
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.

For example, a pair of F off-peak reward seats LHR-SYD rtn would set you back a total of 680,000 Avios for two without a companion voucher, and 340,000 Avios with a companion voucher. Instead you can use your companion voucher to effectively book a pair of CW reward seats (250,000 Avios total off-peak for two for a return) and then also apply your GUF to go in to F which will cost no extra Avios. Your combined use of a GUF and a companion voucher have therefore saved you a total of 680,000-250,000 = 430,000 Avios.

As a companion voucher is only useable for reward bookings it would not be possible to do this with a TA.

Companion vouchers bookings must include the voucher owner so you can’t book for two other people. Additionally, companion vouchers usually require you start and finish in the country where the voucher is issued. For example, companion vouchers issued by American Express UK for the British Airways American Express Credit Card and British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card state that you must start and finish in the UK (or Jersey). Also companion vouchers require that all the outbound flights be taken prior to the expiry date of the voucher.

You can’t make a booking online at ba.com when combining a GUF and companion voucher so you would have to call your Service Centre to book.

A question has come up for two people travelling and combining one person's 2-4-1 voucher with the other person's GUF. It seems BA's position is that the primary account holder needs to be the same for the 2-4-1 and GUF, so you can't do combinations of vouchers from different passengers. Thanks to Full Score who reported this in post 132.

More information on the UK issued American Express companion vouchers can be found in this guide:
BA American Express Companion Voucher (2-4-1) Discussion and Wiki Thread

Using a Gold Upgrade voucher with an Lloyds voucher
A Lloyds upgrade voucher may be obtained when using a Lloyds Bank Avios Rewards Credit Card. However a Lloyds voucher can’t be combined with a GUF.

Using a Gold Upgrade voucher with Gold Guest List Redemption Rewards
For those who travel enough to reach the status of a Gold Guest List one of the benefits is Gold Guest List Redemption Rewards (commonly termed “jokers”). These allow you to make a reward booking on BA flights where there is no Avios availability as long as a revenue seat is available - in a simple sense allowing you to “create” reward seats where there are none.

When using a GUF for a revenue & GUF booking or reward & GUF booking normally if booking direct through BA reward seats are needed in the cabin you want to upgrade in to, but you can get around the lack of reward seats by using a joker to open up one or two seats as needed for the GUF.

As any booking using jokers needs to be done with BA; this can’t be used with a TA - although bear in mind TA bookings use the more available revenue selling classes noted above anyway.

UPDATE January 2019- Jokers require A class availability in first. Note that A class has been removed from the DXB and BOS route. According to some reports for those two routes BA are allowing use of jokers if F selling class is still open. See this thread for more information.

More information on jokers can be found in the GGL guide here:
Gold Guest List beginner's guide

What you pay
As well as using the GUF there may be an additional cash cost upgrading from one cabin to another - these costs for using a GUF are the same as the costs as if you are Upgrading using Avios (UuA).

Generally there is an extra cash charge going from WT+ to CW and WT to WT+, but no/minimal charge from CW to F. If using a GUF on short haul there would be a charge going from ET to CE. In all cases there is no change fee to pay when applying a GUF to an existing booking.

WT to WT+
From WT to WT+ there isn't any additional carrier surcharge. There may be additional APD in some cases though. For example, the APD for a WT class return from LON-NYC currently (2017) is £75, whereas the APD for a WT+ class return on the same flights is £150. As the APD is payable for leaving the UK and not arriving, the extra APD would only be charged if your GUF was applied to upgrade the flight outbound from the UK from WT to WT+. If your GUF only applied to the flight inbound to the UK there is no extra APD to pay.

When upgrading from WT+ to CW you should be paying the difference in carrier surcharge - there isn't a tax difference. The carrier surcharge applicable is route specific, generally though the longer the route the more the surcharge. For example starting from the UK the additional surcharge for CW over WT+ for a return to NYC is around £110 so the cash cost when applying a GUF should be in the region of £110 for a return.

A complicating factor is the relatively new WT+ Dual Inventory Fares (DIF) which have appeared from around mid-2016. They are a new type of fare to BA which effectively is a promotional upgrade from WT to WT+ except the cost of the upgrade is included in the booking. Whilst there is no reason you can’t apply a GUF to a DIF fare, you may find the additional cash cost in doing so is a bit more than usual For example, a normal WT+ to CW upgrade LHR-BOS return may be around £90 but for a DIF fare can be more like £160.

There is more discussion of DIFs in the thread linked to below:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...ta-matrix.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ount-code.html

CW to F
For an upgrade from CW to F there is no difference in carrier surcharge, fees, or APD. Any cash charge should be zero or minimal.

Update: as of summer 2018 it seems carrier surcharge on exUS bookings is now about ~$200 more per flight when going from CW to F so if you are applying a GUF to an exUS booking you should expect to pay this as well. Just to be clear, by exUS bookings I mean those starting in the US like one way JFK-LHR or a return LAX-LHR-LAX. If you book an exUK/EU flight which includes a return from the US you should be paying the UK/EU based carrier surcharge which so far seems to be the same in CW and F, so for a LHR-LAX-LHR return whether you GUF the outnbound/inbound/both flights from CW to F you shouldn't expect to pay more carrier surcharge.

ET to CE
When upgrading from ET to CE on a flight there may be additional APD. As the APD is payable for leaving the UK and not arriving, the extra APD is only payable on the outbound flight leaving the UK, and currently (2017) the extra APD due going from ET to CE is £13 per person. If your GUF only upgrades a flight in to the UK there is no extra APD to pay.

exUS
Note that the above estimates don't apply for exUS bookings. Carrier surchage in particular is much more expensive on an exUS booking, and there is a difference to pay going from CW to F.

For example, on a SFO-LHR-EDI rtn booking
TFC for SFO-EDI rtn in WT+ = $829.70
TFC for SFO-EDI rtn in CW = $1,485.70
TFC for SFO-EDI rtn in F = $1,885.70

Therefore:
extra TFC to pay when upgrading from WT+ to CW = $656 (~£507)
extra TFC to pay when upgrading from CW to F = $400 (~£309)

It's always recommended to do some dummy cash bookings on ba.com or itamatrix and look at the TFC figure shown in the price breakdown if you want to see what to expect when applying your GUF.

All cases
In all cases any changes in taxes, charges for customs, immigration, carrier surcharge, airport service fee, passenger service charge which have happened since the original booking was made will be taken in to account. Where these charges are priced in a currency different to what you are using to pay there may also have been exchange rate changes which change the amount needed. This really only become significantly relevant if there is a large time period in between originally making the booking and subsequently applying the GUF, and even then this recalculation of charges is unlikely to amount to more than a few pounds at most.

Cancellations
If you cancel an upgraded booking more than 24 hours before departure your GUF will be reinstated, provided the Gold Upgrade is within its 12 month validity period. If a cancellation occurs within 24 hours of departure, the GUF will not be reinstated as it is be invalid for further use. The refund of the cash/avios for underlying fare will depends on the fare rules of the original ticket.

Changing your BAEC country
If the voucher holder moves countries, and as a consequence changes their BAEC membership home country, the good news is that the gold upgrade vouchers will travel with you and you will not lose them. However, any non-BA issued vouchers (e.g. Amex companion voucher, Lloyds upgrade vouchers etc.) do not move with you and you would lose them

Terms and Conditions (as of 14 November 2018)
Previous version from October 2017 can be found in post 223. Changes highlighted in red.

1. 1 x Gold Upgrade for Two voucher can be earned by Gold Members when they earn 2,500 Tier Points and 2 x Gold Upgrade for One vouchers can be earned when they earn 3,500 Tier Points. Gold Upgrade vouchers are a single cabin class upgrade available on a single or return booking. For example:
2. Gold Upgrade for Two vouchers can be used for up to two travellers on the same reservation, or a single traveller, but cannot be divided and when used, cannot be used again. Existing Gold Upgrade for Two vouchers awarded to Members' accounts also cannot be divided.

3. Gold Upgrade vouchers must be booked within 12 months from the date of issue.

4. Gold Upgrade vouchers can be used in conjunction with any published fare sold directly by British Airways, including Reward bookings and package holiday fares. However, it excludes group bookings and those sold as part of a packaged holiday. Gold Upgrade vouchers may be used in conjunction with eligible industry or agency discounted fares only.

5. 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.

6. Rules of the ticket are governed by the original fare paid. In the case of Reward tickets, Standard Redemption Rules apply.

7. Gold Upgrade vouchers are available for British Airways and franchise operated flights only. Partner and codeshare flights are excluded.

8. Gold Upgrade vouchers cannot be applied to a booking containing any carriers other than British Airways.

8. To upgrade a new Avios points booking please go to Ba.com or contact your Service Centre, or to upgrade an existing Avios points booking please contact your Service Centre. To upgrade a new paid booking please go to Ba.com or call your local Service Centre. Gold Upgrade vouchers cannot be redeemed at the airport.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. Gold Upgrade vouchers are not an entitlement to travel and are subject to Reward capacity restrictions.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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.

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.

16. Standard booking lead times apply for your area. Members are responsible for paying additional taxes, fees, charges and airline surcharges.

Very well put together and informative thread, KARFA. Many thanks. It answered a couple questions I was about to ask in the other thread about changing tickets.

Cheers

This is fantastic - huge thanks to srbrenna and KARFA ^^

Will get this added to the dashboard ASAP

May need to add (unless I have missed it), if people move countries, and as a consequence change their BAEC membership home country, the GUFs will travel with you, but any non-BA issued vouchers (Amex companion, Lloyds vouchers etc) , do NOT!

Great guide overall ^, but a couple of omissions with respect to TA use of GUFs but according to the number of PMs I have received, people do not like this information shared.

Thanks KARFA, a very clear and straightforward guide. I now understand why I couldn't use my GUF2 to upgrade my South Africa trip (adding an airport hotel turned it into a holiday package.)

Thanks for the comments. I am glad folks are finding it useful already. Also as I noted in post 1 this very much srbrenna guide which I helped with a bit so my thanks to him for the idea and for doing a lot of the work.

Thanks, that is a good point which I don't think either of us found when doing research. I will add it to the guide.

I'm never likely to need this advice personally but have often wondered what these instruments were all about. Very interesting stuff and well explained.

Thank you! Very useful.

Good job. Thanks to KARFA and srbrenna. Currently fairly knackered sitting in the T3 F lounge awaiting the final leg of my first GUF 2 (albeit for one) back to PRG. Thoroughly enjoyed the upgrade to F on the LHR-SIN-SYD legs. Its been a great trip home Downunder with outstanding BA service on all legs, and a long day today as arrived via BA 12 from Sin early this morning and followed it up with a visit to mater down the M3 and then rushed back in time for the necessary SVG back to back before heading off to PRG later tonight. Cabin crew thought I was barking mad doing all this just for a shot at the BA F product. But must say like the Espresso martinis in the Concorde lounge the F product for me at least could prove addictive. Just need 500 more TPs over the next 3 weeks to hit 3500 and guarantee 2 more GUF,s - which will get used albeit via scenic routings.

OF