Changes to British Airways ‘Gold Upgrade for 2’ vouchers announced

If you are a British Airways Gold Guest List member, you will have received an email from British Airways about changes to the ‘Gold upgrade’ benefit.

Earn 2500 BA tier points in a year and you receive a voucher known as a GUF2 in the trade.  This lets you upgrade a cash ticket by one class (more details on ba.com here).  These can be used in two ways:

Book a cash ticket via ba.com and you can upgrade to the next category if there is Avios reward availability in the higher class

Book a cash ticket via a travel agent and you can upgrade to the next category if there are cash tickets available in the cheapest ticket bucket (‘I’ for Club World, ‘A’ for First Class) in the higher class

Using a travel agent means that you have substantially better chances of finding availability to use your GUF2 voucher.  The snag is that few travel agents know how to process the upgrade – the best bet is to use a specialist such as Propeller Travel.

Under BA’s changes, you no longer need to have your travel agent process the upgrade.  You can book a standard ticket via the agent and then contact BA to upgrade the ticket.

There is a snag, however.  If BA upgrades it for you, it will only do so if there is Avios reward availability in the higher class.  You need to continue to have the travel agent process the upgrade if there are no Avios seats available in the higher class but there are I/A class cash tickets available.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.