Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

British Airways makes genuine improvements to the ‘Gold Upgrade for Two’ (GUF2) voucher

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

If you earn 2500 British Airways Executive Club tier points in your membership year, you receive a ‘Gold Upgrade For Two’ voucher, known as a GUF2 in the trade.

The GUF2 voucher lets you upgrade a British Airways cash or Avios ticket by one class (more details on ba.com here).  Historically, for cash bookings these vouchers could 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 meant that you had substantially better chances of finding availability to use your GUF2 voucher.  The snag is that few travel agents knew how to process the upgrade – it is complex, involving sending certain information to a BA office in India and waiting overnight for a response.

The situation has now changed – and for the better.

The BA call centre will now process your GUF2 upgrade if there are ‘A’ cash tickets for sale in First Class, ‘I’ cash tickets for sale in Club World or ‘T’ cash tickets for sale in World Traveller Plus.

It is no longer necessary for Avios seats to be available in the higher cabin.

This means that you no longer need to book via a cash ticket via a travel agent and then hope they know how to process the upgrade.

For anyone who is looking to upgrade an Avios redemption, you can now use the GUF2 even if there are no Avios seats available in the higher class, as long as A / I / T cash tickets are for sale.  This is also a major improvement.

These changes are not yet reflected on the Gold benefits page of ba.com which still says that GUF2 upgrades ‘are subject to reward availability in the higher cabin’.  (British Airways never publicised the fact that travel agents could process upgrades if there was just cash availability.)  However, BA staff have confirmed to me that the change has taken place.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

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:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

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

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

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.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

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.

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

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.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

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

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

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (29)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Josh says:
    1 Jul1 July 05:19

    This is good news!

    Does it now also apply to GUF1?

    Can it be applied after purchase (ie to a booing that has been made by a corporate travel agent / Expedia etc). Are there any restrictions?

    Bad news for Propellor etc as there is now no extra tier points since the IT fix nor availability improvement since this.

    • Mark Spencer says:
      1 Jul1 July 12:25

      What extra tier points?

      • ChrisC says:
        1 Jul1 July 14:21

        Some people on flyer talk have reported that when they upgraded to F from CW using a GUF that they were awarded the F tier points rather than the TPs for their original CW cash ticket

  • Robert says:
    1 Jul1 July 06:04

    Surely this applies for all GUFs and not just GUF2?

  • BugAlugs says:
    1 Jul1 July 06:46

    Makes it almost as useful as the redemption space release instrument.

  • John says:
    1 Jul1 July 07:30

    Rob, thanks for reporting on this very good news.
    When trying to exercise GUF vouchers previously I could not understand why BA were unable to do it but the specialist travel agent could. Although the travel agent came to the rescue, and we were indeed grateful, it was always a lot of hassle, with some additional costs.
    Hopefully now it will all be much more straightforward!

  • Froggee says:
    1 Jul1 July 08:10

    I’m going to earn my first (and probably only) ever GUF2 this year so it’s nice to know it should be relatively easy to use.

  • Russ says:
    1 Jul1 July 08:33

    I’ve not come across this before so please be gentle folks:

    1) Are the upgrades free but you have to pay extra fees commensurate with that new cabin class?
    2) Do you get all the rights and privileges of the new cabin class i.e. lounge access?
    3) Do you have to register to join this or is being part of BAEC enough and they just turn up in your account?

    Thanks

    • Russ says:
      1 Jul1 July 08:35

      OK 🙂

      https://headforpoints.com/2019/01/02/what-is-a-british-airways-gold-upgrade-for-two-for-one-voucher/

    • Rob says:
      1 Jul1 July 08:48

      1. If you are upgrading an Avios ticket there will be some extra taxes, not if upgrading a cash ticket
      2. Yes, except for tier points and Avios which are for the original booked class
      3. Automatic on hitting 2500 tier points in a membership year

      • Liam J says:
        1 Jul1 July 09:08

        There might not be any extra taxes on a cash ticket upgrade WTP-CW, but there are extra “carrier imposed surcharge” fees. I did this over the weekend, and a UK-US trip for me was £100 extra per person per sector, I.e. £400 extra for a GUF2 return.

      • Russ says:
        1 Jul1 July 18:21

        Thanks Rob and Liam. Is this now worth getting on the Gold guest list? I work it out 3500 tier points a year for seven years and then free lounge access for life for one and partner.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          1 Jul1 July 21:21

          GGL is 5k to earn and then 3k each year after that to keep it

          • Russ says:
            1 Jul1 July 22:31

            Thanks TG, cleared up nicely. I see there’s also a 50,000 avios bonus they’re throwing in so could be interesting.

  • Jeff says:
    1 Jul1 July 08:34

    Do you need Avios availability in the class you are upgrading from ? Or if there is A/I/T cash availability does the call centre book that for you and just charge the lower class redemption avios regardless…..

    • Alex says:
      1 Jul1 July 22:17

      Yes, you need a valid booking in the original travel class before you can upgrade (cash or Avios). Otherwise it simply becomes a free ticket, and that’s not what’s GUFs are.

  • Liam J says:
    1 Jul1 July 08:58

    I used one of these over the weekend on the phone with BA. It went through in the end, but required lots of calls from the agent to the “fares department”. The call lasted over 90 minutes to get this booked for a simple return BA metal flight

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

NEW: Sign-up bonuses boosted to 3,000 and 18,000 points

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!