British Airways ‘Gold Upgrade’ vouchers are now valid on American Airlines

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

• Stu314 says:

  22 May22 May 05:58

  “One sweet spot would be on American Airlines long-haul flights without a Premium Economy cabin, which I think means the Airbus A330-300, Boeing 757 and Boeing 767 fleets. These flights would let you upgrade directly from Economy to Business Class using a GUF voucher.”

  Except they don’t operate any A330, 757 or 767 anymore.

  • Bimbo says:

    22 May22 May 09:29

    Exactly, Rob’s knowledge of aircraft is a bit lacking.

    Correction for anyone else: upgrades from economy to business/first is possible on their A321s and 737s planes.

    • Bimbo says:

      22 May22 May 09:33

      And on the American Eagle fleet, as they don’t have premium economy.

      • Coleslaw says:

        22 May22 May 16:56

        None of AAs mainline narrowbody aircraft have PE.

• Joe says:

  22 May22 May 07:31

  That BA continues to withhold F award space is a promise not kept. This opens an opportunity . . . but the in-flight experience is simply not the same.

  • Chaz says:

    22 May22 May 08:17

    What promise? I don’t recall BA ever saying they were going to make F award space available.

• ChrisC says:

  22 May22 May 07:36

  Are you able to use a GUF on a BA holidays booking?

  • Cheshire Pete says:

    22 May22 May 18:17

    Yes indeed. I find the best use of a GUF2 is to book a PE Holiday package and use the voucher. Generally the Taxes on these are around +£120pp also, so not like using a 241 whereby you get stung for upwards of £800pp.

    • ChrisC says:

      22 May22 May 20:46

      Thanks.Good to know.

• VerdantBacon says:

  22 May22 May 07:54

  Considering AA J somehow manages to be a worse experience than BA J, this change doesn’t really do much

  • Yarki says:

    22 May22 May 09:13

    Disagree, I find the AA J seat to be superior to CW and meals on par.

    • Jacob says:

      22 May22 May 09:24

      I echo this. On my recent trips I deliberately switched to AA flights as the experience has been much much better than with BA sadly.

      • Nick says:

        22 May22 May 09:42

        Agreed, sadly. AA longhaul has transformed in recent years, even the food is good now. A nice trick I learnt a while back is to use the AA flights LHR-RDU and connect there. I actually really like their 777 business seats, particularly the rear-facing ones, and while the only usual downside of AA is the unpredictable crews, the Raleigh-based ones are without exception a delight. Average age 55, they grew up with proper Southern hospitality and service is in their blood. Tell them what you’re drinking when you board and if you’re awake you won’t have an empty glass.

        • The Savage Squirrel says:

          22 May22 May 12:24

          Raleigh-Durham was my first ever international flight (too) many years ago! Was a great experience back then even down the back – actually my main memory as an starry-eyed young squirrel was amazement at getting steak for dinner on a plane in economy (you can tell how many years ago that was then 😀 ) … and it even being not as terrible as you’d think.

        • Ziggy says:

          23 May23 May 21:26

          Agree entirely that AA’s 777 business class seats are (mostly) very good, but I’m reasonably sure that none of AA’s 777 have rear-facing seats.

    • ChrisC says:

      22 May22 May 09:38

      Yes I think AA much better.

      Food is better and they serve it as courses rather than on one tray and you can select your main from 30 days to the day before your flight and there is usually an extra dish that isn’t on the on plane menu. – things BA still don’t do.

      It’s the small things that make a difference.

    • Paul says:

      22 May22 May 13:40

      The AA seat was for a long time better than BA but as I haven’t flown BA J for 4 years I can’t comment on how if measures up to the BA suite with a door.
      I have preferred AA catering though hands down. They allow booking in advance, I have never been told they don’t have something and they know how to cook a steak. Something BA can’t do.

      Their Ice Cream Sundae is worth the switch on its own

  • JC says:

    22 May22 May 09:18

    AA J ie business class long haul presently has far superior food and drinks to BA. Some posters clearly haven’t flown for quite some time!

    • Alan says:

      22 May22 May 12:18

      East Coast overnight I don’t bother eating anyway, priority for me is sleep and eat at lounge before departure and on arrival!

  • Alan says:

    22 May22 May 09:48

    I found AA seats to be excellent. The downside is lack of EU261 cover coming eastbound – I ended up with an 8h delay with zero support or compensation from AA.

    • Steve says:

      22 May22 May 10:52

      Given BA’s current behaviour and unwillingness to follow EU261 rules, then there doesn’t appear to be a real drawback to flying AA.

      • Paul says:

        22 May22 May 13:36

        While not for a moment doubting that BAs behaviour has been scandalous, and I can vouch for this from first hand experience. My February claim, involving 2 cancellations on the same day, did result in BA paying out EU261 on both cancelled flight for both passengers. Over £840 on 2 club class avios tickets from SZG. Obtaining my addition fare and taxi costs did take a strongly worded email but the final £1300 bill was paid last week.

    • ChrisC says:

      22 May22 May 12:14

      Only somethign like 2% of flights qualify for either compensation or duty of care provisions so it’s not a factor for a lot of people. I’d rather be on a plane with a good seat and good food than on one with worse seats and food simply because of a small change of a delay and getting some compo.

      With US airlines the general rule is that they will offer assistance (hotels etc) when it’s their fault but not for things like weather.

      • ChrisC says:

        22 May22 May 12:14

        chance of a delay not change of a delay!

      • Alan says:

        22 May22 May 12:17

        Sadly not in my experience – we were kept in the terminal the whole night, eventually leaving at 7am. AA seats the same as Club Suites anyway and I don’t care about food on overnight eastbound flight as I just want to sleep (and will have eaten in the lounge) so the only remaining difference is having proper EU261 cover.

  • dougzz99 says:

    22 May22 May 11:00

    Also disagree. AA seat if good and at the moment food much better.

• Julia says:

  22 May22 May 10:48

  “the vouchers can only be used on American Airlines if the booking contains a transatlantic sector”

  Where does it say in the T&C’s?

  • Rob says:

    22 May22 May 11:10

    It doesn’t – but it was in the email BAEC sent me. Can you even book a domestic stand alone ticket as a 125- on BA stock?

    • dougzz99 says:

      22 May22 May 11:28

      No. BA only sell AA if it includes transatlantic. The question gets asked a lot on FT with people looking to book BA codeshares on AA without transatlantic, trying to get the 4 flights for BAEC status.

      • Nick says:

        22 May22 May 11:36

        BA doesn’t have traffic rights (cabotage) for domestic sectors in the US so couldn’t sell them even if they wanted to. Open skies is heavily stilted to favour US airlines as they did get the right to sell standalone flights in Europe – but in reality they all decided voluntarily not to do so in the end.

• iSub says:

  22 May22 May 14:11

  Are those thresholds reduced by 25% this year? I’m finding mixed messages online? I’ve about 2100 TPs at the mo and wondering if it worth making a push for GGL etc

  • ChrisC says:

    22 May22 May 14:26

    No. For earning the GUFs and GGL the thresholds weren’t reduced.

    • iSub says:

      22 May22 May 14:37

      Ah, good to know! Thanks ChrisC!

    • Will says:

      22 May22 May 15:18

      Specifically about the GGL threshold, I’ve read this has been reduced to 3750 until Dec 31st. Is this incorrect?

      • Cheshire Pete says:

        22 May22 May 18:19

        GGL renewals are reduced un tip end of year, it even says this in my BA online account with a message about it. Not sure about new members being 5000 has been reduced however.

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