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How do I get British Airways Gold Guest List status?

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How do you get British Airways Gold Guest List status?

Gold Guest List is one of the tiers of the Executive Club, British Airways’ frequent flyer membership scheme. In this article we’ll look at what you need to do to achieve British Airways Gold Guest List status.

There are four tiers as part of the Executive Club, three of which are elite. The Gold tier is the highest status you can achieve. If you’re not already familiar with how the Executive Club works, with Avios and tier points, we recommend you read this article explaining the basics of British Airways elite status and how you can start your journey towards Bronze.

How do I get British Airways Gold Guest List status?

Gold Guest List is not a tier of its own; it’s actually part of Gold elite status, which you already need to hold before you can join Gold Guest List. You can read more about the benefits of being a British Airways Gold status holder here.

Since Gold Guest List is a part of the British Airways Gold tier, you will maintain oneworld Emerald status for flights with oneworld airlines.

To achieve British Airways Gold Guest List status, you need to fulfill the Gold requirements in addition to earning 5000 tier points in a given membership year.

To remain part of Gold Guest List you must earn at least 3000 tier points in subsequent membership years.

Once you exceed 5000 tier points, you will automatically be upgraded to Gold Guest List status. Since you are still a Gold member, you will receive all of the British Airways Gold benefits in addition to:

  • two redemptions per year where British Airways will open up to five reward seats per year for you as long as fare classes A, D, T and B are still available for cash (ie you can force Avios redemption seats to open up)
  • dedicated priority service phone number with 24 hour availability
  • the ability to invite two additional guests to British Airways departure lounges and one guest to arrivals lounges
  • at the beginning of your membership year you may gift your status to one person with an Executive Club Gold Partner card and confer Silver status to two other people. These cards are valid for one year only and once they expire they will return to their previous status.
  • complimentary Hilton Honors Diamond status
  • a Concorde Room card, British Airways’ most elite lounge offering

If you surpass 6000 tier points during your membership year, you are given one additional Gold Guest List redemption pass for fare classes  A, D, T and B, for up to five seats per booking. These redemptions are extremely powerful, as they allow you to open up otherwise cash-only tickets for Avios, though only one redemption is permitted per flight and whilst seats in those fare classes are available.

(This article is part of our ‘BA Q&A’ series which explains how British Airways Executive Club works.  You can see all of our ‘BA Q&A’ articles here. )

(Head for Points is the UK’s biggest frequent flyer website with 2.6 million monthly page views.  Want to learn more about earning and spending Avios?  Click here to read our latest news stories and click here to join the mailing list for our weekly or daily email newsletters.)


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (October 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

Get 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

30,000 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 great travel benefits – for a large 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.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

10,000 points bonus – plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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

Up to 80,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

Get up to 40,000 points as a sign-up offer 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.

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