What is the British Airways Gold Priority Reward?

Today I want to answer the questions “What is the British Airways Gold Priority Reward, and how does it work?“.

As an Executive Club Gold member you might already be familiar with the range of benefits that British Airways Gold status holds – including lounge access, priority check-in and free seat selection – but one of the lesser known perks of being a Gold member is actually one of the best: the Gold Priority Reward.

For every flight, British Airways guarantees at least four Business and eight Economy Class seats are available for Avios redemptions.  Long haul flights are also guaranteed two Premium Economy seats, making 14 Avios seats in total.

Whilst additional seats are usually released, you may find yourself out of luck with no seats available for Avios redemptions. In this case, you can either try and find an alternative flight that does have availability or – you may be able to use a Gold Priority Reward

What is a BA Gold Priority Reward?

Gold Priority Rewards allow you to book any seat on any British Airways flight using Avios.  If you can see a seat available for cash on your chosen flight, you can call your Executive Club service centre and ask them to book you a seat with your Avios.

The catch is that it will cost you double the usual Avios amount and you must book at least 30 days in advance. Unfortunately, the offer is not valid with 2-4-1 vouchers.

In theory, this is an incredibly powerful (and useful) ability if you are caught out and absolutely need to get on a particular flight.  Over February half term, for example, you can expect to pay £500 for a Saturday to Saturday return British Airways economy flight to the major ski resorts.

Gold Priority Rewards are priced off the ‘most Avios, least cash’ pricing option. This is unfortunate, because it is means that you are paying double the most expensive option. To fly to Salzburg in our ski example above, for example, the ‘most Avios’ reward in Economy on a peak date costs 19,500 Avios + £1. This doubles to 39,000 Avios + £1 for a Gold Priority Reward.

If the cash alternative is £500, of course, 39,000 Avios is still good value. There are few times of the year where you would otherwise be paying £500 for a return Economy flight though.

However, it may be that you are Avios rich and value your time more than your Avios, particularly if most of your points are from work-funded business travel and do not need to justify a minimum value when you spend them.

There is one other catch.  You can’t use a Gold Priority Reward on a BA Cityflyer service from London City Airport or on a BA Euroflyer service from London Gatwick.  This is because, technically, Cityflyer and Euroflyer are separate businesses inside British Airways and not treated as part of the ‘mainline’ operation.  Strange but true.

(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. )

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2025)

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 Mastercard

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

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

50,000 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits 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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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.