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Get a free First Class upgrade on Heathrow Express if you are Star Alliance Gold

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With the current SAS status match running, we currently have a lot of HfP readers who have Gold status in Star Alliance – albeit this will end on 1st September when SAS joins the SkyTeam airline alliance.

One of the lesser known perks of having a Star Alliance Gold card is a free First Class upgrade on Heathrow Express.

You can also do this if you are British Airways Gold Guest List, with identical rules, although that is a more select group.

Heathrow Express First Class

I took advantage of this offer on Wednesday – see the photos.

You really can’t complain about the value. I had a £10 one-way ticket (part of the current August offer) and upgraded myself to an empty Business First carriage. It was certainly more pleasant than taking the Piccadilly line at 7am.

You get 2×1 seating instead of 2×2 elsewhere, and you will rarely have company. There are no service benefits, such as free refreshments, although it is only a 15-20 minute journey.

The T&C for the ‘free First Class upgrade’ deal are here.

Heathrow Express First Class

It couldn’t be more simple. You buy a Standard Class Heathrow Express ticket and sit in Business First. When the conductor comes round, you show them your Standard Class ticket and your Star Alliance Gold card.

You are allowed to bring one guest with you.

I should point out that the T&C say that you must be on a ‘full fare’ Heathrow Express ticket. This does not appear to be true.

In all the years that this offer has been available, I have never heard of anyone being thrown out for having a discounted Standard Class ticket – and of course I wasn’t thrown out either.


How to earn American Airlines miles from UK credit cards

How to earn Star Alliance miles from UK credit cards (December 2024)

None of the Star Alliance airlines currently have a UK credit card.

There is, however, still a way to earn Star Alliance miles from a UK credit card

The route is via Marriott Bonvoy. Marriott Bonvoy hotel loyalty points convert to over 40 airlines at the rate of 3:1.

The best way to earn Marriott Bonvoy points is via the official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card. It comes with 20,000 points for signing up and 2 points for every £1 you spend. At 2 Bonvoy points per £1, you are earning (at 3:1) 0.66 airline miles per £1 spent on the card.

There is a preferential conversion rate to United Airlines – which is a Star Alliance member – of 2 : 1 if you convert 60,000 Bonvoy points at once.

The Star Alliance members which are Marriott Bonvoy transfer partners are: Aegean, Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Avianca, Copa Airlines, Singapore Airlines, TAP Air Portugal, Thai Airways, Turkish Airlines and United Airlines.

You can apply here.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

20,000 points for signing up and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

Comments (13)

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

  • Lumma says:

    Does anyone actually check your ticket? I can’t ever remember seeing a ticket inspector on the Heathrow Express. Or do they just have someone monitoring first class to stop self upgrades?

    • daveinitalia says:

      Prior to the barriers being put in at Heathrow in preparation for the Elizabeth line they used to do a full ticket check on each train. Now since the barriers they only seem to do checks in first class. You can pay for travel on the HEX with Oyster or contactless now so they know that as long as the barriers are in operation at each end then passengers in standard will have paid the correct fare. The HEX uses dedicated platforms at Paddington so these gates are configured not to let out those with non HEX tickets and to charge the higher fare on Oyster/Contactless.

      Since becoming GGL I’ve only used this benefit once and it was because the Elizabeth line was terminating at Paddington. The first class ticket checker was only interested in seeing my GGL status in the app when I said I paid contactless as seemingly he had no way to check my card.

  • PB884 says:

    The 10 or so times I’ve done this, my ticket was checked every time.

  • e14 says:

    No Expiry data on the SAS Eurobonus Gold stored in the iphone wallet

    • Bernard says:

      It will update automatically when you expire or SAS leaves Star, whichever comes first.

    • Deek says:

      The *A Gold icon will change next month when they move to SkyTeam, but you could try taking a screenshot now and showing that to the inspector and see how long you get away with it 😀

  • Steve says:

    Those seats look like the could do with a damn good clean.

    • daveinitalia says:

      HEX is no longer a comfortable experience. Ironing board seats in standard and the seats in first are about as comfortable as the old standard class seats just better spaced out. The old HEX trains had a really comfy 1-1 layout in first class

  • Stu says:

    15 to 25 minutes. I feel your pain!

  • CheshirePete says:

    I used the GGL benefit once using a standard fare with my guest using my 241 railcard and apparently this invalidates the offer so I was told! But he wasn’t bothered when I offered to move back to Standard! Those fine print rules……

  • Bernard says:

    Or just take Liz line (when it works) and save yourself a fortune for a few minutes more. Even the latter is questionable if your destination is not Paddington.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      My admittedly only 4 times using it I really didn’t really see the advantage. Actual time taken was much of a muchness when considering transfers etc

      I gave it two goes and ever since just take Liz or Tube.

  • Andy Stock says:

    The Heathrow Express should be closed down.

    The slots should then be transferred to the Elizabeth Line, with trains operating fast from Heathrow 123 to Paddington and then all stations to Abbey Wood / Shenfield.

    This would then help deal with overcrowding on the Elizabeth line stopping services between Hayes & Harlington and Paddington at peak times. Since you would separate most of the airport passengers from local commuters.

    Much better use of capacity than operating next to empty Heathrow Express trains 4 times an hour.

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

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