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BA Gold Guest List? Here’s some very interesting news ….

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Yesterday we covered a new status match launched by Flying Blue, the loyalty scheme for Air France and KLM.

For a £99 fee, Flying Blue is matching all three British Airways Executive Club tiers to their Flying Blue equivalents. This is an excellent way to try out the competition if you have realised that you have no chance of retaining BA status beyond April 2026.

If you have British Airways Gold Guest List status (see here for what it takes to earn Gold Guest List) there is some very interesting news.

EDIT: Saturday 18th – it seems that the cap for Ultimate memberships has been reached. If you are Gold Guest List and apply now it is likely that you will ‘only’ receive Platinum status.

Flying Blue Ultimate card

Based on feedback in our comments and on Flyertalk, Flying Blue is quietly matching British Airways Gold Guest List members to Flying Blue Ultimate.

This is the Flying Blue equivalent of Gold Guest List and comes with some very strong benefits.

To put Ultimate in perspective, it requires 3x the flying that Platinum, the ‘normal’ top tier, requires. It also requires all of this flying to be on Air France or KLM – partner flights are not counted. It’s a fairly exclusive club.

(To put the maths into context, you’d need to fly nine return First Class cash flights or 15 return long haul Business Class cash flights, all on Air France or KLM, to achieve it. If your flights are under 3,500 miles you need to fly more, if they are over 5,000 miles you can do a bit less. Unless you are living on a plane you can forget about achieving it via short haul economy!)

What do you get with Flying Blue Ultimate status?

These are the standard benefits of Ultimate, as taken from this page of the Flying Blue website:

  • Receive four complimentary cabin upgrade vouchers per membership year, valid on cash or reward flights
  • One Flying Blue Platinum card for a travel companion
  • A blocked adjacent seat where possible
  • Earn 9 miles for every €1 spent
  • Access Air France and KLM lounges with up to EIGHT travel companions
  • Enjoy SkyPriority services for you and your travel companions
  • Bring one free checked bag on SkyTeam flights or two free additional checked bags on Air France and KLM flights
  • 24/7 support from Ultimate Assistant
  • Hertz Platinum status
  • Free same day flight changes
  • Exclusive check-in facilities in some airports
  • Exclusive areas in some lounges
  • Pre-boarding ‘on demand’
  • Fast track immigration (where allowed by law)
  • An overdraft facility of up to 100,000 Flying Blue miles – book a reward now, earn back the points later
Flying Blue status match

I believe that the cabin upgrade vouchers can be used in pairs to jump by two cabins, eg from Economy to Business on long haul, bypassing Premium Economy.

It’s a decent package, although – unlike Lufthansa’s HON Circle and BA’s Gold Guest List – you don’t get to access First Class lounges. That said, KLM does not have First Class and Air France’s La Premiere is a very niche luxury product with only four seats per aircraft and lounges to match.

For clarity, it isn’t clear if matched Ultimate members receive all of these benefits. We won’t know for a while if people are receiving the upgrade vouchers or the ‘Platinum status for a friend’ perks.

Just to be clear ….

Flying Blue has not said publicly that it is matching British Airways Gold Guest List members to Ultimate. It just so happens that everyone who has done a match so far has been given it ….

(The confirmation email you will receive after doing a match shows that you are getting Platinum, as expected, but your match is processed into Ultimate.)

I suspect there will be a hard cap on the number of GGL members given Ultimate. Please be very aware that if you are Gold Guest List and do NOT get Ultimate you won’t be getting a refund of your £99 status match fee, because it wasn’t a published benefit in the first place.

You can find out more about the status match, and how to apply, in this article from yesterday.

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How to earn Flying Blue miles from UK credit cards

How to earn Flying Blue miles from UK credit cards (April 2025)

Air France and KLM do not have a UK Flying Blue credit card.  However, you can earn Flying Blue miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

These cards earn Membership Rewards points:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Flying Blue miles which is an attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Flying Blue mile.

The American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it, not just with Air France and KLM but with any airline.

Category

Air France KLM and Flying Blue, British Airways and Avios

Comments (77)

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

  • Chris says:
    16 Jan16 January 06:07

    Just to say my email said Ultimate. Still waiting for the status to update.

    • John says:
      16 Jan16 January 09:24

      When you applied (and paid the £99) did it say Platinum and then it changed to Ultimate? This bit I am not clear about. Thanks.

      • joelyp says:
        16 Jan16 January 09:44

        I had the same. It says Platinum when applying, and I woke up to the confirmation email for status match today, which said Ultimate

      • Rob says:
        16 Jan16 January 09:45

        Seems the emails are now coming with Ultimate – something has changed overnight.

  • cranzle says:
    16 Jan16 January 06:10

    Hopefully more of this type of thing to come. Or discount or promotions for BA status holders to with another airline.

  • Hardy says:
    16 Jan16 January 06:30

    Oh BA is gonna love this. When you don’t have demanding GGL folks you don’t need a premium product.
    As a share holder of IAG, are you allowed to ask questions during public board meetings like ” Can you show me exactly how many active flights/miles/$$ spent by Club members in 2025 vs 2024?” In the next meeting? Or is that only for the pocketed board members to ask?!
    Sometimes you wonder what does Alex Cruz think of this ?

    • David says:
      16 Jan16 January 07:37

      The burning question is. “Where exactly does it say we asked for these changes?”

      • Hardy says:
        16 Jan16 January 07:47

        I think it was next to us requesting 28″ legroom, paid food and same fares. I think tipping the pilot was in my survey request too, maybe we get there faster.
        I also mentioned they should let people race to the plane, those who gets in first go,rest get the next flight. Easy way to avoid the EU/UK 261 fines for overbooking. Just overbook and make it like a Hunger games kinda thing to get on. Ofcourse Silver Gold abd GGL get a head start. Let’s really put the Budget in BA (Budget Alternative)

    • stifle says:
      16 Jan16 January 09:18

      You can absolutely ask questions such as that.

      Whether you will get a reply is quite a different matter.

  • Matt says:
    16 Jan16 January 06:52

    I’ve seen that this status match wouldn’t get a soft landing. My nearly expired Gold card would be matched to Platinum, but there’s no way I would make 300XP to retain it, but I might make 180XP which would be enough to retain Gold. Would I lose status completely if I only made 180XP, or would I be downgraded to Gold? Should I request a match just to Gold?

  • yonasl says:
    16 Jan16 January 07:58

    Can somebody quickly remind those of us less familiar with FlyingB the different XP buckets (ie: where BA is 140 TPs / FB tends to be 20 XPs, etc.)

    The magic number is obviously 180 XP but many of us cannot translate that into SH/LH business class flights.

    • Stuart says:
      16 Jan16 January 09:52

      The FB XP table is very very simple. For a “Medium” flight (i.e. international flight less than 2000 miles) you get 15XP in business class, e.g. LHR-CDG-FRA return in business class is 4 x 15XP = 60XP.
      The fare code does not affect XP. The dare code only is used to calculate FB Miles when flying on non AF/KL flights (or flight numbers whilst on AF/KL aircraft).

    • pigeon says:
      16 Jan16 January 09:57

      I think it’s 3 round trips? It’s 15XP per flight, and you’ll almost always connect via AMS or CDG it’s 60XP per trip.

    • Stuart says:
      16 Jan16 January 09:59

      And before you ask, it is well known that a long distance domestic flight (e.g. JFK-LAX) earns 6XP in business class whilst a short international flight (e.g. AMS-NWI) earns 15XP in business – it’s not strictly point to point mileage that matters for XP. Flying Blue was designed this way to keep high XP earning away from the USA and China where SkyTeam airlines have long distance domestic flight exist and favour the Europe home market.

  • Aston100 says:
    16 Jan16 January 08:04

    What is Hertz Platinum status?
    I thought presidents circle was their top tier?

  • Hardy says:
    16 Jan16 January 08:24

    Rob, I’ve got a burning question. What does Alex Cruz think of this? I’d love to know how his attempts of taking the airline budget cuts with the 20k spend objective?
    If you get a chance, do an interview or something from the iconic man himself please.

    • Rob says:
      16 Jan16 January 08:49

      I did get an email from Alex last autumn. Would be wrong to disclose its contents though.

    • CheshirePete says:
      16 Jan16 January 09:09

      I’ve said this on another thread, but I’d love to hear what James Hillier makes of all this…….

  • RonnieB says:
    16 Jan16 January 08:44

    Flying Blue is quietly matching British Airways Gold Guest List members to Flying Blue Ultimate

    ‘quietly’ LOL not any more

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

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