British Airways Gold Guest List members can now take five guests into airport lounges

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British Airways has announced that Gold Guest List members (see this article for how you get to become Gold Guest List) can permanently bring five guests into a lounge.

This has been trialled over recent school holiday periods and clearly went well. It will not be a total free for all though:

all guests must be travelling on the same flight, but not necessarily the same booking

at busy periods you may be told to use Galleries Club instead of Galleries First

it does not allow Concorde Room access

it only applies at British Airways lounges

it only applies when flying on BA and not a partner airline

the full party can use the First Wing in Terminal 5 but at all other departure points, including Heathrow T3 and Gatwick, additional guests must use the standard security line

It remains to be seen how much with leads to increased overcrowding. During school holidays this benefit was generally used to bring in children, but with it opened up to a ‘year round’ benefit we may find more business travellers bringing in a group of colleagues.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

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British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

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You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

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The Platinum Card from American Express

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You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

British Airways and Avios

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

FlightDoctor says:

27 Mar27 March 07:07

Two family trips coming up and keeping fingers crossed they have the new catering. Does anyone know about these routes?
GATWICK-NAPLES and HEATHROW-HONG KONG
Mr. AC says:

27 Mar27 March 07:10

O/T: I’m thinking of flying ti Colombo on Sri Lankan, which is in oneworld. I’m checking business class availability with the tool on qantas.com – according to their website, there are some dates. Checking the same dates on BA.com – either nothing at all or only economy redemption available. The flight number is the same. Who is right? Does Qantas and BA get different redemption inventory on oneworld partners?
- BJ says:
  
  27 Mar27 March 10:03
  
  If you get a reservation and lime IFE then avoid the front row. Screen are mounted much too low on the bulkhead.
Nathan says:

27 Mar27 March 07:11

OT. Have gold Amex and referred wife few weeks ago for plantinum card (before rule change with sign up bonus). Just noticed that I got 9k points for referring. In the past I have got 18k points in this situation even when referring from gold.

Do I have any rights to ask Amex for the extra 9k points or was I just lucky in the past, and it now appears Amex have fixed this loophole?
- Peter 64K says:
  
  27 Mar27 March 07:28
  
  You were lucky. The referral bonus should be based upon the card the referree holds, so 9k per referral from gold, whatever card was eventually got.
Keith says:

27 Mar27 March 07:18

I have a marriot rravel certificate I will not be able to use is there any options to get anything back? Thanks
- Louise says:
  
  27 Mar27 March 08:06
  
  Used to be able to get 45k points back, I would look at Flyertalk forum for recent experience
- guesswho2000 says:
  
  27 Mar27 March 09:02
  
  I recently (six days ago) converted my pre-merger travel cert. The transaction showed as a 45,000point refund and reissue, so I assume they’ll cash in for 45k points.
- BJ says:
  
  27 Mar27 March 10:06
  
  If you got it before 18 August they will refund it. If the CSA refuses then escalate to a supervisor.
  - Keith says:
    
    27 Mar27 March 15:02
    
    Ah thanks all will give them a phone and hopefully refund the 45k
Jovanna says:

27 Mar27 March 07:59

I had a transaction on my Lloyds Amex, which I didn’t recognise, hit my account on Monday. The currency was Mexican Peso. Payment was to Banwire.com. Called Lloyds etc. I think I’ll be on my 4th or 5th card within about 18 months following all these compromises.

I’ll be relieved when they finally drop it!
- CV3V says:
  
  27 Mar27 March 08:09
  
  after fraud attempts on 2 different Lloyds Amex cards they didnt send me a 3rd card (they either forgot or its gone elsewhere!), and i have never chased them to issue one, its been all quiet ever since.
  - Qwerty Bertie says:
    
    27 Mar27 March 08:44
    
    That presents you a with a golden opportunity. Lloyds throw money at justified complaints, more so than any other bank in the UK, except that I cannot comment on Barclays as they have me on a real-life internal blacklist that officially doesn’t exist.
    
    Explain calmly on the phone how upset you are because of not only the lack of a replacement card, but how you have calculated that spend put elsewhere in the intervening time would have got you x number of avios (and a voucher, if that seems plausible in your case), and how none of this has been your fault/you’re a victim etc. Lay it on thick, and you’ll probably get uowards of £200 compensation plus some avios.
- Metopes says:
  
  27 Mar27 March 08:25
  
  Same found three Banwire transactions on my card yesterday, there is definitely something fundamentally wrong with these cards. The agent was good though and even found some small fraud transactions from a couple months ago I hadn’t noticed, will be checking very thoroughly going forward.
  - TescoTease says:
    
    27 Mar27 March 09:11
    
    +1.
    
    Banwire and PDF Filler. Both on the LLoyds Amex card. Possible data breach?
    - The Streets says:
      
      27 Mar27 March 09:38
      
      +1
    - Metopes says:
      
      27 Mar27 March 14:48
      
      My friend has been caught as well as me seems to be nearly everyone. Worth covering tomorrow Rob?
    - Brian W says:
      
      27 Mar27 March 21:31
      
      Nothing on my Lloyds cards or the Mrs’ ones. I’m not sure 4 or 5 Hfp readers + one of their mates, constitutes ‘nearly every’ cardholder.
Richard says:

27 Mar27 March 08:11

O/T but might be useful to others.

I recently got refused an interest free loan for a boiler as I’d made an overpayment on my offset mortgage in the month. The auto scoring assumes this is the regular monthly amount so turned down on affordability. The underwriter explained this and fixed it for me though.

Granted there might be a few less credit card apps from HfPers now…
Justin says:

27 Mar27 March 08:16

The best option for BA food out of LHR is always to order “Kosher”. Granted there is no choice but the quality of the meals is always excellent. BA use the same caterer, Hermolis, as supplies Kosher offerings to the Royal Household.
- SimonW says:
  
  27 Mar27 March 08:45
  
  I was just about to add this comment Justin. The meals are very good – I have used Hermolis to order food for kosher clients in London restaurants (Nobu didnt bat an eyelid, just heated and served it). And granted Kosher meat is more expensive, but if you look on the Hermolis website, you can see how much this is costing BA to buy. Family of 4 will cost them more than the entire Economy food budget!
  - Charlieface says:
    
    27 Mar27 March 15:52
    
    They obvs serve the Royals higher quality than BA’s redefrosted omelet-looking object. BA don’t pay retail prices so don’t even get retail quality.
    I think J and Y have the same food so J is probably lower quality than normal, but yes the Y offering is excellent, plenty people take it when they don’t usually eat Kosher.
    - SimonW says:
      
      27 Mar27 March 16:16
      
      I wouldn’t know about Y offerings thankfully. But every time we’ve ordered Kosher in CW it has been very good. And better than anything Ive eaten off the BA menu.
    - BJ says:
      
      27 Mar27 March 18:50
      
      Is it varied or do they just serve same few meals time and time again?
- Pangolin says:
  
  27 Mar27 March 18:04
  
  Good tip. I do exactly the same when flying Lufthansa!
IanMac says:

27 Mar27 March 08:30

Bah humbug to “it does not allow Concorde Room access”
Certainly last Easter holiday trial I was allowed wife and daughter into Concorde Lounge via my CCR card. (Prior to that they were very strict on one guest only)
- ChrisC says:
  
  27 Mar27 March 15:03
  
  as you say that was part of the trial and obviously BA felt that the CCR was too busy with the extra guests so have excluded it from this benefit.
  
  Personally I think BA have gone too far the other way on this. Should have been restricted to the same booking not merely being on the same flight.
  - Lady London says:
    
    27 Mar27 March 22:19
    
    I guess they are trying to cater for those families where there might be 2 avios seats on the plane for Mum and Dad, but cash tickets, which would have to separate, were needed for the little ones flying on the same plane.