British Airways makes genuine improvements to the ‘Gold Upgrade for Two’ (GUF2) voucher

If you earn 2500 British Airways Executive Club tier points in your membership year, you receive a ‘Gold Upgrade For Two’ voucher, known as a GUF2 in the trade.

The GUF2 voucher lets you upgrade a British Airways cash or Avios ticket by one class (more details on ba.com here).  Historically, for cash bookings these vouchers could be used in two ways:

Book a cash ticket via ba.com and you can upgrade to the next category if there is Avios reward availability in the higher class

Book a cash ticket via a travel agent and you can upgrade to the next category if there are cash tickets available in the cheapest ticket bucket (‘I’ for Club World, ‘A’ for First Class) in the higher class

Using a travel agent meant that you had substantially better chances of finding availability to use your GUF2 voucher.  The snag is that few travel agents knew how to process the upgrade – it is complex, involving sending certain information to a BA office in India and waiting overnight for a response.

The situation has now changed – and for the better.

The BA call centre will now process your GUF2 upgrade if there are ‘A’ cash tickets for sale in First Class, ‘I’ cash tickets for sale in Club World or ‘T’ cash tickets for sale in World Traveller Plus.

It is no longer necessary for Avios seats to be available in the higher cabin.

This means that you no longer need to book via a cash ticket via a travel agent and then hope they know how to process the upgrade.

For anyone who is looking to upgrade an Avios redemption, you can now use the GUF2 even if there are no Avios seats available in the higher class, as long as A / I / T cash tickets are for sale.  This is also a major improvement.

These changes are not yet reflected on the Gold benefits page of ba.com which still says that GUF2 upgrades ‘are subject to reward availability in the higher cabin’.  (British Airways never publicised the fact that travel agents could process upgrades if there was just cash availability.)  However, BA staff have confirmed to me that the change has taken place.

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 American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

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

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a 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

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

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

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios 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.

(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.)