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

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• novemberwhiskypapa says:

  1 Jul1 July 09:57

  Would this also apply to bookings where the voucher holder isn’t travelling? Or does that scenario still require redemption availability?

• Paul Richardson says:

  1 Jul1 July 15:24

  I used this today booking WTP into CW from LHR-CHI in November – phoned through and although the system can’t do it automatically I received a prompt call back with all details taken care of very efficiently. Made a significant saving over a cash purchase in CW.

• mr_e says:

  1 Jul1 July 16:39

  Welcome news and I hope they continue their efforts to make these easier to redeem … I had one which recently expired unused as it was impossible to find walk-up long haul business/first reward seats on convenient weekend dates … as I see it there are 3 options for using these vouchers none of which worked for me:

  1) wake up at 1am two separate times to book out and return 355 days in advance … slightly weird given the voucher is supposed to increase pleasure/comfort … and difficult for me as my work schedule is not visible that far in advance

  2) pay for seat alerts (which seem to account for a lot of redemptions nowadays perhaps explaining the poor walk-up availability), but then you have to book your holiday gambling that seats become available and you are the fastest to grab them … a miserable customer experience for something that is supposed to engender loyalty

  3) you can use the method mentioned in this article, which is the only civilised option out of the three, but the A/I fare classes seem quite patchy and were not available whenever I tried to book, plus you don’t have the flexibility (cancel for £35/seat) that you get with reward bookings

  A bit of a rant but in my opinion if you do a brutal and expensive year earning one of these, then upgrade should mean upgrade and it should be bookable on any flight with no gotchas

• Peter says:

  1 Jul1 July 16:44

  Do the upgraded flights processed directly through BA also book into the mentioned fare buckets A, I and award the higher tier points and Avios as is the case when booking through the travel agent?

  • Rob says:

    1 Jul1 July 17:12

    This loophole has now, in the main, been fixed and you are unlikely to get Avios and TP from the higher booking class.

    • Adrian says:

      1 Jul1 July 17:43

      Yes definitely closed now, the one I did last month through a TA booked into the original class, not the upgraded one, so without additional tier points there’s really no reason to use a TA anymore.
      Rob any early news on whether you can include codeshares or purely BA metal?

• Max says:

  1 Jul1 July 17:15

  As others have asked, surely this new benefit must also apply to the GFU1 and not just GUF2 voucher?

  • Bill Carson says:

    1 Jul1 July 21:59

    I just used one GFU1 to upgrade to CW for my Wife to US West Coast later in the year and it worked fine with no Avios availability but ‘I’ class seats available. Sounds like there’s a lack of information for the call center staff though, but I was lucky and got someone who’d already done one earlier in the day. Guess book something soon before BA realize their mistake 🙂

• Phil G says:

  2 Jul2 July 14:23

  Hi, thanks for pointing this out. Just upgraded a previously cash booked Club World to JNB to First using a GUF1 voucher (so works for those too).
  So far ‘manage my booking’ shows me getting avios and tier points based on first too 🙂
  BA agent knew nothing about this! Had to insist she asked a supervisor. Sorted quickly and with an apology though.

• Chechire Pete says:

  2 Jul2 July 19:01

  So, In conjunction with a 2 for 1 voucher it will still upgrade into F cash bucket?

• riku2 says:

  7 Jul7 July 15:31

  For upgrades into first class this isn’t quite so good as it seems since BA are completely removing the cheaper A class from some routes. Boston and Dubai have had it removed already so nobody can use a GUF voucher to upgrade CW -> First on those routes regardless of how you book.

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