[WearyWeagie]

So its been a busy year with lots and lots of long haul travel. Was glad to finally recieve some upgrade vouchers from BA executuve club, just like my colleagues get on American Airlines or Lufthansa for example.

Get some premium economy tickets booked for a return flight to Tokyo, 12.5 hours overnight, think i’ll burn one of these vouchers on this!
Quick check for Business Class seat availability, plenty of seats available still.

Call BA to book this upgrade and… “sorry we dont have any avios seats available”. WHAT??!! I can use use these vouchers on a reward seat!
She quickly passed me through to customer services who acknowledged and agreed with me that these vouchers are virtually useless as most reward seats on long haul overnights go very very quickly.

Best they could offer was to extend the voucher validity by six months if I cant use it and said that BA were currently reviewing this.

ARRRRGHHHH!

Do you think AA or Marco Polo or any other one world will match my Gold status??

[openfly]

BA have been “reviewing” this ridiculous upgrade voucher situation for the last 5 years….at least!
Having found these upgrade vouchers totally useless and with no incentive to go beyond the 1500 Tier Points to trigger Gold, I stop flying BA and go elsewhere where my custom is more appreciated.

[SwissExPat]

In General, When I get to one of the main threshold points with BAEC (i.e 600 for silver and 1500 for gold), I stop flying BA when I get to 1,500 and if I reach 600 I decide if I am likely to make gold and if not, then I stop also.

Once I secure lounge access and priority check in and extra Bag, then I see no incentive to continue for that Tier point year.

[Raffles99]

Without wishing to sound mean, you haven’t read the rules.

Tickets booked via ba.com can only be upgraded into Avios redemptions seats in Club World.

Tickets booked VIA A TRAVEL AGENT can be upgraded into standard cash seats in Club World as long as seats are still available in the lowest revenue bucket.

All you had to do was book via a TA. These guys are a bit chaotic but do know how to process the upgrades: https://propellertravel.com/guf2/

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WearyWeagie

[MartynSinclair]

agreed, GUF2 are virtually unusable for longhaul redemption. I’ve had 3 vouchers over the past 4 years and only ever been able to use a voucher for 1 sector (on a space available basis at the gate!!) & that was given as a service recovery, for not being able to use the vouchers for longhaul!! Even BA staff at the F check in area (T5) think they are useless, for longhaul.

I have managed though to use a voucher for shorthaul. I booked 2 avios economy tickets to Barcelona earlier in the summer and used a voucher to upgrade both to business. Not great value but at least managed to use.

Can anyone report being able to use these vouchers for a longhaul upgrade and for 2 passengers..?

[WearyWeagie]

Hi Raffles,

Thanks for the feedback. I did actually book my ticket through a travel agent and having reviewed the terms and conditions of the GUF1, only see the line stating its subject to reward seat availability.
Gold Upgrade vouchers are not an entitlement to travel and are subject to Reward capacity restrictions.

I’ve give these guys at propeller a shot though. Thanks for the tip!

[hyphen33]

This is typical of the whole BA Avios scheme. It is without doubt one of the worst airline miles program out there. That and the ridiculous BA high fuel surcharge fees are the reason I have recently let my Executive Gold level status slide down to Silver and will then let Silver slide down to Bronze etc , till I am done with BA for good. Lets not forget their outdated (by decades) business class ying-yang seating. What a sad , pathetic decline of a once great airline…..

[RomP]

I have seen a recent article from HFP on this, you can book it using certain travel agents as they can upgrade from cash fares. I have yet to try but I have seen comments from other members quoting the travel agent (Propeller Travel):

HFP Article:

Bits: BA GUF2 changes, Kimpton now bookable on IHG points, Tesco Premium Credit Card deal

Expert Travel Agency for GUF2!…

BA Gold Upgrade Voucher (GUF 1 & 2)

Hope it helps.

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WearyWeagie

[MartynSinclair]

[quote quote=891360]Tickets booked VIA A TRAVEL AGENT can be upgraded into standard cash seats in Club World as long as seats are still available in the lowest revenue bucket.[/quote]

…as long as your ticket does not contain another airline/codeshare.. In my case, the majority of my tier points are earned on a ticket that contains BA and CX flights. BA computers can not cope with two airlines, with or without a travel agent… so I can not use the GUF2 on the very route that generally earns me the voucher…

[Andy/Thailand]

According to status match, Marco Polo are saying they will match AA may give you a match or a challenge.

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WearyWeagie

[nevereconomy]

I did use all the Gold Upgrades I got in the many years I was Gold, but only for one person J to F and only on one route where I knew many months ahead I would be making trips.
Have to say reward seats were more available at that time – not sure if I would be so lucky today.

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

Hi All

As Martyn says Travel Agent bookings can be upgraded with normal inventory on these vouchers – unlike going direct to BA which requires Avios seats to be available to do the upgrade.

Downside is that has to be pure BA operated flights only on an itinerary along with a couple of other caveats.

[SenatorGold]

I’ve twice been successful redeeming my Gold Upgrade for Two vouchers. On the first occasion, I was able to use them for two tickets to upgrade an LHR to Tokyo Avios booking from PE to Club. On the second occasion I was able to use them to obtain two award tickets for LCY to JFK, returning from Washington Dulles to LHR.

[GoDownSouth]

I am pretty sure that Avios reward seats are (I) class seats – which are the lowest fare bucket…

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

Avois bookings in Business Class are in U class which is not in standard inventory. If using an agent they can use I class for the upgrade vouchers. But all avois redemptions or upgrades are U class for Club.

[Author]

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