How do I get British Airways Gold Guest List status?

How do you get British Airways Gold Guest List status?

Gold Guest List is one of the tiers of the Executive Club, British Airways’ frequent flyer membership scheme. In this article we’ll look at what you need to do to achieve British Airways Gold Guest List status.

There are four tiers as part of the Executive Club, three of which are elite. The Gold tier is the highest status you can achieve. If you’re not already familiar with how the Executive Club works, with Avios and tier points, we recommend you read this article explaining the basics of British Airways elite status and how you can start your journey towards Bronze.

Gold Guest List is not a tier of its own; it’s actually part of Gold elite status, which you already need to hold before you can join Gold Guest List. You can read more about the benefits of being a British Airways Gold status holder here.

Since Gold Guest List is a part of the British Airways Gold tier, you will maintain oneworld Emerald status for flights with oneworld airlines.

To achieve British Airways Gold Guest List status, you need to fulfill the Gold requirements in addition to earning 5000 tier points in a given membership year.

To remain part of Gold Guest List you must earn at least 3000 tier points in subsequent membership years.

Once you exceed 5000 tier points, you will automatically be upgraded to Gold Guest List status. Since you are still a Gold member, you will receive all of the British Airways Gold benefits in addition to:

• two redemptions per year where British Airways will open up to five reward seats per year for you as long as fare classes A, D, T and B are still available for cash (ie you can force Avios redemption seats to open up)

• dedicated priority service phone number with 24 hour availability

• the ability to invite two additional guests to British Airways departure lounges and one guest to arrivals lounges

• at the beginning of your membership year you may gift your status to one person with an Executive Club Gold Partner card and confer Silver status to two other people. These cards are valid for one year only and once they expire they will return to their previous status.

• complimentary Hilton Honors Diamond status

• a Concorde Room card, British Airways’ most elite lounge offering

If you surpass 6000 tier points during your membership year, you are given one additional Gold Guest List redemption pass for fare classes  A, D, T and B, for up to five seats per booking. These redemptions are extremely powerful, as they allow you to open up otherwise cash-only tickets for Avios, though only one redemption is permitted per flight and whilst seats in those fare classes are available.

(This article is part of our ‘BA Q&A’ series which explains how British Airways Club works.  You can see all of our ‘BA Q&A’ articles here. )

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

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

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

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.

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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

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