British Airways Gold Guest List Requirements Increased

If you think the systems US airlines use for awarding status are complicated, take a look at the systems offered by some non-US airlines.

For example, British Airways uses a “Tier Point” system for awarding status, with Tier Points being being awarded based on the distance of the flight and the class of service you’re flying within certain “tiers.” Beyond that, the number of Tier Points required to qualify for status is dependent upon what country your account is registered in.

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British Airways has three “traditional” status levels — Bronze, Silver, and Gold. But they also have some rewards above Gold, for those racking up lots of Tier Points each year.

Specifically, British Airways offers Gold Guest List, which can be earned by accruing 5,000 Tier Points in one year, or 3,000 Tier Points for two consecutive years. To put that into perspective, “regular” Gold status requires 1,500 Tier Points.

British Airways Gold Guest List benefits

What are the benefits of Gold Guest List? Miles from Blighty has a rundown, though they include things like:

• The ability to nominate one person to BA Gold and two people to BA Silver
• Twice a year you can make award reservations in a revenue fare class for up to five people traveling together
• The ability to take an extra guest into BA lounges (two guests instead of one)
• Diamond elite status

There are some other benefits, though those are the main ones.

Gold Guest List members get two award redemptions in revenue fare classes per year

British Airways Gold Guest List criteria changes

British Airways has announced on FlyerTalk that they’ll increase the number of Tier Points required to achieve Gold Guest List in 2015. British Airways is only changing the number of Tier Points required to qualify for Gold Guest List, and not to requalify.

You’ll continue to be able to requalify for Gold Guest List by earning 3,000 Tier Points per calendar year, though starting April 8, 2015, you’ll need to earn 5,000 Tier Points in a calendar year if you want to qualify for Gold Guest List — earning 3,000 Tier Points for two consecutive years won’t be enough for Gold Guest List anymore if you don’t already have the status.

Remember, Gold Guest List isn’t Concorde Room Card

To clear up any confusion, I think it’s worth pointing out that Gold Guest List is different than Concorde Room Card. Concorde Room Card gets you access to the Concorde Rooms in London and New York whenever you’re flying BA, even in economy. Concorde Room Card is earned when you accrue 5,000 Tier Points in a calendar year. The criteria for that remains unchanged.

British Airways Concorde Room London Heathrow

Bottom line

It seems silly to raise qualification requirements for customers that are already at least double qualifying for top tier status. The benefits they offer with Gold Guest List are no doubt valuable to some, though the cost of providing them is quite low. It seems silly to change that up.

Then again, while the qualification requirements are going up significantly, the requalification process is the same as before.

Is anyone here Gold Guest List, and if so, do you find it to be worth the flying?