BA Gold Guest List lounge access rule changes, effective immediately. Some drawbacks though.

BA's Gold Guest List (GGL) is like a Gold+ tier, for those who hit above 5000 Tier Points and subsequently maintain at least 3000TP thereafter. It comes with perks such as being able to give Gold status to a friend and Silver to two more. Then there is requesting extra availability on reward flights where there are cash fares available but for whatever reason the reward space is not.

One of the more favourable features is that you could take an additional guest into the departure lounges totalling 2 guests, whereas normal Silver and Gold members would only be able to take one.

This is set to change though. Effective immediately GGL members can take up to 5 guests into the departure lounges. While on the face of it this seems like a beefed-up benefit there are some restrictions to neutralise this change:

• The biggest restriction is that all guests must be on the same flight as yours. You may not necessarily be on the same booking reference but they must all be on your flight.
• The flight must be British Airways marketed and operated, which rules out codeshares and other Oneworld flights
• While GGL +2 guests could use the Concorde Room, this arrangement must be in Galleries First or Galleries Club lounges British Airways lounges and not at other partner airline or contracted lounge.
• If flying out of Heathrow all guests can use the First Wing normally reserved for Gold, or Oneworld Emerald, but other locations will use the normal security lines unless told otherwise.

A couple of questions that do remain unanswered for me though:

• Can a GGL member still take 2 guests into Concorde Room? (i.e. as it was before)
• And can 2 guests still be taken when flying Oneworld Partner Airlines, even if not on your flight?

Hopefully someone can answer this for me, otherwise I'll email BA Executive Club to get some answers and update this post in the near future.