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If you’re fortunate enough to hold Star Alliance Gold Status (and it isn’t a hard status level to reach) and if you happen to travel on the Heathrow Express (HEX), you will be entitled to free upgrades on single and return tickets purchased for travel on HEX.
The Promotion
Customers simply need to purchase a standard class single or return ticket for the Heathrow Express as they would normally. Once on the train, customers can choose any available seat in Business First Class and show both their train ticket and Star Alliance Gold Card to the attendant.
Amenities in Business First include complimentary newspapers and magazines, more leg room, wider seats, a personal table, a power socket at each seat and on-board TV.
The promotion is open to all frequent flyers holding Gold Status in any of the 21 Frequent Flyer Programmes offered by the Star Alliance member airlines and the promotion will run from February 15th until further notice.
The Catch
On the official page for the Heathrow Express promotion the wording reads (my bolding):
To redeem this offer, just present your Gold Status FFP card along with your full fare standard class ticket when boarding the train.
This would appear to rule out any of the cheaper advance purchase fares which can get as low a £5.50 for a single ticket on a weekend. Full Heathrow Express price list can be found here.
Bottom Line
This probably will only be of use to those who aren’t in a position to plan ahead and book tickets in advance. The words “full fare” would seem to suggest that even the “Express Saver” tickets, which can be purchased a the ticket machines on the day, won’t be eligible for the free upgrade….but that would make the promotion near-worthless on single tickets so I’d be surprised if they were excluded.
There’s always the possibility that the train attendants aren’t briefed properly and that, while they know about the promotion, they’re a bit fuzzy on what tickets qualify…so you may be able to get away with upgrades on cheap tickets if you get lucky. Feigning ignorance may be a tactic worth trying 🙂
I’d be interested to hear from anyone who tries to make the most of this promotion – what ticket(s) did you buy and how did you get on with your upgrade attempts?
Featured image courtesy of Heathrow Express
