Guides

List of British Airways acronyms and abbreviations most often seen on Flyertalk

Let's face it, deciphering the abbreviations you see on Flyertalk might not be much fun. Everyone's speaking an alien language and the jargon is overwhelming. But for those who are trying to seek guidance to work out what the ones specific to the British Airways Flyertalk forum mean, let's try to help you.

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This is a working document, meaning that I will be updating it once in a while based on reader suggestions

As is common practice, you should try to read the context to see if the acronym fits. For instance, I won't be able to list anything other than the most important airport codes, but this will need to be differentiate from true acronyms.

Abbreviations and/or Acronyms

  • AA — American Airlines
  • APD — Air Passenger Duty
  • AY — Finnair
  • BA — British Airways
  • BA97BA97 website which is often used to track flights journeys and history.
  • BAEC — British Airways Executive Club.
  • B2B — Back to back, mostly used in the context of tickets which depart on the same aircraft as the arriving one. Most often used in the context of Tier Point runs.
  • CCR — Concorde Room, the most-exclusive British Airways lounge for First Class passengers only.
  • CE — Club Europe
  • CW — Club World. Also see “J
  • DUB — Dublin
  • EDI — Edinburgh Airport
  • ET — Euro Traveller
  • EU — Mainland Europe. This may or may not mean the European Union depending on the context, but if citing “EU fares” or “ex-EU fares” this typically means mainland Europe, excluding UK and/or Ireland.
  • ex-*  — “departing from *”, for instance “ex-EU” means departing from mainland Europe, “ex-LON” means departing from London, and so on.
  • F — First Class
  • FLUB — A First Class seat on normally three-class route where Club World or Club Europe is the highest cabin. Situations like this may arise for example when there is an aircraft swap, or more frequently on the London-Madrid route which is operated by a Boeing 777 with First Class despite the ticket being sold as Club Europe. Also see JLUB.
  • FR24FlightRadar 24. A popular website used to track movements of aircraft.
  • GBP — Pound Sterling. The main currency of the United Kingdom.
  • GGL — Gold Guest List. A higher tier of British Airways Executive Club Gold.
  • GLA — Glasgow airport
  • GUF1 — Gold Upgrade for One. A voucher allowing certain Gold members to upgrade their flight for one passenger by one class.
  • GUF2 — Gold Upgrade for Two. A voucher allowing certain Gold members to upgrade their flight for two passengers by one class.
  • GFL — Gold For Life.
  • HEL — Helsinki airport, home of one of the most notorious tier point runs which earn 80 tier points.
  • IB — Iberia
  • INV — Inverness
  • IRROPS — Irregular Operations
  • ITA — ITA Matrix, a popular search engine for pricing fares. Also see this article.
  • LHR — London Heathrow International Airport
  • LGW — London Gatwick International Airport
  • J — Business Class, may or may not be used in the context of British Airways. Also see CW
  • JER — Jersey
  • JLUB — Specifically short haul Club World seat on a route that is marked as Club Europe which is operated with a long-haul aircraft. A common example is Boeing 777 that flies daily between London and Madrid. Also see FLUB
  • JV — Joint Venture, often used in the context of the transatlantic joint ventures between British Airways, Iberia, American Airlines and Finnair
  • MAD — Madrid Airpot
  • MAN — Manchester airport
  • OB — OnBusiness, the parallel loyalty programme for businesses co-run by British Airways and Iberia. See this article for more information.
  • OJ — Open Jaw, as opposte to One Way (O/W) or Round Trip (R/T).
  • OW — Oneworld. Often seen written as “*O“.
  • O/W — One Way. Often seen written as “OW“. Also see Open Jaw (OJ) and Round Trip (R/T)
  • OWE — Oneworld Emerald (equivalent to British Airways Executive Club Gold)
  • OWS — Oneworld Sapphire (equivalent to British Airways Executive Club Silver)
  • PE — Premium Economy
  • POUG — Proactive Online Upgrade
  • QF — Qantas.
  • R/T — Round trip, as opposed to One Way (O/W) or Open Jaw (OJ).
  • TATL — Trans-Atlantic
  • TP — Tier Point
  • WT — World Traveller
  • WTP — World Traveller Plus, sometimes written as WT+
  • Y — Economy Class

If you have any other suggestions that should make this list, please leave a comment below and I will consider its inclusion.

4 Comments

  1. You’re not quite right with FLUB. That should be where a 4-class plane is used on a 3 class route. The first cabin may be closed for the flight, or if loads require it some Club passengers are seated in the first cabin, but with club service. It is not specifically short haul.

    1. I didn’t want to flood the list with airport codes other than the most important! It also probably doesn’t help most internet users if the abbreviations are buried in the Air Canada forum – I didn’t know it existed there, and probably many BAEC readers don’t visit there either.

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