[patvanh]

I am new to this forum. As a EC gold member I cannot understand that some people ( VK and others) agree with a reduction of the EC gold card perks. You must be BA staff or associated. As many others expressed on this forum, why go for gold if you get the same benefits with silver. Once you have silver you better go for a high tier level on M&M or Air France/KLM, in order to keep all options open. From a marketing point oif view, this is a major mistake. Many people in my company are frrequent travellers, why should they bother to go for EC gold?

[NTarrant]

If LH, AF et al don’t offer anytime access, why is so hard to accept that BA is falling in line. Martyn is quite right about the alliance.

A few posters have highlighted the fact that BA does not travel to a particular destination so they have to use EZY or whoever. So you can use BA lounge at LGW, but what lounge do you use at your destination on your return trip?

[Binman62]

This site has 46 post on this subject since the 20th, the vast majority of which are annoyed by this decision by BA.
Another site has had 416 posts with almost 17000 views since May 20th. Is this BA’s Ratner moment?
For me it remains a dumb decision, badly communicated and in isolation from any other change to EC terms and conditions.
Remember to be a UK GCH requires close to £30,000 of spend a year and it is beyond my comprehension why you would wish to upset these customers in any way. What price a cup of coffee and a sandwhich.
Perhaps there are very few UK based GCH who spend this sort of money given the deals that many corporate customers are given as well as BA’s focus on EU passengers, who have to spend just £12k for the same privileges.

Seems to me BA know the costs of everything but the value of nothing.

[NTarrant]

Binman you don’t have to spend anywhere near £30K to retain Gold in a year. In fact you can do it for slightly less than £5K. It will depend on the journeys that are being used. Low volume long haul or high volume short haul. This is hardly a Ratner!

Lets put this in perspective, it is a shame that the facitity is being withdrawn. The email notification could have been much better and could have offered a sweetener of some kind. No other airline offers a simular facility. From a business perspective you would not provide a facility to customers of another organisation even if they normally buy from that organisation.

[FlyingChinaman]

NTarrant: I am sorry to correct you as CX still allows their Highest tier members to use their BUSINESS Class lounges WHEN flying with another airline. Let’s hope CX does not emulate BA in the future!!!

But we have very few LLC flights out of HKG and most of CX’s best customers shun these LLC travels anyway!!!!!! Very different situation from the recent trend with BA .

I feel sorry for BAEC members who are loosing this very useful travel perk but the party (over 10 years of enjoyment?) must come to an end!

[Swissdiver]

@NTarrant: business perspective: it is about satisfying your best clients, not upsetting them! BA’s decision here is blunt stupid and badly communicated.
On the accounting side, you should also review it. 1500 points divided by 240 (2 x 120 for a return business class journey) = 6.25, i.e. 7 journeys @ about GBP 3000 a ticket…

[MartynSinclair]

I had a quick review of the FT comments on this subject. I would say the vast majority are complaining about how it was communicated and with one months notice than the fact that Anytime Access has been removed.

How can the airline justify providing a benefit to its own frequent flyers when the frequent flyers are purchasing a ticket on another airline for what ever reason.

I find it even more bizarre that some frequent flyers question the point of having a Gold card and are claiming never to fly the airline again.

I think people have been watching “Up in the air” too many times.

[Swissdiver]

@Martyn: as a UK resident, I agree many won’t change much their travelling habits. But all the travellers who have to anyway take a feeder flight to fly to another continent have more choice… From GVA, I can really select which hub I want to use. And I do…

While I am not saying I won’t fly BA again, I stopped flying the late Swissair for years just because, as many other GVA based travellers, we felt betrayed by the airline…

[BlackTower]

Ntarrant how excatly does one retain gold for £5k?

Openfly as may have been pointed out already its strictly 1 guest for GCH too

[Daytripper]

If it’s any consolation for Easyjet LGW travellers, ‘No1’ have just opened a lounge directly underneath the BA facility in the North Terminal, available for Priority Pass and on-the-day paid access.

[MartynSinclair]

Their tomato soup is simply the best. One area where No. 1 beats the Terraces!

[Cedric_Statherby]

Martyn

Your post at 16.34 is a masterful summary.

The decision is sensible, understandable and rational from a commercial standpoint. The communication was crass and inept. The person responsible for drafting the email should be fired, not least because he/she has

(a) clearly annoyed BA’s premier customers (Sin number 1)
(b) out of all proportion to the scale of the issue (Sin number 2)
(c) and offered absolutely nothing in exchange (Sin number 3)

These are absolutely basic sins in marketing. Viz:

Rule 1 – if you have to annoy anyone, try not to annoy those who give you most business
Rule 2 – if you have to annoy premium customers, try to keep the downside of the annoyance smaller than the upside you think your move gives you
Rule 3 – if you cannot avoid annoying people, try to add a little sweetener (“a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down”)

One despairs for BA: they employ some of the worst PR people in the industry, and a basically very good product comes across poorly and is not given the credit it deserves.

Incidentally, the idea from RfmT at 10.02 is a brilliant one – using miles to buy access. The “one guest” rule really annoys me – most of the time I travel alone and don’t use it, and once a year I travel with my family and can’t use it for all of us!

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

It is a bad move, commercially, unless your view of commerciality is short term harvesting of profit.

Marketing 101 says it is far easier/less costly to sell to existing clients, than to recruit new ones.

What is the opportunity cost of providing a differentiator to your (aggressive and capable) competition?

The airline business is highly competitive and pissing off a significant number of your high yield clients is crazy.

BA seeks to make high price points, I don’t think the business product is worth it on short haul and I will be looking closely at how Etihad works for me next month; unless it is very bad, I will stick with them in the future. Really, what is great about NCW apart from the seat?

Pulling routes and then removing a valued privilege = find a better solution and I think I have for my main ME route.

BTW, don’t get a Priority Pass before you look at the Airport Angel offer.

[RfmT1971]

@Cedric – many thanks! I never seem to be able to use miles when I’m flying and in contrast to all the “general” comments and justified critique, at least it would have softened the blow and made people take an active decision.

If I am in the airport for 10 minutes before boarding, I probably don’t need to crowd up the lounge. If I’m there for longer, it is a privilege and the suggestion that we’re somehow being disloyal by not flying BA rather ignores the issue of what we have put in to reach the status in the first place.

LH, btw, allows me to convert my SEN miles into useful stuff like furniture or wine – BA’s only allows me to collect miles, which when I then want to use, are not deployable due to lack of space in the UPG class.

Question to all: anybody know how the idea could be valued? 1k miles, 5k, 10k? Is there a GBP/EUR value per mile “somewhere” where the figure could be identified – frankly, before I pay £20 for a generic lounge, I’d rather use miles anyway.

[NTarrant]

Swiss – A round trip in Club Europe is worth 80 points 80/1500 equates to 18.75 round trips. It is possible to purchase short haul CE for around £250.00 staying a Saturday night. Therefore £250.00 x 18.75 equates to £4687.50. Even if you go further afield or have a short journey at the flexiable fare of say £400.00 x 18.75 still only comes out at £7,500.00 which is a long way off £30K.

Flying Chinaman – yes that was mentioned earlier about CX but the only one. Being Oneworld will that change as well.

[Author]

Posts