[Anonymous]

[Photo_Traveller]

OK.. Firstly, apologies if this issue has already been discussed, I did a quick search and could not see that it has, but if it has, please direct me to the right thread.

Anyway.

One thing that has been sticking in my craw recently is that the playing field for getting the necessary points for BA silver and gold membership is not level and the game, in fact, appears weighted heavilly against British-based customers.

If one is a resident of many countires outside of the UK, then the number of tier points that are required to gain gold membership falls significantly. I am advised, for instance, that in many european countires you only need 800 points for gold membership. That compared to 1500 when living in the UK.

That’s not far off being half the number of points?

I mean, it’s not like the gold membership is worth any more as a uk-based customer than one based elsewhere. Flying business class as a gold card holder, say, newcastle-london-los angeles is not much different to nice-london-los angeles (other than the nice to LA flight gets 80 more tier points!! Oh, a double whammy..).

You sue the same longes at Heathrow and LA (and I dare say there is little differnece between Nice and Newcastle, lounge wise). Check-in facilitioes are similar all round.

So, all much of a muchness service-wise..

But..

The Nice traveler (say somebody from Monaco) would need “only” 2 and a half return trips for gold (320 return).

Our Newcastle traveller would need 6 and a half (240 return, no tier points on the Newcastle-london leg if not full fare).

Call me a bit dense (and many do) but I fail to see why BA would wish to appear to make things so much harder for, and discriminate against, its UK customer base in such a way.

Surely somebody with a bit more knowlege than I can come up with the logic behind this.

For me, a UK-based gold card holder, spending my own ££’s on BA flights all thse years, sometimes taking just one more tier-point earning flight before the cut off date just to make sure I get my 1500, well. I feel a little short changed.

[LondonGuy]

Its all about incentive.

For the UK based traveller, its logical to use BA as it is the national carrier and thus the most convenient way to get from A to B.

However, for non-UK based travellers, BA wants to incentivise these travellers to become BA FFs. Non-UK based travellers would generally tend to use their national carriers – in your example, the Nice traveller would use Air France, an Amsterdam traveller KLM, a Munich traveller Lufthansa an so on and so forth.

I am sure if we investigated further and found out how many points a French traveller would need for AF and compared it to what a UK based traveller would need, I am sure you’d find that the situation is the same for the French-based traveller.

This is obviously a massive advantage for non-UK based travellers as the business class product on BA is head and shoulders above the rest of the European carriers, and leave the British traveller at a massive disadvantage – but c’est la vie, n’est pas?

Happy travelling…

[LondonGuy]

Photo_Traveller,

Can I ask how you book your travel? I am a travel agent and if you use BA Business Class for long and (in most cases) short haul travel, I am sure I can save you money on your fare.

Give me a try and let me see if I can shave some £££s off your normal fare. The worst that could happen is that I can’t!

[CrazyCanuck]

hi,

im based here in bahrain and recently got a silver card. In the Middle East you still need 1500 points for Gold and 600 for Silver entry. In this region the standards for entry dont change.

[flyingformiles]

I believe it is only Europe where the lower thresholds of 400 & 800 TPs apply.

[rickjacko]

It is true I am afraid. I am a gold card holder for BA and when livign in London needed 1500 for the tier level. I moved to Brussels for work and I when I changed my address it changed to 800. I did ask BA and it is around incentive. To be honest when living in Europe you do tend to use either Air France or Lufthansa. It is a whole lot cheaper due to less tax, better deals, more destinations and much easier through Frankfurt or CDG. Although T5 is actually now super quick.

[CMoir12]

Yes – somebody told me this on a flight. I have an apartment in London and Berlin, so quickly changed my BA address to Berlin!

The downside at the moment is, if I book using points, I need to pay in Euros.

[Axelero]

I’m a Prague based now, having lived previously in London (British). If BA didn’t have this offer for European residents, I know for a fact my personal BA spend would be non-existent. There are a number of other European airlines that I could use which are competitively priced including CSA, the Czech national carrier, who offer their Golds & Platinum’s a free upgrades to Business class. BA has to do something to attract and retain European customers as cost effectively as possible and lowering the thresholds would seem the easiest way.

[LexHam2011]

please send details of your business as i am looking for a new travel agent

[Charles-P]

This is well worth checking on other schemes it applies for Lufthansa Miles and More as well. I act as the ‘home address’ for a couple of German friends for this reason.

[Author]

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