[JonathanCohen09]

Hello Hess,

apologies for the omission on my part. Unfortunately the drawback with CSA is that they do not have a longhaul network anymore. they used to fly to JFK, Montreal and Toronto. They are stopping the service to JFK for the winter to save money.

I flew to JFK once on an old A310 with old fashined cradle seats which were fine for an 8-9 hour flight but would not have been on longer sectors. The inflight service and food were excellent though.

If most of your travel is longhaul then CSA is not for you but there is nothing to stop you joining the CSA programme, flying with them when you can and achieving gold or platinum by using AF/KLM or Delta or Korean air to gain status mile and sectors.

Again, my apologies for not mentioning it in my last post.

[Hess963]

Hi FT09 !!

No offence taken and no apologies needed !! I am quite amaze that CSA have no longhaul anymore. But how is the short haul experiences ??

[JonathanCohen09]

Hi Hess,

thanks for your last post. In terms of short haul service, there I can certainly help you.

CSA have a mixed fleet of older B737’s and brand new A319/20/21’s. In C class on all their aircraft you have 3/3 seating but the middle seat is always kept free. On the 737’s the first 4 or 5 rows have more legroom between the rows. There is not the same amount of legroom on the A320’s but it is sufficient for short haul flights.

the onboard service is generally very good. The cabin crew are among the best I have experienced, always friendly and attentive without being intrusive. The food is also perfectly adequte being better than some and not as good as some others.

I speak from the experince of more than 200 sectors with CSA in the last 2 years and can honestly say that i have not had a bad onboard experience. Naturally, there are the types of problems that we all experience every day on whatever carrier we use because they are not perfect but I have no hesitation in recommending CSA to anyone.

Finally and as an added bonus, Prague airport is a joy to use compared with many others.

Hope that helps you Hess, but as always I am happy to give you more specific information if you need it.

[MartinMuchitsch]

hi there,

as a executive club member from austria my “tresholds” are 400 for
silver and 800 for gold; so with one more flight (club europe) till april 2010 you should achive the silver status – and keep on flying for gold

[Hess963]

Hi Jonathan !!

Thank you for the detailed comment. It really sounds good. Especially I personally have enough of this huge and always crowded airports with the very slow security lanes. I hope you mean with “joy ” in PRG-stressless check-in, relaxing in the lounge á la BA lounge terracess quality and also stressless boarding. Not the typical long qeues in security and immigration lanes.
As you are very helpful for comments over CSA–how is the food in C and Y cabin as you’ve said it is perfectly adequate and not as good as some others. Do you get good warm meals or just a salad course or just cold snacks or nothing ???

Thanks for your comments mate !!
Hess

[JonathanCohen09]

Hi Hess,

yes I do mean with joy regarding PRG airport. Like any airport that you might travel through it is not perfect. There are sometimes lines at security but I have never been held up for too long and although not as good as BA lounges the CSA lounge at PRG is actually pretty good.

With regards to food on board, on flights of over 90 minutes in C class you always get a hot meal with a small salad and desert and warm breads. On shorter flights you get a cold meal usually salad with meat or fish. The hot breakfast is also very nice on morning flights.

In Y class it is usually a sandwich on shorter flights or a salad on the longer sectors.

I would be very interested in your opinion if you were to try them. Please let me know if you need any more information.

[Hess963]

Hi again Jonathan !!

Thanks for the quick response !! After these nice descriptions–it sounds tempting just to try them for my next flights to Eastern Europe. Although I tend to fly OS, LH or LX to this part of Europe–why actually not try CSA ?? I am actually satisfied with the great service I always get when flying these three to this region. It is really hard to fault them. But as a frequent flyer one should be curious to new airlines as well– so you got my attention to CSA now
I let you know about my first flights with them.

Again thank you for kind response and comments mate !!

Hess

[VintageKrug]

BA Gold *is* harder to get than most top tier schemes.

But you do get more for being a Gold card holder than many perks of top tier frequent flyer schemes.

And do remember Gold is not the absolute “top tier”; there is Gold Guest List, Premier and (slightly differently) Concorde Card status available as well, by invitation only.

The BA lounge network is extensive, with a good level of consistency even in some destinations served by only a few flights per day.

All Terraces/Galleries lounges (a standard business class lounge) offer proper food (at least sandwiches) and usually quite a lot more, plus a full free pour bar and champagne on request (even domestically).

There are several First lounges in outstations which are smaller affairs but mostly have excellent facilities away from the busier other areas of the lounge.

Showers are often available, and a Gold card gives BA travellers access to the Arrivals lounge even when travelling inbound in the boot (economy). Plus flying exT5 (and soon T3) you get access to the First Lounges even when flying BA Economy.

The biggest perk is the “Open Doors” policy which allows you access to a BA lounge even when not flying BA. I am not aware of another scheme which offers this.

I have used this several times this year (though obviously with most BA flights now in T5 this is less handy, though is still useful at T3 when flying exLHR).

Plus you get the free “special” seat selection (1A/K and emergency exits), guaranteed paid seat on any flight, 50% mileage bonus, guaranteed mileage redemption perk (usually in Y, though sometimes you can pull strings to get J) and various other useful extras.

I was quite amazed to be denied access to the First Class section of the Star Alliance LHR T1 lounge as a Gold Card holder flying busines class.

Having since gained entry into that lounge as a First Class traveller I have to say I don’t understand what all the fuss is about as the Business side of the lounge was actually airier and had better food; this is not the only Star lounge which has this reputation.

Star Gold is virtually worthless IMHO.

[Currentlygrounded]

How about BA exec club members resident outside of UK and Europe e.g. Singapore? Does anyone know what the qualification/renewal criteria is?

[VintageKrug]

It’s only European residents which get the lower thresholds.

You can see the thresholds specific to your country of residence by logging in at BA.com and selecting “change country” from the top right info bar.

Here is the relevant Singapore page:

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/echome/public/en_sg?link=main_nav

[Biztraveller74]

Hi all,
Does anyone know when the grace period of 800 points to achieve gold ends with BA?
I thought it was 2 or 3 years after they increased the threshold, but not certain.
My renewal date for status is September, I had Gold before the threshold change, and still have it.
Thanks for your help

[Author]

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