BA Gold renewal

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Viewing 11 posts - 16 through 26 (of 26 total)

  • nevereconomy
    Participant

    Hmmm.. TOH2 – had Gold for a great many years and am racking my brains for an occasion when it got anything sorted quicker, or even any recognition….maybe it counts when they cancelled my flight to Philadelphia but were kind enough to send me to Dulles, so I could rent a car and drive the 4 hours home to Delaware. When Delta did the same (on an award ticket no less,) they paid for a limo, all set up before I arrived,to take me. I think Leroy’s experience is another example of the rather sloppy BA approach today. Try contacting Carolina Martinoli, Director of Brand and Customer Experience at Waterside. From experience, she seems to wave a fairly big stick around BA.


    TiredOldHack2
    Participant

    [quote quote=943622]had Gold for a great many years and am racking my brains for an occasion when it got anything sorted quick[/quote]

    Well, last year the BA night flight out to Santiago (which flight I’m taking again tomorrow) went tech at the gate. The thing is, I had a distinct feeling that it wasn’t going to fly at all, and so called the EC and asked if they could just keep a seat for me on the next night’s flight in case it was cancelled. They were surprised, as their status showed it was good to go, but I was quite certain it wouldn’t. But they held a seat in J and said that if that night’s flight flew, they’d simply release it.

    But it didn’t fly! And when the gate announced it was cancelled, all hell broke loose. People who had overheard me talking to the EC and looked oddly at me were all grabbing their phones and then finding they couldn’t get through as 300 other people were doing the same thing.

    The year before, it was a Finnair flight to Xian, codeshared with BA on the LHR-HEL leg. That was delayed and I issed my connection. Finnair wouldn’t help. BA sorted me a seat on the following day’s flight from HEL.

    Perhaps I just hit the BA Sweet Spot both times… πŸ™‚


    SimonS1
    Participant

    I had Gold for about 10 years, but let it go in 2007 when I switched to another airline (and persuaded the company owners where I worked to do likewise).

    Best thing I ever did – the BA model is now tired and dated and service is poor due to incessant cost cutting. Routine stuff, like inadequate catering, crowded lounges, trying to deny people EC261 with bogus excuses and all that.

    Having said that BAEC is a decent programme for collecting OneWorld mileage, and the good thing is you don’t ever have to set foot in a BA aircraft to get/retain status.


    PJC69
    Participant

    Ba gold was the most underwhelming experience I ever had. The first lounge at Heathrow was always overcrowded and no better than the others, there was never any availability for avios redemptions and the gold upgrade voucher I received at 2500 TP was impossible to spend due to availability. Silver is worth it for seat selection but frankly I avoid BA at all costs now and Virgin status matched me to Gold so always fly with them these days.

    2 users thanked author for this post.

    agsteele
    Participant

    I have Gold status with another airline. My renewal date is September. I have, however, learned the hard way that miles earned after early/mid-August will not count. It seems that new cards are ordered well in advance of the expiry in order the new card is with the customer before the old one runs out.

    Andrew


    GeorgeJ
    Participant

    It is actually possible for gold renewals to be for two years worth of time. In our case, my wife had a pretty nasty ski accident which disrupted her normal travel activity such that she would have lost her gold card. She appealed to BA and they gave her a renewal for two years of gold. Pretty good of them really and it has resulted in more than a fair bit of loyalty over the past 18 months. It was pretty clear from the system (as R F Fergusson has pointed out, it was easy to check) what had happened and we planned accordingly.
    To be honest I think this is one where BA have acted reasonably fairly, you got a “bonus” year and are now resetting to normal. That is what will happen to my wife as well (she has given up skiing so no repeat of the appeal route!).


    IanFromHKG
    Participant

    [quote quote=943320]Without dates it’s hard to comment on OP’s case, however I believe when you step up a tier you get the remainder of the year plus one full year at the new status level.

    So if your year ends in July 2019 and you go from silver to gold in Jan 2019 then you have gold for the remainder of that year (July 2019) and for the following year to July 2020. You need to have the necessary TPs by July 2020 to renew for the following year.

    It is done this way to avoid people making it to gold 11 months into their year, getting upgraded for 1 month and then being downgraded again.

    Of course other airlines have better ways of doing it, for example those using a rolling TP year.[/quote]

    Indeed, and I suspect that in OP’s case the points took a few days to post onto his (? I hope I have the right pronoun here) account and therefore he was treated as though the upgrade started right at the start of the following membership year, and then he received the remainder of that year and the whole of the next year at Gold.

    Frustrating under the circumstances where he apparently chased points he didn’t need, but actually quite generous in that he got almost two years of BA Gold status for one year’s earnings. My OWE status is with CX and MH. The former uses a rolling year, the latter a fixed year. However, the MH fixed year proposition isn’t so generous – the Memsahib reached Elite Platinum (OWE) in about September of her first year of MH Enrich membership and we were told she wouldn’t receive the benefit until 1 January. We got that sorted πŸ˜€ but it was an unwelcome surprise. Meanwhile with CX I will miss out on a mid-tier benefit by about two days due to the rolling year, but it just isn’t worth doing a tier run for a couple of F lounge passes (I will be 15 points short out of the 1,400 needed, but I just can’t be arsed!). Annoyingly, if I were a mere Gold, I would have earned two J lounge passed and four bookable upgrades, neither of which are available to me because I fly too much!! Ah well, at least I get to drown my sorrows in the excellent CX F lounges when I travel!


    midorosan2
    Participant

    Sort of related and would appreciate any help, I have tried to find my Gold Card on the BAEC app on my iPhone but it does not show as a card simply as summary of my status, I would like to see the card as I wish to add it to my wallet.
    Read with interstate’s the thread re GC renewal and over the past 25 years have experienced a few oddities but generally the posters are correct regarding the renewal process and validity.


    K1ngston
    Participant

    I cannot remember which thread it was on when I mentioned that due to poor health in 2019 I lost my status with SQ for the first time in almost a decade! I contacted the KrisFler hot line and was asked to produce a Drs note explaining the reason why I couldn’t fly and lo and behold my status has been extended for 6 months to allow me to reach the threshold that I know I can reach with my flying schedule for this year …

    Often berated I say thank you SQ you have my loyalty and business going forward πŸ™‚

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    sparkyflier
    Participant

    I thought to share my views of BA Gold, which I must say are generally positive.

    In addition to the priority check in, security etc ( especially at T5) and lounges, where the food is superior to the lounges for Silver level..,I have been upgraded a number of times and also I find the staff on the Gold Customer Services line to be very professional and helpful ..indeed have been amazingly helpful and flexible on more than one occasion.

    So it is my intention to remain at this level. I just hope BA realise the value of the UK based staff on that call centre, and are not tempted to get cheaper resources overseas..


    midorosan2
    Participant

    My understanding is that all cards run from/expire on the 8th of the month of issue, a further month at the same status is given to all card holders. Also totally agree with the previous poster on the quality of the Gold Line staff at BAEC HQ in London they are amazing and very accommodating.

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