[Anonymous]

[YorkshirePudding]

I fail completely, to understand the logic of BA’s exec club folks. Pre 9/11 – I was top tier with the Qualiflier group for a good few years. With the subsequent demise of Sabena & Swissair I was back to ground level.I wrote to several airlines requesting at least a Silver card in their program as all my business (mainly transatlantic) would become theirs. From American, United, BA & Delta, I had no response at all, even after 2 letters to each. BMI however, responded with a personal phone call (2001) to me complete with a Silver card & welcomed me into the Diamond club – all my business followed & I have been top tier with BMI ever since often going 2/3 times over the annual miles requirement.
This year, a new route has become important for me, MAN to Billund in Denmark, a route only operated by BA, so I called their exec club & requested a Silver card & told them I would travel this route every 3-4 weeks – their response…..what do you think, No! – (this, by the way at the same time BA are facing massive strikes) – I asked to speak to a supervisor who gave me the same response. When questioned as to whether they understood the logic of making me a Silver member, they agreed, it makes sense but the answer was still no… Ok, I told them, I will simply find another way of getting there, and I have, with BMI & SAS.

[BlackTower]

Trick is to get gold with BA first and then BMI will Comp gold and then try your luck with Skyteam for comp as I have done recently thanks to VKs suggestion

BA are properly inflexible. Witness all those that lost gold/silver like me 18 months ago when the world economy stopped and we all stopped travelling temporarily

[Travellator]

What is the procedure to get a BMi Silver card, my colleague has got a Silver BA but has just been downgraded from BMi Silver to Blue.

He always travels business but less now but main advantage is extra baggage allowance for BMi Silver.

[flier74]

Well correct me if I am wrong jgelley, but why should BA give you a Silver Card straight away when you have done no business with them and just because you say you will fly this route regularly? Just have the patience, build up your miles and achieve the Status, rather than trying to get it straight away just because you think it is right. Yes other companies may be generous and match other carriers card but it is only in extreme circumstances. i.e. bmi matched the BA status during the period of Industrial Action.
BA has plenty of SLiver and Gold Card holders and of course they want you to see using them first before they are open to any negotiations.
As of BA being “properly inflexible”, I and many tohers had their Status renewed by BA recently even though we did not achieve the required tier points, due to the threat of IA and the economic workdown. Last year ago LH has also renewed my Status for the same reasons for another 2 years.
So yes of you keep being loyal they willl look after you, but they certainly won’t give out the Status Cards just because one wants one and says he/she intends to do some business with them, and why should they?

[Senator]

Dear jgelley,

Interesting post. I have to watch my position here so this comes out in the right frame of mind.

Personally, I once requested to get the AF/KLM Flying Blue status card. A few years back, I moved to a global position and I was flying long-haul once a month from Stockholm. Flying Blue was targeting SAS Eurobonus members with a matching offer of Silver to Silver, and Gold to Gold. As a Lufthansa M&M Senator with an average of 2x annual threshold over eight years, I asked the cheeky question about getting a platinum card. The local marketing team managed to get me one, and I flew off on my first KLM and AF long-haul journey.

However, due to bad experience a couple of times, I stopped using AF and KLM and moved my secondary business to BA. However, I did ask for a status match but was declined which I accepted.

Whilst getting a match is a nice gesture, I think we need to be careful we don’t build up some kind of “entitlement” expectation due to our history with the competition. I for one, was grateful for the FB match, but not upset of the decline from BA. In fairness to BAEC member who “earn it the hard way” it would be perhaps wrong to hand them out. By now, I have a BA Silver and I am happy with this.

I have a mindset that I always take with me; “The cheapest thing in the world is a question. The worst that can happen is a no”. However, it is how you handle the no that matters. A “no” after building up expectations is sometimes hard to deal with. To me, a status match with an airline is a good example of this. You can ask, but also accept that the airline has the right of refusal.

I know you may disagree with me on this point. I think it is worth asking, but also accepting the no and move on.

[VintageKrug]

Welcome to the forum!

Let’s see if I can put into context what might have been behind the response, and also correct some misunderstandings:

1. BA is not facing massive strikes. No ballot has been announced for Industrial Action, and any ballot would undoubtedly be met with a robust legal challenge which would have strong likelihood of succeeding. In the unlikely event a ballot was called, was supported by Cabin Crew (again BA’s crew union, BASSA, has seen membership fall by over 2,500 in the past two years) and then was not felled by a legal challenge, any crew who did strike are now outside the protection period, meaning they could be dismissed for missing work.

A further nail in the coffin of this supposed strike potential is the fact that Willie Walsh has stated that 100% of LHR longhaul services will operate. In the previous strike ALL London City and ALL London Gatwick services operated, and in addition to regular crew who don’t support the strike (the majority), these numbers are bolstered by Volunteers from around the airline as well as the new “Mixed Fleet” which will be 1,000 strong and starts operations in November.

I am not certain whether SunAir routes, a BA franchise partner, was affected, but I doubt it.

2. BA rarely comps status, just as it rarely upgrade passengers for anything other than operational reasons. There was a Comp offer for residents of Israel a few months ago, but that was the first I had heard in over a decade, so don’t feel hard done by.

3. This is partially because a Silver Card in BA Executive Club is much more tangibly valuable than an equivalent Silver Card with, for instance, a Star Alliance carrier. Having been bmi Silver for a number of years before I reached Gold, the only real perks were bonus miles, marginally more weight allowance and Business Class check-in.

My American Express Card gets me into bmi’s lounges regardless of the ticket I was travelling, and so status was irrelevant to that, and Silver doesn’t permit it.

Contrast this with BA Silver, you get the bonus miles, Business Class Check In and increased baggage allowance, but the big perk is the Terraces/Galleries Lounge access for you and a guest; and once you have successfully run the gauntlet of the BA Lounge Dragons, a veritable panoply of food , wine, champagne and free net access awaits, far in excess of the equivalent bmi offering and much better than most Star business lounges which I have been in.

4. When you do proceed to Gold, the quality of the offering in BA’s First lounges (vintage champagne and table service food offerings) is far superior to most of Star’s European Gold Lounges. And the big benefit is the Open Doors “lounge access anytime” even when not flying BA, a valuable benefit I have not seen offered in any other programme.

5. Bmi is notoriously easy to get comped; I have a suspicion that the bmi Diamond Club was used very cleverly by Nigel Turner prior to the put option sale to Lufthansa, but I’ll leave that one to your imagination. But you need to get another airlines’ Frequent Flyer card first, and BA’s is one which guards this status more aggressively than most.

6. Personally, I like the fact that BA does preserve the exclusivity of the Exec Club card; it is after all an Executive “Club” rather than a Frequent Flyer card, and just as in the US and Australia, most airlines actively sell membership for access to their lounges, while BA just requires a modest amount of spend (with the initial threshold at 400 TPs in Europe, as little as five Club Europe/CE returns (80 TPs rtn) or two exEUR WT+ longhauls (190 TPs rtn) get you at or almost to the initial qualifying level) which can be as little as £1200 (both examples can be had for that amount).

7. In the example you give, the Manchester-Billund (operated by SunAir) service would only require five CE flights within a membership year to get you your Silver card if Europe based; a further ten would get you your Gold card from which you could get a bmi Gold comped.

8. While the other airlines do offer service to Billund, I would be surprised if they are direct. As a regular commuter I know how valuable direct services are and it would seem strange not to take advantage of a direct service (in which CE would accord you ALL the benefits of having a Silver card anyway) when it is available.

9. When you consider a maximum of six flights per annum on a shorthaul itinerary, that isn’t a great deal of business. Maybe £2500 maximum across the year, if you flew on fully flex tickets. So I entirely understand BA’s decision in this regard; normally corporate contracts start at £100,000 per annum, and at that level a few comped Silver Cards for key travellers is not unknown as part of the deal.

But the bottom line here is that BA has a lounge franchise worth protecting, and is (rightly) focused on revenue generation; it really isn’t that difficult to attain Silver status for regular travellers in premium cabins, and even Gold is not the Holy Grail some make it out to be.

I would give the SunAir Billund service a whirl, see whether it’s an easier journey than the competition.

If so it may well be worth enjoying the direct service, and foregoing the only noticeable benefit of BA Silver on that route, assuming you were already travelling CE, which would be the modest 25% mileage earning bonus on five round trips before you reach BA Silver, which will open up the entry level, but nonetheless genuine benefits of the Executive Club.

More info on the Executive Club below:

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/ecbenftlnge/public/en_gb

[Gin&Tonic]

Jgelley, you stick to your morals and endure the added journey time and take in a transit stop, You show BA you mean business even if they dont. How dare they, do they know who you are?

[Bucksnet]

jgelley, the shortest SAS connection via CPH takes at least double the time of the direct BA flight.

I would join BAEC and start on the blue card. You should get silver after 4 or 5 flights.

[NTarrant]

Sorry jgelley, I think you are being unreasonable to expect BA to give you Silver Exec without earning it. It is easy for the likes of BMI to give away a silver card as they just don’t have the route network that BA has.

Look at this the other way, how would you feel if you had spent years travelling on BA and worked your way up through the tiers to find some bloke has been given a silver card on a whim that he is going to give them a lot of business.

[Binman62]

jgelly……sorry but I am very pleased BA said no. I pay for my own flights and got and retain my silver card the hard way. I would not be at all happy if I thought BA were dishing out silver and gold cards like sweeties to anyone who asked.

[MartynSinclair]

Having been a gold card holder for 4 years, i would have been a tad concerned if Mr. Gelley had been granted a comp silver card, when I had the sheer embarassement of being tunred away from the BA lounge complex in T5 becasue I was not only travelling with my wife, but also my son.

Privilidges are earnt, not taken as a right.

Senator, your post on this subject is one of the most eloquent and diplomatic answers seen in this forum for a long time (IMHO). I have printed it out and will look at it before answering a post that could otherwise provoke a colourful and perhaps inappropriate posting from me.

[YorkshirePudding]

Thanks for all your responses, which certainly provides food for thought…..I guess I was just surprised at the response from BA. Your responses have made me think a lttle differently – thanks again!

[chinaboy8]

Right on – we would all like to have elite cards but since
when is it an airline’s obligation to summarily grant silver or
gold cards to any individual who has not flown the actual miles
and earned them like the rest of us?????

[VintageKrug]

To be fair, many of the programmes, particularly in the USa will indeed comp status based on previous spend/status with other carriers and proven forward bookings with them.

Also, many corporations will also have similar deals in place with US carriers for at least the entry level of status with preferred carriers.

BA is just a little more exclusive than most. Long may that last.

[Author]

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