[onajetplane]

I have just booked a trip for a family member (currently holds BAEC Silver status) and thus upon booking/signing in to Manage my Booking on BA, the luggage allowance reflects the additional entitlement as per silver status. Their silver status will however have expired prior to the first flight. Does anyone know what happens in this scenario? Obviously at the time the booking was made, the luggage allowance offered was essentially accepted through the processing of the transaction. But I have a sneaky suspicion, BA might not agree when it comes to check-in time. Anyone know if there is an answer to this? Thanks in advance.

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cybertravller

[DavidSmith2]

I’m afraid that I don’t have an answer for now, but I am very interested in people’s advice on this. I am currently GC with BA but very likely to drop to silver just as I start a one-year sojourn in Gran Canaria. The difference between 2 and 3 cases each, could be costly, if I have to ship stuff as unaccompanied or additional bags.

[christ]

I believe it is your status at the time of your flight. Once i was downgraded to silver despite being gold at booking and i did not got the extra bag allowed – though this was about 7 years ago and so things may well have changed.

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onajetplane

[onajetplane]

@christ – Thanks for this. This my fear/suspicion! And thus also just dawned on me that the seats selected for free due to silver status might also disappear.

[christ]

I would be surprised if BA IT is that sophisticated re the seats. I know friends who have dropped to bronze by the time of their flight and kept row 1 on club europe (I think it is reserved for golds until 24 hours before) – therefore this would imply you should be ok.

Probably worth checking nearer the time as with bronze, i think you can still choose seats 7 days before.

I think you will be lucky if you get away with the luggage allowance as BA seem so robotic nowadays on so many things and limited flexibility (as an example, one of my friends bags when we were flying to Amsterdam was 26kg v 23kg and they made him take things out as they said the computer will not allow. He came back Cathay and they said it is a few kg over and to be more aware next time but not to worry.

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onajetplane

[ASK1945]

“Probably worth checking nearer the time as with bronze, i think you can still choose seats 7 days before.” – You are correct

“one of my friends bags when we were flying to Amsterdam was 26kg v 23kg and they made him take things out as they said the computer will not allow”

That is also correct, when using the automated checkin desks. A couple of trips ago, we had to swap some items from a 24kg bag into a 20kg bag before we could print the boarding passes.

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christ

[CathayLoyalist2]

Call me cynical but it sounds like someone ensuring the computer system prevents a check in agent from using their discretion i.e can´ t let customer service get in the way of maybe charging for overweight baggage”

[ASK1945]

“it sounds like someone ensuring the computer system prevents a checkin agent from using their discretion”

Not my experience with BA checkin personnel. As I wrote earlier, it’s only the self-service “desks” at LHR T5 that it happened to me.

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CathayLoyalist2

[onajetplane]

As an update – status reverted back to Bronze. All the seats previously selected on the BA operated flights remain intact, albeit there would now be a charge to change them. On the Qatar operated flight, the previously selected seat selection for free was lost and now all seats have a charge. In addition, the 2 x 23kg baggage allowance indicated at booking has now reverted to 1 x 23kg.

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ASK1945

[Author]

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