[Ausline]

Yes BABenji you are right QF, it is definetely 7000 for lifetime silver and 14000 for lifetime Gold.

However QF have managed to alienate their Platinum FF this week with the annoucement that they will have their access restricted to the QF domestic lounges. Currently Platinum FF can use the domestic lounge’s regardless if they are travelling or not.. The policy from Feb 2011 is that you must be travelling on a QF JQ or Oneworld flight..

[PsyDtoBe]

I agree, BA should offer us life time recognition, well at least for its silver status.

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

I was sitting next to the galley on a BA flight this week and tuned into Galley FM.

Silver is going to be abolished about a year after club europe is withdrawn, which will be announced after WW takes over at IAG.

That will leave only gold membership and silver members will be given a year’s grace to qualify.

Who knows if it is true, but that’s what they were talking about.

[VintageKrug]

Which goes to prove how very unreliable Galley FM is.

1. Club Europe will not be withdrawn; the LHR model is all about connecting traffic and passengers simply wouldn’t tolerate an all economy model (however modest you believe CE to be). It is sustainable precisely because the cabin size is easily variable, the seats are convertible rather than fixed and the only major differentiator on board is catering, with most of the differentiation seen in the lounges on the ground.

Anecdotally loads are increasing in CE on all my recent flights (sometimes 9+ rows), and while it’s all about margin rather than bums on seats, we have all seen fares rise above the APD increases recently, and let’s face it the upside looks pretty good right compared to the past two years…

In addition, the introduction of both Mixed Fleet crew and new Airbus and Embraer aircraft continue to reduce the fuel and maintenance costs for the shorthaul fleet.

2. BA is part of oneworld, and cannot simply pay fast and loose with the Emerald/Sapphire Silver/Gold tier of BAEC.

The oneworld agreement requires at least two tiers. American has a further entry tier “Ruby” which is about as much use as a chocolate teapot, but makes status-chasers happy and it could be that BA might introduce this additional tier to align more closely with AAdvantage.

But the bottom line is that BA cannot withdraw Silver whilst it is part of oneworld; there would be absolutely no point in doing this.

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

Putting the Galley FM to one side (as it is not reliable), you raise an interesting point.

When IAG is formed, I wonder how important oneworld will be to the new company?

I don’t have a view on this, but find it an interesting subject.

By the way, it is not my opinon that CE is a modest product, it is demonstrably inferior to Air Malta Club Class (the true shorthaul club product) and it is not worth paying the premium for as a standalone product; I use it when it is bundled with CW.

Having said that, I had a good CE flight from Paris to London on Thursday, where the cabin crew did deliver the whole product and there were enough in the cabin to support the matrix properly. It is just an inferior product to my usual airline.

The subsequent CW flight was excellent, as usual.

[richiecallis]

So here’s a question for all (which incidentally the Exec Club couldn’t answer yesterday). As a silver member how many miles do you earn in discount economy when flying Qantas (metal and/or code)… If you look at “Silver Member benefits” on BA site the suggestion is 2 miles per mile flown. The calculator suggests 0.5 miles per mile flown. Could it even be that it is 1.25 miles, (0.25 miles per mile flown plus the 100% bonus)… Over to you lot… I a flying Sydney to LA and am wondering what I`d get if I flew QF rather than UA (apart from a nicer flight of course) what do you think?

[Deleted User]

As my experience showed this week, CE standards and product offerings do drop when route competition is lacking. As you fly Air Malta to Malta DS, I would choose FInnair from LHR to HEL. The bottom line here is that the product provider (and the accountants within) decide the budgets and profit for each route and there is very little that we the pax can do, esepcially when there is little or no alternative route offering. If airmiles are increased or decreased or levels withdrawn, it would have been decided by the powers that be and there is very little that can be done.

I collect airmiles as my late father collected stamps. Both were extremely valuable at various points in time. I manage my airmiles carefully becasue I know they can be withdrawn or changed at any point in time so having amassed over 3 million of the things with various airlines, I am beginning to use them rather than keeping them for my retirement.

[Author]

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