[Anonymous]

[Yorkshireman]

Would welcome views of the ‘experienced hands’ in the forum: I am just 200 tier points short of Gold Exec Club status (I have enough flights on BA) and am planning on a (low cost) trip on BA or another Oneworld airline to get the necessary points. Travel in F or J. Any suggestions as to cheap offers out there which may generate enough points? Many thanks for any tips!

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

Depends on whether holiday, business but you could look at BA to Dubai or Caribbean perhaps in J. Can’t see many sale fares out there at the moment with them. Otherwise Finnair can have very reasonable fares in you need to travel to the Far East in J.

[LeTigre]

Don’t spend more than you need to, just do a CW return to Tel Aviv or Cairo. Otherwise, I agree that Finnair are quite good value.

[VintageKrug]

I’d go for a few weekend jaunts down to NCE on bmi in business class .

exMAN (assuming you’re based in the north) should get you 100 points for each jaunt, and a chance to sample the unparalleled delights of the bmi London Room. Bring a suitcase and and load up with hard-to-find copies of Yachting World!

[Capedoctor]

AMS iS where I went in club for a day for that. Reasonable distance, cheese, canals, and other less salubrious fun. Lounge is useless there, though…

[LeTigre]

Don’t bother wasting money on expensive CE trips. A CW round trip to Tel Aviv is only about £1000ish and costs less than the £2000 minimum that 4 short-haul NCE or AMS trips will cost. Plus one trip is so much more efficient with time and money.

[MartynSinclair]

Just out of curiosity, why spend £1000+ on 200 points to get to Gold Status. Will you be getting a return on investment when you get to Gold?

[Yorkshireman]

Many thanks to all for your helpful responses!

Wasn’t so much the money rather the chance to see whether being Gold with BA made any difference or not, really, both in terms of how they treat you and getting additional avios when you fly. Have a couple of business trips I could take to bridge the gap so thanks for the helpful tips.

[TravelFan]

I have always found the added benefits of BAEC Gold compared to Silver oddly insignificant. Wheras in many other programs the typical substantial benefits such as lounge access, fast track and miles earning bonus kick in only at Gold level, in the Executive Club this happens already with Silver. The only tangible benefit of the Gold level is in my view access to First lounges including the excellent T5 Galleries First, but it must be said that already the T5 Galleries Club lounges are quite good. One interesting Gold perk was Open Doors/anytime lounge access but this was withdrawn a while ago.

With the required level of no less than 1500 tier points compared to only 600 for Silver I would expect a more significant differentiation with some more exalted benefits at the Gold level. Instead, such benefits (upgrade vouchers etc) now kick in at even higher levels of additional tier points, unattainable for most Gold members.

[jasonr01]

I totally agree with you Travelfan.

I am gold status and may or may not get it again for this year but will be very close either way. I do not have the luxary of travelling first or club only world traveller plus or economy on short haul which makes it much harder to keep the status. Whilst it is nice to have the status it doesnt really give you a great deal extra to what is achieved in silver. Yes the lounges in LHR are nicer in first but also very good in Business. Yes it is nice to be addressed and acknowledged on the plane but that is about it. the only real benefit is the additional bonus miles. I never had the opportunity of open doors lounge access so didnt really miss this.
If this year I only achieve silver then silver it will be

[Vistaro]

Use an address in Europe for the BAEC to communicate with you and you get a much lower requirement to qualify

[Capedoctor]

A couple of benefits difference which count include ;

The arrivals lounge , though not with partner which is pretty crappy as I’ve had to make my partner wait outside the lounge looking in at me while I was showering, having breakfast etc.

Special check in at LHR, which isn’t much but stops you having to press buttons on computers.

The chance at upgrade. I found that when gold I was getting upgraded from WT+ to club more often than not, admittedly back in 2008 when the recession was at its most enticing.

First lounge with elemis spa. Great when with the missus. More HELLO’s to pilfer.

But worth chasing too desperately ? Naaah.

[MontysDouble]

Vistaro:

Use an address in Europe for the BAEC to communicate with you and you get a much lower requirement to qualify

Not any more. That was abolished in the changes announced in Novemeber 2011.

Any existing Euro members who have Gold/Silver status on 1st March 2012 will be able to do their next two renewals of their current status that occur after 1st March at the old levels. But only renewals. Promotion requires new levels, and a Gold that drops to Silver after that date will now need to retain silver at new levels, etc.

[It is the last bit that is stingy and wrong, as if you had two long term Euro Silvers, but one of them happens to have given BA a bit of extra business in the last year an popped up to Gold, they will be in a worse possition than the Euro Silver who did not give BA the extra business and was stable on Silver.]

To the OP:
I would not chase BA Gold, 200 TP would be the cusp in my opinion of whether it would be worth doing.
One of the key questions for me would be how much fllying you are gonig to do next year. If you were going to have a brief break, etc. It could make sense as due to the soft landing to Silver, you would not need to do enough to renew next year.

[HongKongLady]

Gold may and may not be of extra benefit to you, it depends on your normal cabin. If you are in Club you will be able to book a seat with silver, if on the other hand you use premium economy/economy you would with gold be able to book a bulk head without additional cost and at the time of booking. The arrivals lounge for any cabin may also be of use, however I suggest not leaving you wife outside ( really can’t believe that Capedoctor).Oh and there is champagne in the first lounge.

[Author]

Posts