[GeordieTraveller]

Hello BT hive mind.

I am currently a Qantas Platinum / Oneworld Emerald elite member with status through to June 2024. I am relocating back to the UK in early 2023 but I am unsure how to go about maintaining this without flying on QF metal for the minimum flight component.

Does BA ever offer a status match? Or will I have to start from scratch back in the UK? I have significant travel already booked in 2023 with BA / AA but I am loathed to loose the benefits of emerald if I can avoid it.

Thanks in advance.

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Casey_99

[cwoodward]

Yes BA do offer a conditional status match and from the above I suspect that there would be no difficulty given your status.
Others on here who use BA will I am sure offer more detail than I have as a Cathay diamond emerald member but perhaps a first approach to BA in Australia would assist in setting this up.

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GeordieTraveller, Woodpecker

[Clay']

BA are actually well known for NEVER giving status match.

The rare exception is sometimes a couple of high ranking DM ( normally whoever holds the purse strings for company travel) and say the CEO for major, multi million annual spend blue chips who move, and more importantly commit on a multi year basis, their business over to the airline.

Aside from this you have some ‘complimentary status’ gifts to those for whom being rich and/or famous is rarely enough but who also , in the airlines minds, are a ‘good fit’ for brand image.

AA, yes. CX, yup. AY, if you push them abit. QR, when they feel like doing such ( normally tied to a ‘challenge based promotion’). BA – As a general rule, not a bloody chance.

If it makes you feel better. BAEC is generally considered one of the easiest schemes to achieve top tier and if your pockets are big enough there’s bonus ( non one world, semi non official) tiers such as GGL.

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GeordieTraveller

[cwoodward]

I disagree with ‘Clay’ above’s statement (be it NEVER or Rare) that BA seldom status matches as I know well two Qantas Platinum members status matched by BA and who are nether rich or famous and I am reasonably certain from postings on another forum that this is not as ‘rare’ as mentioned above.
The criteria seems to be whether or not your business is likely to be be of value to the airline.

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GeordieTraveller

[GeorgeJ]

GT I have had a status match from BA in the past when I was Star Gold. There was no commitment in terms of number of flights or spend from my business (though I was CEO), they just wanted some of the @140 segments I flew per year. I made the approach via our internal travel support team, do you have someone similar who can make the approach? Whoever heads up BA locally will have some latitude to issue complimentary gold cards. I subsequently held on to mine for many years despite not meeting the tier points criteria and changing job and location.
A further point, if you have status and have lots of travel booked on BA/AA metal why don’t you just credit the miles to BA from the start of your next year and keep stats in both programs until Quantas rolls off.

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GeordieTraveller

[TonyR]

Can you not just keep booking your flights to your Qantas card rather than switch? Otherwise, as they overlap for the first year it would seem you could access most of the benefits by booking your flights to your new Exec Club number while showing your Qantas card to gain check-in, lounge etc. benefits. You might need to phone up to get free economy seat selection as I don’t think you can register both cards to your ticket but I don’t know if they would accept that on the phone.

[BrotherJim]

Not sure if BA is strict about this, but some airlines won’t allow lounge access unless the FF card with status is used for the booking.

[GeorgeJ]

You dont need to worry about BA being strict since it is Quantas lounges GT would want to access (though if on a BA Club ticket he would get access to BA as well). I can confirm that I have accessed Quanta lounges when not on their metal or codeshare), what you normally need is a flight on at least another One World member. Some cognoscenti of these things even manage to do a tour of the various One World lounges in major airports. For what its worth I prefer Cathay or Qantas if I have a choice.

[cwoodward]

Qantas have closed their HKG lounge and have done a deal with their OW partner to use the Cathay lounges.
Pity, the Qantas lounge was newish and rather good cocktails.

[cwoodward]

I find Qantas recent announcement that it is going to ‘refurbish’ and reopen their almost new Hong Kong lounge rather surprising as it comes within weeks of the announcement that it was closed and that they would use the Cathay Pacific lounges going forward.
This announcement follows hard on the 6 week ago one that they would restart the SYD -HKG route using their aged A330s This to be changed after 3 weeks to announce that the A380 would return to the route.

Its been hot in Sydney but…..

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