[Anonymous]

[BlackTower]

Great miles offer shame I just used all my miles up trying to win US business!

Given the travel bans in many companies, widespread managerial redundancy and the collapse of city deal flow it would seem appropriate for BA to also seriously reduce the points needed to retain status at Gold(1500) and Silver levels(700). This would come at little cost to BA but would spead goodwill among those temporarily grounded.

It may also be a good time to honour high gold members with a “you can only get it by flying” Tier as opposed to the vanity sop to CEOs/celebs that is a Premier Card.

Suggestions for Tier name welcomed

I’m a gold scraper myself at the best of times

[flyingformiles]

Well there is already a Gold Guest List for those reaching 3,000+ TP’s 2/3 years in a row.

[VintageKrug]

It’s less than 700 TPs to gain Silver:

Silver entry/renewal – 600 (including 4 BA metal flown Tier Points earning fares)

Gold entry/renewal – 1500 (including 4 BA metal flown Tier Points earning fares)

There are under 1500 Premiers, so really not a large proportion of travellers.

I think your idea is eminently sensible; the proportion of elite cardholders will diminish in light of current circumstances. And those maintaining Gold largely on the back of personal flights will be further hit by the muppet Chancellor Darling, who proposes APD will rise from the current £80 to £170 for a Premium Economy flight to Sydney by 2010. Crazy.

Concorde Room cards were fun; perhaps sending out a voucher for one time Concorde Room access to all new Golds, or those soft landing to Silver as a consequence of the Crunch, might be a nice gesture, and remind people of the premium BA experience in the hope they will sample it for real when things bounce back.

[First-Pax]

How about BA awarding tier staus based on two or three years average accumulation of tier points?

It seems very unfair that one can earn say 2000 points before renewal one year, only to be demoted to silver the following year for ‘only’ earning 1000 points.

If BA based renewals on a rolling average (such as Vrigin for instance) they would win an enormous amount of goodwill – which is surely what all airlines need from their customers these days.

[Biggless]

I agree, the rolling average is much fairer. One year I got nearly 2000 tier points and the next year I missed Gold by only about 50 points but was still down graded. In fact I would go one further, a rolling average based on spend. At the end of day, what really matters to the airline is revenue. So why not just base membership on how much you spend ?

[jeremyf]

My company is making more use of discounted fares which do not attract tier points. So I am a loyal customer, but miss out on the tier points. If I fail to get Silver cos of this, then I’ll cease to be loyal.

So my suggestion would be to offer “half” tier points on on the cheaper tickets, so at least you get something.

[gostajonsson]

This program should not be called a “frequent flyer” program any more since its not the miles that decides the status but the amount you or your company paid for the ticket. I have been flying regularly between Europe and Latin America during the last 6 years, clocking up enough miles for gold+ but because the company look at the cost I have not even been able to get above the basic level. I was at gold level for several years but since the program was changed I have gone down through silver to the basic level even if I fly the same amout of miles. It does not give a lot of encouragement to stay loyal!!!

[VintageKrug]

In none of their marketing does BA refer to the Executive Club as a Frequent Flyer scheme.

Unlike most other schemes, elite status is not awarded on the basis of mileage flown, but to those who purchase and fly in premium “executive” cabins, or economy flyers on flexible tickets. Inflexible economy is the only class of travel not earning tier points.

So the more you pay BA, the more you benefit.

BA’s lounge offerings, especially since T5, are now among the best in the world, with free WiFi, great restaurant style food offerings and champagne on demand, which means attaining elite status in BAEC is more valuable than similar status on many other airlines.

We have all been caught out by membership year ends in the past – as with anything like this it is incumbent on the member to be aware of these well publicised terms and conditions.

If it looks like you will be just under the requalification criteria (1500 points for Gold in the UK) and you really want to keep your status, then book a cheapo R class round trip exLGW for about £190. An extra 80 points, a very acceptable lunch, and Gold for another year.

Their is also a CIV score which shows on the manifest which does tell the cabin crew how “valuable” you are to BA as a customer, and although this is broadly correlated with your BA elite status, it can help differentiate between elites when choices – such as upgrades or meal choice – come to be decided.

Though it seems most crew pay little attention to it, or don’t understand what it means.

[ex-frequentflyer]

i’d agree and posted a similar thought on frequent flyer today, namely lots of people, my own company included are downgrading from club to WT+ to WT and discounted WT too, i’ve been gold or silver BA since 1997 (auto industry flying to Asia mostly), with cutbacks am always down the back now, silver card keeps me sane but will lose that in April as only 120 points towards 600 retention. Maybe BA could keep FF’s at same tier for next 12 months, goodwill in credit crunch ??.

[ex-frequentflyer]

Just a final “thought for the day”, that if any of you gold scrapers are insistent of still flying in F and J class and your companies are making people redundant you should be ashamed of yourselves, jobs are critical, FF points and cards are not, think on it……

[VintageKrug]

I don’t think it’s such a bad investment travelling J (Business Class) especially overnight if it means you can sleep, arrive refreshed and be on top form to able to do business/make a sale.

It is, after all, these sales which keep people in work.

If there is a business case which can justify an extra day of valuable charge out or sales time, there is a case for flying J. If it allows you to get some work done (and not just looking at the AVOD for nine hours!) then it does make sense to pay a little more for that ability to be productive.

F is harder to justify unless your airline of choice does not offer a fully flat bed in their business cabin.

Most corporate deals are giving away longhaul J right now, so the cost of this apparent luxury may only be a little more than would be the case for a flexible economy ticket.

Premium travel costs are not as cut and dried as may first appear to be the case.

[travelwell]

if you can try to book a RTW ticket on BA and Qantas once per year and get as many segments in as possible as each one will give you 120 tier points, even perth to sydney rather than just doing asia to somewhere on the east coast of australia, do it via perth and then you get another 120 points in business class. the last couple of years I have been able to get a RTW ticket in business class for around £4000-£5000 which includes 5 long haul flights, not a bad price for the number of sectors

[travelwell]

another tip if you are short of cash to pay for a BA club world ticket, book one via one of their oneworld partners, e.g. iberia or finnair and pay £1-2K less for business class and still get the tier points, plus tier points for the european connection to madrid or helsinki, does add to your travel time and the seats are not as good as BA club world but if you need the points and dont want to pay the high BA prices, not a bad idea

[Cedric_Statherby]

Thanks Travelwell for these tips.

It clears up a mystery for me – I recently flew London to the Gulf, then between two gulf cities, then back to London, all 3 legs on BA Club World. Slightly surprised to be 360 tier points better off, with even the short (less than1 hour) leg in the Gulf counting as Intercontinental. But your post suggests this is how the BA system works.

Can you confirm this is correct?

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