[Anonymous]

[LucaForna]

Hi guys,

I am a silver member, during the past 12 months I haven’t flown a lot though. I currently have 520 TP, need 80 more to keep my status. And I need them by the 8th of jan. I am flying to BKK from VCE with Qatar Airways on the 6th, the trip will make me earn 70 TP (35TP VCE-DOH and 35TP DOH-BKK). I will then have 590. According to your personal experience, is there any way BA will “gift” me with the 10TP missing? Or should I pay an (expensive) upgrade?

Thank you very much, I appreciate your help

[FirstTraveller]

BA won’t gift you anything. Don’t waste you time and lose the status. Buy the upgrade and secure the status. This is the best option.

[LuganoPirate]

I’m not sure it’s worth paying extra to upgrade just to keep silver. If you fly economy then the extras are marginal and it could be cheaper to get a lounge pass instead.

[SimonS1]

Agree with LP. Get a Priority Pass for lounge access and it will work out cheaper.

BA won’t gift you anything. The amount of business you give them isn’t worth it.

[passionateflyer]

If you put it in writing to the exec club they’ll likely renew your status at 590 points. They’ve done it for my partner and me, but you must write the letter as they won’t do it over the phone.

The second time I wrote to them about my membership, they extended my membership year by a month to allow me to collect the extra 40 I needed on that occasion.

[SwissExPat]

IN the past, they have simply renewed me at silver level, even though I was short by approx 100 tier points.

[Gold-2K]

If you decide to go for the priority pass option rather than renew your silver membership, remember there is no Priority Pass Lounge at LHR T5, so will be of no help to you if the majority of your flights are BA ex LHR.

[NameRemoved-18/12/14]

Luca, is it possible to fly to London and back between now and your Qatar departure? Silver is worth retaining.

[FormerlyDoS]

If you have Monday free, you could fly to Gatwick and back for about 90€ and earn your missing points.

Personally, I would look at your travel pattern and ask how important SIlver is, how much do you fly out of Heathrow T5 (where there is no 3rd party lounge) and how important is selecting a free seat on booking.

Remember, if you drop to Bronze, you can still choose a seat for free, at -7 days.

Then decided whether to ask BA to give your more time or hope for a renewal at 590 points.

[Bath_VIP]

Luca,

The key here is to look at how much travel you are doing in Y or W. If like me, your BA travel tends to be in C then you will get lounge access in any case so being Silver is redundant. I will be reaching Silver next month but the only advantage I can see for my travel pattern is the Avios earning bonus. Other than that Priority Pass takes care of my lounge requirements (though I accept their coverage of LHR is poor). As FDoS points out, being Bronze still entitles you to Biz class check in, priority boarding and free seat selection 7 days out so it still gives you something.

[LucaForna]

Guys, thanks for your suggestions. Turns out that I booked in B, I will get 140TP, not 70 as I thought. Thank God!
I called Qatar earlier today, an upgrade in J would be only 350£ (bargain in a 10h+ flight), there is no availability from DOH to BKK though, therefore they are not able to upgrade VCE-DOH either. Bad luck. Well, at least I will remain silver!

[FormerlyDoS]

I’m pleased it worked out for you.

[Author]

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