British Airways removes Qatar ‘R’ business class from tier point and Avios earning

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• Lostantipod says:

  3 Nov3 November 06:47

  James67 I completely agree with your post, and like you suggested, I diversified my loyalty portfolio a few years ago. However that doesn’t mean I won’t be annoyed with BA if they do not recognise the QR trip I am currently in the middle of. And it will bias my future bookings away from BA. All this penny pinching by BA and improvements by competitors has resulted in me shifting my spending from mostly BA to mostly elsewhere. Let’s see how well BA do when a gas prices rebound on a currently poor GBP…

  • Gavin says:

    3 Nov3 November 07:16

    Like James (I think) I’m mainly focussed on one main destination in Asia so think I will will focus on Avios for short haul Europe trips solely and just buy the best deal going long haul.

• Concerto says:

  3 Nov3 November 06:52

  Boycott! Boycott! BA, I mean!

• TOH says:

  3 Nov3 November 06:59

  God damn. I booked Qatar back in June for flights in March. If BA refuses to honour the points, that kills my Gold status, and I’m out.

• Barry says:

  3 Nov3 November 07:00

  I flew last Thurs CPH-DOH-SYD and nothing had posted on my BA account up to this morning. So I was dismayed to read Raffles’ email when I just came in from the sun! However I’ve just looked again and the tier points and Avios HAVE now posted. But I’ve just looked at my ticket and it says it’s J class though it was very cheap! I never looked at the time what class it was booked in. Were some of these cheap ex-Europe tickets R class and others J? Anyway fingers crossed for everyone else with these tickets. The Qatar flights were wonderful btw and put Club to shame.

• keith says:

  3 Nov3 November 07:05

  Sitting here at Copenhagen airport Aspire lounge (dreadful) waiting for the flight to Bangkok at 09.20.

  BA offer a terrible product in comparison to Qatar and therefore as a Gold for Life passenger, I use Qatar for their excellent prices combined with excellent product.

  The Avois will be missed but spending them on flights I want to go on is always a challenge.

  They could never, ever again advertise as ‘The World’s Favourite Airline’

  I look forward to Rob’s new schemes and methodologies for maximising and enjoying my time in the air.

  • Daz says:

    3 Nov3 November 07:46

    Agree totally! I’ve made most of my flying avios and tier points from Qatar bussiness product; it is streets ahead and my wife, daughter and I all managed BA gold because of our QR flights from Europe to SE Asia.

    Bummer that’s all I can say. This collecting point malarky isn’t as good as it used to be.

• barry cutters says:

  3 Nov3 November 07:12

  Good news in my opinion. Maybe the frequent flyer scheme can get back to the point where it benefits actual frequent flyers. Hopefully the lounges, priority boarding etc will become quieter. I know this comment will p-off a lit of people, but it really is a good thing for the genuine frequent flyer. They should however earn miles and tp on all r class tickets up to the date they removed it from the calculator.
  and I’m sure with enough pressure they will

  • PGW says:

    3 Nov3 November 07:26

    I largely agree with you there and have always acknowledged that airlines can do wharever they wish with their FFP’s. That said, taking away something that in effect their customers have already paid for is very poor practice.

  • Paul says:

    3 Nov3 November 07:33

    I tend to agree also but for strikingly different reasons. It would force me to find another home for my miles and it certainly would be BA. They get some business from me as a result of having status but they would get bugger all if this is confirmed. I fly Business or First only in any event so I would still be in the lounge so don’t lose that benefit and there are very few other benefits of being gold or indeed silver as most have been enhanced away.

    • Mark says:

      3 Nov3 November 08:30

      The main other benefit for us being the avoidance of BA’s ridiculous seat selection charges in Club World. We rarely use status for lounge access.

      For us this takes away the incentive to fly Qatar over any other heavily discounted J fare, plus provides a disincentive to fly BA CW over the period we would otherwise have had status as refuse to pay for seat selections and other airlines offer it free.

  • Hidehi says:

    3 Nov3 November 07:43

    I think one of the real draws of headforpoints and flyertalk is that it offers those who fly regularly on their own time to maximise yhe system and get benefits that would otherwise only be available to those who are lucky enough to fly for business.

    I fully understand why ba may need to stop this particular option but I dont think we should criticise the people who fly as much as they van afford and put a lot of effort into following these sites and maximising their miles and status earning.

  • Helen says:

    3 Nov3 November 16:18

    Barry

    We are off to Bali, BA don’t fly there hence the reason we’re flying with Qatar so you’re assumptions are not correct, I find it’s always best to get the full facts before making any statements which might offend other people.

    And just to confirm that we are already BAEC Gold & Silver, we pay for our own flights & always fly business/club. Hope that clarifies the situation, but do not feel I should really have to justify to you our decisions why we are flying with Qatar.

    • Barry cutters says:

      4 Nov4 November 11:42

      I didn’t say everyone who flies Qatar is chasing status.

      What i’m saying is it is unsustainable for people to get up to 2 years worth of lounge access for themselves and a guest from a £900 flight . -this is not the idea of the frequent flying scheme.
      Saying that i would be happy if i was the one receiving silver status from just this one flight.

      • Helen says:

        4 Nov4 November 15:27

        Barry

        Once again another incorrect assumption, this will be our first ever flight with Qatar, our current individual BAEC me – Silver & partner – Gold status we gained by taking BA flights which we paid for ourselves.

        Could you please at least ask questions prior to making any more incorrect assumptions & statements.

• Will says:

  3 Nov3 November 07:17

  This is very disappointing not to mention misleading. We have 2 return R class flights from Europe to Vietnam specifically booked because of the partner airline state of Qatar. I was very careful to check eligibility around earning both miles and tier points before booking. Surely they need to honour existing bookings??

  • Helen says:

    3 Nov3 November 07:22

    Same for us too, I checked on BA that the R tickets earned tier & Avios points before I booked. Fingers crossed they honour existing bookings.

  • Helen says:

    3 Nov3 November 07:23

    Same for us too, I checked on BA that the R tickets earned tier & Avios points before I booked. Fingers crossed they honour existing .

• Helen says:

  3 Nov3 November 07:21

  Is there a cutoff date for this, I see the changes to Avios earned starts from 30th November? We are flying with Qatar on an R ticket returning on 30th November! Thanks.

  • Rob says:

    3 Nov3 November 07:24

    I think “November” is a mistake, as the comment below says “October”, and 30 October was around the date of the revenue sharing deal…

    I hope they do honour previous bookings, as I too have a R-flight booked next week which would have taken me to BAEC Gold!

    • Helen says:

      3 Nov3 November 16:11

      Contacted BA on Twitter & they have confirmed that it was an error and has now been rectified – good news thankfully!

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