BIG NEWS: BA moves to revenue-based tier status for Bronze, Silver, Gold and Gold Guest List

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• Paul says:

  4 Jan4 January 00:50

  So planning summer vacation. A-B from LHR £4k each for J. A-B with QR ex LIS £2395. This would have been my choice but pointless now. Booked A-B from LIS with Etihad for £1800. 2x CE Avios to and from LIS and 2 paid nights at IC LIS still under half what BA want. I need to be loose in the head not to book Etihad

• LD27 says:

  4 Jan4 January 01:26

  I do not agree with the speed which this has been introduced nor to how it has been communicated. However something had to change. I travelled CE from LHR twice last summer and there was a queue at the bottom of the second escalator to the lounge. There was a BA staff member controlling people going up the escalator on a 5 down 5 up basis. In the end I gave up waiting and filled an empty bottle with water in the terminal and found somewhere quiet to sit at an empty gate, knowing I would get a drink and something to eat on the plane. Certainly not a good experience.

  However it strikes me there are far fewer people with status than we realise. Since first week of December I have flown return from LHR 3 times to European destinations. When I have looked at seats even 2 or 3 days before travelling, only about 10 seats have been reserved in economy. The flights have actually been full (with may be the odd empty seat). So although most of us who follow HfP have status with BA, on the larger short haul planes, with at least 200 seats, that is less than 5% of passengers having status. One of the routes was Zurich, which someone else posted some time back that at short notice a return weekend was incredibly expensive.

  I do wish BA well. However those of us that spend our own dime, have a choice. When we’re in London, we live between Gatwick and Heathrow. Orange is shining brightly to the SE and as I have status with Krisflyer and Delta, Skyteam and *A beckon to the West and also to the SE.

  I was about to book a couple of BAH, but have decided to look for value and comfort before booking. We will use our 241 to South America again later this year. Have booked BA to US in March but for regular trips to France and Scotland, the orange light shines brightly.

  • Track says:

    4 Jan4 January 01:41

    — I travelled CE from LHR twice last summer and there was a queue at the bottom of the second escalator to the lounge.

    That is your typical summer load. Heathrow Airport themselves were limiting the number of passengers.

    The airport needs another runway, and BA specifically needs another terminal with full security (not T5B, T5C…).

    In the end, things are measured on how much stress load they can take. Granted, that during the Winter or at evenings T5 is not as busy, but even during the Winter, T5A main hall feels crowded.

• WiseEye says:

  4 Jan4 January 02:20

  I am at 95,000 lifetime tier points, so near to GGLfL. But the cost of getting there has just significantly increased. I decided to screw BA. I have booked 3,000 worth of tier points, in the run up to 31 March, on OW partners which will give me GGL awards at 7,000, 8,000 and 9,000 tier points of 50,000 Avios each (so 150,000 Avios in total). So BA will have to pay me for flying on OW partners. Those are 3,000 tier points that could have been earned with them – but even for me, the trust is burned.

• Jay says:

  4 Jan4 January 02:34

  Next Monday would be interesting when BAs “masterminds” are back in the office. My personal gutr tells that BAs back off the TP changes and adds monetary to vachieve/renew the status.
  Three months ahead announcement before the changes was too short timeframe. When CEOs,CFOs etc. hired McMorons to develop the company, they are why in theirs positions when do not have competency?
  Granting only BA/IB/AA flights with current TP conversion if booked before December 30th and flown after April 1st is another “masterepice” of the “masterminds”.

  • Rob says:

    4 Jan4 January 04:58

    My gut feeling is that we get a 12 month delay and then the revised version comes in which looks more like AA. But we’ll see. Sunday papers tomorrow won’t be happy reading.

    • Shanghaiguizi says:

      4 Jan4 January 05:07

      ‘Gut feeling’ 😂

    • Andrew J says:

      4 Jan4 January 07:39

      Won’t be happy reading for who? Them or us?

      • Rob says:

        4 Jan4 January 07:40

        BA obviously.

    • Tom says:

      4 Jan4 January 07:45

      I would like to think this, but this all is so arrogant / out of touch it makes me think maybe they actually dig in for now and wait for evidence of bad trading to start to emerge first. The question to me is how much damage is temporary and how much is effectively ‘permanent’ with customers for whom reversing or delaying the changes won’t win them back.

      • Andrew J says:

        4 Jan4 January 07:57

        I agree, this week has been the final blow. But like others have commented, it feels liberating to be free from them. I cancelled my BAPP and have booked a few Avios flights for the next few months as a victory lap before I go from gold to blue, and then that’s it, out of the airline loyalty business and free to buy on price or quality. And I was expecting to have lost IHG diamond this month, but thanks for the buy points offer a couple of weeks ago, at least I still have that. And with more need for the PP now, I’ll certainly keep Amex Plat, so I’ll not be a total stranger.

        • Tom says:

          4 Jan4 January 08:00

          I have booked a tonne of Avios flights too assuming availability may dry up once everyone decides to get out. I wonder how that is interpreted by IAG (run on the bank or we’ve done such a good job people are more engaged now…)

    • JDB says:

      4 Jan4 January 08:19

      If they did delay implementation for 12 months that ought to require heads to roll and would be a very embarrassing admission of corporate failure. The high payers who would benefit from these changes might not appreciate further delay.

      Realistically though, a 12 month delay would likely cause a rush to more faux Gold now that would only exacerbate the problem next year. Whatever change they made was guaranteed to go down badly like the revenue based Avios earning or TP year end alignment.

      • Andrew J says:

        4 Jan4 January 08:25

        I think at the very least they could keep soft landings to save losing people, but keeping face as that’s not something they’re officially talking about anyway.

        • The Original Nick. says:

          4 Jan4 January 14:32

          @ Andrew J, I agree. Hitting thousands of loyal and genuine people like this will damage the business hard, if it hasn’t already. They should also delay the new implementation of the new system for a year to help people understand and plan their business and travel.

      • Lady London says:

        4 Jan4 January 10:22

        I agree JDB. None of the wave of comments is unexpected by BA. I recall the same the last wave around 11 years ago of wails of “BA has gutted the program I’ll never fly BA again” etc. They are fully prepared for this.

        And ISTR BA’s financial figures after that last big gutting were reported to have met measures BA wanted too.

        I think we’ll do ourselves morw good thinking what is BA telling us about ‘loyalty’ programs and what shape for the future for varioua types and levels of consumption. So that each individual can identify their segment and its future and atrategise accordingly.

        BA ie far from the only loyalty provider that’s cut back and it’s definitely a widescsale movement. That is what we need to understand and work out where the segments sre niches are holistically. Then circle back to see in which of those BA fits and what is the level of match personally.

    • Tim S says:

      4 Jan4 January 09:47

      Yup

      my feeing is that they should delay introduction of the new scheme to a point in time where there isn’t set of people having pre-booked for travel after the date of implementation, expecting to get the old TP. (and thus needing complicated process to compensate them)

      don’t see them making any other significant changes TBH.

  • Jay says:

    4 Jan4 January 13:12

    That means 15 months delay, until 26/27 period.
    Why not just to add the monetary option suggested to the current tier points one? Would be two ways to qualify and loyalty remains. No changes to annual and lifetime TP collecting.

    • LittleNick says:

      4 Jan4 January 21:59

      Because BA actively don’t want status members from leisure travellers providing exclusivity to corporate travellers

      • Jay says:

        5 Jan5 January 00:16

        By giving and extending BAH double points promotion for years?
        Leisure and small company travellers do have a choice to choose, corporate travellers must follow the contract. That´s from where the spending difference comes. Forward planning vs last minute. Published price vs discounted contract price. Non-corporate public last minute J and F fares are most profitable, not by the contract.

• MC says:

  4 Jan4 January 04:19

  “British Airways – The World’s Least Loyal* Airline”

  *trustworthy/respected etc.

• MBell says:

  4 Jan4 January 06:33

  BA Holidays Terrible Hotel options vs Hotel.com & Booking.com: Why does BA Holidays offer such a restricted hotel offering vs open market alternative sites. Now that BA Holiday £’s critical to earbing status can BA be persuaded to open up the hotel offering some more. On recent holiday to Australia and USA the BA hotels really awful list vs what is available for similar cost at other hotels on Hotel.com and Booking.com. PLUS WITH BA HOLIDAYS YOU EARN NO HOTEL REWARDS eg IHG REWARDS AND HILTON HONOURS despite paying more on BA holidays vs other sites and booking direct!

• Peter says:

  4 Jan4 January 06:42

  Further to earlier comment Finnair and Qatar give 50 % of miles flown if booked J l believe (hope !) should achieve approx 14k miles UK to Bangkok each trip x 3 with a little more cost should enable me to keep gold bit sad but l like the ability to lounge swap as and when l please quite happy no longer have to complete 4 x BA flights per year .

  • yonasl says:

    4 Jan4 January 07:03

    Where are you flying from? LHR to Japan is 6,000 miles and only flying business flexible will get you 50% new tier points based on miles flown. Most other fare buckets are 25%.

    For a return trip, most people will be getting 6,000x2x0.25 =3,000 new tier points for flights that cost much more than that in £.

    • Peter says:

      4 Jan4 January 07:18

      Looked at Finnair LHR to HEL to BKK about 7k miles each way J class flex ticket gives 50% miles flown plus additional avois bit more expensive but should enable to keep gold l think ?

      • yonasl says:

        4 Jan4 January 08:59

        It is around 6,000 miles x 2 x 50% = 6,000 new tier points. The tickets costs around £4,000. It is better than flying BA and getting 3,5000 (after taxes) new Tier points for sure. But still far from Silver or Gold. In the past the business lite tariff at £2,600 would get you 440 TPs. (Almost silver)

      • Dubious says:

        9 Jan9 January 16:53

        You’d need to do HEL-LHR-DOH-BKK to get 7,000 ish miles…

    • LittleNick says:

      4 Jan4 January 07:42

      Would you not still be awarded on distance per segment? Eg LHR to DOH and then DOH TO NRT/HND etc? Not much in it but surely it’s something

• Peter says:

  4 Jan4 January 07:28

  Finnair seems to be the most economical airline at present plus giving higher percentage just returning from Thailand now with Cathay Pacific good product quite competitive but only giving 25% on J class can still transit via HGK with Finnair

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.