Too little, too late? British Airways backtracks on sector based tier qualification

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• Londonsteve says:

  5 Feb5 February 12:41

  Nothing here really moves the dial in any direction. Those qualifying on the basis of 50 sectors per year were only ever a small minority of status holders. What about those that would do 48 sectors and easily qualify on TPs under the old system but won’t do in new world as their post taxes and charges spend is under £7500?

  I’d have thought that even cabin crew that don’t live in London might struggle to chalk up 50 qualifying sectors with BA considering some of the time they might fly on non-qualifying staff tickets or even with other airlines if the price and time suits better. If you’re home is a flight away from London you’ll seek to aggregate your shifts into a more intense block so as to have a meaningful amount of time back home. In that event you might be doing only one positioning flight a week and accounting for time off they’d always have to be qualifying tickets on BA to have a chance of achieving Silver. Still, this aspect is unchanged from the current arrangements so no grounds for complaint there, I just wonder how many people are positively impacted by maintaining this. Some will be.

  • John says:

    6 Feb6 February 00:35

    If you do 48 sectors you’ll have to do sector run

• LD27 says:

  5 Feb5 February 12:46

  Have retained status with BA for next year. I’ve just done a quick return from LGW to BOD. Would usually book BA and not even look at easyJet. Booked at short notice on easyJet. Paid for large cabin bag (same dimensions as BA). Package cheaper than BA. Lift to airport in both directions and had meals at home before leaving so didn’t need lounge (BOD tiny anyway). Was allocated seat 3D in both directions with no one sitting next to me. Had some sort of priority boarding – which was enforced. No fights over locker space. Apart from “no free food and drink” on board and no fast track at Gatwick (which I think you can pay for) was equivalent to CE. Really good experience and quids in. It’s left me wondering why on earth I’ve already booked CE on this route for a couple of trips later this year!
  I will now pay much more attention to the whole package and value for money. The sun at the moment is definitely shining orange. As far as to which OW programme to allocate future flights – hoping to become a Platinum Hawk. At the moment will keep BAPP for earning Avios and 241.

  • Barrel for Scraping says:

    5 Feb5 February 13:09

    So it was equivalent to CE except for:
    No lounge
    No free food and drink
    No fast track
    No middle seat blocked (the fact the seat next to you was empty was luck)

    • Denis says:

      5 Feb5 February 14:04

      And no Avios to be used during school holidays for a family of 5.

    • LD27 says:

      5 Feb5 February 16:13

      But it was cheaper than BA economy and I can get a Hotline ticket! The only way to get a cheaper ticket was to travel standby, which I wasn’t prepared to do. CE was more than 4x the price. Flights left and arrived on time. Timings were better. The only things worth having in the lounge at BOD are the boxes of peanuts with a glass of Lillet. Not really what I want for breakfast!
      Travelling east long haul from UK and paying cash, always look at best options for whole package. Have SQ status and usually find both the product and price travelling business from Europe cheaper than anyone else and very good. Last time flew from Pisa via LHR. Saved a huge amount and had the opportunity to stay with friends in Pisa too. It certainly pays to shop around.

  • Bluekjp says:

    5 Feb5 February 17:07

    If you join easyJet Plus @ £249 per annum, this will give you the large cabin bag, upfront seats, which I presume includes the front row, priority boarding and fastrak security at some 47 European airports including in the UK. You are then much closer to CE on BA. If you have a credit card such as the Amex Platinum you’ll also have lounge access for 2 with priority pass. I’ve never used the priority pass that I have with the Amex because I, too, was addicted to the World’s best FFQ scheme as it was until 1pm on 30th Dec 24. I will be downgrading from GGL and will give the easyJet system as described above a whirl, among the many other weird and wonderful airlines out there available to us in the UK.

    • Barrel for Scraping says:

      5 Feb5 February 19:53

      I don’t like the orange one. The last time I’d flown them they had the awful thin seats (that BA has in the back of their neos with the old seats – so you can avoid them at the front) and LGW is my 3rd choice London airport behind LHR and LCY. So I don’t see me defecting to EZY but there’s lots of choice out of LHR and some choice out of LCY when not tied to an airline

• David S says:

  5 Feb5 February 12:51

  I’m now retired and certainly wont be flying J to New York, PE to Singapore and holidaying in the Caribbean, all with BA just to maintain Silver status. I’ll simply pick based on schedule and price in future. I do currently have 6 trips in CE per annum with BA, but likely to move to Easyjet or TAP (all flights are to Portugal). I know the LC’s aren’t always low cost but they do have many more flights per day than BA.

  • Dubious says:

    5 Feb5 February 13:15

    I find it quite amusing to think that someone who flies to Geneva (from London) 13 times a year (i.e. roughly once a month plus an extra trip) even has the time to book (let alone travel) on three separate trips to New York. Can forget having the time to go Tenerife!

    Perhaps the people heading to Geneva are doing it twice a month every two months?

    • Scott says:

      5 Feb5 February 13:38

      Perhaps pharma, finance or political related travel?
      Expect there are people doing multiple trips a week, or even those commuting daily.

      Even if people do spend £20-£25k to get gold, then to actually use it, you’re going to have to spend more for additional flights.

      • Dubious says:

        5 Feb5 February 17:41

        Fair enough and come to think of it I did once meet someone on a flight (not BA) from Zurich to Heathrow who worked in Wealth Management who seemed to do that every two weeks or so.

        Yet it feels a bit atypical. (And I say that as someone who did four separate international trips in January).

• Frank Hughes says:

  5 Feb5 February 12:52

  BA’s current Book Now! mailshot actually ends “Rewards just got even more rewarding.” I’m not making this up….

• Andrew says:

  5 Feb5 February 12:53

  I”ve just read the press release – this bit sticks out as particularly interesting:

  “It’s expected the airline will *always offer* members a Bonus Tier Point proposition in addition to the general 1 Tier Point for £1 earning mechanism.” (emphasis mine)

  • memesweeper says:

    5 Feb5 February 13:15

    😂 that’s a massive row-back without putting egg on the faces of those that should rightly be fired… and who plans flying for status without knowing they can hit a target? moving targets are absolutely not helpful.

  • Barrel for Scraping says:

    5 Feb5 February 20:11

    Effectively they’re saying they’re taking the same approach as Sainsbury’s did when they halved the Nectar points earning (it used to be 2 points per pound) – to go along with this they launched lots more promotions.

    I’d prefer BA went back to the old scheme where it was easy to work out the points required. It’s going to be less certain whether there’ll be a bonus promo to get you to status. I’m probably just going to go with whatever airline works best for me and if I happen to get status because BA is working best for me then so be it but I think the days of chasing status are over

• Phil says:

  5 Feb5 February 12:55

  I wonder if even BA believe this will work

  • RC says:

    5 Feb5 February 13:15

    They genuinely think that after a few tweaks (killing brunch, being late only 25% of the time instead of halve the time, as well as curator planes in 2021 – and not since), that they are the best in the world now. Their managers like Lacy, Lamming and Doyle live in a different reality.

• Notmyrealnameorisit says:

  5 Feb5 February 12:57

  Can anyone point me in the right direction for an alternative rewards scheme/airline?
  I am a persistent BA gold, but hit GGL this past year due to the double TP holidays.

  My flying is from London, with (generally discount fare bucket) biz/first flights to the US (primarily NYC, but occasionally other major cities) and short-haul leisure travel with my wife and school-aged child (typically EuroTraveller unless its only a small premium for club).

  The most valuable thing to me as gold is the first class check-in; its a life saver during school holiday periods with the family (my work travel is always premium class, so status doesn’t get me anything there). I don’t really care about the lounges, so long as I have a place to sit and plug in a laptop (the food in CCR is laughable — I typically go to Pret and pick up a sandwich).

  I think I can hit BA gold pretty easily under the new program, but hitting GGL again seems unlikely.
  Virgin seems like an obvious choice for the long-haul, but I don’t think it benefits me at all for my short-haul travel? Any others I should be looking at?

  • memesweeper says:

    5 Feb5 February 13:21

    If you are sticking with BA for short haul you need a OneWorld airline. Royal Jordanian, Iberia (for now) and Finnair would be obvious choices, or maybe Alaska. Rob will be along soon with a fuller article.

  • Throwawayname says:

    5 Feb5 February 13:37

    Virgin status will work fine on short haul with AFKL. Equally, *G will give you a ground experience at LHR that’s substantially better than the T5 business class one, particularly at busy times (I haven’t used the F facilities there so I don’t have a view on them). The question is whether/how much value you place on flying direct.

    • Thegasman says:

      6 Feb6 February 08:48

      First Wing security/direct lounge access is great & worth chasing/maintaining. The problem is once you have kids over 2 you won’t be able to use the really useful bits (security & direct lounge access) without spending serious $ to get GGL or other half as Gold.

      The security/down escalator/fight through crowds/up escalator to lounge is a real drag in T5, especially with kids in tow. Galleries Club is also awful (busy, scruffy, noisy) if you’ve got used to First. Realistically ive made peace with not chasing status as Gold out of reach for a leisure traveller & will stick to Plane Food.

      • Notmyrealnameorisit says:

        6 Feb6 February 13:07

        Ah, I didn’t think about not being able to use first wing check in security with +2 people on my gold. If I can’t do that, then BA Gold itself loses almost all value to me.

• memesweeper says:

  5 Feb5 February 13:19

  I listened to the podcast and it was telling that Ben Lipsey (Air France-KLM) completely “got” the need to incentivise the sort of irrational behaviour that nobody in BA seems to want to understand or embrace. This is going to cost them dearly.

  I’m sticking with creating SkyTeam to Virgin, but wish KLM/AF every success in sucking the life out of BAEC.

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