An interesting day – Iberia Plus will reveal its new status system

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• BSI1978 says:

  12 Feb12 February 05:47

  Appreciate the post which in effect teases / posits the news to come, but have to query the inference BA/IAG released the news on 30/12 hoping no one would notice.

  Suspect you’re being facetious, as regardless of the turkey/sausage/veal/Seitan & port infused comas people were under, the scale of the changes were never going to be missed!

  • david says:

    12 Feb12 February 06:03

    That date was 100% strategic. ‘No notice’ was tongue-in-cheek.

    • meta says:

      12 Feb12 February 06:39

      There are still people who do not know about the BA changes.

    • JDB says:

      12 Feb12 February 07:37

      It wasn’t really very strategic! The announcement should have been made earlier and it slipped, but still had to be announced by New Year to give three months notice.

      • Ken says:

        12 Feb12 February 08:25

        The word strategic is both ludicrously over used and used incorrectly on this site.

  • John G says:

    12 Feb12 February 08:04

    They were just being kind and didn’t want to ruin Christmas by anouncing it earlier!

    • JG says:

      12 Feb12 February 13:07

      Wasn’t the initial spin from BA that the timing was a kindness as it would allow us to plan more effectively how to buy flights in the sales?

  • memesweeper says:

    12 Feb12 February 08:34

    No-one ever chooses to announce anything between Christmas and New Year’s Day. The announcement timing was like everything else in the package of execrable changes — a poorly thought through balls up.

    • JDB says:

      12 Feb12 February 08:56

      It would hardly be the first corporate announcement that’s had to be rushed out before a deadline. BA even had a day in hand!

• Pat says:

  12 Feb12 February 06:16

  Spain is also more focussed on sustainability than the UK. The Spanish are very concerned with the anthropogenic climate and ecological emergency, sustainable tourism is a key part of that. The recent success of the Spanish economy, according to the BBC, was about balancing those factors. It will be interesting to see if Iberia Plus has more in the way of climate emergency sustainability offers/features than the rubbish BAEC tried.

  • Charlie says:

    12 Feb12 February 06:34

    Is that you Donald? 🙂

  • ChrisBCN says:

    12 Feb12 February 11:26

    We are?!

  • NorthernLass says:

    12 Feb12 February 17:25

    Presumably that’s why they build all those airports and villas which then can’t be used …!

• G says:

  12 Feb12 February 06:49

  But every time I point out IAG prioritises Iberia over BA… I get told no.

• Susan says:

  12 Feb12 February 07:08

  Maybe Iberia also recognises that the newer intracontinental trains represent real alternatives short-haul. My next trip to Barcelona (admittedly for leisure) is Eurostar/TGV. The journey is part of the holiday and the price is comparable to flying BA (although maybe not after adding in lunch at Le Train Bleu 😉

  • simon says:

    12 Feb12 February 07:39

    Would be interested to know the details for intracontinental. I always thought the hassle of changing and the time taken for these journeys, along with the fact the options are limited (only departures to France from Spain are from Barcelona I believe, travelling from the UK necesitates a swap in Paris?).

    For sure the fast train (AVE) between Valencia and Madrid (2 hours) with prices from 9 euros each way (and clean trains, no overcrowding and very impressive punctuality) is a very viable option to flying.

    • ChrisBCN says:

      12 Feb12 February 11:38

      Yeah options are still limited unfortunately, 2/3 trains a day from Barcelona to Paris, plus a small number of extra trains to Toulouse/Lyon/Marseille. Not exactly a threat to flying yet.

      I find the Eurostar connection to be the expensive part, unless you travel really off peak and book in advance.

      But domestically in Spain, the high speed routes are great, and always worth the extra €8-15 to go first class.

  • phantomchickenz says:

    12 Feb12 February 07:42

    I was looking at that exact journey yesterday. A minimum of 9 hours on the train, and that’s without any check in formalities, getting to St P, and transfer time. Or am I looking in the wrong place?

    • kevinchoi says:

      12 Feb12 February 08:23

      I’ve done that exact journey before, just before covid (actually it was all the way to Malaga). But yes, the London to Barcelona portion took most of a day. Don’t fret – you’ll get treated to the brilliant scenery of the french countryside and time will wizz past!

  • Ben says:

    12 Feb12 February 10:09

    Yep, we’re also heading back from Lisbon via Barcelona on Eurostar and TGV. An unappreciated benefit of BA moving to one-way pricing has been the option to fly out, train back – not ideal but a step towards sustainability.

    Plus, earning the top-tier Eurostar Etoile status means that I am effectively upgraded to Plus (Standard Premier) on every single trip. Now that’s status worth having.

• JDB says:

  12 Feb12 February 07:15

  Even if Iberia adopts lower thresholds, surely it’s not too difficult for them to put in place a policy restricting the IB+ scheme to Spanish residents?

  PS it’s also big news for Heathrow today with formal announcement of the expansion project including extensions of T2 and T5 etc.

  • Charles Martel says:

    12 Feb12 February 07:42

    Could they restrict it to ES citizens, wouldn’t they have to limit it to EU to avoid accusations of discrimination? Not that it would help us much.

    • abc says:

      12 Feb12 February 07:49

      They’d more likely use residency rather than citizenship, not only because of EU regulations but also because it makes more sense (you don’t want to exclude long-term Spanish residents who are loyal Iberia flyers just because they are not Spanish citizens). You are right in saying they couldn’t restrict it to Spanish citizens because of EU regulations, but they could restrict it to EU citizens and so would still exclude (most) British citizens (again it’s unlikely they’d do that).

      • Dev says:

        12 Feb12 February 10:03

        Time to find that Irish granny in our heritage to aid our quest gor FF status!

  • BJ says:

    12 Feb12 February 07:58

    PS @JDB that’s a recipe for an even less-appetising dog’s breakfast!

  • BBbetter says:

    12 Feb12 February 08:01

    Simple – just add 8 or 10 flights on IB metal. That would rule out most Brits. Sure, some would still be willing to fly them, but the vast majority may not.
    Or add tier points from credit card that is available for local residents only.

    • Rob says:

      12 Feb12 February 08:41

      Do you have any idea how few people have credit cards in Europe? I suspect the UK card market is close to the whole EU market.

      • daveinitalia says:

        12 Feb12 February 08:58

        It’s still not unusual to see people paying cash for things in Italy, in the UK people seem to get annoyed if people pay with cash as it slows things down compared with contactless. Those who pay with card usually pay with debit cards. BA tried to launch a credit card here but it only lasted a few years. ITA has an Amex and they’ve been trying to push it (sellers in FCO, mentions in the app, even had a call about it) but I’ve never seen one in the wild, unlike the BA PP in the UK

        • VinZ says:

          12 Feb12 February 11:09

          I had an Alitalia Amex a few years ago. It gave me status too, for a year or so. But yes, nobody has credit cards in Europe… even worse than Italy, Germany. They adore cash.

      • ken says:

        12 Feb12 February 09:15

        Number of credit cards per head in Spain is roughly the same as the UK.

      • BBbetter says:

        12 Feb12 February 10:14

        Rob, isnt that the whole point? Drive card volumes while keeping them in Avios ecosystem?

      • Chris W says:

        12 Feb12 February 11:51

        Don’t Amex sponsor the fast track security at MAD?

  • Bagoly says:

    12 Feb12 February 08:10

    It would be interesting to know what proportion of members at different levels in different schemes are resident in the country in which the airline is based.
    Even without people like the recent UK Golden Sparrows and core readers of blogs like this, I expect it’s often fairly large.
    Particularly for the ME3.

    And one of the main aspects of competition is Iberia trying to get E.g. Germans to fly DUS-MAD-BOG rather than DUS-FRA-BOG.
    So I doubt that Iberia would want to exclude non-residents.

  • Jenny says:

    12 Feb12 February 08:10

    That would be rough for any Brits who regularly fly to Latin America via Madrid on IB.

• simon says:

  12 Feb12 February 07:34

  Well as someone living in Spain and with plata status through my iberia credit card this is one announcement I am very interested in! Surely they have learnt from the BA debacle?!

• BJ says:

  12 Feb12 February 07:54

  Hopefully IAG will hold firm and not react to a storm in an HfP tea cup. Substantially reducing status holders is the best thing they can do to improve the travel experirnce for passengers as a whole. They shouldn’t blink, the elites and particularly the fake elites can throw tantrums all they like, at the end of the day where can they go? Most in UK will continue flying BA and most is Spain will continue flying Iberia. They should scrap status entirely and sweeten the pain with more generous and exciting earning and burning options with redeemable miles including the options to redeem for the things status usually brings. That would bring them into line with revenue passengers and everybody would then get what they pay for whether they pay cash or miles.

  • LittleNick says:

    12 Feb12 February 08:14

    Scrap status entirely? They’d probably have to leave oneworld for that, then the options to earn and burn miles are significantly reduced

    • BJ says:

      12 Feb12 February 08:44

      I strongly believe they should scrap status infustry-wide but I know that’ll never happen. Therefore best result is that they make it much more difficult to get so I think these changes are a step in the right direction. Thirty years ago I recall both much more pleasant flying and airport experiences than now, there were status elites then (including me, and I got it from flying *A) so status in itself is not the problem. What has changed is that furing the last two decades status has become far too easy to obtain, particularly via non-flying means. Blogs, financial services, the airlines themselves and others are all to ‘blame’. The results are that dedicated check-in desks, fast track security, lounges, priority boarding, seat selection etc are often no longer the pleasant experience they once were. The only way to reset this is to very substantially reduce the number of elites by refocussing qualification on flying and more of it. Shortcuts via status matches, credit cards, TP promotions etc all need to be abolished.

      • Tom says:

        12 Feb12 February 09:37

        I hate to break it to you but I think you’re a bit delusional, airlines are inflating status members because that is what generates the most profit for them, they couldn’t care less about your preference for a fantasy world from 20 years ago (unless what you are actually saying here is you’d be happy to pay £20K+ return for a TATL business class ticket in future so they can continue to make the same operating profit with your ideal largely empty lounges and fast track queues).

        • BJ says:

          12 Feb12 February 11:02

          I don’t think it’s that simple Tom, some airlines rarely do status matches. I doubt most people that do status matcges become new loyal customers, many just take them for benefits on odd flights with other airlines or in the hope that they might provide a sort of insurance polivy whereby future matches may bring them full vircle back to where they started.. do you really believe all the matches like ITA, SAS etch have markedly changed peoples loyalties? I doubt it, most stick with the main carrier in their regions most of the time. I doubt even a Virgin status match has much affect on BA.

  • daveinitalia says:

    12 Feb12 February 08:24

    I think for many they will soon realise that the grass isn’t greener on the other side, it’s just the brown patches are in different places. As I’ve been full circle (started flying life with Flying Dutchman which became Flying Blue after the AF merger, jumped to bmi with a status match after AF devalued the scheme on 1 April 2008 and then ended up with BA) I think this is a good time to stop chasing status. If it comes naturally based on my flying patterns then fine.

    • BJ says:

      12 Feb12 February 08:50

      You’ve obviously been flying many years, what impact do you think the number of status holders have had on your own flying experience?

      • daveinitalia says:

        12 Feb12 February 09:17

        As someone who’s had status for a long time but taken advantage of the recent generous promotions to get to GGL I’m probably not the best person to ask. I pushed for GGL mainly because the Flounge was getting busier and the food getting worse.

        As most of my flying is short haul I can’t pay my way into the F wing security channel (probably the best benefit of gold) or the Flounge/CCR. With most other airlines a J ticket will get you into the same lounge and use the same fast track as their status users.

        If I’d paid to status match my GGL to FB Ultimate, I’d get the same lounges as J ticket holders, although in their key lounges there would be a separate Ultimate section it doesn’t get you better catering in the lounge.

        So as an almost exclusive economy flyer in my earlier years I appreciated being able to get status, now with most airlines I get the same thing (or close enough) with a J ticket.

        • BJ says:

          12 Feb12 February 09:58

          I wasn’t looking for a specific answer so asking anybody is fine 🙂

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    12 Feb12 February 08:33

    Do you really think IAG cares one atom about what HfP or flyer talk readers post and think?

    The individual airlines clearly don’t care so why would the corporate parent?

    Not that IAG gets involved in the day to day operations of its children anyway.

    • BJ says:

      12 Feb12 February 09:01

      Reply went to page 2 sorry.

  • memesweeper says:

    12 Feb12 February 08:41

    “Substantially reducing status holders is the best thing they can do to improve the travel experirnce for passengers as a whole.”

    That is the most wrong thing I’ve read in a comment in a long time. BA could improve punctuality, clean it’s planes properly, enhance interior maintenance, handle baggage appropriately, put decent meals in long haul Club World… the list of things that 99% of travellers would put above making The Club more elite is very long indeed!

    • BJ says:

      12 Feb12 February 09:08

      Those are expectatiins, all airlines should deliver them and obviously some do better than others. My feeling is not specific to BA but to the industry generally so applies regardless of whitethorn airlines are good or poor across other factors. Punctuality for example is not fully within the control of an airline, what it does about status is.

• Mikeact says:

  12 Feb12 February 08:30

  Hopefully, they’ll leave the redemption numbers alone…the best gateway to S America by far for Avios.

  • G says:

    12 Feb12 February 08:33

    Absolutely. We got Premium Economy to Sao Paolo and back to Madrid from Rio in Business for just 90,000 avios plus £300

  • The Original Nick. says:

    12 Feb12 February 11:26

    I’ve done plenty of them.

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