-
Sounds like soft landings are going away… Do we think that will impact status renewals this year? I’m currently Gold but won’t earn enough points to retain Gold (or Silver or Bronze) by 31 March 2025. Will I drop to Silver on 1 April or fall all the way to Blue?
Or will the removal of soft landings only impact people not able to keep their status in the 2025/2026 year?
There have been conflicting communications from BA. I think the general feeling is that soft landings will remain for 2025-26, but after that it’s much less certain.
I suppose it might also depend on how much goodwill BA decide they need once the dust starts to clear from Statusgate!
So someone earning Gold by spending say £25,000 would drop to blue in the following year – hardly an incentive to get there in the first place!
Hopefully BA will realise this, but the bean counters may actually have intended it to happen!
Yes if you look at “G.ott Helf Uns” ‘s article, it looks as though BA is doing a bold cull now and depending how it goes, plans to trickle specific promotions to specific folk in future only when they feel their own need. And cut to the bottom any ongoing benefits of status. Tbey’ll probably dynamically adjust what avios will buy as they feel at any time, as well).
Soft landing possibly only into 2026. Then after that, only if BA feels the need.
This seems to be what the hints about further ‘Milestone’ awards and ‘promotions’, combined with the cull, seem to indicate.
I enjoyed Gilbert’s article thought it was well written and he’s got it spot on
Hopefully BA will realise this, but the bean counters may actually have intended it to happen!
Please stop with this nonsense.
It’s lazy to blame the “bean counters” for this sort of decision and you know thst full well.
Hopefully BA will realise this, but the bean counters may actually have intended it to happen!
Please stop with this nonsense.
It’s lazy to blame the “bean counters” for this sort of decision and you know thst full well.
I know the Chief Bean Counter. @NorthernLass may have a point.
I have little doubt the architects of this change would like soft landings to go, but it’s an easy row-back to keep them.
And for someone who has status that expires in Nov 2025, do I get a further soft year, or just a soft landing for six months? time will tell.
It was tongue in cheek anyway as I have no knowledge of the inner workings of the business world!
@memesweeper, I guess there will be people with status expiring in the next couple of months so we will hopefully see some data points soon 🤷♀️. (Though I’m still not totally clear about whether the changes are already in force, come in at the end of March, or some other future date, tbh!)But as I understand it, your next status will only last till 30/4/26.
Hopefully BA will realise this, but the bean counters may actually have intended it to happen!
It’s lazy to blame the “bean counters” for this sort of decision and you know thst full well.
Well I’m with @NorthernLass in this thinking. They need to cull the numbers (and no-one will argue with that), the revenue spend now needed for Silver/Gold rules out most customers paying on their own dime/leisure travellers. Sure it’s made it more exclusive, but without status things like checked baggage/seat selection/lounge costs are all extras that I have to factor into the overall cost when comparing to other airlines.
Basically I no longer have loyalty. I used to fly to Europe almost every week in J, and now I won’t hit Gold if I did it EVERY week! (In the past I would have hit it after 19 return trips – now I’d just clear Silver). 38 flights not enough in J…???? I’m out.
Fortunately I still have 1m+ Avios so I’ll enjoy spending those in F/J. Yes, I DO blame the bean-counters, because I think it’s an awful marketing decision.
Soft landings make no sense when status is revenue based.
Why should someone who’s spent £7,500 on flights have the same status as someone soft landing from Gold who hasn’t taken a single oneworld flight in the previous 12 months?
Er because they spent £20k+ the year before…
Surely you could apply your statement to the “old” scheme. Why should someone who earned zero TP drop to silver (from gold) and spend a year there vs. someone who flew to earn 600TP?
Er because they spent £20k+ the year before…
Surely you could apply your statement to the “old” scheme. Why should someone who earned zero TP drop to silver (from gold) and spend a year there vs. someone who flew to earn 600TP?
Exactly, soft landings have nothing to do with revenue or distance/cabin based tier model
Er because they spent £20k+ the year before…
Surely you could apply your statement to the “old” scheme. Why should someone who earned zero TP drop to silver (from gold) and spend a year there vs. someone who flew to earn 600TP?
Exactly, soft landings have nothing to do with revenue or distance/cabin based tier model
I think BA are failing to understand it is called a LOYALTY scheme. No-one is expecting it to be free, but for me they are throwing all my loyalty out of the window (at 35,000 feet). It seems like they’ve gone from “let everyone in” to “kick everyone out” – maybe they’ve employed a nightclub bouncer to manage things 😁
Er because they spent £20k+ the year before…
Their year of Gold is the reward for doing that.
Er because they spent £20k+ the year before…
Their year of Gold is the reward for doing that.
As with any other club – you pay your dues for the year in question and lose the privileges if you don’t pay a new subscription. BA offering the higher membership, often too cheaply, for potentially almost 24 months then a soft landing is part of the over generosity problem they are trying to correct.
Er because they spent £20k+ the year before…
Surely you could apply your statement to the “old” scheme. Why should someone who earned zero TP drop to silver (from gold) and spend a year there vs. someone who flew to earn 600TP?
The thing is if you spent £20k the year before that means you spent the second year not spending cash so you didn’t do enough to retain status. How many other FF schemes have a soft landing?
As long as you spend £20k every year you will retain gold.
I don’t like it but the changes are what they are. I suspect if BA lose too many customers they will amend the scheme but the reality is that we just don’t know how this will all pan out.
Surely the point of the soft landing is to keep someone loyal if/when their travel pattern fluctuates – I had many months not travelling due to a serious injury – there must be many other potential causes.
In the the current scheme, getting, say, 1500+ TP gives Gold plus a soft landing, it encourages getting enough TP to retain Silver, or perhaps regain Gold. The offer is ‘sticky’, it keeps customers engaged and protects BA revenue.
It’s the same logic for initial GGL vs GGL renewal.
If the new scheme offers no soft landing, then every year a sensible customer will make a decision whether to give BA any business at all.
That offer is not ‘sticky’, it encourages disloyalty, with the consequent loss of BA revenue from a customer who certainly was lucrative enough last year and may well be so again.
What do people think of a reduced amount to retain status rather than a soft landing as some sort of “compromise”? Royal Jordanian do this for example. So instead of eg 20k tier points for Gold under the new scheme it’s 15k if you’re already Gold? I’m not claiming to have done any maths on this, just a thought
What are the conflicting reports on this as the only actual information I have seen is what BA has posted on X/Twitter in response to questions and where they have said there is no change to soft landings?
Has more information been released or is it just ongoing speculation on this and other sites?
What are the conflicting reports on this as the only actual information I have seen is what BA has posted on X/Twitter in response to questions and where they have said there is no change to soft landings?
Has more information been released or is it just ongoing speculation on this and other sites?
Nick, who is senior at BA, said in our comments that they were going. There is no mention of them in the FAQ anywhere which tells you what you need to know.
However I suspect this is from April 2026. You WILL get one on 1st April 2025.
That will just pile on the resentment, though. People have already lost months of status with the membership year end moving to 31/3, and now you’re saying they’ll also lose the 12 months of status (at the next tier down) they reasonably believed they would enjoy beyond that?
Someone who drops to Blue instead of Silver is probably going to start booking elsewhere at that point.
That will just pile on the resentment, though. People have already lost months of status with the membership year end moving to 31/3, and now you’re saying they’ll also lose the 12 months of status (at the next tier down) they reasonably believed they would enjoy beyond that?
Someone who drops to Blue instead of Silver is probably going to start booking elsewhere at that point.
Or no further cash bookings on BA going forward. We earned Gold to 8th dec under the old earnings period and would have expected to drop to Silver Dec 25 (card showing Gold to 31 Jan 27) had we not earned Gold again – however with a drop from Gold to Blue in April 26 there is no incentive to book more cash flights.
What are the conflicting reports on this as the only actual information I have seen is what BA has posted on X/Twitter in response to questions and where they have said there is no change to soft landings?
Has more information been released or is it just ongoing speculation on this and other sites?
Nick, who is senior at BA, said in our comments that they were going. There is no mention of them in the FAQ anywhere which tells you what you need to know.
However I suspect this is from April 2026. You WILL get one on 1st April 2025.
Thanks Rob. Must have missed that.
That will just pile on the resentment, though. People have already lost months of status with the membership year end moving to 31/3, and now you’re saying they’ll also lose the 12 months of status (at the next tier down) they reasonably believed they would enjoy beyond that?
Someone who drops to Blue instead of Silver is probably going to start booking elsewhere at that point.
Or no further cash bookings on BA going forward. We earned Gold to 8th dec under the old earnings period and would have expected to drop to Silver Dec 25 (card showing Gold to 31 Jan 27) had we not earned Gold again – however with a drop from Gold to Blue in April 26 there is no incentive to book more cash flights.
Our tier point years ended 8 October and 8 November. Although we reached silver by then, we haven’t yet booked trips for January to March this year. We were travelling in South America from September to December and usually sit down and agree plans over Christmas when family are together for following year. We tried to book earlier this week, but failed because of BA IT and then came the announcement. So at the moment our silver expires end of December. Although we always visit France and Scotland this time of year, usually flying BA CE, we’ve decided to book with EasyJet. Timings are as good if not better. Whilst we were trying to book with BA earlier this week, flights to Bordeaux had reached over £500 and were being culled. Gatwick is as easy to get to as Heathrow for us and as we are going “home” we don’t need to take luggage. I can’t see any reason to book BA as they are more expensive and will soon not be offering us very much. My daughter now works in Crawley when she’s in the office, so can give us a lift en route if we have an early flight. Happy then to find somewhere to have something to eat. Although the BA lounge at Gatwick is so much better than Heathrow, it’s to move on.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
