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I cannot see a thread on how your flying has actually changed following the BA Club changes. I thought I would reflect how mine has *actually* changed. I am based in the UK.
Since March, I have:
Flights:
– I have continued to fly BA, but reduced. They are one of the major airlines flying out of London, so this is likely to make sense, even out of necessity! Many of these flights are award redemptions as I burn my avios.
– Interestingly, even when I fly other airlines, such as Qatar, I have significant benefit from booking it under the BA code. It is the same price as discount business under the QR code, but both gets lounge access in DOH and additional points in Finnair’s programme (150% vs 125%).Loyalty programme:
– Not credited one earning flight to BA Club. They have started sending me emails reminding me of the benefits of the new BA club. I really must have missed these benefits somewhere…
– Opened and am working my way up the Finnair programme. It earns 150% of the BA-coded Qatar flights, and I can transfer the avios to BA club to spend for the RFS.
– Continued to earn Avios through credit card spending, credited to BA Club
– Majority of credit card spend avios has actually been credited to Qatar, as there was a 30% HSBC bonus. These were transferred across to BA Club for RFS spendingOverall, I do not think it would make a massive difference to BA’s bottom line in my case, but I have definitely lost any goodwill towards them.
What has changed for others (if anything)?
Outside work I’ve always booked the best flight for be, loyalty be damned. For work, BA give us significant discounts that make them attractive though even then I often find cheaper alternatives.
The 241 voucher remains a huge incentive to collect Avios for me, but I have never seen the point in twisting my travel plans or paying more for flights just so that I can move through an airport 5 minutes faster or sit in a lounge.
I do like the T5 First Wing and some lounges are quite pleasant places, but not enough to pay.
So no change as I couldn’t give two hoots about status.
I have been taking a break from airline status since 2023. While I didn’t predict how bad the changes would be, it was obvious something was coming, so I am unaffected by all the angst over TPs. Nonetheless I will never credit a paid BA / oneworld flight to BAC again.
That will not change the revenue I give to BA as I (usually) enjoy flying BA, amongst other airlines that I enjoy flying with. When choosing my flights I have always been guided by overall value rather than blind loyalty. Even when I wanted to maintain BA status in the past, the BAEC only kept me loyal to oneworld. If BA is £100 less than QR or CX etc and both schedules are acceptable, I’m not going to choose the other airline just to spite BA; and likewise if BA is more expensive I would obviously choose the other airline.
As avios is still a good scheme for me I will continue earning with Finnair and/or Qatar and redeeming with whichever is most appropriate. I do suspect BA will do a ‘Virgin-isation’ of redemptions at some point and then the game may be up.
My view: the change in travel patterns won’t be seen until a lot of status levels fall next Spring.
Very few members will be pursuing status in a new scheme whilst using benefits from the old one. We know there’s inertia when it comes to changing things like current accounts.
But once you lose the lounge access, free seat assignments and whatever else, it becomes a free for all. People will be looking at price/other value points and building status side by side.
I don’t think it’ll have much impact on my plans – am BAC Silver by far from a loyalist – although the lack of lounge access on short Y hops just means easyJet etc see the playing field levelled a bit.
Lucky gold for life so don’t care about status
241 is a great incentive, also BA only direct flight to Cape town, so use Avios for that.
Other than that Gold status doesn’t effect my choice on cash bookings not BA loyal. Choice of airline based on convenience ie timing, direct or shortest overall time , also a 1 2 1 layout in longhaul business, price of course, cost of refundabilty, and if indirect EU/UK airline for ease of 261 claim
I’m loyal to whatever benefits me, so whilst the BAEC was up and running, it benefited me and so I would fly accordingly to achieve status there and fly with the whatever airline had a nice deal on at the time. But more generally, the focus was BA/Oneworld.
BAC does not benefit me. I wasn’t completely loyal to begin with, so whilst BA’s changes were rather left-field in that they were more drastic than expected, I didn’t feel entirely lost as to what I was going to do next, and nor did I feel this sense of great loss. I quickly made the shift to ‘accept’ but I guess that’s just a personality thing. I will admit to feeling some concern for some of the HfP posters on the very busy threads – some of the posts were worrying.
I am neither wedded nor divorced to the idea of building loyalty with another airline. If loyalty happens to build as a result of the collection of flights that I have taken, then it does – but I am not going out of my way to achieve it, not in the same way I would with BA, and I think that’s the summary element of change in my behaviour.
My Short Haul pattern will still be with BA as the alternatives aren’t generally acceptable to me for my two main destinations. I’ll actually earn very few nTPs this year anyway as I’m winding my avios pot.
Since I will no longer travel to the US it’s unlikely I’ll be earning any BA status unless I switch to other destinations.
Future long haul trips will go to the best airline for the route and price.
I’m not averse doing ex-EUs and so on.
But remember despite the wailing and keening many of those switching to the likes of IB and AY to collect points and gain status will still be flying BA metal.
To be fair I don’t think many wailers were claiming to never fly BA again; simply that they wouldn’t engage with the BA scheme.
I do agree we’re a year away from BA seeing an effect from their changes. I’d be more interested in Virgin, who must be suffering from credit card cancellations and lack of inflows from Amex.
We mostly use our annual 241 for BA’s direct flight to GCM in CW so status won’t really be an issue going forward. The Barclays voucher works well when we want to fly home on another airline (e.g. VS or QR).
With MAN & LPL being our nearest airports we have little incentive to use LHR or LGW unless it’s the easiest option.
If I go for status in 2026 or ’27, it will probably be via IB who can at least fly me direct to another country, and happens to serve the Spanish airports nearest to my family.
So the future will probably be BA/QR/VS with points and IB and LCCs for cash.
I am Avios rich (still have 2x 200k subs) so it’s not so relevant for me. But we only now have 1x Silver for 3 pax… Already have Dragon Pass via Barclays, and now lounge access via AMEX Platinum. Took first non-BA flights for ages with SAS, since I’m no longer chasing status all year.
Definitely don’t choose BA without looking at alternates, as I would previously. Am happy with my 12 tier points (even though flown returns LHR/STO on cash, and Club LON/TFS, LHR/JFK, LHR/AMS on Avios) since April. I am 12 loyal 😁
Work travel is, by policy, economy only. Business class is for holidays 😉
Under the old BAEC I’d try to garner tier points on work trips, preferring BA / Iberia / Qatar even with longer connections. And personal trips add up too, with CE holidays topping up the tier points.
Last two years, >900 tier points per year, not enough for Gold sadly but solidly pro-BA.
Since the changes, 0 tier points to date and none planned.
No interest in status hence no change in carrier behaviour. Despite moving to North Yorkshire, BA, Virgin and Aer Lingus are still preferred due to vouchers. Manchester has become another option on certain routes. It’s a shame Iberia Express don’t operate to more regional airports e.g. Leeds and Newcastle.
I’m back and forth to Europe a lot over the next few months, last year everything went through BA, even if it meant not perfect flight times or airports, now most of it is going through Easyjet and Jet2. Will lose my silver status but save a fortune.
I have had silver status for about 15 years as has my wife (and my son also since he was 2). 90% of our travel is leisure and mostly Europe and additionally with on average a medium haul flight and also a long haul flight to Australia every year. Pretty much all of our short/medium travel has been with BA and we’ve always used them or other OneWorld carriers for flights to Australia. Main change in travel habits is that, while my first port of call with booking flights remains BA, I’m much more willing to book elsewhere now if a flight has more convenient timing or is slightly cheaper. Previously I often chose BA despite slightly better options with other carriers as the tier points would reliably ensure silver was maintained. Now TP earning is much less transparent and more of a stretch to reach silver meaning it can’t be reliably predicted each year with the travel I know I will be doing. Also, TP earning with other OneWorld carriers (such as CX) has now been significantly devalued. I may well retain silver next year (depending, for example if it makes sense to book with BA Holidays etc), but that is unclear. As I result I have booked several European business class flights with Lufthansa so far this year(which in previous years I would have booked with BA) as prices/times were better. I have also booked a number of flights with BA too, I’m just no longer as tied to them as I was and don’t feel the need to stretch for the sake of earning TPs given the new system is far less predictable and transparent. So overall my spend with BA has reduced – with corresponding increases in spend with other carriers. I’m not sure that BA will care that much, but this may have an impact on them eventually if others in similar situations find their flying patterns also change in a similar way.
No changes in flying patterns— my status hasn’t expired yet.
Crediting to Alaskan now, I’m unlikely to get status with any OW carrier any more, so may as well focus on the most useful miles scheme in the alliance.
I think this year will be more of a transitional year – people still choosing BA over others due to the status that they currently have. This may change when that status goes. I’ve got a real mix this year – BA redemptions & BA holiday, plus BA for work mainly as I’m trying to avoid flying from Luton! Some leisure flights are now not BA when previously I would have defaulted to BA unless the price difference was substantial.
Once status goes, then it’s going to be down to price/airport. I too doubt that BA will notice my modest spend with them will be even more modest in the future.
No more Club Europe flights for me to chase status and burning through Avios this and next year in economy as get lounge and golf clubs on plane for free as well as pick the exit row seats when booking.
For transatlantic flight looking at booking from Dublin with KLM/Air France for pre clearance to USA and ex EU price, with BA stubs match. But not finalised yet.
For transatlantic flight looking at booking from Dublin with KLM/Air France for pre clearance to USA and ex EU price, with BA stubs match. But not finalised yet.
Just so you are aware, you’ll be on Delta, not AF/Kl ex Dublin if you want preclearance!
No changes in flying patterns— my status hasn’t expired yet.
Crediting to Alaskan now, I’m unlikely to get status with any OW carrier any more, so may as well focus on the most useful miles scheme in the alliance.
Correction — having looked at @Vegasforme ‘s comment, I’ve realised I don’t even glance at the price of a club upgrade in the app, nor do I check back to see if the magic star has appeared. TPs are of no interest anymore.
For myself, I became BA Gold for the first and last time this April (one day extension from March year end) after flying back and forth five or six times on BA to USA west coast (plus BA Holidays double tier points). All of the flights have been either economy or premium economy.
Unfortunately I’ll have to keep doing these trips for the foreseeable future. As far as my calculations go, if I go flight-only and credit to Finnair, then six return trips this year (all in BA premium economy to USA east coast, plus connecting AA flights in economy, both ways) will get me the Finnair equivalent Platinum tier. For subsequent years I’d need five of these return trips (plus the purchase of a small number of tier points) to maintain Platinum. So this is the plan for now, which I suppose means my spending on BA will be roughly similar.
But… I’m aware that five premium economy returns per year on Virgin Atlantic (with their double tier points holiday promotion) gets me Flying Club Gold status, and no changing planes either. So I’m keeping an eye out to see how permanent Virgin double tier points promotion turns out to be.
In my case. A couple of BAH flights (most economy SH and one business LH) and a work J flight to the USA seem to be enough to keep silver.
But this is only because of the bonus nTPs (for instance for the US flight getting an extra 800 nTPs is material as the flight is only 3000 TPs after taxes).
The fact BA has made the bonus only for bookings done on 2025 means from Jan 2026 lots are going to struggle.
BTW, does anyone knows how the IB club works for BAH bookings?
When are we likely to hear about the BA Offering 2500 points for the amex platimum card? its over 2 months since the start of the new “club” but no update on how we get the 2500 tier points.
I pay for my own flights to London for work, last year it was once a month but has now increased to twice a month.
I used to fly a large number of my flights in Business class, as well as a couple of BA holidays, to achieve Gold
Since the changes, my plans and habits have changed.
I am still flying BA for my commute, as they are the most convenient for me.
As there is no chance of me achieving status via BA with my previous habits, I am no longer flying business for my commutes, only HBO
My holiday plans are just avios redemptions now.
I am planning to credit my flights to RJWhen are we likely to hear about the BA Offering 2500 points for the amex platimum card? its over 2 months since the start of the new “club” but no update on how we get the 2500 tier points.
Most likely never. BA sent an email last week welcoming me to the BA Club and reminding me I can get nTPs with flights, BAH, bookings seats/luggage and buying green fuel.
Emptied out my Avios balance on my last 241, Binned off my BAPP, crossing fingers for a good SWISS / Lufty deal later in the year.
Done 8 shorthaul flights on EZY so far this year.
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