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I gained silver after the pandemic thanks to the lower TP requirements. Since then I have made it to gold, silver again and moved much of my flying to OW airlines both LH and SH.
I have a lot to thanks HfP for helping me navigating the avios world at first.
But since the new BA changes I find myself less hooked to this website (sorry Rob/Rhys, nothing to do with you guys).
Was just wondering if others feel the same.
It’s natural when you become an expert in collecting miles and points…
Personally, I find myself gravitating to websites that are offering information about other reward/loyalty programs of other airlines. So, it’s not a HfP thing or a loss of interest thing, it’s more to do with where HfP is focussed right now and where my personal focus is at the moment.
This site still has much to offer – the forums are fantastic and it is the first website I open in the morning, so I very much look forward to the goings-ons, as it were.
I’m definitely intrigued with the different travel programs that are out there to explore.
There was life before BA and there sure is plenty of life after 🙂 🙂
Nope, not lost interest… but I was never into chasing status.
I care about traveling to interesting places and having cool aviation experiences, which simply hasn’t changed (yet!). Collecting Avios still gets me premium flights for a significantly reduced expenditure, as do the ex-EU tricks and massaging ITA matrix itineraries which people learned for tier point runs. Individuals being loyal to such a profit focused business was always going to end in tears, so I’m glad I ignored BA when it suited me, such as getting on an IcelandAir 757 (in Saga premium) or saving a tidy three figure sum by using Lufthansa’s unusual coach with a fight number thing. Status is a fun thing to have, but it’s only ever been a side effect of having great experiences.
There is plenty of content on HFP unrelated to BA and Avios.
In my experience, this site helped me tremendously to see the value of an Avios and using them correctly. They also were never garnered to use on BA but its partners. Hold quite a bit, but I am time restricted (trips fully booked) and a devaluation is always at the back of my mind.
Perhaps losing a bit of interest in BA, but certainly not in the site.
Recent events have made me do some Player 1/Player 2 card housekeeping (which
I should have done anyway), but still love reading about Japan / Bosnia / new hotels, to
give some recent examples.Never made it to status with BA as I don’t make enough cash flights, for me it’s all about the earning opportunities. Having had one family trip down under largely on Avios and another one coming up this Christmas, the time investment has certainly been worth it. I too have this site as part of the morning routine (and a few times during the day too!), so no, no loss of interest here.
No.
BTW OW airline Iberia has lots of flights every day from UK airports to Madrid.
Changes to their frequent flyer programme will be announced soon and there’ll probably be excellent coverage of this here on HfP, sounds interesting.I’m still honing my strategies, and hopefully also passing on what I’ve learned here over 10 years or so. I like reading about other people’s travels as well, especially if they’ve made use of points.
I’ve got numerous IB sectors booked this year for the first time (cash and avios) so it’ll be interesting to see what those are like and report back.
Despite flying weekly I was never able to obtain any “real” status benefits because BA wasn’t always a good option due to timings or cost (well – bronze, but tbh it’s only useful for saving a few ££ on seat selection and bags when going on holiday, hardly anything to get excited by).
The points and credit card game is still strong – always changing but that means it’s possible to stay ahead of the pack 🙂
I’d potentially say the opposite, it was way too easy to earn status with BA. Now the real fun starts! 🙂
Well I’ve certainly lost interest in chasing status with BA after March. I’m Avios rich so will be looking to burn through those over the next 24 months. I’d quite often pay cash over Avios for CE if the costs were similar to boost my TPs, but there’s no point now as I’ll never make Silver again on leisure travel/holidays (£25k spend for 2 people).
I think @PeterM is right – it was too easy to make Silver with a couple of long-haul returns in F/J (esp with BAH 2x TP). Not sure making bad business decisions is rectified by making more bad business decisions and spanking the customer.
Give it 12 months. BA will have all the data. Then either it will be a superb business decision or a complete failure. Either way, *I* won’t be spending more with them than before – and quite probably less.
I really can’t see why BA’s actions should affect the considerable value of HfP. Apart from anything else, the team is both smart and agile so will surely follow and adapt to wherever these changes may lead. A series about other frequent flyer programmes (these aren’t loyalty schemes!) has been heralded.
I’m sure BAC and Avios will also continue to feature prominently given the far greater collection opportunities in the UK than for any other programme, and the usefulness/quality of other OW airlines.
I’m also not convinced that as some seem to suggest we will suddenly find empty BA lounges and aircraft. I will be on board with my probably soon to be Blue card.
Well let me know if you want guesting in, @JDB, should our paths cross at LHR (and you’re reduced to flying Y or PE!) You’re more than welcome to my sausages 😂
Well let me know if you want guesting in, @JDB, should our paths cross at LHR (and you’re reduced to flying Y or PE!) You’re more than welcome to my sausages 😂
Thank you for the generous offer! I won’t be ‘blued’ until at least April 2026 and I might just scrape silver for one extra year thanks to pre 30 Dec booked 160TP sub £300 CE returns which will convert well, BAPP and a few bits and bobs.
In fact, just got my silver renewal with the lovely sentiments:-
“From take-off, to touchdown, our aim is to go that extra mile. We look forward to spending more time together soon.
With best wishes,
Your Executive Club Team”So no extra mile pre-or post-flight then.
Well let me know if you want guesting in, @JDB, should our paths cross at LHR (and you’re reduced to flying Y or PE!) You’re more than welcome to my sausages 😂
Burst out laughing at this!
“From take-off, to touchdown, our aim is to go that extra mile. We look forward to spending more time together soon.
With best wishes,
Your Executive Club Team”So no extra mile pre-or post-flight then.
They may have been referring to the holding stacks…
I loved the days of generous Tesco Clubcard offers and converting them to Avios. I definitely lost interest when they died down, and lost even more interest when Avios hooked up with Nectar (nearest Saino’s is about 10 miles away so not worth the time/cost/effort of using ahead of supermarkets based in the town where I live).
I lost interest in Virgin as they continued to drop non-US routes. So, from almost wombling for receipts and being regularly excited by Tesco, BAEC and VS, I’m far less excited these days.
Nothing changes for me. I continue to care very much about using Avios on premium flights, and there is no better place than HfP to help maximise my earn and burn potential. There is also no better place to learn about Virgin points, although that’s a much smaller airline. I’ve never had interest in status, as I rarely fly economy. For me, the TP changes are very much a Good Thing if by 2027 they reduce the number of economy flyers in the lounges and queuing for priority check-in, security and boarding.
Hotels aren’t like airlines, though, as the world has much more choice of accommodation than flights. I have very little interest in the broadly disappointing offerings from Marriott, IHG, Hyatt and Accor, and I wish that HfP would devote more time to alternative, more interesting schemes. No-one cares about some of this stuff, as evidenced by the single comment on today’s Hyatt article and the three comments about Hilton on that article. Meanwhile, an article about a £3,812 airport lounge that scarcely any HfP readers will ever visit has 83 comments.
Well let me know if you want guesting in, @JDB, should our paths cross at LHR (and you’re reduced to flying Y or PE!) You’re more than welcome to my sausages 😂
Burst out laughing at this!
I recently “guested” a 13yo girl as the “lounge police” at TFS weren’t having any of it (3rd party lounge, one parent had a silver card). Happy to help – it’s not like the girl was going to cost much! Maybe we need to club (sic) together to guest people into the lounge and keep the dream alive!
Forget sausages – the pies at T5 are superb.
Still happy to play the game, even though it changes, there are still deals to be had. Generally speaking I’m only interested in getting reduced priced flights so am committed to Avios collection, BAC and credit card deals, haven’t really investigated hotel schemes. I’m also interested in exploring what IB has to offer. In terms of headforpoints, it’s still my go to site, I read the articles and comments, and the forum most days.
I’d potentially say the opposite, it was way too easy to earn status with BA. Now the real fun starts! 🙂
Said every accountant as they try to minimise tax maximise fare component on their leisure travels.
A little:
Like some others here, the status thing doesn’t affect my points collection or redemptions. I’ve never been close to earning anything more than an “error” bronze.
I was looking forward to/ expecting to earn status in later years, but that looks unlikely now.Other peoples’ loss of enthusiasm/ moaning is a bit of a dampener, but actually if people switch alliances it should open up more space for those of us with Avios to burn.
Our travel for the next few years will now be as a family unit, so many of the offers and reviews here become a little less relevant to me.
That said, we still have a medium term plan for a multi voucher, 2 booking adventure and I still check in regularly here for news,tips and the sense of community, even if I can’t put much of it to use.
I think the rumoured redemption devaluation/ dynamic pricing is what will really make a difference to my enthusiasm. If it kills off my trip, I’ll be here looking for the best burn option for 0.6m Av.
@yonasl? funny you should ask, just last week somebody asked me “What are you even doing here?” 🙂
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