Reward flight/EI booking query
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Forums › Frequent flyer programs › The British Airways Club › Reward flight/EI booking query
Hi there
I’d be grateful for some advice. Have ended up in OWA post Covid after many happy years with flying blue due to limited fb offer from my local airport (NCL). Managed to get to silver last year and retained this year until Apr 2026. Was just getting my head around the Avios system when they changed it all, so back to mild confusion (!)
My travelling pattern means I’m most likely to retain status by achieving 50 eligible flights rather than earning tier points as most trips I make are 2-3 sectors each way due to travelling between regional airports via LHR.
I’m about to book a flight from NCL-DUB in August. It’s a personal rather than business trip so was planning to use accumulated Avios to pay, either as part payment or as a reward flight.
A few questions (apologies to experienced forum members, but struggling to get definitive answers online esp. due to recent scheme changes)
* if I book it as a reward flight do the sectors travelled count towards the 50 I need to retain silver?
* does it make a difference if I pay using some Avios towards the cost?
* does a reward flight come with the normal silver benefits (lounge, fast track etc.) I’m assuming yes …?
And on a slightly different topic
* if I book an EI regional flight from NCL-DUB (operated by emerald airlines)through BA – so with a BA flight number – do I get silver benefits? Previous experience when booking with EI was that I could not get lounge access. Possibly got fast track, can’t remember… In a nutshell, is there any difference whether a regional EI flight between UK and IRL is booked as a BA flight or not?
And one more general question while I’m here if anyone can shed some light. My business flights have to be booked with my work travel agent. I’ve never had a problem adding these to my exec club membership, but whenever I try to upgrade on the app/website it says it’s not possible, speak to travel agent etc. When I’ve had a spare 50 hours to spare to sit on the BA “help” line they have been zero use and I just get “computer says no”. Got a NCL-BOS trip coming up and keen to upgrade from PE to CW on at least one leg. (I’ve also tried asking at check in and at gate on previous transatlantic flights to no avail).
I’d love to get some tips from more experienced BA travellers on these matter or anything else!!!
I can offer the following (which you probably all know) from a recent experience trying to get in the lounge when a trip from NCL-BHD via LHR flight was cancelled and they switched me to the (now sadly defunct) NCL-BHD EI regional service. Instead of calling the exec club number that no one will answer ever just pretend you want to book a flight. They pick that phone up pretty darn quickly!
Ps – My experience so far with BA website, phone line and overall customer ‘service’) has been underwhelming. Really regret not sticking with fb but once you build up points and tiers it’s hard to start over
Really appreciate any comments on this or anything else!
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