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Full disclaimer, I’m an avid follower of HfP, happily part of the so-called travel loyalty cult website. I enjoy a good Avios redemption as much as the rest of us!
This week I made an expensive last-minute journey to Paris for work. This expensive economy fare was £558, fare buckets M outbound and B inbound. Corporate policy says I can only fly economy.
Under the old Executive Club, this would have earned me 10 (M) + 20 (B) = 30 TPs = 10% of the way to Bronze and 5% of the way to Silver.
Under the new Club, this earned me 507 new TPs for the round trip, plus 75 bonus TPs each way = 657 new TPs = 19% of the way to Bronze and 9% of the way to Silver.
I’m substantially better off and BA is correctly proportionately rewarding high-fare-paying customers more.
As a leisure traveller, sure, the new scheme is worse, but I individually am better rewarded for giving my high (economy!) corporate spend to BA rather than AF.
Was Vueling to Orly any cheaper?
BA logically think same as you. But many disagree
10 more trips for silver. Bad for your company but it pays you not to book ahead.
Look forward to 2026 when lounges will be empty
“BA is correctly proportionately rewarding high-fare-paying customers more.“
Except as you got a substantial reward but in this case paid £0 for your ticket (unlike your employer), in this case they’re not.
@blue_wolf – I agree and have done since the announcement. I was Gold for many years, earned with a lot of mainly business spend but in recent years, I’m just one of the Silver freeloaders; there is no way I should really be in BA’s second (advertised) tier for the little I spend on BA. By fluke/quirk of fate, I (but not my wife) shall probably re-qualify this year but almost certainly not beyond that. We really don’t care and will continue to collect Avios, keep the BAPP and fly BA as and when convenient. Over the last few months, I have met at least as many people who don’t care as I have people who are up in arms about it.
The whole tier point running thing was so absurd and once the press offered a ‘how to’ guide to get Gold for under £3k it was inevitably going to end in tears. The problem was also that many of those who ‘earned’ the status too cheaply were the biggest users of the benefits using a disproportionate amount of resource.
It seems totally right that BA should keep back better benefits for its more commercially important passengers.
@Garethgerry – unfortunately I think we are unlikely to see empty lounges, even with the Club changes and weak economies.
@Garethgerry – unfortunately I think we are unlikely to see empty lounges, even with the Club changes and weak economies.Indeed they’ll be full of silver chickens and other metallic fowl.
I individually am better rewarded for giving my high (economy!) corporate spend to BA
@blue_wolf Let me insert the abbreviation that you missed out.
“I individually am better rewarded for giving my high (economy!) OPM corporate spend to BA.”
OPM is a finance world abbreviation. It means “Other People’s Money”.
Of course you’re happy that you’re rewarded for using Other People’s Money (in this case your employer’s) to pay for flights at a super-high cost
If it was your own personal money and the same pricing, which is the case for 99%+ of leisure travellers, of course you wouldn’t be saying the same as:-
“I’m a turkey and I’m proud that I got cooked for Christmas.”
Annoyingly corporates already have better deals from BA in particular, and due to corporate pricing, rebates, discounta and other incentives, very frequently the traveller travelling on somebody else’s dime did not really get to choose his airline – the choice he had was already narrowed for him or even no choice at all.
It is substantially better for you as someone else is paying the fare.
If you had to fly to Paris last minute on personal funds, would you have picked BA or a LCC?
Those here are correct that it is indeed not my own personal money. But it’s my corporate budget and my discretionary spend and I’m accountable for the outcome of these trips. The company I’m in doesn’t have kickbacks or corporate negotiated deals. Spending £500 with BA costs us £500.
Of course, for leisure travellers, the vast majority are worse off, and that includes my own personal trips (although these are mostly booked with Avios anyway).
But last September, I booked a short-notice £3000 PE flight LHR-YVR for work. This earned 90 TPs each way, and in fact earned fewer TPs than someone who booked DUB-LHR-YVR 3 months in advance for half the price.
At least when I get forced into booking expensive last-minute fares for work out of my budget, I’m rewarded amply for the higher-than-usual spend.
There are many parallels here to the switch to revenue-based Avios-earning.
It is substantially better for you as someone else is paying the fare.
If you had to fly to Paris last minute on personal funds, would you have picked BA or a LCC?
Avios redemption 😉
If not available, BA up to a point (to earn TPs, which benefit me immensely on work economy trips), LCC after that (although I haven’t flown an LCC in 3+ years).
Blue Wolf? Is that the top tier status with one of the minor OW partner airlines?!
@NorthernLass Yes, precious metal birds are old hat now. I’m aiming for citrine hyena myself, just need to devour a few more carcasses of the BAEC fallen to get there
it’s my corporate budget
Still not your personal money, @blue_wolf. Not even if you’re an owner of your firm. It’s simply not the ssme thing at all. There are all sorts of reasons why OPM net cost is less to the individual and to the firm.
Not the case for leisure travellers. Leisure travellers don’t get corporate perks nor pricing. And again, it’s their own money. So one way or another, lesure traveller is paying in full with personal money. Corporate traveller is not.
@Lady-London – people spending OPM keep the whole travel and hospitality world ticking and I would be surprised if you or anyone else would wish to rock that boat. If you are saying the ‘other people’ (ie corporates) should collect tier points or Avios rather than the passenger/hotel or restaurant guest, I think that would be even more unpopular than the Club.
From BA’s perspective, they don’t care who buys the ticket but they have sensibly decided to up the ante at which the passengers gets some benefits. The system was broken, detrimental to the bigger spenders and too widely taken advantage of, so badly needed to be addressed. What they chose to do was a bit clumsy but the concept is appropriate. Cash based earning is standard at hotels, credit cards and some airlines so hardly very radical.
Leisure travellers do overall in fact enjoy considerably lower fare options than fairly last minute corporate bookers.
Those shouting loudest are those that BA minds about least.
Just curious why you chose to fly BA that day if you were flying economy – because of the EC or something else? Just looking to tomorrow, cheapest day returns are 729 on BA, vs 300 on easyJet. Would you choose BA again if you were going tomorrow?
Would the tier points make you spend considerably more?
I don’t understand what every has against corporate travellers. Without them paying high fares, leisure travellers will be paying a lot lot more. So be thankful for them.
They are not travelling for fun , and do have some influence on which flight and which airline. BA has made the right commercial decision to reward the passenger.
As to my comment about empty lounges , aren’t all of you giving up on BA , and few leisure travellers will spend 20k. Or has it all been bluster
I don’t understand what every has against corporate travellers. Without them paying high fares, leisure travellers will be paying a lot lot more. So be thankful for them.
They are not travelling for fun , and do have some influence on which flight and which airline. BA has made the right commercial decision to reward the passenger.
As to my comment about empty lounges , aren’t all of you giving up on BA , and few leisure travellers will spend 20k. Or has it all been bluster
As you suggest, it has largely been bluster!
As it was when Avios earning for flights went revenue based, the BA(E)C year ends were aligned, BAPP 241 spend threshold increased to £15k etc.
They will still be trying to queue barge for Avios seats at T-355, lounges will still be too busy.
As to my comment about empty lounges , aren’t all of you giving up on BA , and few leisure travellers will spend 20k. Or has it all been bluster
Some people may be giving up on BAC but not flying on BA – hence the rush to join other OW FFPs
I’m not sure anyone will fly on AY to HEL to AMS for along weekend. They’ll still fly BA but just credit to <insert other scheme >, get status and then get free use of BA lounges. And that’s why the lounges won’t be noticably emptier.
@BAFlyerIHGStayer – why are people going to such great lengths apparently to get into BA lounges when those lounges seem to be fairly universally panned on these pages?
There’s something that doesn’t quite add up in this whole saga. Massive complaints about the Club changes so can’t/won’t requalify while at the same time saying BA’s rubbish all round.
I actually think the T5 Galleries lounges are considerably better than many suggest, although Galleries F isn’t really much better than the main ones. Even so, I wouldn’t be jumping through a lot of hoops to access these hallowed lounges.
We only hear a small number of voices here on HFP/ Flyer talk.
We don’t reflect the views of the vast majority of people who don’t have a problem with the lounges, BA in general or the new arrangements.
Remember the majority of people flying BA aren’t in the club at all. And shockingly haven’t heard of HfP!
I agree with you on your last point. There are plenty of lounges far worse than BAs. Fly domestic US and you pay to enter an Admirals Club and you’ll think BAs are actually quite good!
And in the scheme of things very few people are hoop jumping such as flying out and back to SOF for 160 TPs etc.
I did my ex-EUs because it was a lot cheaper than flying direct from LHR. The TPs were a tertiary consideration for me.
And of course people value things like the additional baggage allowance and free seating that status brings.
I wonder what forward bookings in Club Europe are like?
My wife and I spent plenty on BA CE Holidays to get status, handy for our frequent trips to Glasgow, and for seat choice for our two 2-for-1’s each year.
Absolutely no point now, we’ll go economy, then when status runs out, EZY to Malta, Canaries, Greek islands, Glasgow, etc.
With Club Suite, paying BA’s rates for seat choice is crazy, so once the ying-yang are gone we won’t need that either.
Looking around the CE cabin at the other pax, I think maybe the majority are doing the same thing.
It may not look too bad at the moment with temporary new aircraft shortages keeping load factors high, but once they’ve sorted that out it could spell trouble and empty club cabins.I wonder what forward bookings in Club Europe are like?
My wife and I spent plenty on BA CE Holidays to get status, handy for our frequent trips to Glasgow, and for seat choice for our two 2-for-1’s each year.
Absolutely no point now, we’ll go economy, then when status runs out, EZY to Malta, Canaries, Greek islands, Glasgow, etc.
With Club Suite, paying BA’s rates for seat choice is crazy, so once the ying-yang are gone we won’t need that either.
Looking around the CE cabin at the other pax, I think maybe the majority are doing the same thing.
It may not look too bad at the moment with temporary new aircraft shortages keeping load factors high, but once they’ve sorted that out it could spell trouble and empty club cabins.These comments are amusing. Someone who takes a few CE flights and redemptions for long haul is more knowledgeable and an expert on aviation economics than all the staff at BA and predicts ‘empty club cabins’.
Between us, my wife and I have 60 years flying employment with BA, and have many friends still employed there.
My brother-in-law was a BA senior manager for several years. I have over 20,000 hours flying on the 747-400 alone, 14 years as a Captain.
So laugh away.
@Mighty-Hunter – are so many people really travelling in CE just for BA status? I don’t think so. Maybe previously on some of the cheapo high TP routes, but generally not. CE is a good product, really not expensive if booked in advance and there are plenty of us willing to pay for it, point to point or for connections.
This idea/wishful thinking of empty premium cabins and lounges because of the BA changes is for the birds. Similar things were predicted when BA changed to revenue basis Avios earning. If anything, the economy/politics will have a bigger impact on corporate and leisure travel but that won’t just be a BA thing.
You may be right, I suppose it’s what you decide it’s worth to you. But there’s plenty of grumbling within BA that it’s a bad move.
I think the jury’s out on the current leadership, not as good as Colin Marshall but can’t be worse than Bob Ayling!
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