It had been rumored for a while, but finally, the concessions British Airways are making to their Executive Club changes have been announced. Unfortunately, I think for many people, this will just serve to be the final nail in the coffin, given that they are extremely minor. For most people, status will still be completely out of reach.
BA also gave some quotes to the Times. This one did not sit well with me, Colm Lacey said “Our members are passionate about their status, and we always knew this fundamental shift would take a while for members to get their heads around, considering how long we’d had the previous system in place.” This sounds like they are assuming that we are too stupid to understand the new scheme and that we will all decide that actually we are all secretly millionaires and have £25,000 a year to spend with BA.
Here is a reminder of the new tier points requirements where you earn 1 TP per £1 spent minus taxes and charges:
- Blue: none
- Bronze: 3,500 Tier Points
- Silver: 7,500 Tier Points
- Gold: 20,000 Tier Points
- Gold Guest List renewal: 40,000 Tier Points (with a minimum of 32,000 from British Airways-marketed flights, qualifying add-ons or British Airways Holidays packages
- Gold Guest List qualification: 65,000 Tier Points (with a minimum of 52,000 from British Airways-marketed flights, qualifying add-ons or British Airways Holidays packages)
There now are two changes:
Earn status by number of segments
Prior to the changes, you could earn status by flying a minimum number of segments rather than earning tier points. This had been shelved by BA but they have now gone back on that. You can earn status with the following number of segments:
You can now take 25 flights with a British Airways code to reach Bronze, or 50 to reach Silver.
In The Times, Colm Lacey, the Chief Commercial Officer, said, “We crunched our data, and it shows that under the new model, bronze and silver members can still qualify based around the same number of average-priced standards dare flights as previously.”
Tier point bonus offer

This has now changed to include BA Holidays as well as flight only bookings. It has also been extended to flights until 31 December and the tier point bonuses improved. Even with the increase in TP bonus points, the bonuses are a drop in the ocean for someone trying to get gold.
Here is how the offer works:
- Register between 30 December 2024 and 31 December 2025 with your Executive Club membership number.
- Book your flights, or your Flight + Hotel or Flight + Car package by 31 December 2025.
- Fly between 1 April 2025 and 21 December 2026.
- Earn bonus Tier Points
The new levels of bonus are:
Cabin | Bonus |
---|---|
Euro Traveller | 75 bonus Tier Points |
Club Europe | 175 bonus Tier Points |
World Traveller | 150 bonus Tier Points |
World Traveller Plus | 275 bonus Tier Points |
Club World | 400 bonus Tier Points |
First | 550 bonus Tier Points |
These are per sector, not per round trip which makes it slightly better. But assuming you got some cheap First class flights you would still need to do 7 round trips in First to make Gold, not exactly easy! Obviously, the BA Holidays earnings help, but if you book with other people, you only get your share of the TPs. One way round the issue is to book all the accommodation/car hire on one booking and do the other travellers as flight only. However, this would make things more complicated if something went wrong.
You can register for the bonus offer here.
There are some interesting T&C you also need to know:
- Flights must be booked under a British Airways (BA) flight number and can be operated by British Airways or any of their partner airlines.
- Qualifying Flights do not include (i) Economy Basic fares, (ii) Reward Flights, (iii) upgrades using Avios or other promotional upgrades purchased at the airport, and (iv) a flight marketed by a partner airline.
- You will be automatically awarded bonus Tier Points 24-48 hours after completion of each Qualifying Flight or Holiday.
You can find all the FAQs here.
A BA spokesman said,
“This isn’t an effort to reduce the number of members we have in each tier, but to reward our members more fairly, and we want to do more to reassure them that retaining their status is achievable, so we’re providing more examples of how they can do that.”
I’m sorry but how do you think people spending £25k per year is “attainable” unless you are a) extremely wealthy, b) a corporate traveller with business class approval.
What do you think of these concessions? Will it make you come back to BA if you decide to take your business elsewhere?
Let us know in the comments below.
59 comments
Given the difficulty of getting our heads around all this (at least in the parallel universe that seemingly exists in Waterside), makes it all the more surprising that the changes were forced through with very little notice and arguably in violation of the EC T&Cs. Also nice to know that customers are now so valued that BA can’t even be bothered to communicate with them directly but now do so only via carefully curated press quotes.
The status through segments is a blindingly obvious change – and frankly completely bizarre that was not part of the original package. The bonuses are a complete smokescreen – meanwhile they still haven’t reached agreement with Amex on TPs through their cards.
It’s still not achievable I travel a lot
And always managed silver with my wife. No more will we be chasing points.
There not worthy of loyalty.
As a leisure traveller achieving Silver status for the last 2 years, even with this very small concession this will not be possible to maintain
I will now use the Avios I have built up on Reward flights and for cash flights will use Virgin or other carriers.
Nothing in the changes that is going to make a dent on being able to maintain Gold Guest List status. The spend is way to high. My travel pattern will enable me to earn Miles and More HON or Flying Blue Ultima or Air Canada Super Elite but I will not get close to renewing BA GGL under the new terms. I am planning to spend my Avios on flights this year and then go for HON or Super Elite next year. I achieved Gold for Life this year so I won’t entirely boycott BA. I will only use it when they are clearly the better option. I expect most times they will not be.
When are they going to announce whether they are still going to honour the soft landings as I am waiting to know if I have to move my two Qatar flights booked this year to their own program and start earning status with them?
I have been GFL for 15 years. BA Exec Club has always been for Business travellers-those of us in LON airports at least twice a month for long haul flights. I frankly don’t see what the fuss is all about. I also have ongoing Lufthansa Senator (Star Alliance Gold status). Gold Exec Club and above has never been for the casual traveller. It has however been evident for a number of years that many cost conscious business travellers have moved to Star Alliance and hop over to mainland Europe to pick up their long haul because BA is far too expensive for many corporate budgets, in business class when link longhauls normally offer at least 25 per cent saving over BA. BA needs to cut prices and up their game on food and beverage if they want their business travellers back…..
You might not see the fuss but others do. A huge number of BA’s loyal customers are in fact leisure travellers. I never fly for work but still take around 30 flights each year, BA can either be nice ish to me and allow me to achieve silver sometimes gold which costs them a couple of cans of Brewdog and a fry up each time I fly or they can lose that business to someone else.
A little reminder that it wasn’t business travellers who kept the airlines going during and immediately post pandemic it was those of us who fly for pleasure. With the next inevitable economic downturn it will once again be us and having stuck two fingers up BA might be in for a little shock.
There was a middle ground but they chose not to occupy it. Yes the lounges were too crowded, yes it had become too easy to achieve silver in particular. Fine, remedy that issue gently, it didn’t need a sledgehammer.
Spot on! Very well put!
Extremely well put and it applies to us gold for years on leisure savvy holidays and trips etc,so if our loyalty especially with poor food onboarding great staff and even bettter opposition carriers within Oneworld,what does Colm@up my backside@lacey think we will do ..stay loyal or offski…its the latter Colm
The thing is, they’re not even losing a couple of cans of Brewdog, it’s actually often a piddling amount. I’m Silver at the moment, most of my flights are Club Europe so I get all the beer & breakfast anyway in return for paying a large premium for my flight. The only time they “lose” is when I cash in some Avios once a year and have a cheap holiday. I’ve generally stayed loyal to BA because of the brand and some semblance of quality but they’ve now put themselves in competition with everyone else, I’ll pick whoever offers the better price/quality combination, BA or otherwise.
For those business travellers whose organisations are struggling to make ends meet, or who work for a charity, or for any other reason have no choice but to take flights that represent the best value for money, the decision that Economy Basic will not qualify is particularly galling. The Bronze card costs BA nothing (especially now that it is digital and we don’t even get luggage tags) but it means a lot to those of us who are frequent flyers.
Where do you register for the bonus tier point offer
You can register here https://www.britishairways.com/content/executive-club/offers/tier-point-bonus
says only for exec members who join after dec 2024?
Too little, too late for me. I have status matched to Flying Blue and already started booking flights with them. As you say in your article, BA must think we are all completely stupid. I’m sure there is an analogy which includes an Ostrich’s head and some sand which would apply here.
In reality, I spend about £7500 per year or £5 per tier point of “normal” travel. I don’t do TP runs, or book flights just for status. I do 2-3 return front cabin long haul flights and numerous short haul per year and am canny about booking from EU cities that reduce the cost. Quite simply I will still do that after these changes, but it won’t be with BA and I certainly won’t be spending another £15k+ just for gold status.
BA have massively increased the requirement for GOLD without saying they have increased it.
I think BA should syop digging the hole and start trying to work out how to get out of it instead.
Changes nothing so adios when status goes
I will now be more inclined to spend my money with Emirates and Qatar given that they do provide a premium service to BA’s both on board and in the lounges. But good luck BA and wish you great success.
@MIchele I’ll opt to pose this one here as it’s my original FF/.TP education site.
Can’t believe nobody, anywhere in the world that I’ve read through yet, hasn’t picked up on the following: Do you all remember how one of BA’s excuses for rolling out the change roughly 11:30.on the( I think without bothering to check) 30th December was “Under the terms of the scheme we are required to give members 90.days notice of changes to the programme” . Turns out there’s potential for said requirements to also carry legal obligations set out to the same time frame.
Whether any, imho, pathetically small & minimum they believe they can get away with changes may or may not have an overall consumer ( member) benefit. I wonder if they aren’t now breaching their prior cluster****?
Yet again, at their own choosing, and of material substance ( with observable financial implications to the consumer) BA have decided to move both ‘goal post s’ and time frames on multiple levels.
Whilst no legal expert. Under their own T&C as well as stated obligations ( the scope of which I’d assess to be outside of any ‘change as we like’ clause). I would be interested to hear from any more Learned readers the counter to the suggestion BA may have, in a legal/ liability sense, now overplayed their hand .
Personally I have little reason to believe their legal department/ counsel is any better informed and/or competent than the consultants and ‘experts’ who told BA that they would be fine going as hard-&-fast as they did.
Ironically, and as many would’ve picked up on already I am sure, the Sector Qualification reinstatement categorically puts the ‘You told us to do this to reduce lounge overcrowding” excuse to bed once & for all.
Flying passengers is not BA’s primary skill (nor smiling warmly)… no, that is reserved for ‘spin’.
The ‘distracting arrogance’ when addressing those who feed it is quintessentially BA.
Not a national airline per se anymore, perhaps it is time to equalise opportunities to fly the British public amongst all airlines serving the UK/Heathrow… BA have simply become too comfortable with all their privileges(and charges).
A ridiculous attempt to try to curry favour with customers. Sorry, BA, it just won’t work!! A further embarrassment for this airline.
Does Two Tier Keir now run BA?
This is for talking about flights, not your political jibes Nigel. Keep it on track please
I’ll keep it brief. The BA “spokesman” is a liar and Colm Lacy can “do one”
This is all too little to late and that snivelling, patronising tone has assured me of NEVER booking (or crediting) at flight to BA again
Hit it on the head there GordyUK… both snivelling and patronising!
For many years maintaining Silver was always top of my travel plans, to benefit from lounges, priority boarding etc, seat selection and increased Avios. Working out how to stay Silver economically via buying during sales, flying dog-legs and using One World partners for internal foreign flights and the odd tier point city break was all part of the fun and games. That’s all gone now. I run my own Ltd company as an artist and I can’t possibly justify £7500 on flights a year. I was spending about half of that. I don’t know how the flights I have already booked for this year will stack up now, as you don’t get the info you need shown next to your booking any more. This is my last year, possibly two, of Silver and then I’m done with BA. The biz travellers on expenses and the wealthy will enjoy less crowded lounges (and I get that – they were out of control busy) and I am free to choose any airline again and pay for lounges unless I scoop a decent biz seat in the sales. End of an era. RIP flying being fun again.
Too right Jamie, unfortunately.
BA tier status management for become a time-consuming second job… and who needs that these days!
This is merely a sop to the cabin crew trade unions. Nothing for customers to see here whilst RJ allows OW Emerald on sectors alone.
It’s very straightforward: Colm Lacey is p*ssing in the wind.
I considered the additional Avios Bonus offer but declined. My intention is now to burn up my substantial Avios stash ASAP and, unless there is a truly outstanding and exceptional offer from BA, I’m now employing a fly BA last policy. I’m sure my lost spending with them will not matter a jot, but in the aggregate with (however many tens, hundreds of thousands?) others, I wonder.
But Mr Lacey has crunched the data so it’s all going to be alright then.
I really cannot be bothered to waste very much time thinking further on this.
Does nothing to get me back. Have so far bought 5 LCC flights that would have been BA and a CV club trip to PDL (which might have been BAH for the extra points). BA spend £50 v 2k+.
Under the old BA exec club I was prepared to pay higher prices for short and long haul flights in order to maintain my Silver status. I also would fly from Heathrow with BA than flying from my local airport Gatwick with Easyjet in order to get tier points. I’m retired so have no chance of getting Silver status under the new scheme so as far as I’m concerned the incentives I had for choosing BA have been removed. I’m not going to say I will never use BA but it’s highly likely that the number of BA flights that I book will reduce.
Oh well.
BA is convenient for my journeys the majority long haul. Being a silver or gold executive club member is why I would fly with BA. These will now be totally unattainable. Bye bye BA, Hello again Qatar and Emirates. 🙂
weird that you have to do 25 flights.. that in reality means 26 if you are doing return trips.
I’m just doing a tier point to London to get 10 points to keep my silver. 10 points!!! Reckon I will be moving to Skyteam, and using Virgin and KLM. Qatar for trips east.
“I’m sorry but how do you think people spending £25k per year is “attainable” unless you are a) extremely wealthy, b) a corporate traveller with business class approval.”
I fit into the B category but I have no desire to play BA’s game.
I make business class trips to the Middle East every other month, usually on Qatar. Now why would I want to take the gamble of whether or not this travel will be enough to qualify for Gold if I could instead credit my flights to Qatar Privilege Club or even Iberia Plus and be guaranteed to qualify as a OneWorld Emerald? Meanwhile with BA’s new rules, I could end up demoted to Silver (Sapphire).
I just don’t understand why BA would want to lose a member with this sort of travel pattern. What would keep me loyal to them when I have alternatives offering a better deal to reward my custom? I know I’m out of the league for lifetime Gold now, so why not keep Emerald by using Qatar’s programme and then obtain lifetime status with one (or both) of the other 2 alliances for my retirement years?
Living on the Island of Jersey it is either fly out or catch a ferry. The airlines that fly year round services from the Island are BA, Easyjet and Blue Islands, Blue Islands destinations are limited, mainly to some UK airports but they do offer multiple destinations per booking e.g. JER – SOU-EDI. Easyjer fly to a couple of UK hubs but only 1 sector (return) per booking. BA offer JER to anywhere on their network via LHR or LGW on a fully linked single booking which is much more convenient if there are issues. I managed to get to Gold on 2 holiday trips in 2023 and have managed to maintain gold from another 2 holiday trips in 2024. Gold is nice to have but does not give many more perks than Silver and from Jersey there is no First Wing unless you are just doing JER-LHR-JER i.e. on the return sector, otherwise you are going through LHR connections. I will be sticking with BA for now on non UK trips unless where I want to go is not covered by their network – status is nice to have but is not really all it is made out to be.
I hope they go to the wall, this isn’t a concession it’s a wet fart in the face of imminent destruction. Are they deaf or stupid? Maybe both. I’m still hanging out for status match with Finnair or Qatar but either way, will use my meagre spend with a carrier worthy of it.
You can get stays match with Vietnam (oneworld) if you are going eastwards(not widely advertised)
Vietnam Airlines is SkyTeam, not OneWorld
I was so excited to achieve gold membership for this year, I’m just waiting for some bonus tiers to appear as booked a holiday with double teir points flew back on the 26th Jan and they still haven’t been added. I am so confused. I also have 2 reward flights from Amex which also requires avios. Now I am not sure if I should to change to Virgin as not sure if my reward flghts will be honoured by Virgin. Can anyone help.
Yes Sue, you might have to use their complaint procedure, I had do this before
We have been long-time advocates of BA and guarded our hard earned gold status jealously by deliberately avoiding other carriers. Colm Lacey should be ashamed of his disingenuous comments and come clean – he really does seem to think we are stupid. We regularly hear ”thank you for choosing BA” from the flight lead’s final announcement – this is not their fault but I will certainly be asking them to pass on my thoughts internally at BA. Please maintain your lobbying for more meaningful consideration of their ill-thought out changes
Last year it was 5 x Double Tier point holidays averaging £1000 per trip with BA, achieving Gold!
This year I had 2 holidays already booked so may achieve Silver if I book something else.
Latest changes are pretty measly and I can’t see any motivation to spend anything with BA in future.
This is disappointing BA has gone down this road of not making it as relatively easy as it was to gain status. I work in the live music business and it is often worth having one of our party to fly in business so that they can get their baggage allowance across the whole party, very useful if carrying lots of instruments which we normally are. If everyone can get to Silver say it makes a massive difference on costs with that amount of gear. It is possible to get entertainment tickets with BA which gives a generous amount of bags. If it registers at check in which is another story. Doing what I do its one of the very few perks of the job, getting avios and maybe using a lounge. I just wish they had left it as it was and you are right to point out how much you need to spend now to get a status that is worth having.
This changes nothing really. It’s not a big enough change to make us rethink our future travelling strategy. Gold for me this year, next year not even silver will be achievable. It’s ridiculous.
I am currently a Silver Executive Club member but I regret that trying to achieve the 7500 tier points to retain this status is almost impossible.
BA Staff and Directors never visit any Travel Shows otherwise they would know that the only reason that travellers use them is to secure their status as for service, price and value they are really not worth booking.
Well done BA as even on package holidays I had insisted on BA flights but not any more.
Obviously mirroring the labour playbook of making everyone’s lives worse. Clueless
I statusmatched with FB as GGL and these recent, measly updates to The Club won’t bring me back to flying BA exclusively. PS! With RJ you achieve Emerald status after 48 flights regardless of which OW airline within a year so to achieve BA Silver after 50 flights is worthless in my opinion unless your chasing avios and not status. RJ Platinum also comes with upgrade certificates and you need 40 flights to renew or 80 within 2 years. Just throwing it out there 😉
BA from me will just get the “crumbs from the table”. They will be last choice as far as possible.
Some domestic flights I can replace with rail and enjoy it more, fed up with most of my flights from Edinburgh to London being late.
Already, I have booked KLM for a Europe flight and a Delta business flight to the USA which cheaper that the BA alternative, still a high value ticket (both fares BA would have had before they did this tier point change).
Through two other cards I have lounge access anyway so I don’t need BA for this.
I will use up those Avios after this year.
Back to BA blue is likely.
Too little, too late. Already started looking elsewhere and prices are better and I’m sure the service too. Just had my GGL matched by Air France and looking forward to exploring other opportunities. Came back from ACE in Club yesterday and it was no more than glorified Ryanair. I’m quite close to GFL and the sheer contempt BA has for its ‘loyal’ customers just puts me off that last push… after all, we all apparently fed back that we wanted this change, right!!??
Oh dear, did BA not learn a thing following their last dreadful communication announcing the shocking negative changes to the Exec Club, arrogantly saying the customer asked for them.
BA need to get real, and not blame the members. All members I am sure would have appreciated and understood a much more grown up and honest approach.
Everyone would accept that something had to be done with the Exec Club and that they are operating in a highly competitive aviation market, where all things are not created equal. Instead of adopting a direct and honest approach they chose to patronise members and customers and then repeat it again in these latest quotes to the Times.
The strap line on their media centre page states ‘We are on a journey to a better BA’. Is that a better BA for the customer and members or is it a better BA for shareholders and the senior management team?
As I have said in a previous post in my opinion, BA should recruit and obtain the opinion from a few industry experts and bloggers to keep themselves on track before making ridiculous and damaging decisions.
Each member of the board in Waterside in my opinion should also go mystery shopping and each book themselves some flights to understand where they fall down in each cabin. I have just taken a business flight on Austrian from BKK to VIE, which was incredible. A sky chef serving amazing culinary experiences all whilst in his full set of whites. Incredible service on board, blowing BA out of the sky! A free seat reservation too, with no status!
BA please, please, find yourselves some USP’s in your in-flight experience in each and every cabin even if you need to raise the fares. I fear with the way it is currently heading you are far from on a journey to a better BA, in fact quite the opposite.
Can we also please ask for some grown up, honest and direct communications in future, even if it is delivering bad news, I am sure all members and customers would appreciate that from you.
Gold (leisure) traveller for several years as is my partner. Now booking holidays with Virgin as BA do not want us cluttering up their lounges which have gone downhill anyway and as a couple we would have to spend over £40000 to retain gold.
I have had status off and on for years, but maintained gold consistently for the last few. Bumped down to silver this year. I used to be extremely loyal to BA, but after just one too many ridiculous problems that were handled badly, I decided to take my money elsewhere in 2023-24 (now Gold on Flying Blue).
The funny thing is that I’m one of profiles they want to attract– a leisure traveller that pays for business or 1st tickets and gains status as a result. Sure, I occassionally take a short-haul hop in economy, but it’s not the majority of my travel. I use my avios to rent cars or pay for hotels (both because of point value and ease of use). It’s just too much hassle to try to use avios for actual plan tickets.
IMO, BA just does not have the product to back up the aspirations implied by this change. There are still a lot of craft with the awful old Club World layout and there are so many tech problems, it’s barely worth using the app. The Silver lounges at Heathrow are dire. The only real value to Gold (at Heathrow) was using the 1st wing check-in and security that fed directly to the lounge. Even the Concorde room is not what it was. Outside of Heathrow there is nothing special, they tout some of the lounges in other cities, but not much to be said for NY or other hubs. They cut cabin crew in the Club World and 1st and got rid of the experienced (and fairly paid) crew, so it’s rare to get good service, let alone the great service which was really lovely when it happened and no doubt created a lot of passenger goodwill. Today, it’s very clear there are a lot of cabin crew not enjoying their jobs. Craft is dirty or worn and seats are regularly broken. Cash-paying business customers without status have to pay for seats and use the silver lounge (I think?) if they don’t have status. Net net, the BA experience is just not that great.
Whether or not this change will pan out for BA remains to be seen. Ever since the buy out, it’s been clear that BA is not a priority for Iberia. As a result, the changes that a lot of other airlines have made have passed BA by. I don’t think they really care about loyalty loss. Or, if they do, they are failing to accurately assess the notoriously tricky lagging indicator that is loyalty. More likely, there is actually not much they can do about it at this point given the direction set by Iberia. No matter the reason, the impact is clear. Loyalty has been ebbing away for quite some time and will continue to do so.
If you look at CCO Colm Lacy’s LinkedIN profile, you will find he has been a 28yr veteran of BA with a strong accounting background. He is also a NED on the Board of the Loyalty Subsidiary. (Possible conflict of interest there…)
You therefore have to feel sorry for him because he has not had the benefit of customer engagement, marketing roles or actually had experience that might help him understand communications etc. If you look at his “endorsements” they are all from colleagues and relate to his “operations” and “Revenue Management”..
.. so give the guy a break. Its The BA CEO / Board that have obviously put the wrong person in the role, or positioned him as a loyal fall guy, doing what some consultants told him to do. BA has been gullible in teh past – and this could be one of those times.
I expect they underestimate the impact that treating your customers like numbers in a spreadsheet and trying to gaslight them can have, especially those that were loyalty ambassadors.
However, a bit of a jolt to the membership might actually drive some industry innovations (certainly the competitors might be able to pounce now) and teh high oil prices will enable some of teh middle eastern carriers to get even more crazy in their actions.!
I asked CHatGPT to research the new BA CLub, and it came out negative. I then asked it to “Write an appropriate post to a travel forum” – here is its output:
Like many of you, I’ve been a British Airways Executive Club Gold member for years. I’ve flown BA even when it wasn’t the cheapest or most convenient option, because the loyalty program made it worthwhile. But with the changes to the new BA Club, that loyalty ends here.
Let’s be clear: these changes are a massive devaluation. The shift to a spend-based system means that status is no longer about how much you actually fly, but simply about how much cash you pour into BA’s pockets. To requalify for Gold, I now need to spend £20,000 per year, which is absurd for anyone who isn’t booking multiple full-fare business or first-class flights. Under the old system, I could maintain Gold by flying strategically—mixing premium economy, business, and occasional long-haul economy. That’s now impossible unless I significantly increase my spending.
BA’s argument is that this rewards their “most valuable customers.” But here’s the thing: loyalty isn’t just about who spends the most. It’s about those of us who choose BA consistently, who take extra connections to stick with oneworld, and who plan our travel around maintaining status. That loyalty is no longer rewarded. Instead, BA has made it clear they only care about people dropping five figures annually.
What’s worse is how BA has completely ignored its existing base. There was no transition period to soften the impact, no real attempt to acknowledge how much harder status will be to earn, and no meaningful improvement in benefits. We’re being told to just accept it while BA’s marketing team gaslights us with lines like “based on customer feedback”—as if anyone actually asked for this!
The result? I’ll be moving my loyalty elsewhere. If I’m forced to start fresh with a loyalty program, I’d rather do it with an airline that actually values frequent flyers. Options I’m considering:
Credit my BA flights to another oneworld airline (Finnair or Royal Jordanian both have easier status requirements).
Switch to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, which still has a distance-based earning model and better perks.
Stop being loyal at all—just book the best price and service for each trip, whether that’s BA, Lufthansa, or Emirates.
I’m sure some will stick with BA because it’s their best option from Heathrow, but I refuse to reward a program that actively devalues my loyalty. BA has made it clear that they don’t care about retaining customers like me, so why should I care about retaining my loyalty to them?
Am retired and I tend to bounce between silver and bronze, and the advantages gained as regards check in, lounges and free seat selection made it all worthwhile. Under this scenario BA was the first choice. Now? As my loyalty is no longer wanted, trans Atlantic will make VS very appealing and westbound, beyond Europe it a mix of Middle East and Asian airlines.
Am afraid BA are going to see a significant shift away from them.
If they don’t want your average traveller, we can easily move.
I am flying BA trans Atlantic in a few weeks, hoping that we will get a decent meal versus stupid brunch, but the reality is other products are better, and they will get my money
Having had Gold for the past several years, I fear not even Silver will be within reach. How many members will be left with status i wonder
I’ve been silver for a few years as it’s handy when travelling with work who book economy and any excess baggage must be paid for and claimed back (usual travel with 40kg of kit). Being able to relax and eat in the lounge is handy as the subsistence rates are pitiful.
Retention has been via my leisure travel. Sadly I will drop out of Silver from 01 April and have no chance of returning there, but life goes on. Yes the lounges were crowded but my main bugbear with them was the lack of power sockets.
I have been able to statusmatch with flyingblue and an attractive element of that programme is the surplus xp that you need for levels, are not deleted but rather will count towards the next year’s awards.
Last year I was booked to fly KLM from NCE to DUB, but KLM cancelled the flight. KLM contacted me by e-mail and offered a 70EUR refund of a 130EUR voucher (I took the latter) and also gave me approx 10EUR in compensation. I was rebooked on Air France by KLM. Such a difference from BA who still can’t give an answer from a cancelled flight from October.
Can someone please explain to me why airline status *shouldn’t* be based on spend with a given airline? You spend your money with the airline, you get the perks…where is the lack of logic in that? I genuinely don’t understand. I was never gonna get gold status, I’m still not. I always just about made silver status, now I will quite comfortably. All the previous system seemed to serve to do was set up a cottage industry of “savvy traveller” bores who delighted in gaming the system. I’m not sure I can be bothered to mourn their status loss.
I dumped BA a long time ago, when they wanted to “Nickel & Dime” me to pick a seat, after I paid for business Class & First Class tickets
BA IMHO is not worthy of anyone’s loyalty
I am based in Hong Kong and travel for leisure. Whilst Asiamiles makes more sense for me I stayed loyal to BAEC. One of the main factors was it was easier to obtain top tier status and I think this was the case for many many members. In exchange I put up with the horrid customer service, the dodgy App and who remembers the On Business loyalty program that just disappeared.?? It all felt very backward compared to QATAR or even CATHAY’s website and App. Meanwhile my friends and family who are CX diamond were enjoying operational upgrades about 30% of the time. Total upgrades in the 7 years as BAEC gold = ZERO (oh wait I think I got one for achieve gold years ago) Ultimately BA was still getting my business even when it made more sense to fly their competitors. In the end this came at a perfect time and reconfirmed I need to move on to a loyalty program that actually appreciates loyalty. Makes things so much easier. Bye bye BA