British Airways

[Failed Unit]

But flying LHR-SYD (Heathrow to Sydney) on the direct flight (the Singapore layover is ignored for tier points IIRC) offers fewer tier points than flying on Qatar via Doha LHR-DOH-SYD.

Correct it is. So going to Australia you are better using a partner that involves a change of flights. If I recall correctly in club world you get 240 tier points.

When I was looking at the trip to New Zealand, I was thinking instant silver (with the possibility of gold). However the indirect route (compared to a single change at Singapore) was a large factor. The quality of the seat in BA was another factor.

Looking at the year had a done it, I would have made gold. However once I have had a taste of a decent operator (Singapore) I would rather have a decent flight then the gold status with BA.

 

[eoff]

Interesting. BA confirming on X in response to queries that they've "not made any changes to their 'soft landing' proposition". If that holds true then great. I can status match to KLM Flying Blue / Platinim and then make a major (already planned) booking with them for autumn 2025.

Bear in mind there is no "soft landing proposition".
Happy to be proved wrong if you can find any official BA reference to it, and I don't count any social media team manning the desk during a holiday time as that.

 

[Butts]

Anyone else a member of Flyer Talk Forum ....over 1500 posts on this in less than a day !!

I can understand to a degree why they have done it.

I fly from EDI or GLA to LHR and onto my final destination using British Airways Holidays for all my jolly's. At the moment with the Double Tier Points you can make Silver by spending less than a bag and Gold for just under two..

My next trip is to Bucharest with Club Europe Flights and 5 Nights Hotel later this month. This cost me just north of £600 and qualifies for 480 Tier Points within shouting distance of the current Silver requisite of 600 points. Under the new regime this would qualify for around 600 points with the Silver Barrier being 7000 odd= whoops !!

Silver is a real privilege with access to the Wonderful BA Lounges in Glasgow and Edinburgh, not so wonderful ones at LHR and a mixed bag wherever I am travelling to. Add on Free Exit Seat Selection, Fast Track Security and increased Baggage Allowance and it's a winner. BAH also have a wonderful helpline if anything goes wrong as well.

Each year as soon as I qualified for Silver/Gold I switched to Economy and the world of £300 odd mini breaks in Europe with all the perks retained apart from the dubious CE Catering Offer and Seats.

Looks like they have removed the "soft landing" where you would only drop one band say from Gold to Silver.

I will be Silver till April 2026 - after that who knows what I will do ?

 

[eoff]

Silver is a real privilege with access to the Wonderful BA Lounges in Glasgow and Edinburgh, not so wonderful ones at LHR and a mixed bag wherever I am travelling to.on Free Exit Seat Selection, Fast Track Security and increased Baggage Allowance and it's a winner. BAH also have a wonderful helpline if anything goes wrong as well.

Edinburgh Lounge: victuals with Mrs Tilly's tablet on tap, what's not to like.

 

[nlogax]

Bear in mind there is no "soft landing proposition".
Happy to be proved wrong if you can find any official BA reference to it, and I don't count any social media team manning the desk during a holiday time as that.

Like I said, we'll have to see if these statements on X hold true. For now that's all we have to go on.

 

[eoff]

Like I said, we'll have to see if these statements on X hold true. For now that's all we have to go on.

Just to clarify I'm talking about the situation up to today, as far as I'm aware soft landing was never officially promised or alluded to by BA.
So even to maintain the status quo could mean they still say nothing and we have to wait until people get to that point.

 

[Butts]

Edinburgh Lounge: victuals with Mrs Tilly's tablet on tap, what's not to like.

It really is my favourite BA Lounge never that busy and a good selection of fayre.

When you see a Breakfast in Spoons is around £15 and god knows how much a Double Talisker is it really brings home to you what a privilege entry is.

 

[nlogax]

Just to clarify I'm talking about the situation up to today, as far as I'm aware soft landing was never officially promised or alluded to by BA.
So even to maintain the status quo could mean they still say nothing and we have to wait until people get to that point.

As you can see from this exchange on X between BA and someone in a similar situation..

https://nitter.poast.org/elwyn87/status/1874061394917941383#m

Elwyn Jones
@elwyn87
30 Dec 2024
@British_Airways with your new executive club structure for 2025, if I have silver status now will it continue to 2026 like it says on my account and then go down to bronze or will I go back to blue? Asking because I might need to start using another airline from now on.

British Airways
@British_Airways
30 Dec 2024
Hi Elwyn, your status for the period of 01 April 2025 - 31 March 2026 will be based on the number of Tier Points you accrue under the current criteria by 31 March 2025. From 01 April 2026 the new rates will apply for your 2026/2027 year. Kelly

Elwyn Jones
@elwyn87
30 Dec 2024
So if i were to get Gold before April 2025 on the current system, I wouldn't be silver for 2026/2027 year

British Airways
@British_Airways
31 Dec 2024
Sorry for the delay in responding, Elwyn. We haven't made any changes to our 'soft landing' proposition. David

Elwyn Jones
@elwyn87
31 Dec 2024
Replying to @British_Airways
Ok so if i were to get Gold by April I would defin be Gold for 2024/2025 and then Silver for 2026/2027, Bronze for 2027/2028?

British Airways
@British_Airways
31 Dec 2024
Replying to @elwyn87
Yes that's correct. David

 

[camflyer]

It really is my favourite BA Lounge never that busy and a good selection of fayre.

When you see a Breakfast in Spoons is around £15 and god knows how much a Double Talisker is it really brings home to you what a privilege entry is.

The Gatwick lounge is very good too.

The Heathrow T5 ones just suffer from overcrowding at peaks times. The T3 one isn't too bad but there are better One World alternatives you can use. In T5 you only have the BA lounges.

 

[Butts]

The Gatwick lounge is very good too.

The Heathrow T5 ones just suffer from overcrowding at peaks times. The T3 one isn't too bad but there are better One World alternatives you can use. In T5 you only have the BA lounges.

I've been in the First and Galleries Lounges there and agee !!

At T5 I always try to get over to the B Gates Lounge if I have time as it tends to be quieter.

 

[MrEwy]

Bad times when British Airways become the long haul Ryanair

 

[TravelDream]

Bad times when British Airways become the long haul Ryanair

Euroflyer has long been very comparable to Ryanair/ easyjet. Just more expensive (though not always nowadays!).

 

[MrEwy]

It’s all BA, euroflyer just a stupid gimmick

 

[TravelDream]

It’s all BA, euroflyer just a stupid gimmick

My mistake. Meant to say Euro Traveller.

Euroflyer is just BA's way of cutting costs. Their Heathrow cabin crew already earn less than easyjet. Their Euroflyer ones earn less than Ryanair.

 

[eoff]

As you can see from this exchange on X between BA and someone in a similar situation..

https://nitter.poast.org/elwyn87/status/1874061394917941383#m

View attachment 171942

That is more positive and implies they went back to get permission to say that. The problem for BA now is that the full impact of this change won't be known for quite some time.

 

[camflyer]

That is more positive and implies they went back to get permission to say that. The problem for BA now is that the full impact of this change won't be known for quite some time.

Yes, it will take a year or two to settle down as most of those with status will have it for another year at least. They are getting a lot of criticism but they've clearly but a lot of planning into this (amazing it didn't leak) so aren't likely to back down. Plus we don't know what BA's internal metrics are on judging the success of the scheme. Keeping moderately affluent leisure travellers who only fly a few times a year happy is unlikely to be one of them.

 

[John R]

That is more positive and implies they went back to get permission to say that. The problem for BA now is that the full impact of this change won't be known for quite some time.

There may be a slight benefit in that people who have Silver and thus lounge access won’t bother chasing it next year, particularly by using BA Holidays. So although they still have lounge status, they won’t use it as much.

On the other hand, I’ve already booked a long haul BA Holiday for April that will give me Silver for the 26/27 years, along with a couple of shorter trips already booked. So whilst I won’t be as inclined to use BA, there will still be the benefit of lounge access for two more years, which will be some incentive to keep on using them.

 

[deltic]

It really is my favourite BA Lounge never that busy and a good selection of fayre.

When you see a Breakfast in Spoons is around £15 and god knows how much a Double Talisker is it really brings home to you what a privilege entry is.

Someone has obviously got round to doing the maths on this and realised the value of the "freebies" offered is not recovered by the additional revenue generated.

 

[camflyer]

There may be a slight benefit in that people who have Silver and thus lounge access won’t bother chasing it next year, particularly by using BA Holidays. So although they still have lounge status, they won’t use it as much.

On the other hand, I’ve already booked a long haul BA Holiday for April that will give me Silver for the 26/27 years, along with a couple of shorter trips already booked. So whilst I won’t be as inclined to use BA, there will still be the benefit of lounge access for two more years, which will be some incentive to keep on using them.

For me the incentive will be to burn the avios I have on redemption flights over the next year

 

[Tetchytyke]

Someone has obviously got round to doing the maths on this and realised the value of the "freebies" offered is not recovered by the additional revenue generated.

The cost of the freebies is negligible at BA lounges, but obviously more expensive at third party lounges.

BA will have done the maths though. The old scheme rewarded flights taken and cabin flown, it didn’t reward spend. Dirt cheap Club Europe flights to Sofia bought way in advance would generate significantly more tier points than last-minute economy travel. Convoluted connecting flights would generate more tier points than the more expensive direct flights. The old scheme, from the airline’s perspective, rewarded the wrong behaviour.

I do predict that BA have overshot with some of the thresholds, especially gold. But if they have, and if it affects the bottom line, that’s changeable easily enough through bonus tier point offers or by applying a tier point multiplier to passengers holding bronze or silver status.

 

[camflyer]

I do predict that BA have overshot with some of the thresholds, especially gold. But if they have, and if it affects the bottom line, that’s changeable easily enough through bonus tier point offers or by applying a tier point multiplier to passengers holding bronze or silver status.

Yes, I can see a number of "special promotions" and "double point offers" to reduce the headline thresholds significantly

 

[John R]

The cost of the freebies is negligible at BA lounges, but obviously more expensive at third party lounges.

Indeed. Especially if you believe this...

Same with Oneworld lounges. I shudder to think how much they pay Cathay Pacific, Qantas and American Airlines every time I do a T3 lounge crawl for three hours on a routine £150 hop to Stuttgart

 

[Bald Rick]

I do predict that BA have overshot with some of the thresholds, especially gold.

Well that’s easy to resolve - put the prices of fares up

 

[Failed Unit]

Well that’s easy to resolve - put the prices of fares up

I think that is really what they want to do, but unfortunately they have competition and we all remember the fine they got last time they tried fixing fares –)

 

[RailWonderer]

I think that is really what they want to do, but unfortunately they have competition and we all remember the fine they got last time they tried fixing fares –)

I hope this is in irony. While BA are just mirroring what most airline loyalty programmes in the world do, they shouldn't be disincentivising occasional travellers and over relying on business regulars - they need to take some casual business from the low cost carriers and other national carriers.

 

[Failed Unit]

I hope this is in irony. While BA are just mirroring what most airline loyalty programmes in the world do, they shouldn't be disincentivising occasional travellers and over relying on business regulars - they need to take some casual business from the low cost carriers and other national carriers.

To a degree yes. BA seems to have lost its identity are they a budget airline? No because Ryanair do it better. Are they a quality airline? No because Singapore/ Emirates (add others to it better). The old loyalty program to a degree kept people away from these options as the fares were often not that far apart “so I fly BA for tier points”

Maybe one for a different thread by as you say other companies do
Loyalty for £ spend. Eurostar fairly recently changed its tier boundaries. (But I think it was always £ based). Virgin still seems fixed so be interesting if it follows suit. The network isn’t as extensive but you get more for changing than a direct flight with them as well. With Virgin only the gold gets uk lounge access.

 

[camflyer]

To a degree yes. BA seems to have lost its identity are they a budget airline? No because Ryanair do it better. Are they a quality airline? No because Singapore/ Emirates (add others to it better). The old loyalty program to a degree kept people away from these options as the fares were often not that far apart “so I fly BA for tier points”

BA have long ago given up on any routes "East of Suez" as they cannot compete with the likes of Singapore, the ME3 and increasingly Turkish.

Their main markets now are

1) European short haul where they compete with EasyJet/Ryanair at the back of the plane and other legacy carriers in the front few rows. It's always surprising to me how many business class seats BA can sell on short hops considering how poor the onboard service is but there is clearly a market for it. Maybe it's mostly feeders into their long haul routes.

2) US routes where the competition is Virgin and the US carriers in both economy and business/first

3) Caribbean where the competition is mostly package holiday operators.

 

[Huntergreed]

Yet another extremely poor experience boarding with BA at Heathrow. Groups 0 and 1 were called forward ‘in preparation to board’ (their words) and held in one lane of the queue, then groups 2 and 3 were called forward and held in a separate lane. They released the lane for groups 2 and 3 first and held groups 0 and 1 back until 2 and 3 had boarded. It wasn’t me, but a fellow group 1 boarder who asked about this, and the gate staff said this is part of the new BA boarding policy.

Only boarded twice in group 1 at Heathrow, and both times, passengers in at least group 3, if not then groups 4+, have been permitted to board before group 1.

 

[telstarbox]

Surely you want to board last not first - less time in a cramped setup compared to the departure lounge or fancy lounge?

 

[Huntergreed]

Surely you want to board last not first - less time in a cramped setup compared to the departure lounge or fancy lounge?

Definitely not if you want overhead luggage space and to make your time as productive as possible!