There are hundreds of people in this situation and I think BA just lost a lot of loyal customers as they seem to have missed the point that loyalty works both ways 🤷🏼♂️
Yes, totally agree. I normally travel on business, so cost is of primary importance. It will simply cost so much more to get any status upgrade with BA now that there’s really no point. I travel quite a lot in Europe as well, so it looks like Lufthansa and Star Alliance will be the best option for me from now on.
As a leisure Manchester based gold I have so many options, but none of them will involve BA in future. After all LHR is horrific and Gatwick a five and a half hour drive.
Some of us are old enough to remember "air miles" - Avios replaced them and there was a notable reduction in benefits when that happened. As a Brit I'm saddened by BA's "race to the bottom". After Colin Marshall turned them around from an industry laughing stock to be truly "The World's favourite airline", how have successive CEOs allowed a full reversal of that reputation? Building on Lord King's Mission Statement from 1991/1992 (which I keep to hand as it was IMHO excellent), a mission "to be the best and most successful company in the airline industry".. "To provide overall superior service and good value for money in every market segment in which we compete".... what happened??
My home airport is also MAN. I dumped BA 15 years ago when a member of staff was rude to me and my travel partner. I have never gone back. I have since been Lufthansa Senator for 10 years and flown over 1 million miles. Perfect for me - 1st class check-in, fast track, extra baggage, free seat pick across Star Alliance, lounge access and the staff address me by name. No 1st lounge access though - unless I have a 1st class ticket (or HON circle) Flown Suites from SIN a few times - very special - and I was able to find bargain fare. LH are rolling out their new B/C 'Allegris' - flying to ORD to try it in May.
I must say I am looking forward to seeing what Star Alliance has to offer. I have flown Lufthansa only twice once in economy and once in business ( europe only ) and did find both to be an enjoyable experience. Looking forward to 2025 as there are plenty of Star Alliance offerings from Manchester.
Welcome to Star Alliance! I am based in Singapore and Singapore Airlines is a Star Alliance member. I have enjoyed Star Alliance Gold status for a while now. Looking forward to your videos on how to chase status with Lufthansa.
I’m travelling quite frequently from cologne to Saudi Arabia for work on Eurowings, that’s a sweetspot. The return price in “Business Class” is 600€. As it is a low cost airline, the business class is not a real business class but it is a really cheap way to earn qualifying points and points at the same time. Flights also go to Dubai from several cities in GER
I said to Matt, it’s not so much a case of coming to distrust BA, but of BA ‘earning’ my distrust. A very interesting post. Thanks. The only issue is going via FRA rather than direct from LHR/LGW. Guess it’s time to dig out my old United silver card…
Hi Iain. Thank you for watcching and commenting. I guess if you are local to Heathrow/Gatwick adding an additional "hub" airport like Frankfurt or Munich isnt really practical. But for myself using Manchester as my local airport. It doesnt appear that it will make to much difference switch from LHR to FRA
Yep, LHR/LGW are closer than MAN for us @@SomeBlokeWhoTravelsALot and so a segment to get to the hub rather than just drive straight there is an extra hop for us. That said, with these changes it could be worth it. That or switch to Aegean so still Star Alliance, and at least for getting to Greece, it would be the same direct flight from LHR although their flight times tend not to be so good. But these changes shake things up _a lot_ and it's interesting (disheartening?) to now to see the flood of similar posts as yours about the negative impact of these changes and how they make BA distinctly non-competitive. Promotion and a big bonus for the goon that cooked up these ideas then!
BA have saved me thousands by bringing this in. Looking back 80% of my flights have been in business class to get to Gold. I was already getting the perks of business so when I got gold the experience was not much better. It’s actually better now because when you book a holiday and stay in a nice hotel which we always do, the hotel spend count towards tier points. You only need two holiday per year to get Silver
Indeed the Bermuda trip I searched for woul get Silver per person. But still at a cost of £7000 when the old system you could of obtained Silver for under £1500
@@SomeBlokeWhoTravelsALot that maybe true but I find myself traveling on random trips I didn’t need to take just to gain points. I even traveled to catania and returned same day. I was chasing Gold status. Took around 10 trips in a year to get it. The opportunity cost of taking time off work have to be factored in. It’s not as cheap as it may seem. We take a few family trips per year some long haul included. For me the new way works best because of getting tier points for expensive 5 star hotel stays which is what we always do. You also get points for car hire and BA credit card spend. I’ll just book business for myself and my wife on those trips. My teenage kids can go premium economy or economy. Adds up fast. I will get Silver organically but won’t be chasing gold or any other status from now on.
We are currently gold and will be into be into next year. We have 6 flights already booked for the year. We definitely weren’t chasing gold it just happened as we started using BA a couple of years ago and had many trips across the pond. Once this year has passed however we will be silver of we can be bothered at all
The LH FTL card is not comparable to BAEC Silver because it only affords lounge access on LH group and *A flights in LH group lounges. It affords no lounge access benefits within the star alliance in most of the world though. It also allows no guests. The FTL card is probably not too bad for someone based in the DACH countries where there is likely to be a LH group lounge at least at the origin airport. and in the hub airport when flying longhaul. I live near Berlin and FTL is ok as I can use it on Eurowings flights at the BER end. I can also get lounge access in BER and at say FRA, MUC or ZRH when flying long haul. Berlin is basically like Manchester, a provicial airport in reality. For anyone outside DACH I think only the Senator card makes sense because you would be very unlikely to be starting your journey at an airport with a LH group lounge but I would also look at Aegean! Their Gold card is easier than LH Senator, especially the requalification.
@@SomeBlokeWhoTravelsALot You're most welcome. Best of luck finding a viable alternative to BA. I think they have made a catastrophic business decision and don't yet realise it. LH & AF will be rubbing their hands together with glee. BA is betting the farm on their corporate travel accounts.....which are reducing spend as firms realise it's rarely actually necessary and it will cost them increasing sums in CO penalties. The future of air travel is the higher end leisure traveller. These corporate accounts are also completely disployal. They can flip to another airline at the drop of a hat.
BA status was a bargain, rejigging a couple of work trips as “holidays” and voila! I’m Silver. No way I’ll make it under the new scheme and yes, I did enjoy the “hunting” of bargain tier points - when a project in Sofia went TU people seemed surprised I went out to sort it personally and even stayed an extra day ( to make it a 5 dayer) I wasn’t planning on renewing my BA status until April 26 and the non work trips I have in 25 are economy short haul and premium econ for long haul - chose BA for them purely due to having Silver. I’ll be making full use of that Silver status eating my own bodyweight in mini pies in the lounge (sorry but it’ll be April 26 before us riffraff fade away). Hopefully by then people with far more nous than me will have worked out the best new scheme to chase.
This is a very important distinction - As someone with mid level status in all 3 alliances (LH FTL, BA Silver and SAS Silver), BA Silver is way more useful in my flying pattern as I regularly use other Oneworld partners for long haul - especially Qatar, JAL and AA and BA for short haul. Oneworld has the middle sweet spot which is Sapphire, while both Star and SkyTeam essentially reserve the lucrative stuff to the top tier. LH FTL is not bad at all if based in a LH Group hub, but Star Alliance Silver has no reciprocal alliance wide benefits (certainly dont consider priority standby or waitlist as a valuable perk myself). Personally, I'm sticking with BA (FTL expiring 2026, SAS end of 2025) - did some rough math and with partner flights, I should requalify for Silver going into next year by a decent enough margin, without needing to go out of my way to book additional travel anywhere. I wouldn't have made Gold under either new or old system without going out of my way, and I prefer the Avios ecosystem (super easy to accumulate via avios.com, plus Amex MR) over M&M.
Appreciate comments on my understanding of the proposed changes comparing old with new: 1. To earn Silver status, I currently need to fly a minimum of 15 Business Class trips a year i.e. 15 x 40 = 600 points. Now, at approximately £200 per flight, to achieve 7500 tier points I will need to fly 38 flights at £200 a flight. This represents a 253% increase!?! 2. To earn Gold Status, I previously needed to fly 38 flights a year but now to achieve the 20,000 tier points required will need to fly 100 flights at £200 a flight, that’s almost two flights per week!! This is a 263 % increase!?! 3. Equally Lifetime Gold requirements bears no comparison between the BA Executive Club and the BA Club Could be wrong, but…..
Hi Brian, in principle you are not wrong at all. However to me the biggest change is, there is now no benefit to finding the cheap sub £200 flight. I used to build up points on the MAN to LHR shuttle. If I booked economy I could pay £40 one way then £75 for the upgrade to business ( it was even better when the upgrade was £50 ! ) So £115 for 40 points. 2.67% of Gold Status. That same spend minus taxes would be lucky to earn 60 points on the new system which is 0.3% of Gold card status that is nearly 9 times less !!!
Do not forget that the BA points exclude the government and airport taxes, so to get 3500, 7500 and 20000 points you may have to spend up to £5000, £10000 and £25000.
Interesting video and thanks for sharing your commentary. My guess with BA is they've run the numbers and decided that keeping the 'point hacker' types wasn't worth it and they'd rather make their lounges more exclusive, and target high spending business flyers and the richer leisure travellers. Your shift to Lufthansa and star alliance makes sense to me from your POV. Only question I'd have is: are all the big airlines on an inevitable shift towards revenue based frequent flyer programs? Will Lufthansa also go that way in future? Or is there a reason for at least some of them to not go that way? Perhaps something to address in a future video.
Hi Stephen, thank you for your comment, most appreciated. I think BA unfortunately is all about "running the numbers" these days which I believe is a factor in their decline. Interestingly the Lufthansa Miles and More program switched from Revenue based to Miles and sectors at the start of 2024 , so fingers crossed there will not be any other changes soon.
This is really good. I may well do the same as I travel to Cape Town and Istanbul a lot so that would dove tail in nicely when it comes to ‘playing the game’
@ thanks for the heads up. I’ll have to give it a proper look once I’m back. Lufthansa still fly the A340-300 to Cape Town and the 747 to Jo’burg. I’d really like to do both of those again.
@@SomeBlokeWhoTravelsALot a sweet spot for M&M members since M&M introduced the current system last year is to take a positioning flight to Athens and from there take a LH flight via MUC (& FRA) to say Amman (or when things settle down, Tel Aviv), that's an intercontinetal segment then. These flights are often priced competitively as it's Agean's back yard and they can offer low cost business flights to those destinations as they are very close by. LH has to offer fares that are quite low to be competitive. Another option is Eurowings EuroBiz from BER/DUS to the middle east. Cheap enough status points, though it's quite far in an economy seat.
I seem to be the only person looking at Malaysia Airlines scheme - the redemption side isn't great but they use a distance-based system that actually favours Economy flights. Used my BA tier point skills to find some cheap options to earn status on it. Just really hope I'm not missing something. Basically going to enjoy my Gold Status with BA until September and then do a long haul trip to the Far East in Economy and see if can earn at least equivalent of BA silver by year end (they use Calendar year).
I have always enjoyed flying Malaysia, their satay is the best in the skies. But on the tier point chase it is not really an option for me being based in Europe.However if I was based in SE Asia then it is certainly an airline I would consider if staying with One World. I would probably mix up with Cathay Pacific
@ I’m based in London but the Malaysia Airlines scheme doesn’t need any Malaysian Airlines flights (at least as far as I can tell, their IT makes BA look like the Jetsons!)
You're exactly right and making the better choice. The only disadvantage I found is that Lufthansa award tickets come with higher taxes and fees in comparison to some other carriers and airports but may be comparable to UK/BA anyway, not sure as an American.
Hi thank you for your comment. I feel it is the right decision for me. As I like to play the game and enjoy the status chase, which is over with BA. I havent taken a reward flight with Lufthansa yet but as soon as I do I will post a comparison video
LH surcharges are indeed on the high side, sometimes very high. For example a return award flight to north America in business still costs app. 1k € in surcharges. It's often possible to find straight cash fares for not much more than that, including a positioning flight. On non-north American routes it's much better, say around €500 to southern Africa or Asia. Of course, if one is a solo traveller there is still a decent chance of booking non-LH group tickets throgh M&M. Many of those airlines charge much less. Ethiopian, for example charges around €200-€300 for a business award flight to southern Africa. Outside TATL routes, UA is very cheap, a flat $5.60 surcharge on award flights. UA and LH have some shady agreement on TATL so UA charges similar horrendous surcharges on those routes as LH. Some LH sweet spots exist where the departing country forbids excessive surcharges, eg Brazil, Japan, South Korea. In those cases it can make sense to book one-way instead of return.
@@murphaph Thanks for the info. Yes, that's what I found with LH, in some cases the award cost almost as much as a straight fare with some other good carriers.
I stopped flying with BA 2 years ago and switched to Lufthansa & Swiss because I like their product more than BA. I would highly recommend you to try First Class on B747-800 from FRA, it’s such a wonderful experience, you also can use First Class terminal. I haven’t flown in business on B747 only first. But from what I could see Business is a bit outdated. Swiss first class is also good, I can’t wait to try their new First class. Great move to Lufthansa group you’ll enjoy it. Recommend avoiding connections via GVA it’s very old and small airport, ZRH is much better and they refurbished lounges there recently as well.
I’ve got lifetime Star Alliance gold status (United Airlines) but since moving back to the UK seven years ago I have been flying BA to chase status even at higher cost or inconvenience. Now I will still fly BA but less because there is no point in going after gold; I’ll just choose what’s right for me. And I’ll dump my BA Amex card too.
Hi, thank you for the comment, most appreciated. It will be interesting to see how this pans out. As one variable that it is impossible for BA to have the data on. Is how many flights we all chose at inconvenience and cost just to get status. I estimated about 20-30 flights over the last few years I would of been better off going none BA or One World, that with the new changes I wouldn't think twice.
Just checked and you are right. I first looked on 30th and was showing 40pts and a date in June ?? Anyway they are reset to 0 today. So full year ahead to get Senator and enough points to get in the bubble on the 747 😀
Don’t get me wrong. I have thoroughly enjoyed the results 🥂🍸✈️😀 but yes playing the game, finding the deals tweaking the system. That has been great fun and I’m looking forward to doing with Lufthansa
Hey! I just loved your ending!!! Exactly! I am Prague/Vienna based. Part time working in Gambia. 25 years on with BA, buying tickets during COvid to credit BA and support them and they just spit to our faces. I know, do not take business personally, but really? 9K for silver? So I am done with you dear BA, sadly. Banjul flight is Brusells . USA to Fort Myers is Lufthansa, why was i loyal to BA? Now I need Senator status as TAP, Brussels, Lufthansa. I do not need to go to London any longer and so DO YOU man. U right. Lufthansa and Senator status is waiting in 2026...
Can't stand when people think of flying as a 'game'. It is a means of transport and if you can do it in more comfort, great. Comparing BA spend with LH is not like for like as BA now gives TPs for hotels and extras too. So one very expensive club/first holiday or two normal priced club long haul holidays will get you lounge access for hundreds of economy flights. 2 return flights is not the end of the world.
It won’t, Holidays are split between all passengers. So do get Silver you would need to spend £14000 on the holiday. And I’m sorry but I, like many others loved the game 😀
@@SomeBlokeWhoTravelsALot No, you wouldn't. I travel a lot by myself. A holiday is usually £3000-£4000 with club flights and hotel for a week. Two of those gives me Silver. Don't need to share with anyone. I am a gold card holder but I am sure, there will be promotions to achieve gold easier but I think the revenue system is fairer than the distance.
"BA now gives TPs for hotels and extras too" How nice of them? I already get free nights with Hilton and Marriott and car rentals with Hertz and Avis, So why would anyone want give up on those benefits in lieu of shoring up their BAEC status? whichever way you look at it it`s a devaluation
I definitely agree with you about the game element. If I’m honest, chasing status was never particularly cost effective (compared to just paying for lounge access / fast track etc). Star Alliance does look interesting… but Frankfurt has to be one of my least favourite airports!!
Hi thanks for the comment. i do agree about Frankfurt. I have been 3 or 4 times in the last few years and got lost everytime !! I am looking forward to the "game" i have found a lot more infor about Lufthansa and Star alliance status runs and will be posting soon.
I almost only fly for business and always in business class, but almost only within Europe. Aside from the 300% higher spend, I would have to make almost weekly return trips to spend enough to get to gold after the change. It appears that BA is only going after the long-haul business travellers, ignoring us who travel within Europe. Looking at the available options, KLM now looks like the best airline for the routes I fly most of the time. Lufthansa is another, although not quite as good, option.
I am BA Gold from Australia. I had to find my way to fly 4 segments on BA as it’s one criteria for Gold status. Not that easy when you live in Australia. No point of flying BA and one world, impossible to get Gold.
With Gold it’s the hidden benefits. I got so many Free upgrades with a Gold Card. Once I got 2 with Qatar to business on a 4 sector trip . Also the First class lounge is a different experience, much more tranquil , better wines and food. I agree Silver had a lot of the benefits you want. But Gold was well worth the difference
Agreed, if I was going for status with oneworld then emerald is where it is at (BA Gold) . BA silver is hardly worth it as you get almost all the perks flying club anyway.
Hi Scot, thats not a bad start. I am just currently planning my first trip for February, not sure yet but I think it will be a hop over to Frankfurt then maybe Jordan or Oman... watch this space. Where are you planning first ?
@@SomeBlokeWhoTravelsALot I did MAN to AMM in B/C as a TP run last year. I did MAN>MUC>VIE>AMM - 280pts each way. MAN>FRA>MUC>VIE>AMM is possible but requires and O/N stay.
Good decision by BA poor execution. Gold status should be for top tier travellers. Lounges, boarding procedure, seat allocation really poor compared to other one world airlines due to easier access to top tier status under existing set up.
Hopefully the shockingly poor reception prompts a re-think from the utter genius that thought pissing off a large portion of the customer base was a good idea.
Gold card for years and ggl for 3 years. Self funded business trips and leisure. I’d easily get to gold in the new scheme, however, out of principle I’ll now just pick based on product, price and schedule… BA have a poor product. Just buy a premium ticket and get lounge access. Emirates and Singapore booked for March and June. BA - fail!
I did make a video on this th-cam.com/video/cLawT5oEZqg/w-d-xo.html and also Silver and Bronze status. In short, you get 100% more Avios on every flight you take. Access to First Class Lounge, First Class Check In and Group 1 boarding even if you are flying in economy with BA ( or any One World Partner ) You can choose seats for Free at time of booking ( an emergency exit on long haul can be £100+ so can be a great saving ) A ridiculous luggage allowance. First in the queue for Upgrades I once got 2 Free upgrades to Business on Qatar because of my BA Gold Card on a 4 sector trip. Oh and someone always comes over and says hello and addresses you by name ....🤣
IIUC, that £20K doesn't include APD or taxes. The only winners are boomers with GfL. Imagine being stranded on £16K coming up to renewal, and telling your spouse that you have to burn another £4K+ to renew - it will be £8K if she wants to come too. The benefit of the old system for me was finding the final 500 TPs after my base travel, and trying to fit that in around work and home life. It was expensive, but fun. I'll stop complaining. I feel sorry for people stuck close to GfL
@@SomeBlokeWhoTravelsALot Way back when, I was Qantas Club. You paid for this, but I could use BA lounges when I was in the UK. There was a discount for three years' membership, and one year into it, BA pulled the rug out. No more LHR lounges. "Too bad, sucks to be you". Good thing that you're not too invested, you can store your lifetime tier points with your chocolate fireguards and £3 notes :-)
It'll be a matter of time before other European airlines make similar change - POV I only fly Club Europe or Club World for the extra space/comfort onboard and extra baggage. I seldom if ever use the lounges, they are usually full of people/families on cheap tickets cashing in on Loyalty Tier access. Makes it hardly a premium experience = POV I'll still fly BA and continue to use my BA Amex Premium card for all my purchases, including my BA Holidays
Hi, thank you very much for your comment. It does sound like the changes wont have much impact on your travels. I agree the Business Galleries are usually very busy but I will miss the First Galleries at Heathrow
Just following up on your point about other European airlines changing. Lufthansa, Miles & More only made their change to sector based and cabin points in 2024. So fingers crossed they wont make any changes soon.
With double tier points on holidays extended until June Does that mean a holiday costing 8k will give you 16k tier points ? Was planning on taking my wife to Phuket on a business class holiday
I’m not sure. Everything I’ve read is existing bookings made before 30/12/24 for after April 1st 2025 will be converted to the new system. But I can’t find the calculation
This is from the press release "Customers who already hold bookings for travel after 1 April 2025 will be awarded Tier Points based on a conversion of the existing method. Any existing bookings will earn proportionally the same number of Tier Points, or more, as they would today. "
I have just done a test for a week in May flying Business to Bermuda with hotel. Price is £7000 per person, so each person would get 7000 Tier Points i.e Silver. However where it normally says "Executive Club Members get Double Tier Points" on a 5 day plus holiday. It doesnt say this ???
I’ll stick with BA whilst I remain on Silver Tier for my short haul flights (when there is a deal on) but will actively start looking a Star Alliance airlines for my long haul (which I fly BC) in order build up points ready for April 26 when I revert to Bronze with BA (which gives me no real benefits 🤷🏼♂️).
Hi thank you for your comment. Remember this year everyones status changes on 1st of April ( the irony is not lost on me ) the specific details are explained by BA here www.britishairways.com/content/executive-club/faqs/tier-point-collection-changes#examples
@ yes mine will be valid until Apr 26 as I have already qualified for retention at my level and my account will renew on 8 Jan therefore I’ll roll over till next year.
The trouble is ... Lufthansa are now terrible, frequently overbooking flights more than any other airline, customer service is bad, and I've only ever lost my luggage with them.
@@SomeBlokeWhoTravelsALot They used to be great, but the last few years since the pandemic they have been absolutely awful... not just for me, but for many of my fellow business travelling colleagues also.. I refuse to travel with them anymore and will travel a heck of a long way further to an airport to avoid them.
It has always been the same with all airlines. But BA promoted leisure travel for status for the last few years and then have suddenly removed it to most mortals. If you are spending 5K on a hotel for a week then its a good thing, but that very much rules me out.
😂😂😂 Never made it to the Concorde Room. To be honest I was always on my best behaviour in any of the First Lounges I was in....... I think I always suffered a bit of "imposter syndrome" I was always waiting for someone to tap me on the shoulder and escort me from the Champagne Bar 😂
More people will have bronze and Silver status than before. I know many regular business travelers who had lower status than me even though they were spending twice as much. They just didn’t know how to play the game. Now there’s no game just simple maths
@ Gold will now feel premium for those who can afford it. BA don’t have good Lounges in many European destinations so it’s really only Heathrow and Madrid at the Iberia Lounge where you really get the benefit. The rest are just payed lounges which are always full and not good quality. I have unlimited access via Amex Platinum and sometimes I don’t even bother to enter them
“TP chasers” are just going to have to get used to turning right. Framing it all as a “game” is exactly what BA are now having to adjust for. A business class lounge full of screaming kids isn’t what premium paying / actual executives want.
I do agree somewhat that Exclusivity should mean Exclusive. However BA did create this, with double tier point offers and 160 point flights. With the BA double point holidays they activaely promoted people to cahse status at the best price. So to make such a drastic change is what I think has upset most people.
ba will be closing 50% of lounges, this is why this has been carried out. I'll fly business on other airlines tbh, as BA aren't top tier on transatlantic flights at all
@ I think I suggested this in one of my videos as BA does have a habit of dressing up cost cutting as a “new initiative our customers have asked for 😂”
Do the math. Just book the best flights and hotel, with whichever airline it is, and then buy Priority Pass for GBP 171 which includes 10 visits. Even with the old BAEC, what was the point in paying a premium for Business Class cabins in European flights (eg connecting or positioning flights) just to get lounge access and points. It's simply a false economy...
It's a fair move really. All this riff raff in the lounge, what's the point in exclusivity if it's not exclusive? Maybe less oddballs in the lounge with go pros and cameras! It was absured being called 'GOLD' for 3 return flights lol
Although I am not happy and it does affect me a lot. I do kind of agree. The business class lounges at Heathrow had become packed. The first although usually busy was still a tranquill place. However the more I look at this, it does to seem to look like it will push more Gold Card holders down to Silver, making the business lounges even bigger and having an inverse affect that what they are perhaps hoping for.
I do agree, there should be no God given right to status. But we were all just following the BA rules to get status and now they havent just moved the goal posts they have replaced the Goal with a basketball hoop.
There are hundreds of people in this situation and I think BA just lost a lot of loyal customers as they seem to have missed the point that loyalty works both ways 🤷🏼♂️
So very true
Yes, totally agree. I normally travel on business, so cost is of primary importance. It will simply cost so much more to get any status upgrade with BA now that there’s really no point. I travel quite a lot in Europe as well, so it looks like Lufthansa and Star Alliance will be the best option for me from now on.
As a leisure Manchester based gold I have so many options, but none of them will involve BA in future. After all LHR is horrific and Gatwick a five and a half hour drive.
All smoke, no fire
I guess I will see you wandering around Frankfurt aiport ? 😂
Some of us are old enough to remember "air miles" - Avios replaced them and there was a notable reduction in benefits when that happened. As a Brit I'm saddened by BA's "race to the bottom". After Colin Marshall turned them around from an industry laughing stock to be truly "The World's favourite airline", how have successive CEOs allowed a full reversal of that reputation? Building on Lord King's Mission Statement from 1991/1992 (which I keep to hand as it was IMHO excellent), a mission "to be the best and most successful company in the airline industry".. "To provide overall superior service and good value for money in every market segment in which we compete".... what happened??
My home airport is also MAN. I dumped BA 15 years ago when a member of staff
was rude to me and my travel partner. I have never gone back.
I have since been Lufthansa Senator for 10 years and flown over 1 million miles.
Perfect for me - 1st class check-in, fast track, extra baggage, free seat pick across Star Alliance, lounge access and the staff address me by name.
No 1st lounge access though - unless I have a 1st class ticket (or HON circle)
Flown Suites from SIN a few times - very special - and I was able to find bargain fare.
LH are rolling out their new B/C 'Allegris' - flying to ORD to try it in May.
I must say I am looking forward to seeing what Star Alliance has to offer. I have flown Lufthansa only twice once in economy and once in business ( europe only ) and did find both to be an enjoyable experience. Looking forward to 2025 as there are plenty of Star Alliance offerings from Manchester.
Welcome to Star Alliance! I am based in Singapore and Singapore Airlines is a Star Alliance member. I have enjoyed Star Alliance Gold status for a while now.
Looking forward to your videos on how to chase status with Lufthansa.
What's the shuttle you refer to ? I take it that's a cheap light from Manchester to Heathrow .
I’m travelling quite frequently from cologne to Saudi Arabia for work on Eurowings, that’s a sweetspot. The return price in “Business Class” is 600€. As it is a low cost airline, the business class is not a real business class but it is a really cheap way to earn qualifying points and points at the same time. Flights also go to Dubai from several cities in GER
I think having a low cost airline in the mix does open up many more opportunities that with One World
I said to Matt, it’s not so much a case of coming to distrust BA, but of BA ‘earning’ my distrust. A very interesting post. Thanks. The only issue is going via FRA rather than direct from LHR/LGW. Guess it’s time to dig out my old United silver card…
Hi Iain. Thank you for watcching and commenting. I guess if you are local to Heathrow/Gatwick adding an additional "hub" airport like Frankfurt or Munich isnt really practical. But for myself using Manchester as my local airport. It doesnt appear that it will make to much difference switch from LHR to FRA
Yep, LHR/LGW are closer than MAN for us @@SomeBlokeWhoTravelsALot and so a segment to get to the hub rather than just drive straight there is an extra hop for us. That said, with these changes it could be worth it. That or switch to Aegean so still Star Alliance, and at least for getting to Greece, it would be the same direct flight from LHR although their flight times tend not to be so good. But these changes shake things up _a lot_ and it's interesting (disheartening?) to now to see the flood of similar posts as yours about the negative impact of these changes and how they make BA distinctly non-competitive. Promotion and a big bonus for the goon that cooked up these ideas then!
BA have saved me thousands by bringing this in. Looking back 80% of my flights have been in business class to get to Gold. I was already getting the perks of business so when I got gold the experience was not much better. It’s actually better now because when you book a holiday and stay in a nice hotel which we always do, the hotel spend count towards tier points. You only need two holiday per year to get Silver
But remember those tier points are now split between all those on the holiday
@ still get you silver in one trip
Indeed the Bermuda trip I searched for woul get Silver per person. But still at a cost of £7000 when the old system you could of obtained Silver for under £1500
@@SomeBlokeWhoTravelsALot that maybe true but I find myself traveling on random trips I didn’t need to take just to gain points. I even traveled to catania and returned same day. I was chasing Gold status. Took around 10 trips in a year to get it. The opportunity cost of taking time off work have to be factored in. It’s not as cheap as it may seem. We take a few family trips per year some long haul included. For me the new way works best because of getting tier points for expensive 5 star hotel stays which is what we always do. You also get points for car hire and BA credit card spend. I’ll just book business for myself and my wife on those trips. My teenage kids can go premium economy or economy. Adds up fast. I will get Silver organically but won’t be chasing gold or any other status from now on.
We are currently gold and will be into be into next year. We have 6 flights already booked for the year. We definitely weren’t chasing gold it just happened as we started using BA a couple of years ago and had many trips across the pond. Once this year has passed however we will be silver of we can be bothered at all
The LH FTL card is not comparable to BAEC Silver because it only affords lounge access on LH group and *A flights in LH group lounges. It affords no lounge access benefits within the star alliance in most of the world though. It also allows no guests. The FTL card is probably not too bad for someone based in the DACH countries where there is likely to be a LH group lounge at least at the origin airport. and in the hub airport when flying longhaul. I live near Berlin and FTL is ok as I can use it on Eurowings flights at the BER end. I can also get lounge access in BER and at say FRA, MUC or ZRH when flying long haul. Berlin is basically like Manchester, a provicial airport in reality. For anyone outside DACH I think only the Senator card makes sense because you would be very unlikely to be starting your journey at an airport with a LH group lounge but I would also look at Aegean! Their Gold card is easier than LH Senator, especially the requalification.
Thank you so much, great information 👍👍
@@SomeBlokeWhoTravelsALot You're most welcome. Best of luck finding a viable alternative to BA. I think they have made a catastrophic business decision and don't yet realise it. LH & AF will be rubbing their hands together with glee. BA is betting the farm on their corporate travel accounts.....which are reducing spend as firms realise it's rarely actually necessary and it will cost them increasing sums in CO penalties. The future of air travel is the higher end leisure traveller. These corporate accounts are also completely disployal. They can flip to another airline at the drop of a hat.
BA status was a bargain, rejigging a couple of work trips as “holidays” and voila! I’m Silver. No way I’ll make it under the new scheme and yes, I did enjoy the “hunting” of bargain tier points - when a project in Sofia went TU people seemed surprised I went out to sort it personally and even stayed an extra day ( to make it a 5 dayer) I wasn’t planning on renewing my BA status until April 26 and the non work trips I have in 25 are economy short haul and premium econ for long haul - chose BA for them purely due to having Silver. I’ll be making full use of that Silver status eating my own bodyweight in mini pies in the lounge (sorry but it’ll be April 26 before us riffraff fade away). Hopefully by then people with far more nous than me will have worked out the best new scheme to chase.
This is a very important distinction - As someone with mid level status in all 3 alliances (LH FTL, BA Silver and SAS Silver), BA Silver is way more useful in my flying pattern as I regularly use other Oneworld partners for long haul - especially Qatar, JAL and AA and BA for short haul. Oneworld has the middle sweet spot which is Sapphire, while both Star and SkyTeam essentially reserve the lucrative stuff to the top tier.
LH FTL is not bad at all if based in a LH Group hub, but Star Alliance Silver has no reciprocal alliance wide benefits (certainly dont consider priority standby or waitlist as a valuable perk myself).
Personally, I'm sticking with BA (FTL expiring 2026, SAS end of 2025) - did some rough math and with partner flights, I should requalify for Silver going into next year by a decent enough margin, without needing to go out of my way to book additional travel anywhere. I wouldn't have made Gold under either new or old system without going out of my way, and I prefer the Avios ecosystem (super easy to accumulate via avios.com, plus Amex MR) over M&M.
Appreciate comments on my understanding of the proposed changes comparing old with new:
1. To earn Silver status, I currently need to fly a minimum of 15 Business Class trips a year i.e. 15 x 40 = 600 points. Now, at approximately £200 per flight, to achieve 7500 tier points I will need to fly 38 flights at £200 a flight. This represents a 253% increase!?!
2. To earn Gold Status, I previously needed to fly 38 flights a year but now to achieve the 20,000 tier points required will need to fly 100 flights at £200 a flight, that’s almost two flights per week!! This is a 263 % increase!?!
3. Equally Lifetime Gold requirements bears no comparison between the BA Executive Club and the BA Club
Could be wrong, but…..
Hi Brian, in principle you are not wrong at all. However to me the biggest change is, there is now no benefit to finding the cheap sub £200 flight. I used to build up points on the MAN to LHR shuttle. If I booked economy I could pay £40 one way then £75 for the upgrade to business ( it was even better when the upgrade was £50 ! ) So £115 for 40 points. 2.67% of Gold Status. That same spend minus taxes would be lucky to earn 60 points on the new system which is 0.3% of Gold card status that is nearly 9 times less !!!
Do not forget that the BA points exclude the government and airport taxes, so to get 3500, 7500 and 20000 points you may have to spend up to £5000, £10000 and £25000.
This, I'm surprised no one has really picked up on this important detail. It's worse than is currently being reported
Very true on long haul business a smaller percentage, but on short haul business can be 35%
Interesting video and thanks for sharing your commentary. My guess with BA is they've run the numbers and decided that keeping the 'point hacker' types wasn't worth it and they'd rather make their lounges more exclusive, and target high spending business flyers and the richer leisure travellers.
Your shift to Lufthansa and star alliance makes sense to me from your POV. Only question I'd have is: are all the big airlines on an inevitable shift towards revenue based frequent flyer programs? Will Lufthansa also go that way in future? Or is there a reason for at least some of them to not go that way? Perhaps something to address in a future video.
Hi Stephen, thank you for your comment, most appreciated. I think BA unfortunately is all about "running the numbers" these days which I believe is a factor in their decline. Interestingly the Lufthansa Miles and More program switched from Revenue based to Miles and sectors at the start of 2024 , so fingers crossed there will not be any other changes soon.
This is really good. I may well do the same as I travel to Cape Town and Istanbul a lot so that would dove tail in nicely when it comes to ‘playing the game’
I think the art will be in the short distance ( cheap 🤪) intercontinental flights
@ thanks for the heads up. I’ll have to give it a proper look once I’m back. Lufthansa still fly the A340-300 to Cape Town and the 747 to Jo’burg. I’d really like to do both of those again.
@@SomeBlokeWhoTravelsALot a sweet spot for M&M members since M&M introduced the current system last year is to take a positioning flight to Athens and from there take a LH flight via MUC (& FRA) to say Amman (or when things settle down, Tel Aviv), that's an intercontinetal segment then. These flights are often priced competitively as it's Agean's back yard and they can offer low cost business flights to those destinations as they are very close by. LH has to offer fares that are quite low to be competitive. Another option is Eurowings EuroBiz from BER/DUS to the middle east. Cheap enough status points, though it's quite far in an economy seat.
@@littlejohn000 I’d forgotten about the A340, this is looking like a good year
Your gold card chase is one of my favourite videos to watch while flying 😊
That is very kind of you to say so ☺️ Is it the Snatch one you like ? I had a lot of fun filming that and editing it
That's the one 😅
I seem to be the only person looking at Malaysia Airlines scheme - the redemption side isn't great but they use a distance-based system that actually favours Economy flights. Used my BA tier point skills to find some cheap options to earn status on it. Just really hope I'm not missing something. Basically going to enjoy my Gold Status with BA until September and then do a long haul trip to the Far East in Economy and see if can earn at least equivalent of BA silver by year end (they use Calendar year).
I have always enjoyed flying Malaysia, their satay is the best in the skies. But on the tier point chase it is not really an option for me being based in Europe.However if I was based in SE Asia then it is certainly an airline I would consider if staying with One World. I would probably mix up with Cathay Pacific
@ I’m based in London but the Malaysia Airlines scheme doesn’t need any Malaysian Airlines flights (at least as far as I can tell, their IT makes BA look like the Jetsons!)
You're exactly right and making the better choice. The only disadvantage I found is that Lufthansa award tickets come with higher taxes and fees in comparison to some other carriers and airports but may be comparable to UK/BA anyway, not sure as an American.
Hi thank you for your comment. I feel it is the right decision for me. As I like to play the game and enjoy the status chase, which is over with BA. I havent taken a reward flight with Lufthansa yet but as soon as I do I will post a comparison video
LH surcharges are indeed on the high side, sometimes very high. For example a return award flight to north America in business still costs app. 1k € in surcharges. It's often possible to find straight cash fares for not much more than that, including a positioning flight. On non-north American routes it's much better, say around €500 to southern Africa or Asia. Of course, if one is a solo traveller there is still a decent chance of booking non-LH group tickets throgh M&M. Many of those airlines charge much less. Ethiopian, for example charges around €200-€300 for a business award flight to southern Africa. Outside TATL routes, UA is very cheap, a flat $5.60 surcharge on award flights. UA and LH have some shady agreement on TATL so UA charges similar horrendous surcharges on those routes as LH. Some LH sweet spots exist where the departing country forbids excessive surcharges, eg Brazil, Japan, South Korea. In those cases it can make sense to book one-way instead of return.
@@murphaph Thanks for the info. Yes, that's what I found with LH, in some cases the award cost almost as much as a straight fare with some other good carriers.
I stopped flying with BA 2 years ago and switched to Lufthansa & Swiss because I like their product more than BA. I would highly recommend you to try First Class on B747-800 from FRA, it’s such a wonderful experience, you also can use First Class terminal. I haven’t flown in business on B747 only first. But from what I could see Business is a bit outdated. Swiss first class is also good, I can’t wait to try their new First class. Great move to Lufthansa group you’ll enjoy it. Recommend avoiding connections via GVA it’s very old and small airport, ZRH is much better and they refurbished lounges there recently as well.
I’ve got lifetime Star Alliance gold status (United Airlines) but since moving back to the UK seven years ago I have been flying BA to chase status even at higher cost or inconvenience. Now I will still fly BA but less because there is no point in going after gold; I’ll just choose what’s right for me. And I’ll dump my BA Amex card too.
Hi, thank you for the comment, most appreciated. It will be interesting to see how this pans out. As one variable that it is impossible for BA to have the data on. Is how many flights we all chose at inconvenience and cost just to get status. I estimated about 20-30 flights over the last few years I would of been better off going none BA or One World, that with the new changes I wouldn't think twice.
It will be interesting to see how this affects BA's profitability.
Let's sit back and watch.
Not in one of their seats, obviously.
😂
They chase the North Atlantic market,only a fool will now spend with them.
Don't Miles & More years run concurrent with the calendar year for everyone? My status points all reset to zero this morning anyway.
Just checked and you are right. I first looked on 30th and was showing 40pts and a date in June ?? Anyway they are reset to 0 today. So full year ahead to get Senator and enough points to get in the bubble on the 747 😀
The promo buisness award on lh group are really good value
Sounds like a better deal. and you’re right for you it seems like it’s the thrill that’s more appealing than the result.
Don’t get me wrong. I have thoroughly enjoyed the results 🥂🍸✈️😀 but yes playing the game, finding the deals tweaking the system. That has been great fun and I’m looking forward to doing with Lufthansa
I one hundred per cent agree with you
It is a 100% on playing the "game" as that is over with BA. I love hunting out bargains to max out status points.
Hey! I just loved your ending!!! Exactly! I am Prague/Vienna based. Part time working in Gambia. 25 years on with BA, buying tickets during COvid to credit BA and support them and they just spit to our faces. I know, do not take business personally, but really? 9K for silver? So I am done with you dear BA, sadly. Banjul flight is Brusells . USA to Fort Myers is Lufthansa, why was i loyal to BA? Now I need Senator status as TAP, Brussels, Lufthansa. I do not need to go to London any longer and so DO YOU man. U right. Lufthansa and Senator status is waiting in 2026...
Can't stand when people think of flying as a 'game'. It is a means of transport and if you can do it in more comfort, great. Comparing BA spend with LH is not like for like as BA now gives TPs for hotels and extras too. So one very expensive club/first holiday or two normal priced club long haul holidays will get you lounge access for hundreds of economy flights. 2 return flights is not the end of the world.
It won’t, Holidays are split between all passengers. So do get Silver you would need to spend £14000 on the holiday. And I’m sorry but I, like many others loved the game 😀
@@SomeBlokeWhoTravelsALot No, you wouldn't. I travel a lot by myself. A holiday is usually £3000-£4000 with club flights and hotel for a week. Two of those gives me Silver. Don't need to share with anyone. I am a gold card holder but I am sure, there will be promotions to achieve gold easier but I think the revenue system is fairer than the distance.
True , but on the old system you could earn 480 points for £1500 quite easily . Getting you Gold for what you are now paying for Silver
"BA now gives TPs for hotels and extras too" How nice of them? I already get free nights with Hilton and Marriott and car rentals with Hertz and Avis, So why would anyone want give up on those benefits in lieu of shoring up their BAEC status? whichever way you look at it it`s a devaluation
I definitely agree with you about the game element. If I’m honest, chasing status was never particularly cost effective (compared to just paying for lounge access / fast track etc).
Star Alliance does look interesting… but Frankfurt has to be one of my least favourite airports!!
Hi thanks for the comment. i do agree about Frankfurt. I have been 3 or 4 times in the last few years and got lost everytime !! I am looking forward to the "game" i have found a lot more infor about Lufthansa and Star alliance status runs and will be posting soon.
I almost only fly for business and always in business class, but almost only within Europe. Aside from the 300% higher spend, I would have to make almost weekly return trips to spend enough to get to gold after the change. It appears that BA is only going after the long-haul business travellers, ignoring us who travel within Europe. Looking at the available options, KLM now looks like the best airline for the routes I fly most of the time. Lufthansa is another, although not quite as good, option.
I am BA Gold from Australia. I had to find my way to fly 4 segments on BA as it’s one criteria for Gold status. Not that easy when you live in Australia. No point of flying BA and one world, impossible to get Gold.
you don't need to spend 20 000 for lounge access, Silver gives that too. There isn't really a lot more you get with Gold.
With Gold it’s the hidden benefits. I got so many Free upgrades with a Gold Card. Once I got 2 with Qatar to business on a 4 sector trip . Also the First class lounge is a different experience, much more tranquil , better wines and food. I agree Silver had a lot of the benefits you want. But Gold was well worth the difference
Agreed, if I was going for status with oneworld then emerald is where it is at (BA Gold) . BA silver is hardly worth it as you get almost all the perks flying club anyway.
I just joined Lufthansa miles and more. I downloaded the app and they gave me 500 points for first time use.
Hi Scot, thats not a bad start. I am just currently planning my first trip for February, not sure yet but I think it will be a hop over to Frankfurt then maybe Jordan or Oman... watch this space. Where are you planning first ?
@@SomeBlokeWhoTravelsALot I did MAN to AMM in B/C as a TP run last year.
I did MAN>MUC>VIE>AMM - 280pts each way.
MAN>FRA>MUC>VIE>AMM is possible but requires and O/N stay.
@ Toronto in the Summer
WOW so much energy l cannot watch this it will tire me out...............
Flying on the 747 business class in the bubble is truly the best way to fly
Good decision by BA poor execution. Gold status should be for top tier travellers. Lounges, boarding procedure, seat allocation really poor compared to other one world airlines due to easier access to top tier status under existing set up.
Hopefully the shockingly poor reception prompts a re-think from the utter genius that thought pissing off a large portion of the customer base was a good idea.
Gold card for years and ggl for 3 years. Self funded business trips and leisure. I’d easily get to gold in the new scheme, however, out of principle I’ll now just pick based on product, price and schedule… BA have a poor product. Just buy a premium ticket and get lounge access. Emirates and Singapore booked for March and June. BA - fail!
You‘re lucky, LH have just moved T2 at MAN. Far better than T1. LH Senator status is good.
Great news on the T2, that will be a nice bonus 😀
What does even gold get you?
I did make a video on this th-cam.com/video/cLawT5oEZqg/w-d-xo.html and also Silver and Bronze status. In short, you get 100% more Avios on every flight you take. Access to First Class Lounge, First Class Check In and Group 1 boarding even if you are flying in economy with BA ( or any One World Partner ) You can choose seats for Free at time of booking ( an emergency exit on long haul can be £100+ so can be a great saving ) A ridiculous luggage allowance. First in the queue for Upgrades I once got 2 Free upgrades to Business on Qatar because of my BA Gold Card on a 4 sector trip.
Oh and someone always comes over and says hello and addresses you by name ....🤣
IIUC, that £20K doesn't include APD or taxes. The only winners are boomers with GfL.
Imagine being stranded on £16K coming up to renewal, and telling your spouse that you have to burn another £4K+ to renew - it will be £8K if she wants to come too.
The benefit of the old system for me was finding the final 500 TPs after my base travel, and trying to fit that in around work and home life. It was expensive, but fun.
I'll stop complaining. I feel sorry for people stuck close to GfL
I was a long way off GFL as had only been chasing a few years. With BA making such a drastic change. I wonder if they would dare to change GFL ?? 😱
@@SomeBlokeWhoTravelsALot Way back when, I was Qantas Club. You paid for this, but I could use BA lounges when I was in the UK.
There was a discount for three years' membership, and one year into it, BA pulled the rug out. No more LHR lounges. "Too bad, sucks to be you".
Good thing that you're not too invested, you can store your lifetime tier points with your chocolate fireguards and £3 notes :-)
It'll be a matter of time before other European airlines make similar change
- POV I only fly Club Europe or Club World for the extra space/comfort onboard and extra baggage. I seldom if ever use the lounges, they are usually full of people/families on cheap tickets cashing in on Loyalty Tier access. Makes it hardly a premium experience
= POV I'll still fly BA and continue to use my BA Amex Premium card for all my purchases, including my BA Holidays
Hi, thank you very much for your comment. It does sound like the changes wont have much impact on your travels. I agree the Business Galleries are usually very busy but I will miss the First Galleries at Heathrow
Just following up on your point about other European airlines changing. Lufthansa, Miles & More only made their change to sector based and cabin points in 2024. So fingers crossed they wont make any changes soon.
With double tier points on holidays extended until June
Does that mean a holiday costing 8k will give you 16k tier points ? Was planning on taking my wife to Phuket on a business class holiday
I’m not sure. Everything I’ve read is existing bookings made before 30/12/24 for after April 1st 2025 will be converted to the new system. But I can’t find the calculation
This is from the press release "Customers who already hold bookings for travel after 1 April 2025 will be awarded Tier Points based on a conversion of the existing method. Any existing bookings will earn proportionally the same number of Tier Points, or more, as they would today. "
@ I’ll wait until after April 1st to book.
I have just done a test for a week in May flying Business to Bermuda with hotel. Price is £7000 per person, so each person would get 7000 Tier Points i.e Silver. However where it normally says "Executive Club Members get Double Tier Points" on a 5 day plus holiday. It doesnt say this ???
@ doesn’t need to say it if that’s the rule I guess
I’ll stick with BA whilst I remain on Silver Tier for my short haul flights (when there is a deal on) but will actively start looking a Star Alliance airlines for my long haul (which I fly BC) in order build up points ready for April 26 when I revert to Bronze with BA (which gives me no real benefits 🤷🏼♂️).
Hi thank you for your comment. Remember this year everyones status changes on 1st of April ( the irony is not lost on me ) the specific details are explained by BA here www.britishairways.com/content/executive-club/faqs/tier-point-collection-changes#examples
@ yes mine will be valid until Apr 26 as I have already qualified for retention at my level and my account will renew on 8 Jan therefore I’ll roll over till next year.
The trouble is ... Lufthansa are now terrible, frequently overbooking flights more than any other airline, customer service is bad, and I've only ever lost my luggage with them.
Currently I have only flown Lufthansa twice and both were good trips, so fingers crossed I remain lucky
@@SomeBlokeWhoTravelsALot They used to be great, but the last few years since the pandemic they have been absolutely awful... not just for me, but for many of my fellow business travelling colleagues also.. I refuse to travel with them anymore and will travel a heck of a long way further to an airport to avoid them.
They get their money from first class and business, the golden 20%.
The rest are just there for ballast and paying the crew😂
It has always been the same with all airlines. But BA promoted leisure travel for status for the last few years and then have suddenly removed it to most mortals. If you are spending 5K on a hotel for a week then its a good thing, but that very much rules me out.
Oh you're not riff-raff. I don't see you occupying a three-seat sofa in the Concorde Room sleeping with your shoes and socks off 😉
😂😂😂 Never made it to the Concorde Room. To be honest I was always on my best behaviour in any of the First Lounges I was in....... I think I always suffered a bit of "imposter syndrome" I was always waiting for someone to tap me on the shoulder and escort me from the Champagne Bar 😂
More people will have bronze and Silver status than before.
I know many regular business travelers who had lower status than me even though they were spending twice as much. They just didn’t know how to play the game. Now there’s no game just simple maths
I think that could well be true. I feel this will push a lot of Gold Card holders down to Silver, making the business lounges even busier
@ Gold will now feel premium for those who can afford it. BA don’t have good Lounges in many European destinations so it’s really only Heathrow and Madrid at the Iberia Lounge where you really get the benefit. The rest are just payed lounges which are always full and not good quality. I have unlimited access via Amex Platinum and sometimes I don’t even bother to enter them
Lufthansa doesnt want us too, it's the same. Aegean, air canada and AF are the easiest 😎
Really Ive been looking at Lufthansa Miles and More and it looks pretty straightforward and reasonable
@SomeBlokeWhoTravelsALot it was easier, they changed it but ba is worst now 🤣
“TP chasers” are just going to have to get used to turning right. Framing it all as a “game” is exactly what BA are now having to adjust for. A business class lounge full of screaming kids isn’t what premium paying / actual executives want.
I do agree somewhat that Exclusivity should mean Exclusive. However BA did create this, with double tier point offers and 160 point flights. With the BA double point holidays they activaely promoted people to cahse status at the best price. So to make such a drastic change is what I think has upset most people.
ba will be closing 50% of lounges, this is why this has been carried out. I'll fly business on other airlines tbh, as BA aren't top tier on transatlantic flights at all
@ I think I suggested this in one of my videos as BA does have a habit of dressing up cost cutting as a “new initiative our customers have asked for 😂”
Do the math. Just book the best flights and hotel, with whichever airline it is, and then buy Priority Pass for GBP 171 which includes 10 visits. Even with the old BAEC, what was the point in paying a premium for Business Class cabins in European flights (eg connecting or positioning flights) just to get lounge access and points. It's simply a false economy...
It's a fair move really. All this riff raff in the lounge, what's the point in exclusivity if it's not exclusive? Maybe less oddballs in the lounge with go pros and cameras! It was absured being called 'GOLD' for 3 return flights lol
Although I am not happy and it does affect me a lot. I do kind of agree. The business class lounges at Heathrow had become packed. The first although usually busy was still a tranquill place. However the more I look at this, it does to seem to look like it will push more Gold Card holders down to Silver, making the business lounges even bigger and having an inverse affect that what they are perhaps hoping for.
What on earth made you want to be loyal? This is a company no different from any other, it's like being loyal to Amazon or somebody.
Nah, I’m sticking to BA. Too many of you have an inflated sense of entitlement No one has a God given right to airline status
I do agree, there should be no God given right to status. But we were all just following the BA rules to get status and now they havent just moved the goal posts they have replaced the Goal with a basketball hoop.
£20000 is a joke, not a fair price!
lol leaving BA to go to Lufthansa?
talk about jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire 😂