Dont forget, so if you book a BA holiday for example which counts, the reward will be split between the passengers. So not given to the person who pays!!!
@@paulshepherd5649100% you can pick up the same flight within the in for £20 or £300 depending on when you book, the person spending £300 for a last minute flight shouldn’t be penalised by points because of this.
Qatar offer a status match with Accor's loyalty program ALL, and for 199 euro on the ALL Voyager card and few other fast track offers you can pretty much buy Qatar silver status for minimal spend
Thank you for this rational commentary. I will not be boycotting BA as i actually quite like flying with them. Collecting Avios remains my priority. If I get some airline status along the way, fine.
Quick correction: Finnair's loyalty scheme is already a revenue based system. However, it only applies to flights on Finnair itself. Partner airlines earn based on distance flown etc. Much like BA is now revenue based, but it applies only to flights on BA, AA, and IB.
Thanks! I thought it was a bit surprising they were still doing distance based even for partners like BA and Iberia despite sharing the loyalty program currency.
@@LoyaltyLlama The earn rate on Finnair is definitely better than on BA - 6 Avios/6TP per 1EUR, and the TP reqs for each tier are lower than BA. You can also swap Avios for TPs up to a certain limit, there are TP earning bonuses once hit status, and there are other milestones (i.e 3000 Avios when hitting 12000 TP). It looks like it works for me.
Now that Amex lounges are everywhere and they’re so much better than BA lounges, I no longer have any interest in being anything better than BA Bronze. Seat selection is the only thing left that’s important to me.
Do you mean Amex Centurion (which I agree are nice but I wish there were more of them!) or Priority Pass (which there are a lot of but not all of them are nice). In any case, that's roughly what I plan to do as well. Though for LHR and LGW PP lounges are already crowded so I wonder how much worse they'll get if / when folks who drop down to Bronze or Blue turn to those PP lounges.
Does silver status allow you to select seats on the emergency exit row? As a tall guy, this is important to me. Gold status has allowed me to select these seats, but due to the changes i will most likely become silver status
@@AndrewMuscat-t3k Yes, you will still be able to select seats at the time of booking with Silver as you can with Gold. I’m bronze most of the time, more often than being silver, and although I’m only able to select seats a week before flying with bronze, I ALWAYS am still able to select the emergency exit seats for myself and my partner, so being Silver certainly will not be an issue for you.
I don't care about this. I generally fly business and so get all the perks of status. This hurts those who fly loads in Economy and Premium. BA sucks anyway.
If you can afford to fly premium, this change won’t make a difference. The only ones getting upset are those trying to keep up with the Joneses. I’m glad they’ve adjusted the model-everyone and their godmother were crowding the lounges, which took away from the experience. It’s a premium product, and if you can’t afford luxury, it simply isn’t meant for you.
@@demlotcrew You are right. I see your point. This could be a revamp of the entire premium range. They announced a new 1st class as well, no? Their premium product is a mess. I hope this signals a new direction.
I wouldn’t bank too hard on Turkish Airlines’ program for the reason that their points saw a 50% devaluation last year. Really nice, world class airline, but The economics of that country is screwed and sometimes, it reflects on TK as well. The only logical explanation for the devaluation is that the executives realised that the value of Lira in their coffers was diminishing quick, and they had to find a way to service their current and future liabilities, so by devaluation, one would need to spend more earning miles&smiles before getting into biz class. If I wanted TK, I would redeem via Aeroplan instead. More stable and plenty of deals across the year for discounted points
Within the first minute you mention "silver is the sweet spot as you still get access to lounge" then go on to show a clip of the Gold Lounge at T5 after walking in from security. The exact lounge you don't get 😂
Good catch! In my mind such videos are just b-roll that only has to be loosely related to what I'm saying in the background. That's of course different when I'm actually reviewing something or showing figures / infographics. Also I realized I didn't have any footage of the Galleries lounges.
It used to be the Concorde lounge that had direct access after dedicated security. That was for first class paying ticket holders. To get to the standard first class lounge, that Gold card holders can use, you still had to go the long way round. Has that changed now? I have been BA out of Gatwick over recent years having retired
It doesn't seem people understand that revenue driven status isn't the problem, at least not for those that spend on business/first class flights for leisure already and not just trying to get status on the cheap through tier point runs. The issue with BA's new scheme is that the threshold is disproportionate to the point(s) earned per £ spend. From what I saw on Finnair's website recently they will move to a revenue based status system in March this year, however the big differences with BA are 1) the threshold is lower (45k for OW Sapphire, 80k for OW Emerald) 2) points earned per € spent is higher 3) points earned per € spent increases with status (min 6, max 10 per € spent) 4) their partner awards are more generous. I strongly agree with your point #4
Yep, BA basically went from "very easy to get status" to "overly difficult to get status". Agree the program being revenue based is not the problem here, the thresholds are. But they have to have been based on how much their passengers historically spend. So they either have a large enough number of high spenders or are trying to make the club a lot smaller.
I’ve never done a tier point run but Silver was just about achievable for me through my private spend and time. These were the rules that BA set, no loop holes or gaming. Nothing was on the cheap either thank you. Please don’t rely on a very small number of people to put everyone in that bracket. The lounges won’t be quieter they will eventually just be less in number, come on we know BA 😂
This change will only affect those who want something for nothing. Personally, I’ll keep flying BA regularly as it’s one of only two airlines that fly to my regular destination in Europe(the other being Ryanair). As I usually fly club Europe I’ll still get the lounge access and fast track security and with Bronze status I’ll get to book my seats a week in advance. That will do me.
What about the option of achieving status with Qatar Airways instead since it is still a One World alliance using the avios system as well and still operates on a distance based model to achieve status if I am not mistaken ?
Correct, QR are part of OW and are still using a distance based approach to status. So you could indeed earn Silver status with them but I'm not sure if it would work out cheaper than just doing it directly with BA. QR is less generous with tier points per flight than BA used to be under the old system, here's the calculator: www.qatarairways.com/en/Privilege-Club/qcalculator.html Plus you need at least 4 of your flights to actually be operated by QR.
I fly somewhat regularly for work and earn my status that way, but with these changes its likely that I wont renew to Gold in 2026. I have already hit over 1500TP in 2024, so should renew to Gold in April this year meaning that I would be fine for the year but would need to spend enough to get gold under the new scheme for 2026, which is unlikely. What I might do is fly Qatar more often because they seem to have the best partner TP earning potential, i.e. 50% of miles flown if in Business. LHR-DOH is 3260 miles one way, so a return flight would get 3260 TP, just on that trip, and not counting any onwards flight if I connected via Doha. This obviously means a much longer flight with a connection, but if I am not in a hurry then I could potentially get to Silver in just one trip. I am gonna have to see how it pans out this year, but its fair to say that I just like everyone else am very upset about these daft new changes.
@Joe-lb8qn what do you mean? 3260 TP would only get me to Bronze with the new system. I would need to get 7500 TP for silver, which need a significant spend. For me, this wouldn't be much of an issue because I earn my status through work travel, so getting to Silver should still be achievable, but getting to Gold is going to be very very hard. The 20k TP required for gold status would need roughly £25k to £30k, depending on the taxes and fees.
Its about time they changed it - the lounges are full and everyone and their uncle is a silver card holder. Lounges are full of commuting crew drinking champagne and can't get a seat. I'm glad it it moving to a cost based club. Will be more exclusive
I agree-I mentioned the same thing in another post. Honestly, I don't mind the change. I appreciate that they adjusted it because the lounges were becoming overcrowded and losing their sense of exclusivity. I'd prefer they keep them more exclusive. What does bother me about BA, though, is that their premium offerings, like First and Business Class, no longer feel truly premium. I recently flew Club to Miami, paid a hefty price, yet the aircraft was not only outdated, but the cabin also looked worn out, almost as if it were falling apart.
Changes do make sense in terms of addressing lounge overcrowding and such. I just hope BA doesn't later give up a bunch of lounge space (since there're less people using it now!) to further save money and we'd be back to overcrowding.
If you call nearly empty then, yes I guess that’s a form of exclusivity. The corollary will then be to close lounges and lounge capacity bcos, heavens above!, it’s what The Club’s few remaining members told BA “it’s what they wanted…”
It didn't take long for 'outraged' people to realise that these changes will not ruin their life! lol. Your strategy is what most people should be doing The Tier benefits are nice to haves but never worth missing out on better seat price deals to chase BA will monitor bookings, collect feedback and then introduce incentives as they see fit. With the new system it will be very easy to introduce incentives on both Avios and tier points that people will easily understand and react to, one way or the other.
Agree with you that these changes are definitely not the end of the world and, personally, I don't mind the new system that much. But also feel bad for people who were going for lifetime Gold or had already booked a bunch of 2025 trips counting on the double tier promotion and the old rules in general. It's not the changes, it's the way BA has executed them.
@ no honey I work for a charity that helps get people out of Qatar who have suffered human rights abuses - women , gay men , divorced people , people who dared to drink alcohol…that kind of thing.
Dont forget, so if you book a BA holiday for example which counts, the reward will be split between the passengers. So not given to the person who pays!!!
I am asolutely delighted about having a quieter lounge - leisure traveller
Changing your money spent is the best thing to do
Indeed. Move to a revenue based decision making system 😀
@@paulshepherd5649100% you can pick up the same flight within the in for £20 or £300 depending on when you book, the person spending £300 for a last minute flight shouldn’t be penalised by points because of this.
Qatar offer a status match with Accor's loyalty program ALL, and for 199 euro on the ALL Voyager card and few other fast track offers you can pretty much buy Qatar silver status for minimal spend
The idea two BA Holidays is too much for Silver is pretty laughable. No idea what people are complaining about.
Thank you for this rational commentary. I will not be boycotting BA as i actually quite like flying with them. Collecting Avios remains my priority. If I get some airline status along the way, fine.
Exactly my thinking as well!
Quick correction: Finnair's loyalty scheme is already a revenue based system. However, it only applies to flights on Finnair itself. Partner airlines earn based on distance flown etc. Much like BA is now revenue based, but it applies only to flights on BA, AA, and IB.
Thanks! I thought it was a bit surprising they were still doing distance based even for partners like BA and Iberia despite sharing the loyalty program currency.
It's a strange web of relations for all these airlines!
@@LoyaltyLlama The earn rate on Finnair is definitely better than on BA - 6 Avios/6TP per 1EUR, and the TP reqs for each tier are lower than BA. You can also swap Avios for TPs up to a certain limit, there are TP earning bonuses once hit status, and there are other milestones (i.e 3000 Avios when hitting 12000 TP). It looks like it works for me.
The quality of your videos has really improved over the past few months - awesome!
Thank you, great to hear!
Now that Amex lounges are everywhere and they’re so much better than BA lounges, I no longer have any interest in being anything better than BA Bronze. Seat selection is the only thing left that’s important to me.
Do you mean Amex Centurion (which I agree are nice but I wish there were more of them!) or Priority Pass (which there are a lot of but not all of them are nice). In any case, that's roughly what I plan to do as well. Though for LHR and LGW PP lounges are already crowded so I wonder how much worse they'll get if / when folks who drop down to Bronze or Blue turn to those PP lounges.
Does silver status allow you to select seats on the emergency exit row? As a tall guy, this is important to me. Gold status has allowed me to select these seats, but due to the changes i will most likely become silver status
@@AndrewMuscat-t3k Yes, you will still be able to select seats at the time of booking with Silver as you can with Gold. I’m bronze most of the time, more often than being silver, and although I’m only able to select seats a week before flying with bronze, I ALWAYS am still able to select the emergency exit seats for myself and my partner, so being Silver certainly will not be an issue for you.
One exception is emergency exit row on long haul flights - these you'll have to pay for with Silver. Short haul are fine though.
@ thank you. I did think there was a difference
I don't care about this. I generally fly business and so get all the perks of status. This hurts those who fly loads in Economy and Premium. BA sucks anyway.
If you can afford to fly premium, this change won’t make a difference. The only ones getting upset are those trying to keep up with the Joneses. I’m glad they’ve adjusted the model-everyone and their godmother were crowding the lounges, which took away from the experience. It’s a premium product, and if you can’t afford luxury, it simply isn’t meant for you.
It’s far from premium when compared with other airlines. This is a cost cutting measure and will be a net loss long term for BA.
@@demlotcrew You are right. I see your point. This could be a revamp of the entire premium range. They announced a new 1st class as well, no? Their premium product is a mess. I hope this signals a new direction.
Let them eat Pret cake. 😂
@@kevinoleary123 😂😂😂😂
I agree, Cathay is around 17-20K+ GBP for their Diamond. BA gold was way to easy compare to other One world airline.
I wouldn’t bank too hard on Turkish Airlines’ program for the reason that their points saw a 50% devaluation last year. Really nice, world class airline, but The economics of that country is screwed and sometimes, it reflects on TK as well. The only logical explanation for the devaluation is that the executives realised that the value of Lira in their coffers was diminishing quick, and they had to find a way to service their current and future liabilities, so by devaluation, one would need to spend more earning miles&smiles before getting into biz class. If I wanted TK, I would redeem via Aeroplan instead. More stable and plenty of deals across the year for discounted points
Within the first minute you mention "silver is the sweet spot as you still get access to lounge" then go on to show a clip of the Gold Lounge at T5 after walking in from security. The exact lounge you don't get 😂
Good catch! In my mind such videos are just b-roll that only has to be loosely related to what I'm saying in the background. That's of course different when I'm actually reviewing something or showing figures / infographics.
Also I realized I didn't have any footage of the Galleries lounges.
It used to be the Concorde lounge that had direct access after dedicated security. That was for first class paying ticket holders. To get to the standard first class lounge, that Gold card holders can use, you still had to go the long way round. Has that changed now?
I have been BA out of Gatwick over recent years having retired
If I want to achieve life-time status, which oneworld airline are the best choice, for distance base ?
Is it only qantas left ?
It doesn't seem people understand that revenue driven status isn't the problem, at least not for those that spend on business/first class flights for leisure already and not just trying to get status on the cheap through tier point runs. The issue with BA's new scheme is that the threshold is disproportionate to the point(s) earned per £ spend. From what I saw on Finnair's website recently they will move to a revenue based status system in March this year, however the big differences with BA are 1) the threshold is lower (45k for OW Sapphire, 80k for OW Emerald) 2) points earned per € spent is higher 3) points earned per € spent increases with status (min 6, max 10 per € spent) 4) their partner awards are more generous. I strongly agree with your point #4
Yep, BA basically went from "very easy to get status" to "overly difficult to get status".
Agree the program being revenue based is not the problem here, the thresholds are. But they have to have been based on how much their passengers historically spend. So they either have a large enough number of high spenders or are trying to make the club a lot smaller.
I’ve never done a tier point run but Silver was just about achievable for me through my private spend and time. These were the rules that BA set, no loop holes or gaming. Nothing was on the cheap either thank you. Please don’t rely on a very small number of people to put everyone in that bracket. The lounges won’t be quieter they will eventually just be less in number, come on we know BA 😂
This change will only affect those who want something for nothing. Personally, I’ll keep flying BA regularly as it’s one of only two airlines that fly to my regular destination in Europe(the other being Ryanair). As I usually fly club Europe I’ll still get the lounge access and fast track security and with Bronze status I’ll get to book my seats a week in advance. That will do me.
@loyaltyLlama was you in maldieves last November 🤔
20 to 30% is only a little bit higher?
Yep, 20% of £7,500 is significant. Inaccurate choice of words on my part.
What about the option of achieving status with Qatar Airways instead since it is still a One World alliance using the avios system as well and still operates on a distance based model to achieve status if I am not mistaken ?
Correct, QR are part of OW and are still using a distance based approach to status. So you could indeed earn Silver status with them but I'm not sure if it would work out cheaper than just doing it directly with BA. QR is less generous with tier points per flight than BA used to be under the old system, here's the calculator: www.qatarairways.com/en/Privilege-Club/qcalculator.html
Plus you need at least 4 of your flights to actually be operated by QR.
I fly somewhat regularly for work and earn my status that way, but with these changes its likely that I wont renew to Gold in 2026.
I have already hit over 1500TP in 2024, so should renew to Gold in April this year meaning that I would be fine for the year but would need to spend enough to get gold under the new scheme for 2026, which is unlikely.
What I might do is fly Qatar more often because they seem to have the best partner TP earning potential, i.e. 50% of miles flown if in Business. LHR-DOH is 3260 miles one way, so a return flight would get 3260 TP, just on that trip, and not counting any onwards flight if I connected via Doha.
This obviously means a much longer flight with a connection, but if I am not in a hurry then I could potentially get to Silver in just one trip.
I am gonna have to see how it pans out this year, but its fair to say that I just like everyone else am very upset about these daft new changes.
So with one flight you could get to silver, and are upset?
@Joe-lb8qn what do you mean?
3260 TP would only get me to Bronze with the new system. I would need to get 7500 TP for silver, which need a significant spend.
For me, this wouldn't be much of an issue because I earn my status through work travel, so getting to Silver should still be achievable, but getting to Gold is going to be very very hard. The 20k TP required for gold status would need roughly £25k to £30k, depending on the taxes and fees.
@ as said in the vid silver gets you most things of value.
@@Joe-lb8qn that's true. I guess that I am just being a crybaby about it, though I think that BA will make a few changes as the years progress.
@@Crazy_Charo I think they are trying to make gold much more exclusive than it's been in recent years. It shouldn't be easy to achieve in that case.
I agree with BA. At the moment the lounges and queues of full of people who got easy tier access. There are cheaper airlines like Virgin etc
BA is so rubbish now. Best to walk away and spend your money elsewhere
Its about time they changed it - the lounges are full and everyone and their uncle is a silver card holder. Lounges are full of commuting crew drinking champagne and can't get a seat. I'm glad it it moving to a cost based club. Will be more exclusive
I agree-I mentioned the same thing in another post. Honestly, I don't mind the change. I appreciate that they adjusted it because the lounges were becoming overcrowded and losing their sense of exclusivity. I'd prefer they keep them more exclusive. What does bother me about BA, though, is that their premium offerings, like First and Business Class, no longer feel truly premium. I recently flew Club to Miami, paid a hefty price, yet the aircraft was not only outdated, but the cabin also looked worn out, almost as if it were falling apart.
Changes do make sense in terms of addressing lounge overcrowding and such. I just hope BA doesn't later give up a bunch of lounge space (since there're less people using it now!) to further save money and we'd be back to overcrowding.
Most would argue that it was internally driven by BA’s double tier point scheme over the years.
If you call nearly empty then, yes I guess that’s a form of exclusivity. The corollary will then be to close lounges and lounge capacity bcos, heavens above!, it’s what The Club’s few remaining members told BA “it’s what they wanted…”
@anthonydunn5853 they say its not worth keeping open due to low turnout 😂😂. Then theyll be super exclusive by not having a lounge
You are wrong.
It didn't take long for 'outraged' people to realise that these changes will not ruin their life! lol. Your strategy is what most people should be doing The Tier benefits are nice to haves but never worth missing out on better seat price deals to chase
BA will monitor bookings, collect feedback and then introduce incentives as they see fit. With the new system it will be very easy to introduce incentives on both Avios and tier points that people will easily understand and react to, one way or the other.
Agree with you that these changes are definitely not the end of the world and, personally, I don't mind the new system that much. But also feel bad for people who were going for lifetime Gold or had already booked a bunch of 2025 trips counting on the double tier promotion and the old rules in general. It's not the changes, it's the way BA has executed them.
Qatar? No human rights. No thanks.
Really? 😂 have you been reading Daily Mail again?
@ no honey I work for a charity that helps get people out of Qatar who have suffered human rights abuses - women , gay men , divorced people , people who dared to drink alcohol…that kind of thing.
Talk slower!
Playback speed 0.85 might work better for you sir rather than leaving someone a rude comment on a video aimed at helping people.
@lloyd2g quite right. I could understand perfectly well.
Perfect talking speed.
Perhaps u shouldn’t talk at all! Helmet!!!
Nope. Speaks at a great rate to get the info out quickly. I hate slow talkers dragging out videos.