OAG Travel News

...but travellers will have to fly more than 300 times a year to achieve much-coveted Gold status

I often speak to members of BA’s Executive Club frequent flyer programme. Like members of all airline loyalty programmes, they are quick to point out its failings. Without a doubt, the most oft-voiced criticism is the difficulty in maintaining membership status, particularly Gold which offers benefits such as access to lounges, upgrades and free spa treatments at Heathrow and JFK.

Status is awarded on the basis of tier points, which are earned alongside the miles themselves. Different types of ticket earn different amounts of tier points - a business class flights from Heathrow to New York earns 120 tier points, for example.

Executive Club members start with Blue status and become Silver members when they have accrued 500 tier points. Gold status is endowed when the tier points total reaches 1,500. However, the tier point tally goes back to zero at the end of every membership year. The difficulty in staying a Gold member is evident. [As an aside, Delta recently announced it would allow members of its frequent flyer programme to roll over status points.]

The easiest way of keeping gold status is therefore about earning sufficient tier points on a regular basis. Rather easier said the done in this credit-crunched era. But disgruntled gold members worried about losing their status because their company is tightening travel budgets now have another way to keep their perks.

The airline has just announced a permanent change to its rules for earning tier points. Until recently, discount economy tickets did nothing for your status. Now, discounted Euro Traveller tickets will earn you five tier points while discounted World Traveller tickets will earn 15.

Ian Romanis, British Airways’ head of loyalty, said: “We’ve been listening to our members and rolling out a host of new benefits for the British Airways Executive Club. This is the latest initiative and our customers tell us they’re delighted we’ve made this change. It brings real value to members, allowing them to either move more easily up the tiers, or simply maintain their status, regardless of the type of ticket they’re on.”

Reaching 1,500 tier points on discount economy tickets alone is rather unlikely of course and BA’s lounges are unlikely to be overrun by cheapskates any time soon.

But if you just miss this threshold in any year, all is not lost. If you have been a Gold member regularly over the years, the airline may just renew your status anyway. Working for a company that has a big corporate deal with BA may also help you get and retain Gold status in the absence of enough tier points.

Failing that, you will just have to make friends with someone high up in the BA hierarchy who can slip you a card.

Source: www.timesonline.co.uk report by Mark Frary