jfk747

I still dont get my card yet.

kt74

Yes, I realise two different website/transactions. It's just that the miles transfer generated instant email confirmation, while the status match request was, like, *click*, disappear into the ether, who the h3ll knows what's happened

I don't see why they couldn't have done an email confirmation at least

It says 21 working days incidentally. I'm just nervous about booking BA flights until I'm matched, and I have a whole load of places to fly to in a month's time. Guess they don't want my money...

LDR

Has there been any first hand experience on someone matching to a new BAEC account with the membership year expiring >12 months from the match date? I've seen the question asked several times, but not seen anyone report back.

My BA gold status expires in 2013 and am planning to open a BAEC account around 10 Dec and completing the status match after that (but before 31 Dec). This should give me a membership year ending 8 Jan 2014 and Gold status through 8 Jan 2015.

In theory I believe this is correct, but I want to make sure it is actually happening this way...

Thanks!

vindaloo

I agree. It's rubbish, especially when you consider that A3 was matching BD*G within hours. Even if there was an initial surge in BAEC match requests it must surely have dropped off by now.

vindaloo

I assume you mean BD status?

The general consensus on here was that if you don't have an existing BAEC account you should register first and check your rollover date before applying for the match, just in case. I'm not sure whether new accounts get a year end date just over or just under a year from registration, so unless anyone else can give you a definitive answer I wouldn't wait until after 8 December to register in case that gives you a 8 January year end. I think your plan won't work, because if you have a year end date of 8 January then applying for the match in December will give you gold only to January 2014 (remainder of current year plus one more year). If you want to extend your gold status as far as possible into the future you want a year end date of 8 December.

Safest option (unless you're certain that a registration on 10 December will give you a December year end) is to register around 9 November. Then check your year end date and if it's 8 November apply for the match immediately, or if it's 8 December then wait until it's rolled over and apply after that.

janders

When I've tried to status match I've had the following error message:
"Unfortunately our systems are not responding, so we are unable to process your request at the moment.
We apologise for this inconvenience and suggest you try again later."

...

Raffles

I've been getting this for a couple of days, tried different PCs and browsers.

janders

I've sent an email to BAEC.

kt74

Right, I'm bored now. I know I only matched a week-and-a-half ago, but I have just won a project in Italy, and have flights to Scotland and Germany to book, all before the end of the year

Obviously BA now has a monopoly from LHR to Scotland, so no choice and high fares, but do I book Alitalia to Italy (matched Skyteam Gold still valid) and Lufthansa to Germany (as per Diamond Club days)? This will depend on whether I get my Gold Status Match

Do you hear me BA?! FULL FARE TICKETS TO EUROPE, LOTS OF REVENUE ON LOSSMAKING ROUTES - DO YOU WANT MY MONEY???

I'm so glad I got that off my chest. Have a nice weekend everyone!

lhr baby

If that's an option, it isn't all that high risk. I could transfer all my BAEC Avios to my Airmiles account and then close the BAEC account. If I then opened a new account with a date in November say, I could then do a status match in December and get two years of status. However, no one has answered my original question. Can someone please clarify for me whether I have understood the deadline for status matching correctly i.e. 31st December and not 27th October?

Nick, my logic is very simple. When BD was going to disappear I stopped using *A and shifted to FB for earning. I've got BD redemptions up to next May and a couple of FB bookings next summer. I'm willing to give earning with BA a go but won't start buying long-haul paid tickets until next Autumn and I won't do enough to earn BA gold in the last three months of 2013, especially as they don't even fly to some of the places I need to go. Therefore having status into 2014 would be of real value to me. My predicament isn't my fault really - if we'd known what was happening to BD sooner I might have planned differently. However if I'm going back to silver, I'd do better sticking with KLM or Aegian. It's beginning to look very much like BA have lost me for ever if this is the best they can come up with. Shame, as I've just got a 5000 bonus point offer but I'd rather have gold in 2014 thanks very much.

vindaloo

Up to you. I toyed with this idea but decided against it. It's against the Terms and Conditions to have two accounts. When I looked into it, closing an account didn't look like something that could be guaranteed to happen very quickly. Having said that, I might have risked it if (a) doing it would absolutely definitely have meant I'd get an extra year of status and (b) I didn't think it would cost me a bunch of Avios. Neither was the case for me so I didn't bother.

The deadline for applying for a match is 31 December. This is absolutely explicit on the web site and in the e-mails sent to members. Some staff, understandably confused because they've been told DC is basically defunct from 31 October, are trying to be helpful and are giving people friendly advice to match and transfer miles by that date, but they are wrong.

vindaloo

Hear, hear. Fair play for offering BD members such a good deal, but you're shooting yourselves in the foot by taking forever to action status match requests. I'm not applying for my match until 10 November, but I'm assuming I won't have BAEC status until the New Year. In the meantime I have little incentive to book BA, since the TPs are no use (Gold status will renew for the subsequent year even if I earn zero) and I'm *G until December 2015 thanks to A3's matching my status until that date within hours of request back in May. I've already got two *A bookings before Christmas and will probably make another one in the next few days. All these would be with BA if they'd played their hand better.

janders

... and they've just sent me the status match link in response.

janders

... which also does not work.

jbfield

How did you manage to get it all the way to 2015? I feel I've missed something!