bmi : The formal decision tree on when to do your BA status match!
 

OK, here we go. To save all the questions! Feel free to let me know if I've made any mistakes. Obviously we do not know when BA will stop allowing matches, which is the last unknown factor.

The status match online form is here.

Please note that the way BA is treating matches where your BA tier changes, giving up to 23 months of status, is different to what was stated would happen on ba.com. BA has confirmed, see link below, that this is meant to happen and will not be rescinded later.

Note that this post assumes that DC will continue for the forseable future. In reality, the last BMI flight is likely to take place in October with the end of the Summer timetable and DC may be finally closed at that point. This may mean that, in any event, status matches will have to be done by October. But we have no proof of this.

1. Are you currently BA Silver and BMI Silver, or BA Gold and BMI Gold?

If no, go to 2.

Your key dates are a) the day your BMI membership drops a tier - this is NOT the expiry date of your BMI card, it is 1-2 months earlier (if you will already renew your BMI status at the current level, the key date is your NEXT BMI year-end) and b) your existing BAEC year end. a) is your last date for doing the match. You then need to look at your BAEC year end AND your current flight plans.

Possible scenarios:

i) You are BMI Gold(or Silver) and BA Gold (or Silver), and your BMI year expires first, and you will NOT retain your existing BA status.
Do a match as late as possible before your BMI status drops (the only exception to this is to do it a bit earlier if you have some BA flights coming up that you want to count towards renewal next year). This gives you an extra period of BA status, from a few months to nearly a year depending on how your BA and BMI years match up. Your tier points will drop to 0 and your membership year will reset.

ii) You are BMI Gold (or Silver) and BA Gold (or Silver) and your BMI year expires first, and you WILL retain your existing BA status
There is no point doing a match. Let your BA status renew automatically. The ONLY possible exception would be if you had some BA flights coming up that you would like to count towards renewal next year, in which case the reset of your BA year may be helpful.

iii) You are BMI Gold (or Silver) and BA Gold (or Silver) and your BA year expires first and you will NOT retain your existing BA status
WAIT until you drop down a BA tier, and then match ASAP. Your BA status will go back up to where it was, and you will get status for all of the current BA year and all the next one, so c 23 months, as outlined in 2) below.

iv) You are BMI Gold (or Silver) and BA Gold (or Silver) and your BA year expires first and you WILL retain your BA status
Once your BA year has renewed, keep an eye on your BMI year end. At some point before the BMI year end, think about whether it is worth doing a BMI match. It will extend your BA year by a few months, but at the loss of your BA tier points to date. The trade off may or may not be worth it. The loss of the TP's you have already accumulated towards renewal may make the match pointless or even negative, if you can no longer get the TP's for the next renewal in time.

You will have noticed the interesting corollary between the last two scenarios. A BA Gold may be better off by ensuring they do NOT renew their BA Gold before matching, since a BA Silver does better from a match to BMI Gold than a BA Gold.

As a general comment for all of the above, a match is best done on the 9th of the month or later, since all membership years run to the 8th and doing it on the 9th gives you an extra 28 days compared to doing it on the 7th.

Clarification on dates

The offical position is :

Once your tier match is accepted, your EC tier will be adjusted to match your current Diamond Club tier. Your new tier status will last the duration of your current EC membership year plus 12 months beyond that.

2. Are you NOT matching BMI Silver to BA Silver or BMI Gold to BA Gold, and thus going up a tier in BAEC or joining BAEC from scratch?

Do you have a BA account already? If no, go to ii), if yes:

i) I already have a BA account

In this case, your issue is simply when to match. You will NOT see a reset of your BA membership year and you will NOT lose any tier points.

The key dates are a) your BA year-end and b) your BMI year-end (which is 1-2 months before the date on your card). If you will already renew your BMI status at the current level, the key date is your NEXT BMI year-end.

If b) is earlier than a), match now. You have nothing to lose, since you must match before your BMI status drops and BA gives you status for all of your current year and all of next year anyway.

If a) is earlier than b), then your best bet is to WAIT until the start of your new BA year. This is because BA gives status for all of your current year and all of the next one. If your BA year expires 9 July, a match in June would only get you 13 months of status. A match in August would get you 23 months of status.

ii) I do not already have a BA account

This is the easier bit to understand.

Look at your BMI year end (not the date on your card, it will be 1-2 months earlier). This is your last date to match. Then decide if you need BA status before that for any upcoming flights - if you do, you may want to match earlier.

Open an Executive Club account online a couple of weeks before you intend to match and then match. You get status for all of the current year and all of the next one, so 23 months of Gold or Silver. A Gold will then an additional year of Silver as a soft landing. The reason for not opening a BAEC and matching on the same day is that you may find you just get status for 12 months.

Brilliant! What a great resource for those of us who have been finding the issue quite perplexing.

Tx Raffles!!!

My BMI year ends on 17 May and I have already requalified for gold at this point. My BAEC Blue membership year ends on 13 April 2013.

To follow your plan, would require the assumption that if I hold off matching until say early May 2013, that BA would still be offering status match at that point.

Do we know how long the match offer will remain in place?

I think expecting the status match to be available in April 2013 is possibly a bit optimistic. If you matched in a few days (after May 9) you'd get membership for the rest of your BAEC year and all of the following year keeping you gold until April 2014 and then giving you a year of silver which means you'll have access on all Oneworld flights until April 2015.
It will be possible to status match using the miles transfer tool therefore we know the offer will be around until at least a few weeks after July 3. There's no risk to you holding off until around May 10.

In your case, that is a big long shot. If you match today you have Gold to April 2014 anyway and then Silver to April 2015, so 3 years of lounge access. I would just go for it now because I can't see BA matching for the next 12 months.

The thing with the 8th does not apply, because he is going up a tier and thus their is no year reset. That only happens when matching G to G or S to S.

Thanks both. That's clear advice.

See how you go with this.....
 

BD*G Liftetime, Current Expires Dec 12
BA Silver - Earned Oct last year, membership year is Sept.

Currently my BA Silver Status runs through to Sept 13, as I earned early this year.

When do I match my BD*G? I'm assuming it's at the last possible minute, will we get fair warning?

NB - Silver is "good enough" for me on BA, so I'd be looking for the longest period of Gold, then soft land to Silver then maybe a quick AA MR to restore Silver for a couple of years.

(OT: the best value BA MR seems to be just after your status drops Silver to Bronze. Regain Silver then you have the current year + the next year to use the status)

If Silver is good enough for this Summer, then I would match after 9 Sep 2013 to get 2 years Gold and 1 Silver afterwards. The match should run until then, as BMI will exist until the new timetable starts in October.

I may not be interpreting this correctly. My understanding is existing Exec Club members will have their current Tier Point balance and membership year reset when the tier match is applied. The matched tier will then be valid for 12 months.

Fantastic thread BTW

Based on the example above - a match in June gets you 13, August gets you 23 - what does a match in July get you? (for the sake of clarity, let's call it july 10th)

TIA :)

What a great thread ^

I want to clarify something. My DC year ends 20th July, 2012 and I have DC*G till then. My BA year ends 8th September, 2012 and though I am GGL, my business flights have been more on OW airlines than BA so far, and I haven't got the time to do the 4 qualifying flights at this time. I've got travel planned after September which will make me GGL again very quickly, and for this reason and also going forwards, I want to change my BA membership year to make it even easier to requalify for GGL.

Rather than spend the money on the 4 qualifying flights :D I can just do the status match, keep the Gold level in BA and then get up to GGL again after a few months.

So, if I match on July 20th, I assume that my BA year would reset to 8th August, 2013 as I am matching Gold to Gold, or would it be through to 8th September, 2013 as I'd get the remainder of the current membership year (till 8th September, 2012 as Gold, and then a full new year till 8th September, 2013)?

My understanding was that for matching from DC*G when you've already got BA Gold, is that the membership year would simply reset and you'd get a fresh year from that point?

That's the understanding we got from the FAQ but that doesn't seem to be what's happening in practice. People matching now are getting the same treatment as those who get an upgrade during their membership year by earning the requisite number of tier points.

can aNyone give the definitive answer to this - I thought it was the case that if you were BA gold and DC gold and did the status match you would get a full year from that point as BA gold - very handy if you have a relatively fallow few months with BA flights. If you lose your BA tier points but with no change in the BA year end I don't see why anyone would want to do this.

Is there no definate statement on this from BA?