Danusa86

Hi All,

For some years I have been a FF on SkyTeam and StarAlliance (Gold on both) and have just recently achieved status level also on One World, through BAEC. I have recently qualified as Silver.

When I chose to join BAEC and switch some of my business to OW, the recent "enhancements" had not yet been announced otherwise I feel I may have chosen a different program.

I am now undecided whether I should stick to BAEC or not as my fear is that Sr. Cruz will continue to "enhance" the airline (and possibly its FF program) beyond repair.

In the next few months I have two trips booked on Qatar J (R Class) and a few Y class trips booked for short-haul European travel.

If I credited these flights to BAEC they would be enough to make me reach BAEC Gold, something I've been looking forward to as it would allow me to use 1st class lounges.

However I am worried that BAEC might soon becomes a less valuable program and I am considering the possibility of crediting these flights to a different program (maybe Qatar Privilege Club), as they would be enough to reach Qatar Gold while continuining to enjoy BA Silver benefits.

What is your opinion on this matter? What do you expect BAEC to become in the medium to long run? Keep in mind the more valuable perk to be is status during travel (fast track, lounges, priority boarding etc), rather than miles.

Should I stick to BAEC and reach Gold hoping that it doesn't get enhanced too much or should I aim for status on a different program?

Thank you !

moral_low_ground

Qatar in Y is possibly one of the worst airlines in the world. Robotic crew, tiny meals, awful airport lounge in DOH if you are a One World Emerald. QR really don't care unless you are flying J.

Worst thing about BA scheme is the fees so you need to work out what the benefits are on the ground and the routes you want to redeem on to see what works out the best. I am gold on EK and I can tell you they have high fees and high mileage redemption requirements. BA EC is nearly always better and has a much better cash and points redemption chart. Sadly, EK is much better in the air so you have to decide what you value most.

Mwenenzi

The airline you fly and the airline ffp you credit those flights to does not need to be same

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...help-here.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-t-expire.html

The grass in not always greener on the other side

corporate-wage-slave

I personally wouldn't make life too complicated. Which schemes gives you the best attainable benefits, benefits that you actually value? Essentially that's a very simple question and calculation, all the schemes out there are well advertised online, and everyone has a different take on what benefits they like. All FF schemes change at regular intervals and trying to predict the future is best left to Mystic Meg.

Aus_Mal

And of course, the airline you most frequently fly on should also factor into this equation. Most airlines do seem to care about their elites more than others in the same alliance, and some benefits are exclusive to that airline.

Schwann

What have you been smoking? I will admit the Y lounges at DOH for those with status aren't THE best but the QR Y experience is still leaps and bounds beyond most airlines in my opinion. YMMV though.

Armodeen

I'm having the same debate with myself. I'm moving to the GCC early next year and will be taking 4-5 flights home per year - discount J where I can find it (ex MCT looks like a winner!). Not sure if I should stick with BAEC for easy status or jump ship to QRPC or even Etihad guest! Will need to crunch the numbers.

Saltire74

Unless it's Y on a 787 (but that could be most airlines).

S

CHCflyer

Since I moved to NZ and the BA/QF deal (then) meant I had to move over to QF I have been quite happy with the Qantas Club. I can fly Emirates (on a QF code) and get the full benefits, as well as getting them when I fly Qatar. Miles can be a bit stingy on the oneWorld partners like QR and CX, but they have an interesting array of codeshare partners such as CI/MU/CZ/FJ which helps when I fly to China or Taiwan (or when they have fares too good to be true in biz, which all four do) as well as Alaska, Jet and WestJet.
I can only look on at BA with some sadness - I used to fly them about 50 times a year when back in the UK on the Manchester suttle. My QF economy flights on domestic routes in Aus come with free hot meals, free seat choice, proper IFE with upgraded headsets for platinum, excellent lounges for top tiers and bonus point earnings when I hit thresholds.
Just to assure you I am not in the pay of QF I am also top tier on Air NZ.

JohnnyColombia

What enhancements do you envisage Danusa86?

BAEC works out just fine for me and I am unlikely to step foot on one of their planes this TP year.

Easy to get gold, good value off peak J redemptions without YQ to/from South America on IB, cheap as chips domestic flights in Japan with £1.90 taxes. RFS has saved me a fortune for last minute trips to Switzerland from London. Customer service is decent should I need to chase missing miles, and now when I do fly BA and they lose my bags (which is almost always) having status seems to make my refund come quicker. I am sure BAEC was not designed around the needs of someone like me but I like it.

As for QR, I have only flown their Y product once, from GRU to EZE and it was an exceptional Y service. The Emerald lounge at DOH is passable

jdtravels

I'm finding QRPC relatively easy to achieve and keep status compared to BAEC - particularly if you may not necessarily be flying BA for four flights every year (i.e. not living in the UK, and prefer to visit places other than the UK). For a flyer like yourself ("4-5 flights home per year"), you'll probably more than qualify for at least QRPC gold just with those flights, without having to go out of your way to fly on BA. Then again, with the new codesharing, maybe just get the BA numbers on the QR DOH-LHR flights . That said, a lot of QR promotions have a clause that restricts Qatar- or GCC-based members from participating in.



Remember that QRPC gold is equivalent to BAEC silver in terms of OW status (i.e. sapphire). As your flights are in the next few months, you're more or less guaranteed to be able to get to BAEC gold/OWE (I doubt the programme will change so drastically in this short a time), so if it's status you're going for, then I'd say stick with BAEC for now.

Also, once you achieve BAEC gold, you get the status for the remainder of your membership year, plus the next year, before being downgraded to silver. Provided this doesn't change (yet), then that is up to three years of meaningful elite status, allowing you time to build up status elsewhere in the meantime should the programme change.

With QRPC, your year resets as soon as you reach the next tier, and you get 12 months there if you don't requalify before going one tier down.

While you did mention you care more about status than miles, unless you plan to basically throw those earned miles away, I really could not recommend the QR programme. I made (in my opinion) the mistake of crediting and getting status through QR, but am having trouble using them before they expire, having dropped from platinum back to gold status this year. QR seems to have horrible partner availability and booking reward flights on partners is a relatively complicated process compared to most other OW programmes.

BABroadie

I recently visited the Qantas lounges at Singapore and Sydney and they are just a different league. Absolutely brilliant

Danusa86

Thank you all. I think I might stick to BAEC for now then and see if further "enhancements" will be put forward. I don't expect any in particular but it seems to be that under Sr. Cruz BA has so far been involved in a race to the bottom, and the bottom may not be even in sight. I pity what used to be one of the world's best airlines for being more concerned of matching Norwegian or Easyjet rather than its OW partners.

As for me, so far I've been able to achieve status on all 3 major alliances somehow but I fear this might soon change as FF programs get stingier by the day.

I am based in Italy and usually fly SkyTeam on short-haul European flights (as it is easy to rack up the 30 segments for gold), and fly either Star or OW on long haul flights (I usually do OW to Asia and within Asia, and Star to North/South America).

Time will tell ...

FlyingScientist

About 5 years ago, they were quite good in Y. Good meals and spacious seats on the 777.

CKBA

I'm dithering (as usual) at the moment. Currently Gold and could do a daytrip TP run (about $1000) over the next few days/weeks to tip it over to Gold for next year, otherwise it's Silver.

But is it worth it?
First vs Business Lounge access - only difference really being at LHR.
Arrivals lounge - no use when travelling with Mrs CKBA anyway... .
Extra Avios - since I have a few 100k's, not critical.
'Special' Gold welcome - nice when it happens, but probably <10% flights.
Extra reward seats - usually book far enough in advance anyway... .
Seat booking - essentially same for Silver or Gold (in Y anyway).

All in all, I could, but probably won't now... . Since I'll probably still have sufficient TPs each year for Silver I can expand my horizons to other carriers that better suit my needs... .