IRISHFLYER1

Irish Based FF considering switching from Skyteam to BA

HI,

I am a Platinum medallion with Delta flying from Dublin. Make about 3 long haul multi-leg trips a year to the US with Delta and 3 long haul flights a year to Asia with Air France. All in low cost business class with AF and upgrade-able high economy fares with Delta. Also fly a lot around Europe with Ryanair and Aer Lingus.

With the possibility of Aer Lingus joining IAG and the serious reduction in benefits and earnings with Delta I am now considering switching from January 2016, Some questions:

(i) Roughly what Tier level would I attain with above flights?
(ii) Do BA do Status Matching?
(ii) Roughly what would I earn in Avois points?
(iV) Is this a good move for me?

With Delta reducing my mileage earning by 18% and also taking away my 4 upgrade certs. Having to pay for the certs in miles means I earn roughly what I spend in miles

Thanks for replies in advance
__________________

pbarnette

Well, you should get Gold with BA pretty easily. If I'm reading right, you'll also get at least some upgrade certs. In a heavy year, you might sniff a CR card and the partner cards.

I am not aware of any BA status match.

You should earn a fair number of miles under the new program.

Bear in mind that BA miles aren't terribly valuable. There is some value to be had for short-haul awards, but fuel surcharges can be substantial on any premium cabin awards (and availability on those partners without them can be hard to find). They will even sock you with some decent fees to upgrade.

All in all, it is an okay status, primarily because it is so easy for the premium cabin traveler to obtain. I wouldn't say it is great. The F lounge is nice enough, but not terribly special.

Service with BA is generally pretty good. They suck at IROPS, and the phone service is pretty bad, but it is generally good. J food is dire and the booze/wine selection is a notch below DL.

All in all, I wouldn't switch to BA for the miles, which I don't find great value, but it is worth a look given status is so easy to obtain.

NotHamSarnie

It depends where you fly in the US. This year the DUB-ATL direct seemed to fly for a shorter time (stopping before Thanksgiving, not starting until April) and going through JFK is a monumental PITA with a long layover and not a long enough flight going East to get a good sleep. Without that flight, I lose my "loyalty" (such as it is) to DL and factors other than convenience come into play. One of those is the GUCs (which I get and use this year). I may go to PM next year and be in your situation, which I agree is a huge loss.

As long as you still get immigration/security done on the Irish end when US-bound (which I think you do with Aer Lingus?) then without the direct flight and the GUCs, one airline is pretty much like another IMHO (and lie-flats notwithstanding). The advantage of BA is that you can pay to upgrade for a reasonable amount. I don't know whether that's true with AE - I take them only short-hop intra-Europe. In fact, I don't know anything about AE TATL and would be interested to hear your experience.

IRISHFLYER1

Does not really matter as I am normally jumping around the mid west. Agree about JFK-DUB being too short to sleep and was very disappointed that they made the Atlanta route seasonal. Which makes for example getting to Memphis very difficult in the winter

NotHamSarnie

I generally have several European stops so in the winter I typically fly to LHR to get the ATL-LHR sleep, but I like to fly out of DUB because of immigration and to avoid the exit luxury tax from LHR. Of course then there are 2 hops from JFK which, as you say, is very painful. But that brings up another issue with your plan: if you are planning to fly BA to Asia in J (even with UG), you will go out of LHR, which incurs the dreaded luxury tax.

MSPeconomist

Huh? If OP connects from DUB, with less than 24 hours in LON and a single ticket, there should be no luxury tax, which applies only to originating passengers or after an official stopover exceeding 24 hours.

Also, I disagree that it's good to do the USA immigration and customs pre clearance. I hate holding pens.

NotHamSarnie

Oh yes, you're right that's true. I'm rarely in that position.

US immigration in Dublin is heaven if you have GE. Avoiding the security catastrophe to get into the terminals in ATL and the fact that the GE machines rarely work well. The holding pen in DUB isn't great but I really don't care about using a SC in the beginning of the journey and am as happy sitting at the gate reading a book as I am anywhere else. There is now free wifi anywhere in DUB which also makes it better.

GRALISTAIR

Well I do not like holding pens either, but on tighter connections or wanting to do same day standby, not having to do the USA immigration and customs stateside is wonderful - so I disagree with you on that- Each to their own. I love preclearing in SNN/DUB.

IRISHFLYER1

They are opening a new lounge after US Security later this year, I believe

MSPeconomist

Would it make sense for the OP to consider the AA FF program and crediting flights there? IIRC AA doesn't charge big fees on its TATL award tickets on AA metal. OP would use oneworld status for BA (and presumably now Aer Lingus) flights, although of course it's possible that Aer Lingus doesn't become a oneworld member, at least not immediately.

pbarnette

But you still pay the fees on BA metal. It is also worth pointing out that AA metal awards are much more rare than BA awards. But it is worth noting.

Bear in mind that, for someone like the OP, traveling in J, you will get status much faster with BA.

pbarnette

BA now has surcharges to upgrade. And don't forget that the pricing dynamics are different ex-EU, with DL M fares tending to be cheaper and BA WT+ fares tending to be more expensive than the same ex-US.

NotHamSarnie

That's good news. It doesn't make much difference to me but it might make DUB a little less unappealing as a European gateway to (mostly USian) business travelers who seem more averse to the holding pen and in any case probably find value to having a quiet place to catch up on work before their flight home. Maybe that will get us DUB-ATL back in Mar/Nov. Such an optimist.

PDXNRTLHR

Just a friendly reminder that cross-posting in different fora is against FT rules.

IRISHFLYER1

Certainly worth thinking about. in the 1990's I reached Gold with AA :-)