Most frequent flier programmes are open to anyone to sign up for. BA’s is not. To join, you must have a flight booked that will earn you Tier Points. This means that if you are on a cheapo economy ticket, you will not be able to join.
The eligible booking classes are:
Euro Traveller/World Traveller/UK Domestic:
Y B H
World Traveller Plus:
W T
Club Europe/Club World:
J C D I
First:
F A
If you are not booked in any of these classes, you will not be able to join. The website ‘sign up’ form now quite rigorously checks eligibility too. However…there are often other ways to join, most often via partners. If you are based in the UK, the other way to join the EC is to take out a BA AmEx card. In the USA, you can join by taking out a BA Visa card. At the time of writing, this link (thanks to
TEX277) also works:
http://www.ba.com/starwoodec
Should that link fail to work, another option is to book yourself a flexible BA flight and then cancel it as soon as you have signed yourself up (though you may incur some cancellation and booking fees if you do this). On Travelocity, it is even easier – you can put a business class flight on hold for 24 hours without making payment. The booking is lodged in the BA computer anyway, which gives you 24 hours to join before your booking is automatically cancelled.
If you are based in Australasia, you will not be able to join the Executive Club. BA recommends you join the Qantas programme instead.
If you are based in Asia, you will also not be able to join the Executive Club. BA recommends that you join the Cathay Pacific Asia Miles / Marco Polo Club instead.
For more information on this, see the membership countries section, later on.
You also need to be 18 or over to join the EC. The only exception to this is the household account, which has its separate section, later on.
Comping from other FF programmes
BA very rarely comp status from other FF programmes. The exception to this is if you’re an employee of a large corporate that has a deal with BA. Your best bet is to speak to your account manager to see what he/she can arrange. Comps can also come through contact with your local country office – obviously this would be easier in somewhere like Romania rather than the US.
BA's official position on matching status (‘comping’) is:
Originally Posted by BA Executive Club
It is very rare for BA to match the tier status you hold with another airline. There are a few examples that I’m aware of in the US where this has been done for individuals from specific corporate clients, however as a general policy we don’t match tier status.
Kind Rgds
Lyndsay Meldrum
Executive Club Customer Service
British Airways