Originally Posted by
Land-of-Miles
I think you are reading the T&C's too literally. Everything I have seen thus far from my own referrals suggests they will get the same status validity as if they had earned it at the time of referral so the balance of their membership year plus 12 months.
This is how the old style gold and silver referral process and earned upgrade process worked. I would be surprised if the IT allowed BA to do this any other way since membership and status years are absolutely fixed.
I think you're right. The relevant T&C entries seem to have been updated at some point in the past few weeks - the possibly-contradictory entries have now been combined into one, which seems to leave things very clear and unambiguous:
On receipt of a satisfactory application form British Airways shall at its discretion issue to the Nominee a discretionary Silver/Gold Partner Card which will be valid for a minimum of 12 months from the date of issue. For Nominees who are existing Executive Club Members, the discretionary British Airways Silver/Gold card period shall begin from the date of acceptance by British Airways of the Nominee and last for the remainder of the Nominee's existing membership year, followed by a 12 month period. For Nominees who are not existing Executive Club Members at time of nomination Silver/Gold cards will be valid for a period of 12 months from the date of acceptance by British Airways of the Nominee.
There's no longer any mention of realigning anyone's membership year with that of the nominating member.