docjones

Hello all,
So I've been a happy member of BAEC for quite a number of years. However due to confluence of events, I've had to reconsider my membership for next membership year. These events have led us to book nice vacation in NZ in Qatar C and as many years previously I expected this to give us BAEC Silver for the coming year. However due to other factors, our outbound segments actually fall on the last date of my membership year. Unfortunately this means that half of the points from our trip would effectively be wasted and we would not be able to retain BAEC Silver. I called BAEC and it appears that rules are rules, and there is no flexibility in that. Ergo we're looking to change FFP.

The whole things seems to boil down to Iberia Plus vs. BAEC. We discarded Finnair Plus(we're finns) since our NZ trip would only get us half way to Finnair Plus Gold/OWS.
Our primary goal is to retain OWS and any of the other benefits are pretty much secondary. Reading through the Iberia Plus program rules, my initial thoughts are that it looks much better than I was expecting.
My quick summary
Pro IBP:
- Until April 1st to qualify (this is naturally specific to our situation)
- No native flight requirement on IBP (4 segments on BAEC) when qualifying with Elite Points.
- Very similar Elite Point earning structure with BAEC. Familiarity is good.
- No exorbitant fees when redeeming miles, compared to BAEC.
- Lower cost for award flights.
Con IBP:
- No oneway awards(?), although I would imagine this is easy fix due to realtime Avios transfers to BAEC.
- IB "service".
- ...?

So what am I missing here? Are "routes" not the same as segments, when calculating EPs? Why is BAEC so popular among non-native flyers when most of the benefits are the same, but IBP seems much easier to qualify for?

-
DJ