Thought I would share my recent experience of trying to "correct" an alleged bug in BA's systems where nomination for a partner card between end of Tier Point Collection Year and Membership Year End results in 12 months of Silver (or Gold) rather than 2 years.
Reputedly (in this forum), a simple call to the GGL would sort this out ... in reality nothing could be further from the truth
Last year, I nominated a member of my HHA for a Silver card. I did this on the first day of their new membership year (09/09) while they still had a Bronze card with expiry of 31/10. This was because they were due to fly during October and I wanted them to have lounge access etc. It all worked fine, card arrived in time and as expected had an expiry date of 31/10/18. Hence, taking note of the experiences related on here, I made a note for a year later (today) to call the GGL line and get the expiry extended a further 12 months.
Unfortunately, despite what might have happened in the past,
this does not work (or perhaps
no longer works).
A long telephone call followed my an exchange of emails referencing the GGL Ts&Cs (
https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb...-list-benefits) resulted in a final position from BA as follows:
"
... I do agree that in the Terms and Conditions that section 8.3 state that '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 until the Nominee’s Membership Year End date and for the 12 month period thereafter.' However, in the terms and conditions Definitions section, the term 'Membership Year End' actually refers to and means the expiry date on the membership card.
As you nominated XXX after the 'Tier Point Collection Year' ended but not before the defined 'Membership Year End' XXX actually had the card for the agreed length of time. From 09th September 17 until 30th September 2017 (from nomination to year end) and then the subsequent membership year, bringing the expiry of the card to September 2018. The only way that XXX would have gotten the status until 2019 would be if you nominated him after 30th September.
I understand that there are online forums where this is thought to be a bug in the BA system but I can assure you this is not the case and the system will always nominate the member for the correct period of time."
And when you go back and read through the entire Ts&Cs the above statement is indeed true
So people should beware of relying upon anecdote, however well meant, as the published Ts&Cs are the canonical source !
Not a massive deal in this particular case as the person in question currently has zero Oneworld bookings
but though people would like to know.
Takeaway: Nominate the day after their current membership card expires to get the longest time at Silver (or Gold)
Moral of the story: RTFM
