Originally Posted by
ndwint
remember that in the 2nd year at Silver - no access to 1st class lounges etc. and the double Avios.
The thing about "1st Class lounges" is that it sounds great on paper, then you eventually realise that about 75% of the time you end up in the same lounge as "Business Class". A notable exception is of course LHR T5, but sadly my main routes are T3 where I'm just as happy in the CX J lounge as BA/CX F. And of course no lounge in Spain or AFAIK the rest of Europe is "1st class / Emerald only". YMMV...
Double Avios vs. 50% bonus is less relevant than it might seem when you're just doing a bunch of European flights. 250 Avios per Y flight roughly...