Well I would say that membership of the BAEC has been very good to me (and SWMBO and the children of course). But and this is a BIG but… it became much better after I discovered FT. Like many, I lurked for quite a while and then joined up. Wow, it was like discovering a buried treasure!

Before discovering FT… I was redeeming AirMiles on SH trips for school holidays.

After discovering FT we went from famine to feast. Work trips were carefully assessed to ensure full compliance with corporate policy whilst maximising TPs (in the years before I was senior enough to get J as standard). Some time spent in the Middle East allowed me to get to Gold for the first time doing the old BAH-DOH run in F (also my first albeit very short taste of BA F).

Onwards and upwards to long haul family trips in J and F and even an anniversary trip on Concorde before it went off to various museums.

Now that I am retired it is all on my own dime, but membership of BAEC for over 20 years along with the wealth of information on FT means that I am able to continue to draw on accumulated Avios, 241’s and booking well in advance to keep myself (and the all important SWMBO of course) at the pointy end of the plane for our holidays.

So the best thing about BAEC for me probably pans out as 2/3rds BAEC itself and 1/3 FT. Really is a combination where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.