Back in 2017, I resolved to obtain GGL rather than merely staying Gold. The story was told here New Year's Resolution: GGL in 2018 - FlyerTalk Forums and at the time people seemed to enjoy it. In fact a few GGLs minted themselves as a result I think.

All good things come to an end, and in particular the BAEC changes (I refuse to refer to it as "the Club", except insofar it's being used to inflict punishment beatings on previously loyal members) make it impossible to maintain GGL for the common grifter. There's a perfectly good thread discussing the whys and wherefores and people working through the five stages of grief in various ways, but I've reached acceptance. And I thought that a bookend thread to the earning of GGL would be interesting, maybe bring a few ideas to people, and allow us all to work through the pain of losing Group 0 boarding.

For the avoidance of doubt, this is not the place to argue for or against the changes, use the other thread. I don't want to get merged.

Anyway, it's January 1st. There are three old style earning months left. I am 2525 TP short of GfL which I'd rather like to reach, with 2500 points booked on a Round the World in First Class coming up in a couple of weeks, 15 elsewhere, about 600K avios, 2 guf 1s and an Amex partner voucher incoming shortly.

Just also to set the scene a bit, as many will know, I lost my wife in October. This is not to elicit condolences, but on a practical basis it means I'm a little constrained on childcare for travel solo. In a sense because it was going to be quite difficult to get to 3000TP this year (essentially Master BR would have had to do it with me, or most of it), the loss of GGL was always a probability. So the change is likely just to be accelerating the inevitable.

As I banged endlessly on about the likelihood of the move to revenue based (I wasn't expecting it with 3 months notice, I was expecting it the next April TP year, but you can't get everything right), I'd already diversified my scheme membership in three ways. *A Gold via TK and a trip from DUB to BOS via IST which has earned me a couple of years in one hit; Skyteam via SAS where a 5 leg trip in December got me status for 18 months or so; and my trusty Lloyd's World Elite Mastercard which gives infinite single PP passes including restaurant, and fast track in a lot of airports. This card enables a decent experience for LCC or non-alliance carriers, and is the best grifty bargain available if you fly a lot off alliance, at £15 a month for the card and a partner card.

I had a few things cooking in terms of BA bookings. I have to take my wife's ashes to Malaysia in May for her interment, and I'd booked two options for that. One was a LHR to KUL redemption, and the second a paid F BA holiday for two to Kuching, which is my ultimate destination. The latter was to generate 1200 TPs for requalification, and the intention was to either dump or move the redemption. However that has now reversed. I've paid a £700 deposit on the holiday only so will abandon that, saving myself about £7.3 grand. That's a bit of a result actually. Not cancelling until the time for the payment arrives though in case there's a flight change and I can dump for a full refund.

The other thing is a trip to Peru and Mexico at Easter which is our bereavement consolation trip. That is with BA for ticketing and being superstitious I'll keep the details quiet until it's booked, but it's a good fare, guffed, and we'll be flying it as is, despite insertion of a leg to JFK for TP optimisation which could probably be easily lost now. But hey ho.

I still need a few TPs for GfL and considering changing one redemption leg in Feb to cash based to ensure that. But I'll wait to see whether my RTW works out first. If that fails for any reason, it would be very expensive to get GfL and I'd abort.

The first order of business is to look at credit card strategy. I'd had, but abandoned, AMEX Plat (when I replaced with Lloyds). I'm considering returning to it for a couple of reasons, but mostly because I'll increasingly need a guest. Also the hotel statuses may now be useful. Travel insurance no, because of pre-existing conditions, It's more than double the cost but I think justified. I will likely leave a gap between dumping my BAPP and taking up the Plat to hopefully spook Amex a bit about the BA changes, bit of a futile flounce move but BA deserve a little bit of spiteful treatment.

Then I need to figure out how to use my Avios and vouchers. We're considering a trip to NZ in the Summer, so that's going to need planning.

The overwhelming feeling now is one actually of freedom. Without having to build points, we can go pretty much anywhere we fancy on any carrier, following deals where they exist. I'll miss being able to do what I'm about to, i.e. calling the GGL people to see about shifting dates on my Malaysian redemption, but the future looks big and inviting now. The rationale around maintaining GGL was to take my family to Malaysia in F each year, that's no longer so much of an issue now, and being off the hamster wheel feels very liberating,