Originally Posted by
ttmab
Let the naysayers naysay, yours certainly is not the most
insane proposition in recent memory.
If it is firmly within your travel budget and you are clear about the benefits, and know to expect future enhancements at short notice, I don't see why not. This is your last chance at earning what is now advertised as over £20k worth of status in exchange for £3.6k, mostly through organic travelling - albeit more comfortably than you otherwise would - with some limited (by FT standards) TP running to get you over the line.
In light of the BAC debacle, I am generally not in favour of needlessly throwing any £££ BA's way, but making Gold from scratch under the old system now, at the very last minute, feels like spiting them, so I'm all for it.
Is truly worth it? Probably not - although by your own calculations you do seem to see yourself extracting a fair amount of value out of it.
If you do decide to see it through, please do come back and share your experience.
Thanks for the view point, you wouldn’t happen to be the enabler-in-chief for crazy TP runners here would you?
I wanted some balanced advice that would talk sense into me, instead I seem to have presented a sound financial case for it!
My original calculations are actually off and it’s even more in favour of doing this as I forgot to include being bronze in the 3rd year so that’s an extra year of extra baggage and priority check-in/boarding so £600 for 3x extra bag if 1 per year. If I were to drop the Plat card and just get a priority pass for the arrivals lounges which by the way OW status alone won’t get in even if there is an OW arrivals lounge anyway. LHR-HKG trips I always use the Plaza Premium especially if it’s a really early morning arrival to kill time before check-in to the hotel or train/car/taxi back home. The Plaza arrival at LHR is so much nicer anyway than the BA one in T5 with their weird shower units that gurgle like a drunk opera singer when in use. Factor in PP is almost useless at BHX/MAN and sometimes LHR with contract lounges overcrowded, that’s another £150 p/a savings in food/drinks by accessing OW lounges. Add that to the £500 p/a savings of basic PP vs Amex plat, so £1.3k for lounge access over 2 years..
Then it’s the big one, 3 years of free seat selection! 9-12 LH trips to the far east probably half with a connection, those seat selections add up! Never mind the few EU trips I make a year, over half with rewards so back to fortress Heathrow and the crowded PP lounges. These trips are likely carry on only where priority boarding is a must to avoid being gate checked.
Having had a quick glance at golfmad’s attempt at the last push for GGFL I feel like this is actually quite a sane endeavour. Seeing a milestone so close to reaching only to have the rug pulled from under you by BA is enough to rationalise why he went on that run. It’s a sentiment which is a huge driving force behind this crazy idea, realistically unless my life circumstances change for the better, I won’t be getting anywhere close to gold ever again.
However, golfmad was close to attaining status for life, one and done sit back and relax never ever having to consider unnecessary travel ever again, whereas this is just for 1 year with soft landings below. I do however have a plan to keep the same level of benefits in perpetuity but that involves another level of scheming madness which I will probably delve into here, but first I have to actually attain gold status first.
I’ve contacted a certain travel agency who specialises in this madness to see if there is a more time efficient and ideally cost effective way of achieving this so I’m not having to spend days on end at a holiday destination, however nice it may be.
Finally I think the title of this thread is a bit misleading, it should really read “Is gold worth 2.5k” seeing as around 1k of that 3.5k is spent on a fellow passenger to sit in QR J with me, who could fly in economy and forego gaining silver, while I’m in J class. I can tell that won’t go down well with them though!
I can actually see this being a cash driver for BA if they ever need to raise revenue. Bean counters say they need a cash injection, well offer the plebs a chance to gain status for a fee. Pay 1k for silver, 2.5k for gold. After the 1st of April, how many frequent flyers here would actually consider that proposition?