Originally Posted by
UAT747
I realise this may be discussed in passing elsewhere but I really can't find any substantive collation of the options for reasonably retaining BA Gold if one is based outside the UK/Europe. I'm fully prepared for the answer to come back as "it's not worth it"/"choose a programme more suited to your travel patterns" but I would like to check my working in public first before coming to that conclusion!
To summarise the hurdles which non-UK based BAC members have to overcome:
- No BA Amex available (even if I retained one, it needs a UK-registered BAC account and most spending would be in FX, attracting a 3% fee). BA-branded cards overseas (e.g. Dah Sing Bank BA Visa Platinum) are very weak by comparison and do not earn Tier Points.
- BA service is very thin in certain parts of the world such as Asia due to their myopic focus on the US. HKG is down to a single 787 with no First available. The prices are consistently more than CX's, and BA's is the inferior product..
I would sympathise - I really would, but we are who living outside the UK had a huge advantage for years. We qualified at much lower levels than the UK based fliers. That truly was unfair. I put in the address of a place that I had in France on my BA Account so I did not get the Avios. When the anomaly was corrected we were still given exemptions for a year or two and all the Avios accumulated went back on the BA account. They were never lost. I would add that here in Brittany BA is very thin on the ground. The nearest that BA flies to with any level of regularity are Bordeaux (300km) or Paris (500km). We used to have a summer service to Quimper but that has died. They flew to Nantes for a bit which was great, but that has been gone for years and we only have a choice of nasty Lowcosts. The natural airline for me to join is Air France - and maybe I will. Sadly I am a BAlcoholic and as I have requalifed for another year will see. Flying for the sake of flying to get status has never appealed.