vindaloo

How about a thread where those of who have applied for status matches but haven't yet had them actioned post all the bookings we're making with *A or other carriers that we'd have preferred to make with BA if only they'd got the matches processed in time?

Various people have already mentioned these in passing, and some will have got their matches by now. Clearly most of the money BA will lose by being slow with the status matches has already gone, and they're unlikely to speed up now, but this board is getting a bit quiet and I just applied for my match when my year rolled on 9 November, so I thought it might be a bit of fun.

I'll start the ball rolling:

LHR-VIE next Tuesday with Austrian, returning the same day. About £300 of lost business for BA.

Next up for me will be a trip to GIB, which I'll probably book next week for travel the first week of December. I'll check my BA status before I give my money to easyJet, but it seems unlikely I'll be made up before then.

jobi

I had some trouble with an automatic status match for my girlfriend.
After I wrote diamondclubqueries the whole thing was through in a couple of days, so you may want to try that out

FlyingDentist

I had some trouble with my status match - but one PM to Nikki (BA Executive Club) and she sorted it out immediately.

Thank you again Nikki - I would have done a /welldone for you but you need to have taken a flight to use that!

layz

You can do a /welldone for anyone who works for BA, you don't need to book a flight. Just select 'other' when it says 'Your experience'.

Nikki's full name appeared in issues of BAEC's online magazine 'The Club' but they have taken it offline when it was discontinued. But if you just use Nikki as the name and mention flyertalk in the description then they'll find her.

stifle

I'd write "Nicci" though

layz

Of course

BigVince76

I applied for my match to gold on October 10th and I was matched on December 9th. Unfortunately for BA, Aegean matched me within 3 hours of asking so STAR have still had my business for the past few months. Still BA gold is pretty cool and I will give them a try now.

vindaloo

So I've just hit the 21 working days limit that BA currently claims is the maximum for matching, and my match hasn't come through.

Luckily, based on the experience of others on this forum, I didn't trust that it would happen in time for my trip tomorrow so I've booked with Star Alliance and will use my A3*G card, which I possess as a result of my status match valid until December 2015 and actioned within hours of my applying back in May. Another few hundred quid down the drain for BA.

As BigVince76 says, however, BA Gold is pretty cool and I'm looking forward to two years of it when my match is eventually processed. It's just a shame they can't get their act together a bit better.

h15t0r1an

It seems the time BA is taking to match is being taken off the 2 years. I've pretty much lost 5 months of my 2 years due to their delays on being matched and then in receiving the card.

vindaloo

Indeed. Since they're not resetting the membership year when you match, the end date will be the same irrespective of how long they take to process it.

soy

Rather than posting here, I would advise anyone matching to BA that has not heard back within the 21day timeframe to simply pm diamondclubqueries (Nicci). Pretty soon you will be too late to take up what has been an exceptionally generous match offer from BA.

Action Man

For me the greater issue is what will happen when the Gold threshold increases for those of us flying out of Europe. I fly mostly shorthaul in paid C. No way will I be happy with a Silver card when the changes come into place, it would give me no additional benefits to paid C in the airport...

vindaloo

I did exactly this when it went over the 21 working day time frame (so 31 actual days in my case). That was a week ago now and I've heard nothing. I think Nicci has a massive backlog but nevertheless it's poor that BA is still pretending to match in 21 working days (and Nicci reassured me of this after I'd applied) when in actual fact it seems nobody is being matched in that sort of time.

lhr baby

Waiting for status matches is not the key issue. It was the time taken to decide what they were doing with bmi in the first place that ruined things for me. I could have had a year of flying BA but by the time they announced what they were doing I was half qualified for gold with another airline and had a years worth of *A redemptions booked. Couple that with the fact they haven't reset the anniversary date on status match means the offer is almost useless to me.

h15t0r1an

- had to raise 2 requests for Status Match. The first one disappeared and nothing was heard.
- Nothing heard following 2nd request.
- I eventually discovered I had been status matched only by checking directly on BAEC website.
- No BAEC Gold card received. So I phoned BAEC Gold Line.
- Gold Line advised that as my account was set for no mail, my Gold Card had not been sent. ??!!??!
- Gold Line promised the card would be sent but this might take up to 28 days.
- Returning from a trip at what feels like 56 days later, STILL no card has been sent.
- I am now into my 6th month of the 2 year status match and no card. I've made award bookings and bookings on Star Alliance meanwhile.
- I'll have to spend time chasing the card and waiting for it again. Just off on another trip. Will be into 7th month of not having my card by the time I return. Who knows if I'll receive a card by then?

In light of the time and chasing this is taking, how reasonable do others think it would be to ask BA to reset the start of my status match to the 7th month? always assuming they send the pack by the 7th month of my status match of course...!!!?