uk1

What and find another plaice? Some people have no sole.

SwindonOil

this thread is starting to flounder and might end up CODerated

JamieT

I think this comment is a red herring.

LeisureFirst

Indeed. Time to evacuate. No eels allowed on that steep UD slide.

sunrisegirl

But if blues were golds and silvers they wouldn't want others to be able to pay for UD seating either. How do I know ..... I used to feel the same as blues do now before becoming silver. Now I've taken the time and spent the money to get silver BA, quite rightly, show me they appreciate my business and I believe that's perfectly correct.

Why should BA take this perk away from their elite travellers to give (paid or otherwise) to those who barely fly BA.

If you want to be able to ensure your seat on the UD at time of booking then earn the status like golds and silvers do. Simples @:-)

Jenbel

Until very recently someone who 'barely flew' BA could be commuting in domestic or ET on a daily basis and never achieve status. I actually knew someone, whose company policy was to fly BA, in WT, on cheapest fare possible. He reckoned he was flying BA long-haul between once a week and once a fortnight, and could not earn status as a result of the fare classes he was flying... Personally, I would not consider that barely flying BA!

Whereas someone who was silver or gold could have flown a few BAH-DOHs, possibly discounted as a result of a fare error, and be lying about their residency.

Calling your blue and non-member customers 'those who barely fly BA' is just a little bit judgmental don't you think?

Even without BAH-DOH, some judicous Y-Up tickets on AA can help achieve status very economically if you are minded to play such games. Whereas family members have spent several thousand pounds this year with BA to not achieve status (they chose not to stopover at SIN ). Clearly, those who attained status by flying domestic segments on AA are more important than people who fly occasionally in premium classes, intercontinental, on BA!

HIDDY

Fair enough......obviously BA status pax are going to say that - I would as well if I wasn't blue.

I'm certainly not going to chase status just so I can choose a CW seat.......that's just crazy.
Once again I urge all potential CW pax without status to take your business elsewhere until BA realise that all CW ticket holders are special and deserve seat allocation at time of booking for free. Plenty of other airlines allow you to do it and they're in a damn sight better financial position than BA are.

sunrisegirl

Yes, but this has now been changed. And up until a couple of years ago all passengers booking with BA could reserve seats at time of booking. It was the constant complaints of golds and silvers paying high fares at late booking stage that resulted in the policy being changed in 2007 to protect that business.

Yes, I know a few who've done that, though personally I never have benefitted from any of the ways you've mentioned. I'm a UK silver and never been to DOH in my life. The last time I went to BAH I was in knee high socks!

I'm sorry if that's your perception but I'm commenting in my role as a silver card holder and passenger of BA, not as BA staff. And IMHO some others who've posted in this thread are also being judgmental with their comments

Lobengula

As Bill Gates once said: "Life isn't fair, get used to it"

There will always be people without status that are more valuable to BA than a silver/gold who got it "cheaply". No system is perfect.

Same thing with Democracy, it is certainly not a perfect system but it's the best we have.

Now, the UD issue will be gone in a few years when 747's retire. As long as they fly, I can't see anything wrong with these 20 seats reserved for silver/golds. The rest of the seats should IMO be available when you book a ticket, free of charge, regardless of status.

HIDDY

^

I've been saying this for years.
I've probably given BA more cash over the years than quite a few status passengers have yet never earned a single tier point.
At least they now give TPs on all ticket types. Although it did take them years and losses of millions of pounds before they realised it might be a good idea after all.

FlyerTalker6245

I thought you flew in F though? Or is it entirely redemptions?

HIDDY

My dear boy......do you think I'm daft enough to pay cash for F?

Greg66

Quite. Another angle on this is the cost vs return of paying to take the family around with me. I fund travel which for the four of us routinely earns > 1500 TPs a year, but trying to distribute those points to get one or two silver cards between the four of us is rather harder.

It is also somewhat peculiar (although a feature I'm happy to exploit) that you only need one status holder in the booking to get pre-allocation rights for all. It seems BA values not just its FFers, but their (non-status) travelling companions as well. Whoever said it's not all about who you know?

I wonder what reaction would follow if the UD was held for golds only until T-24. Or GGLs?

FlyerTalker6245

I think the true Scot is coming through there, my Scottish friend.

Well I always wondered if you did funny things like paying in cash between EZE and Sao Paulo then redemption for the rest of the journey.

But of course you are a blue. Like me. We shall be proud Scots.

Scots_Al

I don't have any particular problem with BA offering a seat reservation service for a fee (I had no particular problem with the old system, either). And I can certainly see why BA would want to look after its silver and golds.

The current system, however, seems to be the worst of all worlds. If you are going to charge a pretty hefty fee for this service, it is nonsensical to hold back the best seats. Where is the incentive for a Blue to spend �240 for him and his companion - on top of an expensive fare - to pre-book seats, and only be able to book what BA itself defines as its worst seats?

If you are going to charge that level of fee, you must offer all seats. I would be interested to see how much BA makes from this particular offering - I can't imagine it's much.