SteveF

Next enhancement? How about paid seat reservations for all?

stimpy

There's no address there. That is only a phone number and postal address. Does anyone have an email address to write to?

wyvern

This is not good. Whoever they asked for their feedback, I don't think they asked Silver members...

I have emailed BA to say I think it is a poor move - apart from anything else there is little incentive to go for gold as it makes more sense to maintain status in other alliances instead. I think they will lose business.

NickB

This might depend on whether your account is a UK/IRL account or a Euro account.

Lolbert

Don't understand?

G-BOAC

Another resounding here, no doubt due to Gypojet abusers at LGW in the main I bet. This was a nice benefit at T3 these days.

I wish they'd keep it for GGL at least as suggested above.

There's virtually no meaningful difference between Gold and Silver (as also pointed out above).

DFB_london

First steps:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...nt-autumn.html

perhaps those affected should check any Euro gold accounts in prime Iberia/ Finnair/Air Berlin/Malev markets unless those FF programmes are preferred?

Jimmie76

Sadly I think you've hit the nail on the head there. We're approaching the situation where it will be Premier, Brass, Tin, Blue.

wyvern

If you log into your account and then click on 'Help and contacts' at the bottom of the page there is then a link on the left hand navigation menu called 'email us (where available)'. It works for me when I am not in the UK but I guess it may not work for members from all countries.

If you just log into your account and click 'Contact Executive Club in the left hand menu, which is the logical place to go, you just get the phone numbers and postal address for the EC. Really the email link should be here too, but perhaps they do not want to encourage people to email.

OT - I wish their link would send you a copy of what you have sent. You have to remember to copy the text and paste it into a document or email it to yourself to keep a copy of what you have sent. If any BA lurkers are reading this it would be great if you could add this functionality... and put an 'email us' link in the email in the main EC contact details page.

Edit - The link did send me an email with the contents of my email. First time that this has happened on an email to BA sent from their website. Perhaps this is because it is an email to BAEC and not to CR - or perhaps this is now the case on all emails to BA sent throuhgh the site. Anyway, this at least is a genuine - and welcome - enhancement.

irishguy28

you sprayed coffee over your desk after reading Nicola's (age 8) note to the captain in a recent thread...

I'm sure she could come up with similarly choice wording, were Nicola a BAEC GCH rather than a denizen of Qantas's flights.

HIDDY

I imagine BA hope to claw back some of those GCH who take advantage of Open Doors while flying on the likes of Easyjet.
The easy way was for BA to block lounge access. A more sensible way would be for BA to copy Easyjets fare structure. I can only imagine that's what's driven short haul pax away from BA in the first place.

arcticfox

Not sure I agree with you, hiddy - there are a great many people who do a lot of business travel on expensive fares with BA who, on the one or two times they travel with the family during the year, may choose a another (not necessarily budget) airline or - as in my case - due to the range of routes they travel, cannot always use BA. If such a perk is offered, it strongly encourages the FF to use BA as their "first choice", as their loyalty of choosing BA over competitors was awarded with a "perk" which had the added benefit of discouraging them seeking status with other carriers.

I just had a look at my flying patterns for the last 2 years (I have to track it for tax issues), and on a quick first cut, I reckon that around 70-80% of my flying was with BA, a smattering with OW partners, 15-20% with LH/LX and the balance AF/KLM. Of the BA flights, ALL that I can see were on routes with LH/LX/KLM as competitors or two/three leg LH routes where I could have had equally convenient LH/LX routings.

Looking objectively, given a lesser amount of flying this year (thanks to illness), I had made a conscious effort to use CE or CE paid upgrades to stay Gold mainly in order to have this benefit, including only this week using a €850 ET short haul flight at awkward times for a 2-hour meeting - I suspect the profit margin on that was at least 50%, and is the kind of flying BA likes. Given that this perk has now gone, my most sensible couse of action is to either swich allegiences to LH/LX, where at least there is the "comfort" of 2 year validity and soft landing or alternatively to "spread" my allegience between BAEC, M&M and (shudder) FB.

Given the other service erosions over the last couple of years, I really now struggle to see why I should stay loyal to BA, as I really cannot think of any ways in thich BA now beats the competition.

The only possible perk which would now keep me loyal to BA is having the ability to offer arctic vixen & the arctic cubs lounge access on the couple of occasions when we fly together each year. In which case BA will retain my loyalty for the lucrative business flights in return for a couple of cokes and sandwiches 3-4 times a year plus an extra 12-16 ET tickets which currently go to LH or the budgets. Seems a pretty small price to me!

BahrainLad

I'm trying to think of the airports where BA have their own lounge and they are suffering competition from a rival network or low cost carrier in the same terminal.

Gatwick North springs to mind instantly (and I suspect has been the main driver of this change with the continual cutback in shorthaul services and handing over to EZY). GLA, EDI and Geneva all also come to mind.

Typical accountant-driven sales thinking: "We can't compete with Easyjet at Gatwick so we'll just stop our best customers using the lounge when they're forced* to fly with them. That'll learn 'em."


(*Like I am forced to fly Easyjet in winter down to the Algarve because BA have now dropped the frequency to only 4x weekly...)

adrianjc32

That was indeed the flaw.

Lolbert

Got it....very sharp!