Swanhunter

Very bad, but very good.

NickB

You still get access to BA lounges when flying AA since AA is in OW.

asr2999

+1^

This is exactly the reason why I stop flying with Air France when I reach the gold threshold (14 return flights in Business between London and Paris) - Platinium gives you nothing extra.

BA was quite good in the past in keeping their customer loyal. Not sure it is a good move indeed.

J-Class

This does feel like death by a thousand cuts.

I mostly fly in longhaul business. Am not GGL and have not had an upgrade to F for several years. (Have paid for F during strike and received miminal food etc., but that's another story).

BA will now sell my favourite UD seats to any mug for dollars, so that benefit's gone.

The open access rule, which was genuinely helpful on a few occasions, was a good benefit of Gold. I usually used it when BA were either shockingly expensive on a particular route, or didn't fly the route. I wasn't a regular user - but when it was useful, it was useful...

I am really scratching my head trying to work out why to remain Gold this year. The GF lounge at T5 is nice but it's not that exciting by itself.

binman

Really cannot understand this. It seems such a petty thing to do and given it is not part of some larger chnage you have to wonder if one of their graduate programme trainees came up with this.
It will be spun as a further polishing of gold or a further enhancement when in fact it is a rather petty change that will destroy what little good will exists out there for BA
AS a one time gold who still does not have card or bag tag after 3 months, who has had some pretty dire flight in First over the last 3 years and who pays for it from my own funds, I could have told BA about a lot of things they needed to change but this would not have been in the top 100. Clearly they are listening but they don't talk my language!!!

tomatocracy

This makes me seriously question whether it's worth the effort and cost to retain Gold again next year. I don't use this benefit much but on top of the fact that silvers now get the same miles bonus it just seems like there's limited value. The only real benefit remaining I can see of retaining Gold over Silver is access to the Flounges...

Otherwise what else do you get? Ability to pre-select 1A/1K is nice but really I can take it or leave it. Waiver of the various phone fees is again nice but I expect it's cheaper just to pay them than incur the additional cost of flying BA over other carriers. You get the arrivals lounges if you're flying CW/F anyway and it doesn't apply to other OW carriers. Priority Reward (the option to pay double miles to book revenue seats) I've never used... would be tempted if you could combine with a 241 but that's not allowed.

Genius1

I suppose the real question is; how much is this going to save BA in £££?

If enough pressure is applied by BAEC members, I can see this going the way of the 'let's not convert CE seats anymore' debacle

David-A

BA never owned GB Airways and didn't sell it.
BA chose not to take up their oportunity to buy it, that is all.

HAM76

I recall a number of complaints about there being too many golds. Appears to me BA is listening and finally fixing this issue.

On a more serious side. What bothers me most isn't loosing this particular perk that I hardly could make use of anyway. It's rather the continued devaluation in many, yet small steps. Whenever the dust settled and everyone got used to the situation, BA pulls out another "enhancement".

johnny5a

This removal of benefit has clearly angered GCH's.

In just over 3hrs there have been around 112 comments.

Personally I've only used it once, but it's a niec touch for those who fly more than I do.

NickB

Perhaps people might want to have a look at this thread on the LH forum when a similar change was introduced in M&M and compare the similarity of reactions...

itsmeitisss

I phoned GGL as soon as I got the email. Initially I thought that they were going to allow a guest as part of open doors. The GGL person put me on hold while he went to read the policy as he hadn't been briefed on it Come on, BA at least brief your top line customer facing people on what you are taking away!!! The helpful guy in GGL is taking my views to the director's briefing, although I'm not sure what that will achieve.

EVERYONE needs to stand up on this one and make their views known. I have used open doors once or twice, so it's not something I'll necessarily miss. I still see it as an erosion of benefits and I did tell GGL that I saw little point in chasing Gold next year (have just hit the threshold now) as there is little tangible difference between Gold and silver. I also directed him towards FTalk as I was confident that there would be a long thread full of disgruntled and unhappy Gold card holders. Also just because it's something I rarely use doesn't mean I shouldn't try and stop a change that is detrimental to others

Smirnoff

But equally, I think that LGW should have been excluded from the policy.

It's bad enough with the overcrowding during the morning rush from the Caribbean/Florida flights, but having the place full of EZY passengers too pushed it to the limit.

BotB

+1, not happy. Will definitely check out KLM & Lufthansa now with status match. Consult that BA.

G-BOAC

I also just asked them to pass on my dissatisfaction with this too (as have a couple of other GGLs I know). Seems they're getting quite a few incidents about this all of a sudden!