Lobengula

Ouch, 1500TP for a euro to hold Gold

Well, it's a 2-year "soft landing" for the new requirements so I refuse to get upset just yet. I have secured 2012 and will have a look at my options 2013, as my membership year ends February it seems that I can still be gold (with old requirements) for 2014.

If so, there's plenty of time to think about a possible reroute with M&M or *A. Who knows how the competition will look like 2013-2014. Maybe they will offer something to attract euro-golds

raph

Same here. I have been Gold for just over a month now with 0 flights since

I will be able to enjoy the Gold privileges for the first time this week and have to find out if it's even worth it.
If it is, I'll probably make sure to requalify two more times at 800 TP with a TP run if necessary, else if I can drop to silver and requalify at 400 TP for one more year that'll make me happy as well. By then it'll be 2014 and like you said - who knows what's on offer by that time...

lancefan

Im finding your post puzzling.

If you can find Prague - London - Prague flights for Ł30 with the LLC's why wouldn't you just book a flight with them. Is a shiny gold card and Flounge access really worth the premium over the LLC's. You do seem quite quick to jump ship if you no longer have a gold card.

Same goes for your long hauls, your willing to book with BA have the inconvenience of flying into Heathrow first and maybe pay more money, as you say you have found 7 flights that are cheaper than BA and are in Business Class, so you would get Business Lounge access with which ever airline you went with. Is it really because you would have a Gold card & Flounge access in London that is making you fly BA.

Hannibal Lecter

or MAD, BCN, BUD or HEL
this might change things though
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...-oneworld.html

Royce

A few of my musings, without getting too NIMBY, on how it will affect me...

Firstly, I like the idea of the straight-through thresholds for people starting from scratch. I switched my earning from FB to BAEC at the start of this calendar year, and have posted 2000 TPs this year (Silver, Gold and Renewal), with another 500-1000 booked before year-end. Yet of course presently, my account only shows 800 TPs due to all the resets. With this, it will be much easier for mile-junkie switchers to gain GGL or so.

Secondly, I am a "Euro-real" but I semi-regularly travel to the UK to fill up the car with all the expat treats (read: junk food) not available on the continent. Invariably this is at Tesco. Can I register at a UK address for a clubcard and start banking the points now the thresholds are becoming aligned? It seemed before that the pros vs cons of Euro were:
Pro: Lower elite thresholds
Cons: No BA Amex or Tesco points.
Now the pro has been removed , well at least after the two year soft landing in 2014 we may start seeing UK-cheats for those that live in Europe but travel there regularly!

Thirdly, if I am able to maintain my current TP rates, I can't see it affecting me massively, especially if TATL TPs increase ^ I hope this comes in on Nov 16th too, relatively little detail here so far.

Fourthly, I wonder how Lufthansa will capitalise on this. Ex-LUX, they have far better connections, so a nice shiny bit of Lufthansa plastic might tempt me away from BA. The BA lounges are better, but now the (maybe over-generous) ease of earning top-tier status is gone, I might be more likely to see what else is out there after 2014, and I'll have plenty of time to try them once renewal is certain.

Fifthly, as previously mentioned, the two year soft-landing onto the new thresholds is generous. Very generous.

I'd say I'm about 80% happy with the changes, more than enough to keep me chomping away for those elusive TPs, but if I don't continue to post so many TPs in coming years, I would probably only be about 40% happy - enough to tempt my allegiances to other Euro-carriers. But never KL again, that was a mistake I'd rather forget.

henkybaby

Yeah, but I need AMS, CDG, TLS, MUC, HAM, CWL and MAD...

flyingbee

Oh dear, it's not good news for me . I can't get enough tier points to requalify for gold before the end of my membership year, due to being on maternity leave and having a baby to look after (but that's a very good reason so I'm not complaining ).

In fact I have barely made use of my gold privileges this year due to being pregnant and unable to fly / maternity leave so no business travel / unable to drink alcohol so no champagne in the lounge on the few occasions I did fly.

I will now lose my opportunity to try for renewal at 800 points. Oh well, gold you were great while you lasted!

stimpy

I just got the email and my first reaction was "goodbye BA". But then I read further and saw we (Europeans) get a two year grace period. So I guess I will still be BA Gold for a few more years, providing the global recession doesn't ground me.

I honestly believe that Flyertalk is the primary reason why we are getting such a soft landing with the new rules. Thanks to all!

henkybaby

Good point. Not Tesco so much but I still have a UK bank account (I believe) so BA AMEX here I come!

A bit harsh. I fly them very regularly nowadays and on short haul Y they beat the pants of BA. Long Haul J class is a laugh a minute but the crew and the food are excellent. Lounges at AMS are a huge embarrassment though....

irishguy28

LH offered a blanket status match to any and all Flying Blue members a few months back, as a riposte to Flying Blue's unprecedented "Thanks For Flying" global status match back in March.

LH may well try and target some Euro based BAEC status fliers. But the 2-year "soft requalification" period sort of muddies the water. Will people bail out straight away, or after the 2-year period, or sometime in between?

stimpy

But if you switch to UK you won't get the two year grace period, right?

I agree. I'm still AF/KL Plat along with BA Gold and don't expect that to change, again global recession willing.

AJLondon

Agree entirely. ^

Lots of positives here, and if anything, BAEC have been too generous with the soft landing!

Schultzois

From this Euro Gold it seems a very reasonable rationalisation of status earning. Plenty of time for most current Euros to be grandfathered under their current renewal schemes if they have status, and the sweetener of increased tier points it seems in some cases (although that's still a mystery point, it seems).

As my OH is 160 points off of current Gold requirement (he dropped down to Silver a year or two ago) I'd say we had better get him back up to Gold before March (his membership year ends 8 April 2012)! And it would seem that since I'm currently Gold with a year ending 8 August 2012, I could renew with 800 TPs by then (I'm currently at 0, not having travelled much in the last months since my reset) and renew again with 800 more by 8 August 2013. ^

Interestingly, my father (a very infrequent BA flyer) just had his tier points reset a couple weeks ago, but would have gotten Bronze if the new scheme had come into effect. As he's lost these only points earned in the last two years within a couple weeks of getting them, I'd say he remains unlikely to be chasing BA status anytime soon.

All in all, it seems these changes are reasonable ones, although I will wonder whether it will eventually make it harder for BA to "lure in" continental travellers who might under the new scheme be predisposed to try one of the many other carriers that might offer them either nonstop or connecting options... Time will show, I suppose.

Frequentflyer99

It looks like I will have to remain permanently exiled in Euroland, rather than hopping to and fro across the channel, in order to maintain the benefit of the generous transitional rules. I am fortunate in that my y/e is December, so I will get the whole of 2012, 20013 and 20014 at the old 800 rate.

Hopefully the new Avios regime means also that my Tesco vouchers won't go to waste during this period, as I should be able to convert them to Airmiles and then across to my BAEC (unless the rules on that have some common address catch).

It seems odd to announce the change, link it directly to new TP earning rates, but remain coy about the new TP rates when they should be coming into effect in the next few weeks anyway.

NickB

Can't speak for the others but the fallacious underlying assumption is that euro BAEC members do most of their travel on BA. IME, they don't for the simple reason that BA (and often OW generally) is just not practical intra-Europe for destinations other than the UK. If you are flying from, say, NCE to FRA, very few people will route via LON. It just does not make sense unless you are a hard core TP chaser. Both OW European hubs are located at the periphery and are therefore pretty useless for intra-European connections. For long-haul, although there can be some backtracking if going East or South, this is somewhat less of an issue.

Your typical Euro BAEC member will therefore tend to belong to several FFPs and, for them, BA is one airline alongside others. If BAEC Gold becomes much higher, the odds are that many BAEC euro-genuines will simply drop BA or fly BA less frequently (and just aim for silver) and have a higher proportion of their flights on non-OW carriers.

That said, the two-year respite has thrown something of a curve ball in the short term.


Yes, those changes make LH SEN far more attractive than before.