natkraft

.. As much as it hurts me to say this, and with the status I hold, I see no more reason to fly with BA due to the recent price and TP hikes in combination with the higher TP tier levels.

While I will continue to love the product, and we will likely have to send travel your way for a good while (until the current agreement ends), it is all coming to an end.

From now on, my travel will be LX/LH/VS and SK based mostly, adding UA into that (which has more direct flights from most my locations compared to AA anyway), it is time to move both mine, and my companies, travel to *A.

This is news that saddens me, but with the recent developments, it makes perfect business sense.

I hope I get some great BA flights in, but I will no longer maintain my own, or my company, status - so travel will wind down in the next year or so.

So while I may check in here again, I want to bid farewell to the people I've met, as I won't be nearly as active since it doesn't make sense from a business perspective. Lobengula, take care of Sweden until I arrive

Thank you all for your support.

flyupfront

Best wishes to you Natkraft! Though I imagine you will find that the grass isn't greener over there.

Upgraded!

What part of the changes have negatively impacted you? Before switching over the two things to remember/consider are the fact that if the benefits work for you it's possible to continue patronizing BA but switching your FFP to AA as well as two potentially beneficial changes recently announced:

1. TP calculator no longer resetting to 0 each time a new status level is attained.

2. New TP earning scheme for long-haul flights which will significantly benefit you if traveling on high fares between JFK, LAX and HNL (per your info).

AJLondon

So long, farewell, Auf Weidershen, Goodbye.

lancefan

Now this isn't necessarily aimed at the OP, but after reading some posts on here that people have written in past days since the new rules where announced, there's one thing I just not getting.................

Some posters have been saying they may or will jump ship to another airline, because they have cheaper, more direct options or in the OP's case it now makes perfect business sense. So if that is the case, the thing im not quite getting is, what was actually keeping some people flying BA, when cheaper and or more direct flights are avaliable. Surely it wasn't purely the fact that they had status with BA. These cheaper more direct flights just suddenly didn't pop up overnight and status could easily be earned with another alliance. Are the recent changes to BAEC really that huge that some customers are willing to jump ship at the drop of a hat.

oiRRio

Sorry, I don't speak Germlish, is that similar in meaning to auf Wiedersehen?

theozz

Its actually auf wiedersehen "pet".

oiRRio

Sorry, I don't speak Geordie and I believe it's "it's".

riku2

u
The status could be easily earned part is partly the problem. I live in Finland but status with AY was much harder to earn (although they too ditched the TP reset when moving up the tiers) but still I never got status on AY.

Like BA their prices are not competitive for the home market (eg HEL-NRT) and it can be cheaper to fly finland-japan via Germany or the UK.

So having joined BAEC in january I got silver in february and gold in august, so having lounge access and good chance of op-ups (something i've never received from AY).

Currently I would choose BA for flights to japan, even though having flown helsinki-london and waited a few hours at heathrow then a few hours into the flight to japan I see finland underneath me, six hours after leaving HEL.

For someone who's gold already, the removal of the TP reset doesn't make any difference. And the extra TP on long haul flights don't go anywhere close to compensate for almost doubling of gold threshold, especially since nordic employers are more likely to send us employees around the world in economy class (even to australia).

origin

Thats the norm these days in many countries. The TP have been increased on lower classes and fares as well.

I agree maybe some companies need to control their budgets even more and not spend on expensive BA flights.

oscietra

Cheerio!

I've actually just doubled my bookings with BA.

I'm looking forward to improved quality of service from the BAEC, and catering in the lounges, as a consequence of the reduction in numbers of Gold card holders in absolute terms.

Looking forward to the A380s in 2013, new routes from Gatwick and more empowerment of BA's largely good cabin crew to make changes which improve the customer experience.

henkybaby

For the next 2 years nothing changes for EU status holders except that some redemptions go up. Leaving now makes no sense to me.

tuff

It is actually auf Wiedersehen. The second word is a noun and therefore merits a capital letter in German. By the way, we are sticking with BA despite the changes.

irishguy28

Given that his Silver threshold has increased by 50%, and his Gold threshold has increased by 87.5%, the new TP earning scheme (increases of 16.66 or 33.33%) is not a "significant benefit", as it comes nowhere close to offsetting the greater rises in the number of TPs required to (re-)qualify.

Hannibal Lecter

He complains about BA's prices and says he is going to fly with twice as expensive S instead.
SK is a Sovjet-style state owned airline which in addition to being expensive:
- charge for evertything including water in economy,
- has a business class cabin from the 80's
- give only 25% tier bonus even to the members with highest status
- 25% miles earnings in economy