RedMark

After matching to BA, the membership pack was "dispatched" on 30Aug and still hasn't arrived. Anyone else not received yet?

lhr baby

Three questions - one general and two personal.

1) There is another thread where people are reporting that they are being told by bmi staff that they need to request a status match (and in some cases also transfer miles) by 27th October. Can we rule that one out as being nonsense? The closure date is 31st December, right?

Secondly, my BAEC year end is 8th January. Seems to be the worst possible date assuming answer to above is 31st December. Had hoped DC would continue long enough to get me past that date, given I am DC Gold until June 2013 (not to mention my tenth year of gold). If all I get is effectively six useful months of gold, then I will definitely stick with either Flying Blue or Miles and Bonus.

2) Can I assume that all I will get now is BA Gold to 8th January 2014? That being the case, is there any point in delaying the transfer any longer? Anyone come up with any way of getting longer? I'm not planning to fly BA before at least June 2013.

3) Last but not least, if you really think you can use 901 years of status, orudge, please can I have the name of your physician?

NickB

I must say that I don't quite understand your logic: if your flying pattern should be enough to normally qualify for status on BA if you switch your flights to them, then the idea is that you should use the match during 2013 to enable you to acquire enough TPs to renew status for the year starting Jan 2014. If you do not fly enough to maintain status on BA anyway, yes of course it makes sense to stick with either FB or M&B. But this would always have been the case in any event. It is just that it would have been a bit later. Bear in mind, too, that with the soft landing, you will still be BAEC silver in 2014.

That seems to be the case on the basis of what they said. But you gain nothing out of doing it early in case they extend the deadline or something between now and then. While the odds are low, you never know and you lose nothing in waiting.

With respect to transferring miles, this is unrelated to the status match so you can transfer miles now if you wish regardless of the status match issue.

orudge

It would suggest BA was at least providing some form of lifetime status. I wonder if BA would provide some provision for the inheritance of BAEC status.

vindaloo

Depends whether you have any use for the status in the meantime. I'm delaying my match to get an extra year (November year end), but I've flown BA quite a lot since the status match was available and if at any time BA had announced a cut-off date that was before my BAEC year end I would have status matched immediately to benefit from the status sooner.

If your year end is in 2013 then there's nothing to be gained by delaying now, unless (as NickB says) they have a change of heart, which seems unlikely to me (they've had long enough to think about it, after all). By all means if you have no use for the status in the meantime then you can wait just in case, but if you do have BA flights booked before the end of the year (or early in 2013 given how long the matches are taking) it's probably time to cut your losses and apply for the match. Galling though it is, 15(ish) months of Gold and 12 months of Silver without having to earn a single tier point isn't the worst deal in the world.

Alternatively you can always try closing your BAEC account and opening a new one with a more amenable rollover date, but this will cost you any existing avios and is a high-risk manoeuvre.

kt74

Sorry, I think I might have missed this, and have no idea what to search under...


I have just hit my BA membership year (i.e. yesterday), and it is now showing 8 Oct 2013 with TPs zeroed out

Am I good to match, or do I need to wait till my card expiry date? (30 Nov 2012)

Ta v much!

antichef

apply now. your year has ended.

the extra month on the card is only an extra benefit to allow you to use the lounges until your renewed card is issued and arrives, at whatever level you have retained

luitje

I have applied for a status match in September. Chased BA on the status and got mail from BA on October 8 confirming my membership will be upgraded to Gold (I am already Gold with BA, but guess this is a standard wording they don't bother changing) and will be "actioned" within 21 business day (whatever that means).
Does that mean they will reset my membership year on November 8?
I have two flights in business on November 3 and I would hate to loose 240 TPs (actually this is one of the reasons I applied in September).
I have flights on November 9 (yikes) and November 13 (another 240 TPs). I know it is always a bad idea to travel with BA on a month when your membership year starts, but these travels has now been sealed and dusted.
So will I loose TPs for the flights on November 3, for the flight on November 9 or will I loose TPs for all these 4 flights now?

NickB

No. Your membership date is not reset with the status match. You get matched status for the rest of your current membership year and the next year.

I would therefore, in any event, not be worried about losing TPs in November, unless you are aiming towards a GUF2.

vindaloo

Is that now official, even for those matching Silver->Silver or Gold->Gold? For a while they were saying that membership year and TPs would be reset when matching to the same status, but this did always seem a bit unfair on people with existing BAEC status (since they'd be getting a worse deal than those who previously had no status). My understanding was that the official line was still the same but that in practice there were reports suggesting that year and TPs were not being reset. I thought that was still the position, but perhaps BA eventually made it official that even those matching to the same status would prolong the status for a full year beyond the end of their current year?

kt74

Thanks. Did it a week ago now. Miles appeared instantly. Who knows if/when status will get matched...

Waiting, waiting, waiting

PS will I be able to retrospectively get into my existing BA bookings to do stuff like reserve seats? Anyone had any experience of that yet? Thanks

vindaloo

Just to be sure, you do realise that you have to complete two separate processes, one to match status and the other to transfer miles? Sorry to state the obvious, but you said you hadn't read all the stuff so just in case...

I wouldn't hold your breath for the status match. I think they're now advertising something like a month, and there are reports of even that timetable being missed.

crazychicken

I applied for my status transfer from BD to BA on August 9th and until now have neither received a card, nor has my status (was BD *G) been accepted. I did the entire thing again 3 weeks ago, still nothing - no card, no status!

In the meantime, I received a BD *S card as my stutus year had ended on August 22nd and my tier has been donwgraded.

I though that all status would have been frozen. And, since I am still waiting for miles to be credited to my BD account, I have not yet transferred the miles from BD to BA. But I may better do before they expire fully.

The whole change has left me with a bitter taste as nobody seems to know anything, nor knows what to do!

Any suggestions???
Thanks in advance

PS No, I stopped flying with BA until this is solved. Why flying if I do not get the benefits that were promised to me?

EDIflyer

Have you contacted Nicci on here by PM to see if she can help?

vindaloo

Status freeze was (very briefly) promised but then withdrawn. It should not matter though, as long as you applied for the match before your status was downgraded, which you obviously did. It is pretty poor that the status match requests are being actioned so sporadically, but when you do eventually get it processed you'll get credit for whatever your BD status was when you applied, i.e. gold in your case.

Regarding the missing miles, again it is annoying if you have to keep chasing them, but you don't need to worry about your existing balance of miles expiring. First, the option to transfer miles is available until 31 December (or until an unspecified date further in the future if you're registered with a UK address), and second, you can transfer miles from DC to BAEC as many times as you like, so there's nothing to stop you transferring your existing miles now and then doing another transfer when (if) you get your missing miles claim processed.