studio76

AFAIK, no OW airline currently offers lifetime emerald, personally would be quite surprised to see BA offer lifetime status beyond bronze/silver.

As pointed out above the current AA lifetime status gives you lifetime AA GOLD (OW RUBY) at 1 million BIS miles. This is the equivalent (at minimum qualification) of 10 years at EXP/BA Gold. You get lifetime platinum (OW Sapphire) at 2 million BIS miles the equivalent of 20 years of base earning at EXP.

I personally can't see them doing it based on longevity. I suspect it will be tier point based like on Qantas where 7000 SC gets you silver (RUBY) and 14,000 gets you Gold (sapphire)...

DWFI

However, United does offer Lifetime 1K (equivalent to AA ExPlat or BA Gold) at 3 million miles and Lifetime Global Services (equivalent to AA ConciergeKey or BA GGL) at 4 million miles.

So not without precedent.

Elevate

I just would not believe or trust it. It might last a few years, until a new bean counter is appointed as Chief Exec who won't be able to resist being a hero of the City for 5 minutes by cutting the program.

I would trust this scheme to last about as much as a government (these days there is little difference between a corporate and a government) to pay me my pension benefits when due in 26 years (or will that be 31, scratch that 36!)

Forgive my cynicism! And I don't mean this as a comment aimed at BA in particular, I would not trust any other corporation to provide a lifetime benefit.

Flythe96flag

Finnair does, since last year. They only offer lifetime Sapphire & Emerald, no Ruby.

Though for Emerald you need 5M points, which is a modest 33 years of maintaining Platinum @ 150 000 pts a year needed.

Sapphire status for 3M points, which is 33 years of Gold at 90 000 pts, or 20 years of Platinum.

orbitmic

Doing it based on total TPs or doing it on consecutive years of Gold both have their advantages. Total time has the advantage to reward long term loyalty in the sense that it is probably better to have a passenger who regularly makes Gold than one who just has two fabulous years through a couple of Round the World in First Class. Very high earners are also already (rightly) rewarded through GGL and Concorde Room so if lifetime status was available after 15,000 TPs (ie 10 years gold or 3 years at 5000 TPs each) you would trebble reward the (relatively) short term very high flyer.

By contrast, the advantage of total TPs is that it allows for temporary incidents such as slipping to silver for a few months (as per the example upthread) and would also give an incentive to very long term silvers to keep flying BA too.

All in all, I do not see why there should be only one route rather than an either/or alternative, e.g. xx000 TPs or 10 consecutive years as Gold Card Member.

Land-of-Miles

LH also offers lifetime SEN for those over a certain age and who have been SEN for 10 continuous years and accrued 1M Status miles.

I also think Lifetime status is more likely to lead to disloyalty from the lifetime members than encourage it. If this was truly about BA loyalty I agree it should be based solely upon BA TP accrued. A minimum 10 years Gold and 15k BA TPs to get lifetime silver would be reasonable.

kanderson1965

+1

There is no such thing as a cynic, just a realist with experience.

NickB

Both BA's main competitors (viz. AF and LH) offer a lifetime elite programme for 10 year continuous membership at Gold-equivalent level (SEN for LH and Platinum for AF), supplemented by a TP-equivalent threshold for LH.

moral_low_ground

how long do BA records go back ?

I have been gold since the mid nineties once accruing over 10K TP's in 2000 before a large drop in 2001/02.

Presume our Euro Gold's would be treated in the same manner in terms of length of service as would those with multiple countries (USA etc)

Personally I think its a good idea as by the time you get the benefit there is a reasonable chance you'll be flying less or perhaps close to winding down a bit and therefore flying choice may be made without status perks clouding the issue. I am probably a year or two off flying less and retaining Gold for previous accrued service would certainly make it more likely I'd select BA for times when I did fly.

Footnote. friend of mine has just made 1M miles on UA and she remains loyal to UA even though she flies maybe 6 times a year because she gets a few perks via this program. I notice also that Starwood has introduced life time cards this year.

Littlegirl

I am not sure how exactly giving someone Gold for life makes them loyal.

Surely once you have Gold for life, you can be as disloyal as you like and it does not affect your status!

I find this quite a strange strategy as BA already have the ability to gift Gold or GGL to people that they want to retain as customers for as many years as they wish.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see the final announcement providing of course that this sourse is correct.

YClass

I think this serves three purposes, and I welcome it:

1) The Gold member who just about gets 1500 TP a year - of whom there are the most - will be more likely to push the extra flight to BA to retain gold.

2) The high-TP traveller, who changes job and doesn't fly anymore, will likely push travel to BA to keep their 10 years going.

3) Those who travelled [with work] for years and e.g. retired, with life-time Gold are more likely to book leisure (or occasional business) travel with BA.

An other option is to offer 10-year golds with Life Time Silver/Gold and GGL if they retain Gold through annual TPs.

Blueboys999

I wonder what sort of consultation with other OW members needs to take place before making a move like this? Lifetime status on BA also, presumably, confers lifetime OW benefits.

To give 1 example, a lifetime BA Gold is effectively being given unlimited AA Admiral's Club access whereas an AA EXP has to pay an not insignificant annual subscription to get in on domestic itineraries.

Dave Noble

BA Silver is on par with status of QF Gold and QF has no issue offering a lifetime status and this also provides for AA Lounge access ( as well as all other OW lounges ) when travelling on a OW carrier

Land-of-Miles

It isn't given per se is it? BA pay AA for each entry.

Blueboys999

Of course you're right and there are other examples but I would imagine that there are also protocols about consultation. Maybe OW members can confer whatever they wish without considering partners although that would surprise me. That was the thrust of my question.