jason8612

I have a question about the joker.

I'm planning some new years travels and if all goes well I'll hit 5k tps by August. O was thinking of the best way to use the joker. My goal is a flight from Europe (KRK most likely) to DPS and then KUL back to krk.
Given that BA does not fly to DPS, if I was to get a award ticket krk-lhr-kul on BA metal and KUL-DPS on mh, could a joker be used in that instance? (wtp or cw for the lhr - kul flight)? Also, with the joker, can I do the open jaw on the one ticket and apply it, or would it need to be 2 separate tickets?
Finally, would the joker work with the krk-lhr-kul? For instance open up economy on the krk to lhr and wtp on the lhr to kul, and use a guf to get into business?

msm2000uk

By way of an update, I hit 7,000 early last week. Ive since had 4 flights and am now at 7,600.

I called BA this morning, as I had not received an email, and the GGL line ran through my options - 50,000 Avios/Joker/GUF2.

Cleverly, the Joker is valid from when you hit the Tierpoint threshold, opposed to when you advise BA of your preferred option.

So, data-point - a week after hitting the mark, and no email from BA. Best advice is to call up.

corporate-wage-slave

The 7 / 8 / 9k emails do come (they are identically worded apart from the total). It does take between 3 and 10 days to arrive. There may be a batch involved since on one occasion I got 1k in a few days and both arrived together. I've had a few go to Spam because of some wording in there which was some sort of trigger. The current subject line (which changed from last year) is "Mr CWS, enjoy one of our exclusive [level] rewards"

The only time I've not had an email about this since introduction of this benefit was when there was some mega IT problems and it took a few weeks to arrive, but that was a one off.

msm2000uk

I'll update if/when the email appears.

KARFA

A joker would only be relevant for a reward booking where you want to "create" reward space, or revenue booking where you want to open up reward space in the cabin you want to upgrade in to. Jokers only appy for BA metal so KRK-LHR-KUL only.

Open jaw is reward ticket is fine as long as the surface sector is no longer than the outbound or inbound distance.

Is there really no reward space on KRK-LHR? You only need to use a joker when there isn't reward space.

Your stratergy should be book WTP and use the joker to open up CW space and then use the GUF to actually do the upgrade to CW. The joker and upgrade would apply to both the short haul and long haul legs. If this is done all at the same time you don't have to worry about rewared space in WTP.

jason8612

But would I be able to have the KUL-DPS flight on the same ticket that I would use the joker (knowing that the joker won't apply to MH) or does the ticket need to be only BA?

KARFA

Yes you can have it on the same ticket for your reward booking, it does not need to be BA only.

Lolbert

Definitely not!

skicowboys

Hi guys I'm new to all this and I need help understanding this, esp point 1.
GGL looks out of reach, but I may still try.
Point 1. makes it seem easy spending £5k to get to GGL is this correct?
I thought AA transcon earned 210 points in F so where does the 660TP come from? Is there a way to get 660 out of a return transcon? I've assumed that a return is lax-jfk or sfo-jfk as these are the only routes I think they operate on.
Secondly 8 return trips in F for £5k. I picked one random date in June and that was £1300.
Have I miss-understood the OP?

EsherFlyer

I was working with the possibly optimistic assumption of £1/TP on 60TP+210TP+60TP jaunt and back, so 660TP total. You have to be starting in the right place to make it work, but since ATL and LAS often seem to be cheap end-points I just had a quick look on ITA and found ATL-CLT-LAX-LAS and back for exactly £660 on several dates in September (and £20-£50 more on plenty of others), so it was a valid assumption .

EDIT: That's with 0 night stay, so the whole trip can be fitted into 22h using AA2071-AA1768-AA2463-AA2670-AA418-AA462 ready for you to turn around and do it again. Blocks of 4 days w/c 12 Sept and 19 Sept should get all 8 in for £5500 or so.

Also, reading your points more closely, I meant anything that BA treats as F for TP purposes. I think the above books into P on two-class all the way. Were you reading it as F on a 3-class?

golfmad

Seems like a lot of effort, cost and time to me? Also, I'm not sure Worcester is a particularly great starting point for skicowboys.

EsherFlyer

Isn't that the nature of many things around here, especially for TP / status gains?

Not sure where Worcester (ORH?) fits in, but happy to agree with that

golfmad

Worcester is the location specified by skicowboys. If one assumes that this is their start point the assumption of £1/TP becomes less reasonable.

Of course, forgive me I was responding from the real world there for a minute having just completed 30 work sectors in 40 days

msm2000uk

2 weeks on, still no email.

golfmad

I too can confirm I received the emails for awards at 6, 7 and 8k last year and will cross 6k in a couple of weeks and will be able to confirm. However, in your position why not just make a quick call to the GGL line and confirm your choice over the phone?