Banana4321

xenole

Decided to get the Hilton Diamond status sorted out as I have a couple of upcoming trips and the 2000 bonus points might be useful (although the IHG points might work better for me - need to crunch the figures).
Rang the GGL line a couple of days ago. Didn't know my HH number off the top of my head.
Sone emails this morning that don't seem to mention diamond but look as if I've a completely new account now. They've possibly used the new email address from my BAEC account (changed it after changing internet providers) rather than by name.

Anyone else had this? Only got 980 points left on my original silver status account after a few redemptions but not sure if there's a way for BA or Hilton to transfer, merge, or update the correct account.

Vasco Pridat

And I was told there will not be made any exclusion.

Wbeest

I am in the same position so called the Gold line and asked them. I actually have a flight booked to depart before my collection year expires but the return is after. I asked them if they would extend my collection year to cover the return leg (that would put me over 5000 pts)...only a few days. They said that in principle they would make the extension if I called again afterwards. To be honest, I don't trust them so am booking other fights!

KARFA

Unless something has changed (which I am 99% confident it hasn't) GGL is not part of the discretionary framework so I would ignore what you have been told and get the 5k.

NRGsaver

I tried to apply for a replacement partner Gold card for my wife on January 2nd (her old card expired on December 31st). There was an IT glitch on the BA website (imagine!) which made it impossible nominate her (I could get everyone else on the household account and family and friends, but not her, rather bizarrely), so I called the GGL line. Not only did they answer pretty quickly but the person I spoke to could see my wife's name, clicked the box to nominate her and lo and behold, three days later an envelope with a new card (valid to end December 2020) and two shiny luggage tags. Excellent work!

navylad

vindaloo

So I am looking at my daughter's account. Her tier point collection year runs August to August, and she has already re-qualified for her existing status of Bronze, which she therefore has until the end of September 2020 (current year plus another full year plus the extra seven weeks). Sure enough her card expiry date shows online as 30 Sep 2020 even though her tier point collection year ends over a year earlier than that on 08 Aug 2019. So by the logic above, if I now nominate her for my Gold Partner Card she will have the status until the end of September 2021, i.e. nearly two years and nine months. Is that really how it's going to work?

Really everywhere in the literature except that place in the Ts & Cs quoted by Fitch above, the Membership Year is defined in a way that makes it synonymous with the tier point collection year. I even wonder whether it's a mistake in the Ts & Cs, but if it's been put there deliberately to screw over people like Fitch (and me) who are relying on 8.3, then the unintended consequence seems to be that my daughter is entitled to more like three years of Gold than two. Does that analysis seem sound?

KARFA

no, if you nominate her now she gets gold straight away for the rest of her current membership year (so to August 2019) and one full membership year after (so August 2019 to August 2020).

The date on the card is always the end of the first full month after the end of the TP year so her gold card would expire on 30 September 2020.

booogle

I performed the same procedure online on 3rd Jan and my partner (her old card expired on December 31st) has got a gold membership valid date showing to end Dec 2019! I called in last week and was told that was correct, but I was adamant it wasn't, the lady went away to check further and came back and agreed it should be Dec 2020 and said the back office team would fix it, but still waiting.. You gotta love BA IT!

vindaloo

Right, and that's what we all assumed until Fitch reported his conversation with BA, where they drew his attention to the fact that in the terms and conditions the "Membership Year End" is bizarrely defined as the expiry date on the card. This is in contrast to every other piece of literature and to what all of us think, which is that our membership year is synonymous with our tier point collection year and ends on the 8th of the month. This "gotcha" was used to deny Finch the extra year to which we all think he should be entitled, and it was hard for him to argue because strictly speaking that is indeed how it's defined in the GGL Ts & Cs.

So now I'm saying that if they are strictly enforcing this definition of Membership Year End then my daughter, whose card expires over a year after her current tier point year ends, should be able to get until the expiry date of her card (about 20 months from now) plus another full year. This clearly isn't what's intended but if you look at the Ts & Cs as enforced in Fitch's case then that is the strictly correct interpretation.

KARFA

vindaloo

I could be wrong, but I think I'm understanding Fitch's problem correctly. The problem is with the definition of "membership year". You and I and Fitch and everybody else in the universe thinks that the membership year is the period from the 9th of some month until the 8th of the same month one year later, and is synonymous with the "tier point collection year". Clause 8.3 of the GGL Ts & Cs says: "For Nominees who are existing Executive Club Members, the discretionary British Airways Silver/Gold Card period shall begin from the date of acceptance by British Airways of the Nominee and last until the Nominee’s Membership Year End date and for the 12 month period thereafter." You and I and Fitch and everybody else in the universe has always understood this to mean that by nominating at the very beginning of the nominee's tier point collection year they could get two full years plus another 7+ weeks until the card expired. It was also understood by people on this forum (myself included) that if you do indeed nominate just after the start of the tier point collection year then the IT system incorrectly sets the expiry of the partner status to only one year plus 7+ weeks instead of two years plus 7+ weeks. The experiences of people here have always been that a call to the GGL line when the card was about to expire was all that was required to get the expiry date correctly updated.

But now Fitch has been told differently. He was in exactly this position and put in the call to have his nominee's status extended by an extra year as he understood was his entitlement. But BA has thrown a curve ball at him: it turns out that further up in the Ts & Cs, the term "Membership Year End" is defined not as what we all think of it as being, i.e. the end of the tier point collection year, but as "the expiry date on the Membership Card". I had never even checked this before, but having now done so it is indeed correct, and the capitalisation of "Membership Year End" in 8.3 makes clear that the definition further up is the one that should be used. Hence, strictly speaking, the assumption we have been making and relying on is wrong. If you nominate in the 7-week period between the tier point reset date and the card expiry date, the "Membership Year End" referred to in Clause 8.3 is not nearly a year away but only 7ish weeks away. My understanding is that this has been used to deny Fitch's nominee the extra year to which we have always assumed he would be entitled, so that he gets only just over a year of status for his nominee.

So now, applying the same logic and using the definition of Membership Year End from the GGL Ts & Cs in conjunction with Clause 8.3, I say that my daughter is indeed entitled to nearly two years and eight months of Gold if I nominate her today. Her card expiry date is September 2020, and hence her Membership Year End as defined in the Ts and Cs is September 2020, and hence the status should last until then plus one extra year, i.e. until September 2021.

KARFA

vindaloo

I am also sorry for the several posts, but I still think you are misunderstanding me. You say "rest of current membership year - 8 January 2019 - 8 August 2019" and yes, that is what we have always assumed it means. But this is not what the GGL Ts & Cs say, and it is not what Fitch has been told. At the top of the GGL Ts & Cs is a list of definitions. I quote directly from this: "Membership Year End means the expiry date on the Membership Card" (emphasis in original). Clause 8.3 says the status is valid until "the Nominee’s Membership Year End date and for the 12 month period thereafter" and Fitch has been told that the definition to be used for "Membership Year End" is NOT what we think it is but is instead the one actually given in the Ts & Cs, i.e. the expiry date of the membership card. By that definition my daughter would get well over two years of status if I nominated her today. Yes, it's ridiculous and not what is intended, but if you read the Ts & Cs carefully and interpret them as Fitch has been told they should be interpreted then this is the conclusion you reach.