Pocalypse

Are the UK office hours still 6am - 1am as the first post says? I've been getting routed to India when calling after 11pm.

crazyarmadillo

I believe its either at 9.45 or 10.45 pm UK time now . I have called before at 9.40 pm and gone thru to Indian office.

I find the Indian office very good as well. I was, at first, a couple years ago a bit concerned when the UK office stopped being 24 hrs, but was surprised how efficient the Indian office is and also its a lot quicker to get through at those times.

Vasco Pridat

I have the feeling it has been discussed but cannot find it anymore .
I have a booking with 075 zur lhr jfk.. All flight ba metal.
Can I use a redemption for those if they have an iberia number?

KARFA

no, you can only use then on BA 125-... ticket.

SDUKAG

Just a data point on the welcome kit and also about my first experience flying as GGL.
I qualified for GGL on the 13th September and the app updated within 2-3 days. I received my GGL card/CCR card and bag tags all in one package today (29th). This is to California.
I qualified on the outbound flights and on both of my return flights, I received special welcomes from the CSM/CSD who congratulated me on reaching GGL. One was a CE flight and the other long haul F. On the CE flight I didn't notice any otherGold welcomes at all, unless there weren't any others in CE, so the welcome was quite conspicuous which isn't my preference but it was nice that they acknowledged it nonetheless.
On the long-haul F flight, on arriving at the aircraft door, I was welcomed very enthusiastically (more so than I have ever experienced before) and I almost wondered if this was some other part of reaching GGL. I did notice that on my F boarding pass, GGL was printed below my name which wasn't the case on the CE flight so I wondered if they noticed that. Anyway a new experience for me.

Vasco Pridat

I read about it back and forth.. And wanted to add my personal experience here.
I politely asked if my ccr card would entitle me to first dining and ​​​ was very friendly denied with the reason, that they only order meals based on their f passengers.. Sounds good to me, I was understanding

Fly2Where

SDUKAG, First of all, Congrats!!
In regards to GGL printed below your name, my experience was all flights "Depart" from LHR will get the GGL typed, LH or SH; Y, C or F. Others in this forum had pointed out it's manually input in LHR, mainly LHR departure.

Hope you enjoy GGL benefit !

rossmacd

I'm in a bit of a quandary, which is typically not like me Hopefully I can glean some advice from the assembled. I've recently (slightly) changed responsibilities and my travel patterns will change from short frequent trips, to frequent longer (but typically further) trips - if that makes sense!

Current run rate for the first 3 months since membership reset is a touch over 800 TPs per month. On the face of it, a relatively busy year so far with little sign of it letting up at least until Christmas, then kicking off again from late-January. No problems you would think - I'll easily re-qualify for GGL, CCR etc and some of the extra GUFs/Avios bonus thresholds, and also associated earning over on *A (I am currently M&M SEN, but could hit M&M Hon Circle in Q4). I estimate I'll probably end up on a 8000 TP year (not as much as some on here, granted). However, here are my concerns:

• The (normal) GUFs earned are sometimes not always used, and some expire, and others I try to give away where possible
• The additional bonus GUFs are added to the pile (see above - not used), and the 50k Avios bumps are just added to the pot
• Jokers (for me) are little benefit - I think I've only used one joker that I can remember and that was on a DBV-LGW in ET, that I ended up cancelling anyway!
• I could also start to credit again to my AA account, which has some miles sitting there, but the SWUs/stickers are largely useless since I tend to be in US Domestic F anyway as my internals are booked typically on the same ticket as TATLs in J - it would give more redemption flexibility in future years I guess
• The majority of my OW bookings are made via Corporate TA, but seldom on 125 ticket stock (restricting upgrade opportunities)
• GFL is close, so not concerned here, but GGLFL feels like a long, long way off!

Any suggestions or thoughts on how to approach this (very much first world) problem? Any other OW FF programmes that would be worthwhile looking into? Ultimately, I want to make sure I'm not missing something in terms of benefits which are not so obvious. Any ideas most welcome. What would you do?

xenole

Partner card question.

My year ends on the 8th Dec.
I can still gift a partner card but if I were say to give one to a family member this month, would it last for 12 months from now or is it tied in to my year? i.e. 2 months + 12 months, or 8th Oct 2018 - 7th Oct 2019

BA6501

Tied to their own year. 2 months + 12.

golfmad

David_Doyle

Nice problems to have

I think my first point is that I disagree with the idea of diversifying across programmes once certain thresholds are hit. To me, building up the Avios pot is nice even once various points are hit - the 50k bumps you get are great to have and really boost the balance. I know there are those that say you shouldn't keep a large balance as you never know when things are going to change etc however I see no reason to burn points just because I have them - they're great as a rainy day/retirement fund and can be great value as we know on partners, especially in US/Oz for example.

I think if you're flying LHR to US regularly then you're in the sweet spot of benefits - the CCR on each trip (you don't say if coming back through JFK much but I presume you do on occasion). Both the JFK and LHR CCR are a really nice step up from GF that even I as a humble GGL-CCR as opposed to GGL+CCR have missed the calm of the CCR. My OH complains massively about BA lounges which are undoubtedly a victim of the success of BA and the volume of passengers.

In terms of other programmes I'm guessing that going to Frankfurt to fly to the US is regarded as rightly absurd therefore it's between AA and VS for alternatives, both of which have equivalent lifetime Gold status available. If you have BA GFL then AA's isn't really going to give much benefit as you get domestic F anyway.

In short, and knowing that you know your way around various programmes pretty well, I'd be inclined to conclude that your deal is pretty good overall and that there's little 'missing out' going on. Diversifying can just make things more complex - I had an Etihad Guest account and am now burning miles as it's inflexible and limited, OH had a KrisFlyer account but points will expire soon - having one pot with lots of status benefits that can be used across a large network is very appealing.

golfmad

If you're traveling transatlantic in J on BA, why not use the jokers and either GUFs or Avios to upgrade to F?

rossmacd

It is a nice problem to have, I agree

The 50k bonus Avios are just added to an ever increasing pot. At the moment, the only redemptions I make are RFS travelling between continental EU cities and London (if not on a cash ticket). I actually need to be in AMS at a specific time from LHR, and rather than pay cash I used a joker to get on the flight I actually wanted to fly (I hear the shouts from the grandstands already about a terrible waste of a joker). That being said, 50k Avios is ~10 ET sectors.

I shuttle between EU and US by way of LHR to JFK normally, using AA on the way to US, and BA on the way back, so CCR access is largely wasted on the outbound but of course I use it on the inbound (and I find the JFK CCR catering provision generally better in quality - but less choice - than the LHR counterpart). If (/when?) BA launch a new J seat that is acceptable for a day flight, then I may move the AA flights back to BA, but who knows when this will be.

But thanks for the positive reassurance in any case

rossmacd

My tickets are typically issued on 001, as opposed to 125, stock therefore GUFs are not able to be used unfortunately. I would use them if I could, since BA F in the air is an acceptable product for a relatively short hop like LHR-JFK.