ollyparkhouse

Hi, I am new to the forum, but felt I had to speak up about my experiences.

I have been a bronze member for 4 years in a row now, never quite made it to silver, but I wanted to speak about the benefits I get as a bronze member, and how I feel they are disappearing.

Firstly I dont live in the UK, but mainland Europe, but ALWAYS fly BA when I can. 99% of trips are Business short haul, booked by the agency.

Tier & Avios:
Previously I sued to receive 10 tier points and between 250 and 500 avios for each flight. So 30 short haul to get Bronze. Today I get mainly 5 tier points and 125-250 avios. SO 60 short haul to get Bronze. I know it depends on type of ticket etc, but 60 flights!!!

Priority Boarding:
9/10 I find Gold and Silver are called. Then the rest. No Bronze.

Seat reservation:
My preference is set as aisle. Hasn't changed in 6 years. So why when I login to set my seat, am I in a middle or window seat?

Food:
BA is now a low cost airline when it comes to short haul. The idea was to be competitive and keep prices low. Except the prices havent changed, I just need to pay for food. However, as I mentioned above I now get 125 avios. A coffee costs 300+ avios. God forbid I want something to eat. Why is food more expensive that what I get for a flight? or is it a deterrent from using them?

Many of many co-workers fly Air France/KLM, and I see them getting better rewards. it is miles based only, and depending on the miles you do in a year you change colour reward. BUT reward flights you pay in miles only and no cash. Some live outside France, and are rewarded extra for being loyal (I get nothing from BA for being loyal living outside of the UK).

When I do long haul, I have to travel into Gatwick then change to Heathrow, and vice versa. The guy at the BA counter in Dubai asked me why I did this and not chose another airline that flew direct. That summed it up for me. Why do I do it, when I am not getting much in return anymore.

I think for the first time in 4 years I will drop down to blue, as I havent qualified for 300 tier points. Unless I pay for an upgrade just to keep me there.

What can be done to bring back the benefits as they should be?

Ollyparkhouse

Saltire74

I thought that you qualify for Silver with 50 eligible flights if you don't hit the magic 600 TP's.

S

csdavidson

Welcome to FlyerTalk


For Bronze, you can fly 25 flights on BA within your BAEC year and 50 flights on BA to get Silver. I know a lot people that achieve Silver this way on UK Domestic flights.

As for priority boarding, it doesn't work for us Golds (or Silvers) very well either!

nux

Sounds like you are normally booked in deep discount economy fares. The TPs and avios received reflect this.

You either need 300 TPs and 2 eligible flights OR 25 eligible flights for Bronze, not 60 flights.
600 TPs and 4 eligible flights OR 50 eligible flights for Silver.
See: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...7-edition.html

If your ticket is booked through a corporate travel agent then they may be selecting your seat. You may be able to provide your agent with your seat preference.

BA/BAEC has reduced benefits and earnings especially for deep discount economy fare passengers to better reflect the revenue they provide. I don't see BA adding additional benefits or making it easier to reach various status levels in the near future.

Cymro

One thing I would add is that, if your preference is set to aisle, this is not taken into account when travelling on a basic (hand-baggage only) fare.

I don't do these that often, but when I do, even as a gold I find myself in a window seat probably 3/4 of the time, despite sharing your aisle preference. (Never middle at least!)

As such, depending on the route, the "plus" fares that include seat selection (a week before travel for a bronze, but that should still virtually guarantee an aisle seat) and a degree of on-the-day flexibility are probably better value, especially for business travel.

stewaran

In your situation, I would not fly BA unless they were Cheapest/most convenient.

IMHO adding bronze to priority boarding was the tipping point that ruined it.

ppp909

Welcome to the forum.

I'm guessing that it's becoming clear to you as it is to many others, that BA don't really want you as a customer; you're an inconvenience.

You've probably already worked this out, but the solution is to use another carrier. There are plenty of threads on this board discussing the demise of BA - it will take you a long time to read them.

I'm dropping to Bronze at the end of this week; I was Gold two years ago. I can't say I'm really bothered. The amount I fly has dropped and it's going to shoot back up later this year so I feel more inclined to shop around. The best short-haul flight I've had recently was on Ryan Air. Better than club Europe. Who'd have thought it?

simons1

Welcome to FT. I think you are experiencing what 95% of contributors on here are finding.

Nothing I'm afraid. Unless you are related to King Canute.

You get the same benefits as anyone else. Why should the fact that you live abroad make any difference? Does it make your custom extra-important?

In fact aren't ex-EU flights cheaper anyway? Don't you benefit from that?

And the answer is?? We all have a choice.

Seriously I would say anyone who even considers laying out extra cash to retain Bronze should be seeing a doctor.

I share your pain, the appropriate medicine is to sit down with a cold glass on wine and seriously re-think your travel arrangements and loyalties.

ollyparkhouse

You get the same benefits as anyone else. Why should the fact that you live abroad make any difference? Does it make your custom extra-important?

In fact aren't ex-EU flights cheaper anyway? Don't you benefit from that?


- What I am saying is if I fly Air France or KLM to go to say the US or Dubai (as I have to travel there every now and again) it is easier for me. BUT instead I fly to the UK (Gatwick) then over to Heathrow, and onwards. massive inconvenience, but loyal to BA. The return is always a nightmare, arriving 6am then going to Gatwick for a 18:00 flight (only 2 flights a day). so huge stop over. Other Airlines reward this type of loyalty. BA take it away

nux

Why would you take such an inconvenient routing? Is BA much cheaper?

ppp909

That thought did cross my mind. From here the benefits are:

25% extra Avios - 25% of **** all is still **** all
Business Class Check In - Get to stand in a different queue
Priority Boarding - Get to stand in a longer queue
Choose your seat 7 days in advance - Useless on an HBO, and not that big a deal otherwise

And that's it. Welcome to Bronze.

Misco60

If anything, I would suggest that it is perhaps too easy to achieve meaningful status with BA - a single TP run to the US, even with another airline (such as the recent MAN-SAT deal with AA), is enough to get you to Silver and can cost under £1,000. For that relatively small investment you get lounge access for up to two years on all your short-haul flights in Y - and who, in their right mind, would actually pay for BA Club Europe on most routes these days? - as well as all the other benefits such as free seat selection (which, to me, is the most valuable benefit of all), priority check-in, security and boarding and additional Avios.

NickB

That is not correct. You do hav to pay for taxes and fees on FlyingBlue just as much as you do with BAEC. On intra-European fares, however, they no longer charge surcharges so that you end up for most itineraries with quite low taxes, broadly comparable to what you would pay under the BAEC RFS system. For long-haul, OTOH, the charges are more substantial although slightly less than BA as AF and KL tend to have lower fuel surcharges.

The only "reward" for residing outside France is lower qualification threshold. BA used to do the same with lower qualification threshold for residents of continental Europe but abolished that several years ago.

To be honest, I find the BAEC programme still more attractive than the Flying Blue one as the earn/burn rate on BAEC is still much better than in Flying Blue, even though Flying Blue is zone-based rather than segment-based for redemptions.*

The problem with BA is less the FFP, even though it has undoubtedly deteriorated, than the airline itself.

*: That said, if it is status rather than earn/burn which is your focus and you fly mostly deep-discounted economy tickets, then Flying Blue might make sense as it is possible to achieve status purely by segment right up to the the equivalent of BAEC Gold (Flying Blue Platinum) whereas qualification by segment with BA is only up to silver.

Arctic Troll

Maybe I'm just too cynical and have too much faith in BA IT, but I think they do take the preference into account.

They just give you the opposite to persuade you to pay to change it.

Put it this way, since I changed my preference from window to aisle I've been getting a lot more window seats. Which is sweet, as what I want is a window seat

Arctic Troll

There's no such thing as an airline rewarding loyalty. Their only loyalty is to £ and $, yours should be too.

Why would you put yourself out like that unless BA are significantly cheaper? Madness.