TheWildHaggis

Long time reader, first time poster.

am currently Bronze level with the BA Executive Club, currently at 460 tier points. I have an upcoming business trip flying Aberdeen - Heathrow - Singapoure on 18th Aug, returning on the 31Aug, Singapore - Heathrow - Aberdeen. Both legs flying in WT+. According to "Manage my booking" this will earn me 240 Tier points putting me into the Silver membership. On the return leg I have a long wait in Heathrow (7hours) before my final flight to Aberdeen.

I figure that when i arrive in Heathrow on the return leg, i would have earned more than 140 tier points to put me into Silver, (240 for the round trip, and normally 20 tier points for Heathrow to Aberdeen).

Would i be able to access a BA silver lounge in Heathrow? As at this point i would have earned silver membership. However I am asking as I doubt if the tier points/status change would show on my account so quickly, but if i were to provide evidence of having taken the flight would that suffice?

Thanks in advance

bhbloke

Being that you'll only have just got off the flight that earns you Silver, there's little chance this will be reflected as it normally takes a day to post the points and then a further day or so to upgrade the status.

You could ask a lounge dragon and see if they can work any magic, but you're not Silver yet so I'm not sure how that would turn out.

corporate-wage-slave

Welcome to Flyertalk TheWildHaggis, and welcome to the BA forum. We don't get many Haggii joining here, so the more the merrier!

Formally you may not have access (but see next paragraph), you could perhaps show your App to the BA staff member on the lounge and if it is quiet they may let you in. There are several reported cases of this being allowed, but you can't take it for granted. I would either go off for a nice session in Pilots, knowing it's your final loungeless trip, or perhaps squeeze in another flight somehow to take you over.

You were perhaps slightly unclear on your points total: as I understand it you are on 480, you will get 100+20 on the outbound (if you're in CE it's definitely 40), so if there is sufficient gap you will be on 600 on the day in question (?). If you are not in CE, it may be worth considering the AUP or POUG to CE (glossary in the Dashboard) to get 40 TPs for Ł65 or Ł69.

More details here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...iers-baec.html

Pascoe

That or a quick TP run before the long haul. But you'd have to do that, erm, today by the looks of things. Tricky.

TheWildHaggis

Thanks for the input,

I have looked at the upgrade option to CE but the outbound flights have no availability and the chances of a quick flight today is nill. I shall ask at the lounge in Heathrow, he who dares wins...

Cymro

You could maybe get BA's dodgy IT to help you out by upgrading the short-haul leg to LHR to business using avios. (You must already be in an upgradeable class). You'll need to phone, but getting the ticket reissued is quite likely to end up with you being credited the extra 20 TP. It shouldn't, but it is quite likely.

This could also do very silly things to the taxes and charges payable, at which point it wouldn't be worth it.

However, this close to departure they'd need to issue the ticket quickly, which isn't quite certain - and it'd cost you 4,500 avios, which isn't bad value but might not be the best use for them.

Edit: seen that there's no availability. If that doesn't work, the two flights are quite full (particularly the later one) so while an op-up is unlikely to happen on balance, it can't be ruled out, either.

Pascoe

Find a quick qualifying trip somewhere interesting during the trip itself (there are a couple of weekends in there by my reckoning).

I love HK - you could always grab a CX flight there I guess. Or even MH to and from KL?

Although I hope on your return, if you do do this, that GC doesn't disappoint too much haha

fbruno

I got once in the Admirals Club in MIA after explaining the loungedragon that I had reached Silver status the day before, but the status wasn't updated yet in the system.

Pascoe

Very random in terms of chance of success.

Howabout the lounge meetup thread here? You'll be passing through, on a weekday right? Seems pretty likely to me that there will be one or two friendly FTers about who could maybe sign you in somewhere.
Edit - actually it's Sat 2nd in LHR right? But still, worth a shot if all else fails...

TheWildHaggis

Pascoe good call. 31Aug is when i will be in Heathrow.

Cheers

Pascoe

I thought you were returning 1 Sep, which I took to mean departing Sing 1 Sep, and therefore be in LHR 2 Sep.

If you have found a way to depart Asia 1 Sep and be in LHR 31 Aug, might I suggest that this is worth considerably more than a pass to GC and a chance of some free bacon sarnies ;-)

Flame3601

Shame we can't buy a maximum of 40TP. I know that would help out a ton of people here !

mikeyfly

You almost can by relying on an online or airport upgrade offer to CE

TheWildHaggis

Well the answer is not straight away. Just been to both north and south BA lounges in T5, showed them my current bronze tier points and my boarding pass from BA16, and told no and come back when your silver.

Ahhh well. Worth a try.