All She Wrote

I'm hoping a gold member may be able to offer some advice to me on this situation. I'm new to the forum, and fairly new to the whole miles and tier points game (currently 23 and have only been an active BAEC member for around 2 years), and this definitely looks like the right site to ask these questions on, so hi! I'm currently mid collection year and going to accrue around what I'd expect to be the average number of TP for me per year in the foreseeable future, somewhere between 1,000 and 1,400 depending on a couple of upcoming trips that I've not yet booked, putting me at Silver membership. I only fly for leisure, mainly east coast transat routes from LHR, sometimes west coast (my partner lives between the UK, USA, and Canada), the majority of the time I fly in J, sometimes in WTP, and sometimes in F.

At the moment with the exception of when I'm in WTP I feel that Silver benefits are somewhat redundant as you almost get them all when travelling J anyway. I'm anticipating the additional trip cost of gold being somewhere around the Ł1000 to Ł1500 mark. I'm not so keen on doing a overnight TP run, so it'd be from an additional trip or two, most likely CE+ routes. But these are trips I otherwise wouldn't be doing (that's not to say I won't enjoy them)! If you were in this situation, what would you do? Any veteran advice would be much appreciated!



Note - I have read the benefits on the BA site and my mind is stuck halfway.

madfish

Welcome. You certainly have come to the right place.

Rather than a TP run how about TP optimisation? When flying to the US fly into one city and then connect to the city you want. Likely to add a few hours but probably no extra cost and you’ll earn an additional 40TPs each way in J.

bisonrav

Why not see where you get to and then decide? It'd make sense if you got to 1400 TP to nudge yourself over the line, less obvious if you need a few hundred TP.

foolonthehill

Welcome, and I'm sure someone more important will be along to welcome you properly shortly!

As someone usually flying J (or with the family in Y), I have always had the same feeling about being Silver - there aren't really any benefits that are particularly useful that you don't already get.

But as a relatively newly-minted Gold, I've found quite a step up so far. The Flounge's are good, but not that special. The real benefit I've found is the increased Rewards Availability - both in terms of additional rewards seats, and the "double Avios" Priority Rewards. Suddenly all those Avios points become exponentially more useful, and I've booked many more short breaks this year already.

All She Wrote

Considering I make around half my trips to Pittsburgh I think you might have struck Gold (get it), up until now we've been picking her car up in YYZ and driving down via Niagara. I'll definitely look into that in a bit more depth, hopefully you're right on the cost part! My last trip this year may work for this which could get me very close to the line, so a big thank you!

Although a lot of my bookings are fairly last minute due to not knowing where I'm going, due to my work I have to put aside the time for travels quite far in advance (sometimes as little as 2 months, sometimes up to 12 months), in this TP year I have 2 trips right before my collection year ends, the second literally getting back the day before. I have 2 holidays booked for the summer that won't be done with BA so my options are basically committing to it now(ish) or giving it another year!

corporate-wage-slave

Welcome to Flyertalk All She Wrote, welcome to the BA forum and yes, you have definitely come to the right place. In your shoes, it seems to me that the three benefits of getting Gold would be the use of the First Wing, the First lounges in several locations and extra Avios earning rate, which may then unlock further benefits for you. But there's a big difference between 1100 and 1400 TPs, the latter could mean a Ł200 trip to reach Gold for the last 100 TPs, whereas the 1100 figure not only increases the cost but suggests that you won't necessarily get to benefit from Gold when you have it, you would seem to have fewer opportunities to use the First Wing and what-not.

T8191

Hello!! Here we are again!! It all hinges, IMO, on the OP’s perceptions of the benefits of Gold. We see the following:

First Checkin
First Lounges
Enhanced Avios earning
Baggage allowances (for our US shopping trips)

Certainly, as your usual travel gets you close to Gold, it seems worth pushing the extra bit to achieve it ... and then see how you feel. We rack up the TPs with additional holidays, which is always nice, and use ‘creative routings’ wherever possible to the USA ... that might fit your scenario? A bit of extra effort to do an ex-DUB to the USA can also be VERY beneficial.

Go on, go for it!! You know you’re tempted, and if OAPs can do it why shouldn’t you?

All She Wrote

I'm glad to see someone else on the same page with the Silver benefits. That's very interesting about the reward availability, are those seats in all travel classes or just Y?

I would anticipate that in my next year I'll make 6 long haul trips, and probably 1 or 2 short haul ones. I would probably have made Gold this year if I hadn't taken two trips across with Air Canada, kind of kicking myself for it now!

All She Wrote

I do hope you sell things for a living sir



Thanks a lot for the help all, it seems I've got a bit of looking around to do on point collection optimisation!

foolonthehill

Obviously the most important reason for Gold is to get your hands on those special luggage tags. Helps to remind everyone that you're just that little bit more important......

T8191

hahaha ... no, we just spend our pensions and the kids’ inheritance

Our usual route to the US is DUB-PHL (with AA in J) and then onward. For max benefits you need 2,000 mile plus segments to maximise TPs on AA. It is, I admit, quite a complex game but you will get loads of tips here.

And a belated welcome from me

foolonthehill

Extra reward seats is only in Y (but can be very useful for going to Europe). Priority Rewards is for any seat on the plane, but then double the F rate is quite a hit!

BertieBadger

Welcome to FlyerTalk, as madfish says, you've come to the right place!

Next, the inevitable caveat that all such "is it worth it" questions inevitably have a very personal element. For some people a single extra minute on a plane wouldn't be worth it, while many here will construct elaborate TP-optimised routings to get there at minimum cost.

Now, with that said, I can offer some personal perspective, as I made a specific effort [1] to hit Gold this year (coming from Silver) and I'm glad I did it. Some personal reasons why I thought it worth it, but they may or may not apply to you:

• Most of my leisure flying is SH in Club Europe, I like being able to select Row 1 from the off and not have to try grab it later.
• All of my business flying is LH and usually involves a few hours connection at LHR. Galleries First is a nicer space than Galleries Club I think. Not a dramatic difference, but a step up.
• About 70% of my LH flights will be in WTP with a connection to LHR in ET. Seat blocking is working very well so far, better than when I was silver I think.
• The bonus Avios is very welcome.
• The First Wing is far preferable to flight connections (so far)
• My travel patterns can (and do) change so the "soft landing" was a consideration as well

Now none of those things may matter much to you. If I was based in London, mostly flying LH in J, I'd be somewhat less convinced. And as others have said, a lot will depend on how close you are to the magic 1500. But if I found myself within a cheap CE trip or 2, I'd go for it.

[1] As a specific effort, it lacked a certain specificity since I find myself roughly one flight away from GUF2 territory by renewal. This place will do that to you....

Frequent flyer 101

Or for the subtle natured GCH, the once in a blue moon occasion when dealing with a Silver DYKWIA who pushes his luck in the priority line by having the ability to quip "yeah, and I'm a gold". Kids these days with their boarding groups will never know the pleasure.

All She Wrote

Like like the people that leave the priority tags on their suitcases until the next time they reach a check in desk

Many thanks! I just did a quick search for options to Pittsburgh, I found a lot of two route options available and for a much more reasonable price than when I looked last (must have just been a bad time of year), which according to the calculator would add an extra 80 per trip