Infinite Possibilities

I've been lurking here for a while, and I am finally posting. Thanks for all the information I've gleaned over the past several months!

I am looking for some advice on whether I should stretch for GGL this year, I should be content as Gold, or I should get BA Gold and try to get/maintain status in a different FF program. I know this is a very personalized evaluation, so I'll share some background.

Travel Pattern
I live in the US. I typically fly 8-9 round-trip flights in discount business class ((140+40) x 2 TPs) in a year. Most are trans-continental US flights on AA. I usually fly to/through London once or twice a year on international trips, so I have the ability to get the 4 segments on BA.

Up to this point, I've been crediting to my AA account. But, due to the differences in the way AA and BA determine status, the best I've managed is Platinum Pro (the higher of AA's two OWS statuses). If I credit all my travel to BA, it seems like my travel should usually produce around 3,000 TPs per year.

I've opened a BAEC account and booked my next transatlantic trip (March) to credit to the BAEC account. From that point on, I'm planning to credit everything to BAEC until I reach Gold.

Desires for a FF Program
My chief concerns are lounge access and better IRROPs recovery (and better customer service, in general). Access to better seats is a nice-to-have.

I typically buy the cabin I intend to fly, so upgrades are not an issue.

When I redeem miles, I typically redeem miles for international travel, often to Europe. I'm happy to pay and UuA (or equivalent for other FF programs).

Why Make the Change?
Faster status: I fly a lot of discount business class flights that are just over 2K miles. On AA, that gets you 4K EQM (or 4% of the amount needed to qualify for OWE through AA). On BA, that gets you 140 TP (or about 10% of the amount needed to qualify for OWE). I expect to qualify for BA Gold based on flights in March-June, while I might barely re-qualify for AA's lowest OWS status in the same time.

Lounge Access: BA Gold gives you access to AA's Flagship Lounges and Flagship First Checkin. AA's equivalent OWE status does not (at least, on the routes I fly).

Concerns
During IRROPs, how will AA prioritize me as a BA OWE? How will that priority compare to what I currently receive as an AA OWS (which is all I realistically hope to achieve if I stay in AA's program)?

My Dilemma
As I anticipate flying enough (~3,000 TPs/annum) to re-qualify for GGL on a recurring basis, I am wondering if it makes sense to go out of my way to try to reach the 5,000 TPs needed to initially qualify. I could get part of the way there through "tier point optimisation" (the apparent euphemism for taking two connections when a direct flight is available :-) ). However, I would probably need to do some TP runs to get the rest of the way there.

I would not be able to regularly take advantage of the CCR card, as I typically only fly through LHR a few times a year.

I think I would be able to make use of the extra status cards, as they would give my family lounge access when we travel together. I also may find the "Jokers" useful.

I'm curious if GGL would provide noticeably better IRROPs recovery and customer service. (I'm curious about this both when flying on BA and flying on AA.)

It seems like my other choices are to simply credit the 3,000 TPs to BAEC and use them to reach Lifetime Gold that much quicker or to credit them to another FF program and try to get a lower FF status on another airline.

Why Ask This Question Now?
You may be wondering why I am asking this when I have 0 TPs in my account. That's a fair question. Basically, it boils down to this: if I'm going to try for GGL, I want to start planning now and taking advantage of "tier point optimisation" and TP runs from the beginning. If I'm going to be content with Gold, I may just fly my normal routes. So, since this will impact the way I fly throughout the year, I'd like to know how to plan before I start.

Thanks in advance for your input! (And, happy flying! :-) )

carrotjuice

A somewhat short answer to your long question. My main priority of retaining GGL as opposed to settling for Gold are:
- GUF2 (which I value at circa £2,500 based on my usual travel patterns)
- 2 jokers a year (no point in accumulating all these Avios but have no ability to redeem them, so the jokers to unlock redemptions at short notice comes in very handy)
- additional Gold and 2 Silver cards to gift to family and friends who need it (and scoring nice brownie points in the process!)

dylanks

To me the jokers and GGL line make it worth the stretch. I too am based in the US. I've received the Concierge Key treatment on AA a few times in case of IRROPS which has been helpful. I have a few posts and threads out there from the last two years about how I've benefited from GGL.

nufnuf77

To me main advantages are GGL line and Gufs. My last Guf1 saved me 170k Avios if I were to UuA instead so can’t complain.
as you mostly fly AA I am not sure GGL line would be much help and gufs can only be used on BA prime and as you only do 1/2 trips to Wurope again not sure how much use those will be.

LCY8737

The main benefit is the GGL line - usually the phone gets picked up in 10 seconds and most of the time you will speak to a GGL agent (who are always competent). Sometimes there is a call overflow to the regular line and you get the usual mix of good and not so good agents. Another great benefit is that you can email the GGL team.

The rest of the benefits (jokers, vouchers) are great too.

One to note: The GGL line will not bend the rules for you. So during IROPS, there will be no rerouting on non OW carriers (sometimes not even that). Or no booking on flights under airport control. That can be disappointing when comparing flexibility to other carriers during extreme situations.

deboyzoned

Hi OP ....

Deleted

mikebg

5000

deboyzoned

Yes .. I deleted previous comment

Tobias-UK

Welcome to FlyerTalk @Infinite Possibilities and to the BA branch, and congratulations for emerging from lurkerdom! Looking at your travel habits it looks like you will fit in nicely here and have lots of experience to share.

I notice you are stateside and that a vast majority of your travel will be with AA. Much of my travel is in the USA and so I fly AA quite often domestically. As a GGL I have found IRROPS in the US are handled excellently by the AA Premium Services team who appear to have a watching brief on BA GGLs. Over the years I've had messages relayed to me in the air that an agent will be waiting with a new boarding pass, or have found Premium Service waiting at the aircraft door with a tablet displaying my name to be presented with new BP or to organise hotel accommodation. So in that sense you should notice an improvement in service to that you are accustomed as an AA Plat.

frb98mf

With that travel pattern and being US-based, as others have pointed out, the benefits of GGL over Gold are really limited to irrops handling and the few flights you actually do on BA metal. Nothing worth going for the initial 5,000 TPs and maintaining 3,000 TPs thereafter for, if you ask me. As a bog-standard Gold, I seem to get pretty decent treatment on AA in terms of both irrops and frequent upgrades (not relevant to you as you point out). And with a healthy stash of Avios, you can UuA your BA flights to F pretty freely, especially if flexible on exact timings and ex-JFK where you can use the CCR too.

I'm guessing if you are in discount business, it's either your company or someone constrains your travel budget, so surely you are better to have more options when you fly to let you choose the best price and convenience as well as maximising your FF position - I'd look at hitting the 1,500 TP mark with BA and getting status on another alliance/carrier of use to you. You may even find a status match to get you started. TK is a reasonable route and they will do a status challenge for *A Gold - initial 4 month match, book any TK international flight to extend to 12 months, earn 15,000 miles in that period to extend to 24 months, pretty low renewal requirement. Depending on your European travel schedule, A3 is usually a good option if you can get your 2 flights for Silver and then 4 flights for Gold that halve the number of miles you need. Once qualified, you get 4 upgrade coupons a year so you can do those in J (like BA CE but with excellent, generous catering).

eefor jfp

Since the vast majority of your flights are on AA, the main question seems to be the benefits you will regularly receive during your AA travels with status on BA. For lounge access, it means you're saving the cost of an Admirals Club membership and getting to use the Flagship Lounges (JFK, MIA, DFW, ORD, LAX, etc.) if you connect through those hubs. GGL would give you the additional benefit of cards for your family to access those lounges on the rare occasions that you travel together. For IRROPS, the few experiences on this board have been generally positive for GGL on AA but the number of experiences is too low to give an adequate picture of how GGL fare in comparison to CK, EXP or even PlatPro. So that's really the question you need answered and you may get some anecdotal evidence, but probably not enough to make a truly informed decision. But maybe some help with a good guess.

rather_be_on_a_griffin

My experience has generally been very good with AA on IRROPS. I have even found that their app works quite well for rebooking recently and it seemingly prioritizes me as a OWE over my work colleagues with lower status with AA. You will have access to agents in the lounge and the EXP line, which will also help.

As for GGL I would say it is worth a shot then you will know for sure but those additional 2,000TP are much harder to get than in the days when domestic F credited first class tier points. On my cheapest domestic flights these days I struggle to do much better than $3-$4/TP and that of course requires a few sectors on each journey so you will get to find out how good IRROPS is at some point!

Infinite Possibilities

Oh, your post just made me realize that the GUFs open up regular award space. For some reason, I had it in my mind that these were like the Gold Priority Rewards, where you had to pay double. That does highly increase their utility for me, as I would be most likely to redeem miles for transatlantic flights, which could easily end up on BA. Thanks for clearing up the confusion (even if that wasn't your intent :-) )!

Infinite Possibilities

I suppose that's fair and accurate. At the moment, roughly 75% of my travel is within the US.

To be clear, I don't have anything against BA. In the 2004-2006 timeframe, I used to prefer to fly them over AA. But, it was hard to justify back when AA wouldn't award miles for BA transatlantic flights. I got out of the habit of flying BA and didn't seriously consider them until recently. I have my first BA flight scheduled for mid-March. I know a lot has changed in the past 13 years, so I'm not quite sure what to expect. It will be an interesting comparison.

I'll try to add to the anecdotal evidence by posting my experience. For better or worse, I seem to regularly experience AA IRROPs handling. Therefore, if history is any guide, I should get a few data points over the next year as my status increments.

carrotjuice