crazyanglaisy

I'm on course to re-qualify for GGL but not my CCR card in 2019, so If GGL re-qualification was increased to 5,000 TPs, that plan will go out of the window. In this scenario, I'll be spreading my bookings around far more liberally after I hit 1,500 TPs, unless of course some much improved incentives are introduced between 1,500 and 5,000 TPs. As it stands, the GUFs wouldn't provide anywhere near enough motivation for me to continue to remain loyal to BA (or, I should say, OneWorld) after hitting Gold.

AdBoy

I wonder what happens to those who’ve already ‘retained Gold Guest List’ on ba.com/the app for this year but don’t/haven’t ever hit 5k?

lorcancoyle

If BA have any sense they’ll say the changes apply from the next membership year or membership years starting after a specific future date. Anything more immediate that moved goalposts part way through a year risks massive customer badwill

LondonCanuck

Problem is, whatever they will do is always in the mid of someone’s membership year, so my guess is that they will just pick a date in the future (like when they last moved the GGL goal posts) of say, 4 months, and tell people to deal with it. Their club, their rules...

However, I am curious how they will try to spin it... “we want to get rid of The underperformers, so we can make it even more exclusive...”? My views are likely aligned with Filthy Monkey, but looking forward to seeing that email...

OverTheHorizon

And that, of course, is something BA always strive to avoid

chris1979

revenue based earning will to lead to less avios being earned on most tickets which will make avios more valuable - so the 'spend spend spend' messages from above (which I have also heard offline) don't align with that.
which means it's likely to be a devaluation (so redeeming is getting more costly), possibly combined with making earning harder.
if it was only revenue based / earning being harder, it'd be wise to sit on avios.

dylanks

As a CCR cardholder, I've only managed to use the CCR five times (out of around 30
BA segments) during my year which ends in a bit less than a month. This is in large part because my most common routes are via T3.

Combined with being teetotal, BA's cost to provide my CCR card has to be amongst the lowest of any CCR members.

As such, when it was clear that I was going to end up at somewhere around 4100 tier points (in part because of the AA decrease in TP and in part due to a slower travel year for work), I couldn't really justify stretching to 5000 tier points, though if the minimum was 5000 for GGL I would have found a way. If BA raises the stakes too much then I would probably stop trying as much and settle with earning BA Gold and Star Gold.

Oddly enough, such a change would hurt AA the most where I'll often pay a bit more to fly AA compared to UA or DL, and BA on short haul where LH or AF/KL are often a better price.

Markie

This is pretty much what the US airlines did - cut earning based on spend * a multiple based on status and ramp up the cost of 'free tickets'.
If BA wants to pursue this strategy, we might see a big change in this board and BA flying. Although where we go of course, is much more tricky to know.

Rubecula

Are BA spending a lot of time wondering whether GGL should number 500 or 5,000? I hope not. Key decisions are the number of silver and gold members.

lorcancoyle

ThatT1Feeling

Well if it’s going to 5k for this higher tier and all GGL benefits cease to exist for the 3k crew, then that’s possibly 4500 high spending customers which BA will be consciously annoying for the sake of 1000 higher spending customers... so those 1000 should need to spend 4x and more per passenger than the “lost” GGLs if all of their benefits revert to Gold level. , plus fund this higher service level which won’t be cheap to deliver. Doesn’t seem to add up to me.

LCY8737

SuperstarDJ

bafan

Dave_C

So clearly very few know the details of what changes will be announced, but I’m curious as to what BA believe they want to achieve with these rumoured changes.

My guess is that number one on the list will be a reduction in costs. Seemingly everything in the airline is geared around that, so the Executive Club should be no exception.

That would seem to imply either a reduction in benefits, or a reduction in the number of people that get those benefits.

Rather than fiddle with the tiers, from a perception point of view, would it not be better to change the number of tier points earned, and make them more closely aligned to the fare class? I certainly remember when Club World segments earned 120 and not 140 tier points and was somewhat surprised about the increase.

I also remember when Silver was 700 to obtain and 500 to retain, with Gold at 1500 / 1200 (iirc). Tweaking the tier points earned would be a less headline grabbing way of achieving the same result.

As someone who on April 8th should requalify for my sixth year of GGL at just over 3,000 tier points, I agree with the broad sentiment, that 5,000 is too many for me to get to. We’re only mid-March and I’m now at around 52K status miles with M&M and fully expect to be SEN by the end of the year.

Being Gold for Life, I would be exceptionally disappointed if BA decided to withdraw that benefit. One hopes that if they did decide to make changes there, they would either raise the level, or close it entirely, but not then withdraw it from those that have obtained it. However, given what BA have been doing recently, could certainly see them decide to say “screw you”.

So lots of speculation, not much fact, curious to see what actually happens.