so3003

mrs-so3003 and I have recently welcomed mini-so3003 into the world We are both longstanding golds; mrs-so3003 renewed in February and I'll renew in September (only about 30 TPs short, which I'll easily make up before then anyway). Since most of our BA travel (and almost all of mrs-so3003's travel) is for leisure, with the drop in income this year we're likely to use our Avios / 241s etc rather than doing as much revenue travel. I understand BA now offer status hold for 1 year for new parents, and also give 1000 bonus Avios to the new child if added to the household account within 6 months of claiming the status hold. Some questions:

1) Will both mrs-so3003 and I be eligible for status hold for 12 months? (as opposed to just mrs-so3003)

2) If we are both eligible, will they process these as separate applications, ie mrs-so3003 applies now for her status hold while I wait until I renew in September for mine?

3) If I add mini-so3003 to the household account before applying for status hold, will they still credit the 1000 bonus avios? It won't break the bank if they don't, but every little helps (want to add him to the account to book a short avios trip in the next few weeks)

Thanks in advance for help.

newyorklondon

I'm not sure of the answer to your questions, but the first thing is to get a clear sense of what a 'status hold' means, which is still unclear to me. Our son was born in November '17, and I applied for a status hold in March '18. My membership year ends on 8 May each year, and I'd already renewed Gold by March '18. But I was hoping for a status hold until May '19 (i.e. if I missed earning all the TPs I needed to maintain Gold by 8 May, '19, my status would still be held into the next TP-earning cycle).

Alas, no. This was the response:

Members who may be taking fewer or no flights during their maternity, paternity or adoption leave can apply to put their account on hold for a year, protecting hard-earned Executive Club Bronze, Silver or Gold status. I have checked your account for you today and can see that your current Gold Tier status is not due to expire until May 2018, and you have earned enough Tier Points to renew at Gold for your next Tier Point collection year. When we put an account on hold, the account can still be accessed and used as usual and the Tier Points that you have earned that year will still reset at the end of your current Tier Point collection year, however, the hold will ensure that you remain at the same Tier status for your next Tier Point collection year. As you will already hold Gold membership until May 2019, it is not necessary for us to place your account on hold for the duration of your leave.

So I'm thinking of applying again once my membership year starts over in a week or so. There doesn't seem to be a time limit on when one can apply for status hold after the birth of the child.

ppp909

I assume the status held would be whatever you held at the time of birth, given that you are asked for birth certificates.
We have a little one due in July and the wife's silver status runs out in August so this is welcome for us.

newyorklondon

Not in our case, no.

so3003

Ideally they'd just "pause" TP accrual for 365 days, so by this time next year I'd be in same TP position as now - but it sounds like I'll need to apply once my year rolls over in September.

ppp909

I'm not sure I understand you. The point of it is to allow you to keep your status during a period where you'd be traveling less. In your case you continued to build your TP and get to gold. So they could have said they've held your gold status for a year, but seeing as you achieved it anyway, it made no difference.

newyorklondon

But when do they determine the commencement of the period? Birth? Start of maternity/paternity leave? Application for status hold? A lot of the benefit depends on how close this determined date is to the start of your TP year. It would actually be great to get some clarification from BA on this.

In my case I was Gold at the time of my son's birth in November 2017. The period in which we plan to be doing less travel will be roughly until November 2018. My TP year restarts each May. So the period of less travel cuts across two TP-collecting years, and the scheme would actually be useful if I knew that the TP year commencing May 2018 was able to be held.

ppp909

I believe it's birth. I did send an email about it to them a while back and they did say they would need a birth certificate. I'll see if I can dig out the email when I get a chance (away at the moment).

Globaliser

Are there any answers in the main thread on this topic? Paternity benefit, real results?

newyorklondon

From that thread, the policy seems to be quite hit-and-miss, and somewhat random - not least the retroactive nature of it (hence some advice to wait until your TP year has just re-set before applying).

VS has a much simpler policy: they just boost your TPs to ensure you maintain status.

newyorklondon

I thought the birth certificate was just a document of proof. For one thing UK maternity leave (and assumption of less travel) can be taken 11 weeks(?) before the expected due date.

In other words, say you drop a tier two months before giving birth, whilst on maternity leave. By sending in the birth certificate, I would hope BA would revert then hold your pre-maternity leave status.