madfish

Mike P

The First lounge at Heathrow T5 is substantially better than the Galleries lounges in my opinion. I like the First Wing a lot too so would place value on access to that.

Ancient Observer

£1200???

No. Pret is just so much better than the lounges for tea, coffee and food.

etiene

I'm in a similar position - currently 90 TPs needed by September and wondering how to go about getting them. Unfortunately the timing is not good for a long weekend trip to Spain with the girlfriend - otherwise I'd write that one off as "not really" spending for the sake of status. My travel pattern at the moment is mostly personal, and I haven't yet been out of T5, so going for gold would mostly be about securing the soft landing right now. There is a chance of significantly increased travel soon though, and that would be under a Y only policy [though that might be something I can parlay into W given that I don't mind spending a weekend somewhere new].

If I had to do it myself right now completely off my own back then the best I've found is a triangular trip to Spain over a weekend, but with a night's hotel and transport to Heathrow you'd still be looking at £500 or so. While a T3 tour and the A340 on the return would be fun, that's still a lot of money. Fortunately, the new CBG to LGW train makes Gatwick doable for my usual hop to AMS at not much more inconvenience than STN - so I will probably be able to get over the line with a couple of judiciously booked trips and POUGs.

Personally, £1200 would be way too high for me to bother with - I can't spend that just for the sake of it. If I could work an actual holiday [that I was either planning anyway, or to somewhere I wanted to visit] into that budget and it got me over the line, that might be different. But your personal value on each element, and volume of use for each, clearly differ from my own.

HIDDY

If someone else is paying for my tickets I'd certainly spend a few quid of my own to get Gold to make work travel that bit more enjoyable.

stewaran

I have found gold to be a nice upgrade on my last 6 or so years at silver.

Would i go out of my way to achieve it? A little. I would do a couple of POUG's from ET to CE if it pushed me over.

but its a personal decision, and ive got other things i would rather spend £1200 on

OttoMH

FlyerTalker39574

GlasgowCyclops

Well for me having Gold is superb. roughly 20+ Long Haul sectors/year in WT+ and some connecting flights for the open jaw. When booking I get extra avios worth about £450 on one holiday I go. Probably use them for WT+->CW upgrades now I know how to.

But while trolling in WT+, being able to book the exit row or bulkhead is car better on a LHR-SIN or LHR-HKG flight that a seat in a row where you may be woken for a neighbour to go to the loo.

firstlight

Using a 1p per avios value flying as gold i divide down my ba mileage by 100 for that tier point run (assuming there's no other benefit to the run). For me thats 75000 this year so a £600 tier point run pays for itself even discounting the other benefits which other posters have mentioned. If you use companion vouchers the benefit is even higher.

williamn78

For me it wasn't worth chasing, I got it one year but realised it was as a result of basically being tempted by too many offers to upgrade to CW which was not great for my credit cards. The bonuses for me were marginal (exit row selection in Y being the best thing), and there was a minus in that (perhaps as being a lowly gold rather than at the upper end of Silver) my OPUPS totally dried up. I like lounges but I'm someone who would rather minimise dead time at the airport and arrive 90 mins before a flight, so not a huge consideration for me.

Mike P

The alternative to a tier point run is to talk very nicely to a GGL member with a spare Gold partner card.

PETER01

I think going for Gold if your near it through natural travel as in holidays, work etc is worth that push.

I tend not to put too much monetary emphasis on it as like 1p etc as it's like saying I really want a BMW/Audi but I only use it occasionally/do 5000 miles a year etc so the actual enjoyment when you do drive it can be priceless if that's your thing. I'm sure we all know people in our social circles who spend loads on their gardens, house etc so it's a very personal thing.

I'll probably drop down to Silver in a few years but for now I am enjoying Gold and the benefits including 2 Op Up's from W to CW in 5 long hauls since December in which I put that down to as well experiencing GF, TFW, Avios extra availability, Group 1 boarding, TS and getting access to BA and OW First Class lounges as this creates memories for me as a person who very much enjoys flying but as always YMMV and everyone has different circumstances, budgets and so on.

HIDDY

Well hello there big boy....

FoxtrotOscar