Getting the best from BA with Sapphire OW
 

Welcome to the BA forum surfergold, I will ask the BA Mods whether they can change the subject line to something which may help others with similar queries.

I would suggest you look at a few T5 and T3 flights to see the lounge experiences there. In the case of T3 there are a lot of options, there is a lounge guide ifor these oneworld lounges in T3 in the Dashboard, with a lot of advice. As a Sapphire on BA you can use the 4 business class level lounges there. The Dashboard is the main knowledge base of this forum and it is worth having a look around, if only to see the answers to the questions which often get asked here. . LUX is the cheap one out of T3 but I would recommend Bilbao since it's a great place to visit and often inexpensive. From T5 AGP (Málaga) and PMI (Palma) are often cheap places, personally I'd go for PMI. DUB is another option perhaps. Other secret gems close in? Stuttgart and its BMW museum, LUX but to get to Trier (coach and rail links), I've got a soft spot for DUS, HAM is another interesting place to visit. NCE is so near to the city you can walk it. GVA offers free same transport around GVA, well worth a day trip (but refreshments are pricey); and the other day trip place is LIS albeit a long day. EDI on the domestic side, along with of course NCL. There are some same day returns available at weekends, you are looking for fares that book into G fare class and there is a thread on these fares, search for "awayday".

You don't have to join BAEC - as you say you can credit to Qantas when flying BA or Iberia and that may be efficient in your circumstances (it's a complex area, the oneworld forum can help more on this). Nevertheless I would advise you to get a BAEC account since Reward Flight Savers are very good use of Avios redemptions around Europe and you may be able to pick up enough for that via Tescos / Caffè Nero, hotel stays and what not. It may even be worth buying Avios for some RFS options, and in that case an Iberia Plus account is also worth having since it's cheaper to buy Avios there, and after 90 days you can transfer Avios to and from BA.

My first key question is what the Qantas programme will deliver to you. Do you intend to go to OZ frequently? You seem to be UK-based now.

I believe TP accrual is easier with BA, leading to OW status, but happy to be corrected on that. But if you’re looking at flying arounf Europe, BA seems to be a more useful programme.

And if in UK, don’t forget the Avios-earnings associated with the (free) BA Amex card. Benefit depends on your annual spend, of course.

Sadly, BA doesn’t do status matching, so you would have to juggle things to get the benefit of both ... and perhaps let Qantas quietly expire later on, allowing your BA/OW status to take over?

As a OWS myself I second what has been said about the T3 lounges in particular the CX lounge. If you want a unique Turboprop experience the Glasgow-Barra flight is one of the most sought after in the world.

As long as you don't go hand baggage only (HBO) the free seat selection usually means that on Intra Europe you can get the exit row

Hello @surfergold, I see you've had the official @corporate-wage-slave welcome and benefited from his excellent advice already - the 'G' day trip fares are certainly worth considering. I would also suggest a few (long?) weekend trips out of T3, as you're spoilt by the Cathay and Qantas lounges (the only negative is that coming back to BA Galleries Club at T5 is something of a downgrade by comparison!).

From T3, Luxembourg is often the cheapest as has already been mentioned, with convenient flight times to maximise your time at the other end. Other BA European destinations I'd say are definitely worth visiting, served from T3, include Budapest and Vienna. Helsinki is nice, but certainly not a cheap place to visit, and with a relatively long flight you don't get a lot of time at the other end if you're there for a regular weekend.

From T5, I'd add Zurich and Basel. The former because it's a nice, compact city with excellent transport links. The latter allows you to get quite easily by coach to Freiburg im Breisgau and Colmar. I wouldn't do a day trip to either of those, but a weekend is perfectly feasible.

Certainly free when I booked in May for an early July flight, including exit rows on short haul.