Zero to GGL as a leisure traveller
Dec 4, 2018, 2:48 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2016
Location: Thailand
Programs: BA Silver (OWS), OZ Diamond (*G), TK Elite (*G), HH Diamond, Marriott Gold
Posts: 361
Zero to GGL as a leisure traveller
I haven’t come across a GGL post from a leisure travellers perspective so as I had a couple of hours to kill at the SQ F lounge here in HKG (nothing to write home about) I decided to whip up one.
As a disclaimer I have been fortunate enough to build a career/business that doesn’t require my presence at any specific location and travelling has been a big part my and the Mrs.’s lives ever since she got over her fear of flying but that’s a story for another day. Anyhow describing us as purely leisure travellers might be a tad inaccurate. Maybe a better term would be non-work-related travellers.
Before 2017 I had never held an elite status in an FFP. I used to fly a couple of long hauls a year in J and all my short hauls in Y. Maybe 10-20 flights per year on average. The journey to GGL started innocently enough. After being quite stagnant for almost a year in our new home country of Thailand where we had relocated to late 2015 the itch to travel needed to be scratched. So when I stumbled upon an MH BKK-KUL-SYD sale for around 650€ in J we were booked within minutes. For a reason I cannot recall I started to research where to credit these flights which was also my first encounter with FT. After going through all the potential FFPs I figured that with BA doing two of these would get us to Silver (lounge access!). Even considering the four BA flight requirement BAEC seemed like the best place to credit. So, in November 2016 I and the Mrs. signed up in BAEC with the aim of the luxury of lounge access.
Before even boarding the flight to SYD I had gone through the MH J sale in more detail. BKK-KUL-ICN at sub 500€ and BKK-KUL-NRT for a little more were simply too good to pass on. So, with a couple of other trips booked previously we were at 1500TP by the end of March but still feeling quite Blue with no BA flights under our belt. At this time, I realized how easily the tier points stacked up with our travel habits and with 8 months left in our collection year I decided to aim a little higher. Yes, I’m sometimes prone to overdoing things.
The only struggle was actually getting the 4 required BA flights to fit into our travels which in the end didn’t and thus the only ”run” I’ve ever done, the TLL one. It wasn’t too inconvenient as we tend to visit our families in Finland every now and then. So, in June we jumped straight from Blue to Gold and got our GUFs shortly after taking advantage of the incredible JL/AA F fare ex-ICN. We both made GGL in October with over more than two months to spare in our collection year. Rest of the year was mostly redemptions and we ended up closing our year at 5270TP each.
The year in numbers, as I do like numbers:
Flights (on Oneworld): 93 (74)
Top airlines (flight count): MH (26), CX (9), AA,UL,AY,JL (6)
Miles flown: ~140 000
Class of travel (F/J/Y): 10/60/23
Total cost: ~15 000€
Was it all worth it? Financially these things never make sense but I’d say I have no regrets. We would have travelled a lot in any case so it was mostly matter of optimising. Using mostly OW airlines, being flexible on travel dates and doing same creative routings didn’t prove too much of a hassle. Also, I would have kicked myself for half-assing by settling to “only Gold”.
Gold alone has been really good for us as we transit through HKG a lot and CX treats OWE’s really well as we all know (still the only airline that has upgraded me). Any status recognition on BA’s part on the ground or onboard has yet to come through for us but that’s not saying our JFK-LHR F in the nose of a 747 wasn’t one of the best overnights ever. The CCR card hasn’t either been that valuable as we have needed it only twice while transiting through LHR not flying in F. So this year we decided to settle for a bit over 3500TP each so GGLs retained and GUF2s and 2xGUF1s earned. This seems to be the sweet spot for us granting us access to the oh so helpful GGL line and Jokers+GUFs that basically guarantees us three ex-EU F round trips each for J price which is particularly nice with the AMS-BKK fare routed through HKG. Not going for the 5k TP also allowed us to take advantage of the LH/LX 2for1 F fare for *G with OZ valid for almost 4 years.
If BA doesn’t do anything stupid with EC we’ll probably keep doing the 3500TP yearly in the foreseeable future as the Mrs. has started asking ”What was the lifetime Gold threshold again?” when she logs into her account every other month or so (still 26k to go...). We still need to figure out what to do with all the giftable Gold and Silver cards as it turns out we don’t have too many friends or family that fly that much. One of those First world problems us FTers face.
In any case, without FT we would most likely not have gotten half the benefits for double the money. This really is an invaluable resource, especially the BAEC board. Thank you all.
As a disclaimer I have been fortunate enough to build a career/business that doesn’t require my presence at any specific location and travelling has been a big part my and the Mrs.’s lives ever since she got over her fear of flying but that’s a story for another day. Anyhow describing us as purely leisure travellers might be a tad inaccurate. Maybe a better term would be non-work-related travellers.
Before 2017 I had never held an elite status in an FFP. I used to fly a couple of long hauls a year in J and all my short hauls in Y. Maybe 10-20 flights per year on average. The journey to GGL started innocently enough. After being quite stagnant for almost a year in our new home country of Thailand where we had relocated to late 2015 the itch to travel needed to be scratched. So when I stumbled upon an MH BKK-KUL-SYD sale for around 650€ in J we were booked within minutes. For a reason I cannot recall I started to research where to credit these flights which was also my first encounter with FT. After going through all the potential FFPs I figured that with BA doing two of these would get us to Silver (lounge access!). Even considering the four BA flight requirement BAEC seemed like the best place to credit. So, in November 2016 I and the Mrs. signed up in BAEC with the aim of the luxury of lounge access.
Before even boarding the flight to SYD I had gone through the MH J sale in more detail. BKK-KUL-ICN at sub 500€ and BKK-KUL-NRT for a little more were simply too good to pass on. So, with a couple of other trips booked previously we were at 1500TP by the end of March but still feeling quite Blue with no BA flights under our belt. At this time, I realized how easily the tier points stacked up with our travel habits and with 8 months left in our collection year I decided to aim a little higher. Yes, I’m sometimes prone to overdoing things.
The only struggle was actually getting the 4 required BA flights to fit into our travels which in the end didn’t and thus the only ”run” I’ve ever done, the TLL one. It wasn’t too inconvenient as we tend to visit our families in Finland every now and then. So, in June we jumped straight from Blue to Gold and got our GUFs shortly after taking advantage of the incredible JL/AA F fare ex-ICN. We both made GGL in October with over more than two months to spare in our collection year. Rest of the year was mostly redemptions and we ended up closing our year at 5270TP each.
The year in numbers, as I do like numbers:
Flights (on Oneworld): 93 (74)
Top airlines (flight count): MH (26), CX (9), AA,UL,AY,JL (6)
Miles flown: ~140 000
Class of travel (F/J/Y): 10/60/23
Total cost: ~15 000€
Was it all worth it? Financially these things never make sense but I’d say I have no regrets. We would have travelled a lot in any case so it was mostly matter of optimising. Using mostly OW airlines, being flexible on travel dates and doing same creative routings didn’t prove too much of a hassle. Also, I would have kicked myself for half-assing by settling to “only Gold”.
Gold alone has been really good for us as we transit through HKG a lot and CX treats OWE’s really well as we all know (still the only airline that has upgraded me). Any status recognition on BA’s part on the ground or onboard has yet to come through for us but that’s not saying our JFK-LHR F in the nose of a 747 wasn’t one of the best overnights ever. The CCR card hasn’t either been that valuable as we have needed it only twice while transiting through LHR not flying in F. So this year we decided to settle for a bit over 3500TP each so GGLs retained and GUF2s and 2xGUF1s earned. This seems to be the sweet spot for us granting us access to the oh so helpful GGL line and Jokers+GUFs that basically guarantees us three ex-EU F round trips each for J price which is particularly nice with the AMS-BKK fare routed through HKG. Not going for the 5k TP also allowed us to take advantage of the LH/LX 2for1 F fare for *G with OZ valid for almost 4 years.
If BA doesn’t do anything stupid with EC we’ll probably keep doing the 3500TP yearly in the foreseeable future as the Mrs. has started asking ”What was the lifetime Gold threshold again?” when she logs into her account every other month or so (still 26k to go...). We still need to figure out what to do with all the giftable Gold and Silver cards as it turns out we don’t have too many friends or family that fly that much. One of those First world problems us FTers face.
In any case, without FT we would most likely not have gotten half the benefits for double the money. This really is an invaluable resource, especially the BAEC board. Thank you all.
Dec 4, 2018, 3:20 am
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Barcelona, London, on a plane
Programs: BA Silver, TK E+, AA PP, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott LT Plat, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 13,026
Nothing wrong with the story, but what's the point of BA GGL if you rarely transit LHR for the CCR or fly on those airlines where you get a tier bonus?
There might be a different ffp that is even more lucrative for those flying habits...
There might be a different ffp that is even more lucrative for those flying habits...
Dec 4, 2018, 3:48 am
#7
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: coastal Croatia
Programs: BAEC Gold, M&M Senator
Posts: 2,178
Congratulations on optimizing your Exec Club experience. Sounds like BKK is a good place to build up tier points affordably. As frandrake said, for that many flights, your total cost seems pretty low.
any work associates you can gift the extra status cards to? or friends in the expat community in Thailand who also need to travel home? On the other hand, even if your relatives only travel rarely, having lounge access in Helsinki would be very nice. just thinking out loud.
any work associates you can gift the extra status cards to? or friends in the expat community in Thailand who also need to travel home? On the other hand, even if your relatives only travel rarely, having lounge access in Helsinki would be very nice. just thinking out loud.
Dec 4, 2018, 4:26 am
#9
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: Plymouth, UK
Programs: BAEC Gold
Posts: 1,159
In my case, I wanted to do a cheap RTW run and the good price for OTP-PHX came up so I went for it. My wife thinks I am mad!!!!
Dec 4, 2018, 5:24 am
#11
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Bridport, Dorset
Programs: Mucci, BA Bronze, Hilton Gold
Posts: 2,121
Great story. I went from Blue to Gold in nine months but at a time when for some reason, I became an anxious flyer. I'm over that again but it meant TP runs were out of the question.
Now looking forward to less travel actually.
Now looking forward to less travel actually.
Dec 4, 2018, 5:36 am
#12
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Munich, Algarve, Sussex or S.F Bay Area
Programs: Mucci, BA Gold, A3*Gold, AA Plat, HH Gold, IHG Plat Amb, Marriott Plat
Posts: 4,156
I hope you also have a corporate entity and that you registered with OnBusiness. With 2 * €15K spend this year you would earn 1.5 OB's per € spent (for a European rather than UK company) which would get you enough for another round-trip F upgrade on top of what you can get with your Avios.
Dec 4, 2018, 5:40 am
#13
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: LON
Programs: Mucci, BAEC, Eurostar
Posts: 3,277
Hmmmm. As much as I'd love to have access to the all so famous CCR, I've decided to set my goal at Gold. The cost to benefit ratio is too low for me (the CCR is the only noticeable one).
As for the cost, I don't think it's that much of mistake. It's highly possible. LHR-HEL return in J (last sale price, which a lot of us took advantage of) was 240 GBP, for 160 TPs. You'd have to do 31.25 of these to get to GGL, so that would amount to ~7.5k GBP. It's quite doable, even for us in the UK... Don't forget some of the F flights will have been done via uuA.
As for the cost, I don't think it's that much of mistake. It's highly possible. LHR-HEL return in J (last sale price, which a lot of us took advantage of) was 240 GBP, for 160 TPs. You'd have to do 31.25 of these to get to GGL, so that would amount to ~7.5k GBP. It's quite doable, even for us in the UK... Don't forget some of the F flights will have been done via uuA.
