Easy Silver
Dec 25, 2018, 1:35 pm
#17
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: UK - Hampshire & London
Programs: Mucci de Guardian des Celliers des Grands Crus 1e Classé, plus BAEC.
Posts: 2,734
I achieved Silver after a QR J class return trip ex-UK to the Far East (4 x 140TPs and on BA codeshares) plus a one way CE LHR - Milan (40TPs). It wasn’t difficult. I was lucky that the QR fare was cheap, therefore both trips were under £1000. Even if I had paid a ‘normal’ QR fare, it wouldn’t have been difficult, just more expensive.
I didn’t TP run or manipulate itineraries and all was leisure flying. I was on the lookout for a good Far East fare over the low season and then chose CE rather than ET to get to Milan for a friend’s wedding.
If you’re trying to get to Silver with weekly ET commutes, then I can see why you might think it’s difficult. But there are many other options out there.
Dec 25, 2018, 3:41 pm
#18
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: Surrey
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 211
This is not true. It depends entirely on your circumstances and flying profile.
I achieved Silver after a QR J class return trip ex-UK to the Far East (4 x 140TPs and on BA codeshares) plus a one way CE LHR - Milan (40TPs). It wasn’t difficult. I was lucky that the QR fare was cheap, therefore both trips were under £1000. Even if I had paid a ‘normal’ QR fare, it wouldn’t have been difficult, just more expensive.
I didn’t TP run or manipulate itineraries and all was leisure flying. I was on the lookout for a good Far East fare over the low season and then chose CE rather than ET to get to Milan for a friend’s wedding.
If you’re trying to get to Silver with weekly ET commutes, then I can see why you might think it’s difficult. But there are many other options out there.
Dec 25, 2018, 4:17 pm
#19
Join Date: May 2017
Location: Glasgow and Asia
Programs: BAEC Gold, Hotels.com Gold
Posts: 510
Book CE and use AVIOS to downgrade the price of the flight. EG GLA-LGW return £160 in ET. Book CE and it is £220 and use miles to get the price down 80 TP's instead of 10TPs.
A few of these go a long way. I never had one J long haul flight but I get 3,600TP's last year and I'm on 1100 since Oct by using the fare system like this. :-)
A few of these go a long way. I never had one J long haul flight but I get 3,600TP's last year and I'm on 1100 since Oct by using the fare system like this. :-)
Dec 25, 2018, 11:07 pm
#20
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Kendal, Cumbria and Luzon
Programs: BA Silver, PR Elite, Avis Preferred Plus, PC Diamond Ambassador
Posts: 1,122
38,400 Miles - only 250 Tier points and 10 months in to TP year
I have done 6 HKG to Man trips this TP year. One was WTP on BA and others were AY (OW) and QR in Y, Via HEL and DOH so yielding a whole 10 points more than BA via LHR. Or twice as many as the miserly 20 points on CX direct last month. Amusingly my 3 day Avis car hire with the Black Friday bonus yielded over 2X as many Avios as the flights on that trip!
But not complaining thanks to FT I know the rules. Most years I see a J offer on QR or AY and re qualify for Silver easily. This year the price difference has been crazy for my dates - and I have spent just about £2K to date.
I do have a fairly soft set of options to qualify by the end of my TP year. I'm mostly Macau SAR based. A trip over to Taipei then MH J to BKK via KUL will yield an easy and cheap 360 - and I need to visit both cities.
Dec 26, 2018, 2:41 am
#21
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: West Sussex, UK
Programs: BAEC Gold (11/Dec/18)
Posts: 262
Book CE and use AVIOS to downgrade the price of the flight. EG GLA-LGW return £160 in ET. Book CE and it is £220 and use miles to get the price down 80 TP's instead of 10TPs.
A few of these go a long way. I never had one J long haul flight but I get 3,600TP's last year and I'm on 1100 since Oct by using the fare system like this. :-)
A few of these go a long way. I never had one J long haul flight but I get 3,600TP's last year and I'm on 1100 since Oct by using the fare system like this. :-)
At one point I was wondering if I needed joint residency for Jersey and Amsterdam!
Dec 26, 2018, 10:51 am
#22
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Tees Valley, UK
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 68
Can I add my thanks to the many on here. I, like many on here I assume, enjoy the flying around but struggle to justify flying just for the sake of it.
Thanks to the many tips on here I recently completed my first long haul solo trip with AMS-LHR-HKG-BKK-SIN-LHR-AMS in J as a holiday (many stopovers) visiting the three Asian cities. This allowed me to be promoted to silver, the first ‘status’ I’ve ever held in the airline world. Having flown a fair bit with the family previously I’m just getting into doing solo trips in the last few years, visiting many cities around Europe. I’ve had a few short experiences of J travel but that was my first long haul. It’s true that once you get the bug of travelling up front it’s hard to go back!
Thanks to the many tips on here I recently completed my first long haul solo trip with AMS-LHR-HKG-BKK-SIN-LHR-AMS in J as a holiday (many stopovers) visiting the three Asian cities. This allowed me to be promoted to silver, the first ‘status’ I’ve ever held in the airline world. Having flown a fair bit with the family previously I’m just getting into doing solo trips in the last few years, visiting many cities around Europe. I’ve had a few short experiences of J travel but that was my first long haul. It’s true that once you get the bug of travelling up front it’s hard to go back!
Dec 26, 2018, 11:00 am
#23
Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold / OW Emerald
Posts: 753
I am a victim of the easy gold. I got to silver with decently priced CE flights, but then with a trip coming up to Montreal I got good advice and pushed 720 tier points out of it, making it most of the way to gold for only a few hundred quid more than the cost of economy flights 