Zippo58

This year I made Silver for the first time. I obtained this status with 4 return trips to Singapore in PE (leisure trips). I just got back from a short BA Holiday to Las Vegas over Christmas. I flew out from LHR on an AA codeshare flight to LAX - that was "interesting" as they "de-checked me in" and re-assigned my seat. I ended up in the worst seat on the plane 44H - right at the back surrounded by the galley and rear toilets. It was a miserable flight. But that is another story. Quite frankly the whole experience of my first trip as a Silver was disappointing. I found the lounge at T3 particularly disappointing as the hot food on offer was stale and as hard as a rock. Coming back the lounge at LAS was small, crowded and once again the food on offer was pretty dire. I had a coffee - why in the world would a self-service vending machine automatically add sugar? If I wanted sugar in my drink - why can't I add it myself. Event the cold flavored water drinks contained sugar! Oh - and the 747 ride home - the plane was old, dirty worn seats, the IFE was from the stone age and the food was really only good for the garbage bin. Quite honestly I really do not think that status for people like me really works and I've come home wondering why I spent all that money to actually get almost zero benefit.

The lounge experience was poor, the advanced seat booking failed as I got bumped to the worst seat in the house and the ride home was on a plane that was past its sell-by date.

HighwayToHEL

Each to their own. Personally, for me lounge access and seat selection make it worthwhile. Admittedly I am beyond Silver (GGL) but Silver gives me what I need. And you don't need LH to achieve it, it's remarkable easy to rack up 600TP over a year in just a few flights.

rather_be_on_a_griffin

You were unlucky. Seat shifting happens to everyone and I suspect in most cases it’s not for nefarious reasons. Planes are just much more full than in the past so last minute changes lead to bad seats. I’m Guest List and believe me I’ve been there, done it and bought the t-shirt.

Some of it is lack of practice and again bad luck with location. I’m assuming you used the BA lounge at T3 or even worse the AA one. Cathay and Qantas are much better. Most lounges in the US are dire and I’m not surprised but if you were to fly from an AA hub you would get the Flagship lounge with silver. These are pretty good. Non hubs like LAS are universally dire so set expectations accordingly.

I recommend getting back on the saddle and reaping the benefits.

navylad

Sorry you had a bad trip, particularly as your first as Silver. In part that may have been as your outbound was on AA (whilst know some on here rate them, I personally think BA remains far better/). I think BA would have more likely looked after you as silver had your seat become operationally defective- whereas I’m not surprised AA just chucked you to a random sea fire seat.

WRT inflight entertainment etc, this really is nothing to do with status but hopefully you can find the fantastic nuggets on information on FT to help plan your trips to be enjoyable and enhanced by your status, such as which lunges to use, which flights to book, which seats to book etc.

having said that, to answer your original question, if your only taking few flights, status may well not be worth it, and a credit card with lunge access and the opportunity to choose froM any airline for your flights may work to your advantage.

Fly_IAD

The saddest part of this is you apparently missed the opportunity to go to two fantastic lounges at LHR T3. The the Cathay Pacific and Qantas lounges, both of which you had access to are awesome!

corporate-wage-slave

One of the things I've had to find out from a life on the road is that mindsets occasionally need to change. So in many parts of the world coffee would by default have sugar in it, and the machines are set up accordingly. There is usually a button somewhere which reduces or eliminates sugar. If you start from the position "well I would always add sugar, not take it away" then you're just going to come up against cultural differences from time to time. It's just a different start point, that's all.

But there is some good news on the LAS sector, in that the last of the midhaul 747s has gone in for refurbishment, so hopefully you will notice some change there. That said, some regulars prefer to go via LAX to LAS to get the A380 service instead.

Being booted from a seat is always a risk on any airline, but as a generalisation AA do it less than most I would say, so I think that falls firmly into the bad luck category. I doubt it will be a regular feature of your future flying.

Having said that, there are other airlines out there, and voting with your wallet is a perfectly sensible thing to do.

Geordie405

In a word, yes! Most of my travel is self-funded leisure with a few business trips thrown in for good measure. Status makes the travel experience much more enjoyable. Whether that be advanced seat selection, fast track at security, lounge access, priority boarding etc. they all help.

Unfortunately they don't prevent issues from occurring on the day, although status can help getting them resolved more quickly.

In terms of lounges at T3, you should definitely consider visiting Qantas or Cathay. At LAS the lounge there is definitely better than spending time sitting at the gate although I do agree the food offering isn't brilliant. The Mid-J 747 aircraft that operate the Las Vegas route are in the process of being refurbished and having flown from and to Las Vegas over the Christmas break I would beg to differ with your perception of both the planes and the food offering. However, that said, you clearly didn't enjoy the flight and that's unfortunately what matters!

I'd definitely agree with rather_be_on_a_griffin that you should get back on the saddle and give it another whirl.

Brisbane Road

Agreed with the above. I’m a lowly Silver and in these waters a pretty paltry one at that as I make sure I just go over the 600 threshold each year. But as mentioned, it just makes the travel experience far far better, and in a lot of cases actually quite enjoyable. I do a pretty hefty amount of (mostly economy) TATL travelling and have access to benefits that far outweigh that of the regular leisure traveller.

The one I’ve really enjoyed recently is on emptier flights, BA will generally block the seat next to you. That’s really worth it’s weight in my opinion

Dave Noble

Didn't you spend the money in order to take leisure trips to Singapore with status being a side effect? you spent the money to fly to Singapore - the fare is the same whether or not you credit to BA

Perhaps may want to look at whether to credit miles for such trips to schemes that might give a better redemption value regardless of whether you can get a pretty card from doing so

Fatdickie

For me personally, 100% of my trips are self funded pleasure trips, squeezed into every day or my annual leave.
Living a local bus ride from LGW terminal, my 18 months so far with silver status have in my option been worth it, making the 30 legs I have flown a completely more pleasureable experiance.
No queues for check in, security etc, Lounge access, and free exit row seats with extra leg room

100% worth it

And I will continue to retain silver as long as I can.

Happy new year everyone

FlyingGarden

Seat selection is a big bonus, i.e. bagging exit row on European economy flights and as someone further up said on the quieter flights a higher chance of an empty seat next to you.

Lounges are not the height of luxury, though the T3 Cathay business lounge is well above the usual standards and almost always quieter than the BA lounge. I work from home most of the time and given wifi can happily work in a lounge for a few hours. While lounges can get busy they are a lot quieter than terminal seating, and I know T5 south can get busy at times. In Europe the food choice in lounges is a lot less, though there are some that are better e.g. Helsinki

The avios bonus helps to build up the stock for upgrades.

navylad

I find the lounge food offering in European lounges a lot better than what is offered in the States even at the outstations.

ermis177

Well, how much did you spend to become Silver and was that much more what you usually have paid if you have chosen another airline? I personally find BA PE quite expensive compare to what other airlines can offer and i think its a very bad value to fly PE with BA if you want to achieve status ( obviously is a direct flight and you do not have to change). Just did a quick search on google flights between LON-SIN for the next 3 months with all 3 alliances. One world is the most expensive coming around 1.3k cheapest return, second is skyteam around 1k and star alliance is around 900. If you fly once in 3 months or so i would suggest you just stick with whatever is cheapest and don't care about alliances and status. Otherwise, depending of where you want to go you can plan your flights accordingly. I am silver too but that's because i usually do the Stockholm to Asia with Qatar and then few flights with BA. Saying that, it looks like you got the quite unlucky as you flew with one of the older planes the airline have on a very busy route. If you fly a lot to Asia i would suggest you either try a few other one world airlines or try star alliance. You can get easily gold status with Aegean or Turkish and both quantity and quality of star alliance operating in Asia are slighty better ( Thai, Singapore, Turkish, Swiss, Lufthansa, Eva etc). Last, there are some extremely good offers if you fly from other UK airports with Lufthansa/Singapore in PE. Not many days left for the next 3 months but for example you can fly return from Manchester or Birmingham to Singapore for as cheap as 660Ł with LH/SQ in PE. It is extremely good value as many other airlines are offering this price for Y.

Greenpen

I now fly only for holidays and regard status as an invaluable perk. Generally I go J or F long haul so the status does not matter but when flying short haul it’s great. I can use the lounge and most importantly select seats so I get the leg room of an exit seat. When I flew for work the extra luggage allowance was the bonus as well as being able to use a better lounge than J got me. (I was *A gold when flying for work but now hover roundabout BA silver with the occasional forays into bronze (!) or gold.)

RB211

I'm sorry you had bad experiences, but most of those were not status related and can be enjoyed travelling on airlines other than BA (as you found out!)

All of my air travel is self funded and not business related. As has been pointed out many times, a lounge is just a glorified waiting room. Some are better than others and how well they work for you depends on what you want from them and matching that up with what they have to offer. Doing one's homework helps increase one's chances of success at most, and prepares one for the sub-par experience at least.

In the end you'll need to decide if status is worth it for you. No one else can make that determination. What c-w-s said about voting with your money is right one the... well, money!

For me, it is worth it - that having been said it looks like I am probably dropping down to Silver after this year, and I'm trying to convince myself that I'll survive. Not sure it's working though!

rb211.