orbitmic

Even with a travel voucher, that is still a big risk to be honest - you could get several thousands of pounds immobilised as vouchers for future travel you may not need or know when you'll want to use. I would expect most people to much prefer the cash to sit on their bank account

chrislondon2

I liked the graph, too, but I'm one of those it doesn't fit and I'm still left puzzled.

I have an 8th Feb year-end. In the four weeks after 8th Feb I earned 1500TP thus giving me Gold status until March 2022. So as Gold in June 2020 I received a year's extension to March 2023.

My question is: to requalify as Gold for 23-24 will I need to earn the reduced TP qualification during the year ending Feb 8th 2023, or will it then be back to 1500?

golfmad

My general observation here is that you're probably in a small category that have done the best out of this. I suspect - but I'm not certain - that the re-qualification criteria for 2023-2024 will be back to normal at 1,500. After all, the end of that qualification period for you is nearly 4 years away.

kdhurst380

It's a subjective matter though.

Whilst I agree that most people probably do prefer the cash in their bank account, from my point of view, I travel purely for leisure. I do so several times a year and tend to spend a fair amount of money. To me, it's disposable income that is spoken for regardless, so whether it's in my bank account or in vouchers, it's all going the same way eventually.

Each to their own I suppose! I put nothing past anyone.

orbitmic

Sure, you will always find some people with any form of idiosyncrasy when it comes to flying (I remember someone who used to fly Alitalia whenever they could just because they loved the idea of green seats, which they were at that time!!). But everyone to their own does not mean that any such idiosyncrasy constitutes a meaningful/sizeable pattern, and I hope I can be forgiven for saying that if anyone is indeed booking expensive itineraries with the specific hope that those will hopefully be cancelled so that as a result they can benefit from a "cancelled flight TP tolerance" with BAEC, and if at worst the flight is not cancelled by BA, they will just cancel it themselves, obviously not benefit from any TP tolerance, and have several grands sitting on BA's account which they hope they find use for as a voucher for travel to be completed by 30/4/2022 with none of us having any clue what if any form of long haul travel will have resumed as normal by that time, I'll worry a lot more about their mental health than about the effect on the viability of the TP tolerance system for BA!

I'd add that if indeed, BAEC are using the likelihood of such behaviour to justify ending a policy of TP tolerance for those who have had cancelled flights (and which seemed to me wholly justified), not least for flights that were booked well before anyone had even heard the words "covid 19", then I have absolutely no hesitation accusing BAEC of plain lying.

orbitmic

I agree about the part on being one of the big beneficiaries, and the OP nicely illustrates the marginal cases I was talking about earlier (though as mentioned, there are some benefiting even more - all the way to June 2023!)

However, unlike you, my suspicion (as previously suggested by KARFA I believe) is that the OP will benefit for the reduced requalification threshold in 2023-24 (or indeed lower threshold to upgrade to GGL or CCR for instance). The BAEC wording is very explicit that everyone benefits from one year reduced qualification threshold after their status extension, and I cannot really imagine them easily reneging on it (indeed, I can't imagine how they would possibly justify/argue doing so). So personally, I expect that the OP will be able to requalify at the reduced rate in 2023-24 and indeed, will have ended benefiting for a period of nearly 4 years (as per my earlier calculations, some people will benefit for up to 47 months, the OP is "only" getting 44...)

saint_em

I just had a response to my complaint from BA as follows:Thank you for getting in touch with us about your Executive Club account.

The 12 months extension is aimed at our members who have their collection year ending between July 2020 to June 2021, who have not been able to earn the required Tier Points or will be unable to renew at their current Tier.

For example, if your Tier Point Collection year ran from 9 January 2019 and ended on the 8 January 2020 and you had earned the 600 Tier Points and flown the 4 eligible flights required to upgrade/renew at Silver, you would normally hold this until January 2021.

However, due to recent events which have caused our flights to stop operating as normal, you would be unable to earn the Tier Points needed to renew, so we would have added a 12 month extension to your current Tier Status.

Based on evidence from people on this thread, this response appears to be nonsense, especially the part that says "aimed at members...who have not been able to earn the required Tier Points or will be unable to renew at their current Tier." when clearly people who HAVE earned the 'required tier points' have been given the 2022 extensions.

I will reply, simply because I don't think they understand the problem. I don't expect to gain anything but I'd like someone to at least wonder if they're getting it right!
​​​

docklander

Yep they re talking total cobblers

Go for the jugular

mikeyfly

After an unsuccessful request to have Gold extended - I shall drop to Silver end of July. Will my new year require 1,500 to Gold or can I achieve Gold with 1,125 (which is what I think Exec Club homepage is showing...)

golfmad

You just need the reduced amount.

mikeyfly

Thanks for the speedy reply! I've got that many booked by December - however they are looking on the rocks !

BertieBadger

Please do. I do not have high hopes that continued complaints will result in BA devising a fairer outcome (or even universally honouring the headline offer of their original email communication), but it certainly has more of a chance of doing so than accepting their latest explanations.

Their current "line of defence" appears to be as you stated, to suggest that the programme was only designed to support those who could not make the required total on their own due to disruption. Indeed, way back in the mists of time, a few BAFT luminaries suggested exactly that, and it may well have been what they intended. The problems with such an explanation are:

• Nowhere at all was this mentioned in the original email. The FAQ explicitly states all members will benefit, contrary to this claim.
• As you note, they HAVE given extensions into 2022 to those who reached a tier in their own right, including July members and later members.
• A member who renewed their current status on Jun 9th is extended to July 2022 and is thus considered to be one who "could not make the required total" even though they were only 3 days into their collection year when the extension was announced. It is a crystal ball of uncommon clarity that foresees such members being unable to reach a reduced 75% total, while July members should have apparently no issue at all.

I am happy to believe that their intent was only to give extensions to those who had not earned a year on their own. Even if it disregards "loyalty" there is a certain business sense behind this, in that it would hopefully stop those who would otherwise lose status from going to other carriers (After all, if you have to re-climb the status pole, why not try a different one).

However, this is not what they communicated and not what they implemented. Frankly, they've made something of a pigs ear of the implementation. What remains to be seen is having done so and (apparently accidentally) engineered such a disparate range of outcomes, if they can be convinced to go back and try again towards a fairer distribution of outcomes for their members (and here I direct readers to orbitmic's point that just because some level of inequality may be unavoidable it does not follow that any level is justifiable).

HighwayToHEL

I've retained GGL with 4515 points, and will reset in Aug. Whilst I'm okay for next year, I doubt I will retain GGL even with a reduced threshold, since I don't expect to be travelling for several months. So I'm slightly jealous of these people with 2022 and 2023 dates, all because I was loyal to BA in the Aug-Mar period...

UKTony

Me and OH both Gold but with different cut off dates.

OH April - last year renewed but has been given an additional year so gold until June 2022 and reduced TP for 21/22 year by the look of it. Good result
ME Sept - 1190 points in June. Reduced TP applied to this year so got the message requalified and card valid to 12/21 no additional year. Poor result

Looks to me like if you had requalified by the June (1500TP) the workflow they ran gave an additional year to 2022 but otherwise gave an additional year then reduced the TP for current year (rather than calculating prequalification first).

ThatT1Feeling

Yep - I feel your pain. And the challenge with GGL is that if you miss one year, you're back to the higher threshold.

I just don't understand how a one-year extension (as per BA's email) has managed to become everything from a 0 year extension through to a 3-year extension. At least you got one month