orbitmic

I'm sure it is - and I'm very happy for the OP that it worked that way for him/her.

That said, incompetence, however shambolic, is no excuse for unfairness and inequity, and ultimately, it makes things even more laughable than the only ones who will not be able to benefit from any such loophole. So in practice, many GGLs will drop to silver where others are - very rightly - getting BAEC support to achieve new status and keep it for long periods of time given the very difficult period.

The issue is not the long extensions some get, which are very positive, it is the grossly inadequate answer BAEC is currently offering to those of us who are in a new membership year, with bookings cancelled left right and centre largely exceeding BA's insufficient discount, GUFs and vouchers being lost through no fault of our own, and the prospect of losing status whilst being given a virtual middle finger by BAEC because we have been faithful to BA for too long to be on their radar and/or because the time we are being impacted by Covid 19 happens not to match the one they wanted us to be according to their random office calculations.

The good news that some are reporting are very positive in their own right, but they also emphasise the microscopic nature of the BAEC short straw.

BertieBadger

It does indeed seem to be exactly that.

For stepping up a tier, appears system looks at your current expiry and adds 1 year to that at the point you reach the new tier. Result - extension.

For retaining a tier, system looks at your current collection year, and only at the end of that, adds 1 year (+7 weeks) to that. Result - no extension (effectively)

It simply reinforces that they've created a system where the more recently loyal you have been to BA, the worse your outcome will be. I know we have some on this thread (not me!) who are July GGLs and for those members it is a dreadful outcome as they don't even have the option of stepping up a tier. Even if they could step up a tier, they are already in their new collection year, so it wouldn't help anyway that I can see.

crazyarmadillo

So agree. BA really should address these issues. They are doing themselves no favours. Are they even aware of the difference in outcomes, just based on a date.

BertieBadger

Yes, you can be sure they are aware of differences due to date because they have responded to enquiries about different outcomes pointing to the fact members have varying collection years, as if such a fact alone justified any variation in outcome no matter how large.

However, you can get very different outcomes even with the same collection dates, where the outcome is worse if you started at your current tier (i.e. upgrades vs retention). In simple terms, the more you flew with them before, the worse your outcome.

As far as I can tell, they seem determined to avoid addressing this.

HighwayToHEL

This does appear to be the case. My points will reset in about 2 weeks, and whilst I have renewed GGL, it seems I will have twelve months to achieve 3000 (or the reduced threshold). That will be tough, when there's no sign of any flying until at least January.

Sam Lewis

oops i feel bad now. One thing to note is that I already had enough tier points for silver was just missing the one BA flight. Unsure if it made any difference

crazyarmadillo

We are Junes so no direct impact to me or OH. But can't understand why BA doesn't address these issues, on a case by case basis. Just weird really. Understand they have bigger issues, but even so.....

Akoz

This is nothing new though. It is not really a "loyalty scheme". As someone whose flying is solely on BA in Europe and domestic with the occasional holiday long haul. I comfortably make Silver (but don't get near Gold) - yet there are plenty of people mainly flying AA, QR etc and only paying BA for their required 4 flights and they get Gold or GGL. I wager that I pay far more money direct to BA, but get less.

BertieBadger

Yes, and indeed I'm using "loyalty" somewhat loosely here (I can hear corporate-wage-slave warming up the kippers!), although the Executive Club itself is rather fond of the word. It doesn't detract from the point tho if we replace loyalty with actual spend, which is - after all - the sort of "loyalty" that the Exec Club is designed to encourage. If you made the 'mistake' of previously spending more with BA then your outcome will be no better and probably much worse than someone who did not spend as much with BA.

It naively seems to me that if BA wishes to encourage people who had previously spent more than average to continue doing so, giving them poorer outcomes may not be the best way to do that.

Moreover, it seems to me that there is a fundamental difference in the scenarios, namely in the case of a "4 flight GGL" then the rules are known beforehand and are the same for everyone. The EC is free to set whatever rules it wants here, but we all know them ahead of time and if we wish to "play the system" then such opportunities are equally open to everyone. With the support package EC has put together for its members, the 'rules' are opaque and to a certain degree arbitrary. The have created a situation whereby two members could take the exact same set of flights, paying the same money to BA and one member gets a significantly worse outcome if they were previously giving BA more money.

ExAbz

I wasn't so fortunate. July collection end, was silver and had cancelled flights in March\Apr that would have renewed and a further big earning trip in July, just after collection end but within the normal 2 week "grace" period, that was also cancelled which would have got me to gold.

After the 1 year extension was pushed to all I got the extension to 31 Aug 2021, and then around the end of June I requested BAEC look at my cancelled flights with a view to credit the TP's. This was successful so have gold, but no further extension of date, so still expiring Aug 2021 with very little likelihood of being able to use the gold benefits. Happy to get the new tier, especially as I've been refunded on all the flights so effectively has the TP's for free, trying hard not to be miffed about those who have much longer extensions.

TL; DR; my tier upgrade, via discretionary TP's for cancelled flights, did not get a further date extension.

PGberkshire

Great, I have two small tier point runs in August. Will reach Gold with just over 1125 and it should be there until Oct 2022. COVID has worked out well for my BAEC account.

orbitmic

Hilarious: not only did I not get any extension beyond what I qualified for through my flying on full TP thresholds, but I have just received my new CCR card (in fairness, the first time I receive my new CCR card before the previous one expires in the past 4 years, so I suppose that is notable progress)... and it is made with a deadline, which is one month earlier than it should be.

I do not wish to say that BAEC is a display of clownesque incoherence and abysmal incompetence, so I shall say nothing...

FlightDetective

This could well be by design, as it'll get the high rollers flying and spending faster to get back to their high level status.

The rationale could be that the GGLs and so on all spend and fly so much they'll eventually get back on the horse and make all their targets again as usual, since they clearly have the means to do so.

Before everyone starts screaming, I am being fairly tongue in cheek

I also would be very upset to go from GGL to Silver if it were me. One educational piece from this thread is that soft landing. I thought it would go GGL to Gold to Silver to Bronze to Blue. Not GGL to Silver. That's harsh, but it is BA's programme at the end of the day, and people pretty much have to take what they're given.

gcuk

I’m now waiting in anticipation for my renewal pack. I also have to request my CCR card every year. I’ve learnt the longer I leave asking for it, the longer it is dated. For my July TP year end, my current CCR card only expires end November 2020.
They probably short dated your card because they know we won’t be able to renew it under the current restrictions anyway, so may as well get us out the way as soon as possible. They won’t want us drowning our sorrows in the CCR in August next year 😉

orbitmic

Wow you are luckier than me - mine, whilst arriving as late as December always had an August expiry date.