ISTFlyer

A data point that AF/KL did announce the extension 45 days before their first customer would downgrade status.
There are still 142 days ( from today: 17 Feb till 8 Jul ) for the first BAEC member to lose his status if there isn't any extension.

Grace B

Or even HERS...

It's a pity that BA wants to play these games, when other airlines just get on with it.

Cyberhacker

The hotel chains (albeit with their calendar periods) were quick off the mark, to address 2021 as a write-off...

While I acknowledge that there a good number of non-UK nationals in BAEC, BA is (at least notionally) a British company, and the continued national restrictions should be a factor. Thus, as a minimum, BA should extend everyone with a 2021 year end... as an absolute absolute minimum, those of us with July and August year-ends will need some love.

But hey... the worst that can happen is I'm Blue next time I fly... (notwithstanding potential soft-landings)...

ISTFlyer

Could you please list a hotel chain that has extended status a second time?
Most of them do offer double points/qualifying nights or have reduced the threshold; I haven't heard any hotel extending status until 31 December 2022 ( most of them follow a calendar year format as you mentioned )

BA would most likely extend status at a later stage.
As I mentioned numerous times upthread, BA would not extend status far in advance. They would wait until late-spring or early-summer to announce extensions due to marketing reasons.

GBOAC

Not an extension to 31 Dec, but a second extension and an extension well into 2022
Hilton have extended a second time to 31 March 2022
Preferred hotels have extended to June 2022 (don't know if this is a first or second extension)
https://preferredhotels.com/page/cov...prefer-members

hfly

Well you say that BA is a British company, but to be clear IAG, which owns 100% BA is a SPANISH company, and for that matter the biggest shareholder of IAG is Qatar Airways (over 25%), which is of course a QATARI company.

ISTFlyer

Hilton has extended status for those who haven't met the thresholds within 1 January 2020 - 31 December 2020 so theoretically they needed to take action these days for those members who would have lost their status on 31 March 2021. Also, this was a follow-up to Bonvoy's extension.

Hilton's first extension was a goodwill gesture to those members who haven't met the thresholds in 2019 which is not 100% related to COVID although they mention it as a COVID-19 related benefit.

Though, I can't speak about Preferred Hotels.

ThatT1Feeling

I'm intrigued as to why you think BA won't extend status in advance? What marketing reasons? Waiting until early summer for those of us with July end dates will, without a doubt, influence some buying patterns for those who will drop status if they don't feel loved by BA.

As Cyberhacker mentioned some posts ago, feeling loved by a big brand is a big driver of purchase decisions - for some people it's even more important than the more tangible points and baubles which may come from membership of any loyalty scheme - and many purchases of flights are made many months in the future.

If BA misses the boat, once some customers who have dropped to Silver, Bronze or Blue then feel aggrieved by their situation, then it's unnecessarily hard for BA to win back those customers.

ISTFlyer

Thanks for asking this question;

Here is my logic;
1- BA was one of the last airlines in the 2020 extensions that have pressed the button. They waited until the last moment they could. Yes the CEO of BA might have changed but I don't think that the mentality of the Executive Club management has so they would have a similar approach regarding extensions.

2- At the moment, there aren't that many airline possibilities to fly, BA still has one of the strongest route networks in Europe. Also, many people choose the airline most convenient to their schedule at the moment.

3- If BA has pressed the button now, it might distract some customers who would fly BA in the near future and even some minority that are currently thinking to fly in the spring or summer to fly BA to maintain their status just in case there isn't an extension. People could build status on other airlines in the meanwhile. BA needs cash at the moment so they would think revenue over people who are mad because BA didn't extend status 143 days before.

4- There aren't that many status match possibilities around as it was mentioned and predicted in 2020. Yes, there is a Virgin Atlantic status match where people refer to but VS doesn't fly to 90+% of the places that BA flies. Other than the status match of US carriers, there aren't any reasonable status matches available for BAEC flyers.

5- As a result of bullet point 4, passengers who have status ( even those who dropped from Gold/GGL to Silver ) would continue to prefer BA as Silver is still better than zero. ( Assuming that person doesn't have status on another airline ).

6- People who complain that are 0 TP at the moment are mostly not flying at all due to the pandemic, and wouldn't fly until the pandemic is entirely over. Yes, the vaccine might have a small positive impact this year but unless COVID restrictions end or/and business travel recovers demand for travel would still be low. As a side note, there were a significant amount of members here, where their personal opinion was to stay at home until the end of the pandemic to stop the spread of the virus; assuming that when these people are vaccinated, they would consider that being vaccinated wouldn't 100% make them safe being an asymptomatic carrier so if these people have the same logic, they would continue to stay home.

7- As a result of bullet point 6, people who don't fly at the moment shouldn't care that much when BA extended status or not. Most likely, these people wouldn't choose their airline that they are going to fly in 2023 or 2024 based on this.

8- From last year's extension thread we have clearly seen that the threats of people switching to other airlines because they didn't think that BA appreciated their loyalty were complete trash. The same people who made these threats were actually flying BA and complaining about the service during the summer.

Nephoi

this is only my personal opinion. i think this counts for me. i stand at 0 TP and cant fly. because im not allowed to the most countries i want to visit (and I consider a 7/10/14/21 day mandatory quarantine as "im not allowed")
but i care. is both about appreciation/esteem and the mutual try to keep each other in business. I buy tickets over and over again in the desperate attempt to fly them cause nobody knows what the future holds... i think BA could honor that i try to continue throwing money in their faces all the time. i know its not much but i have several business class tickets in the pipeline. thats some months salaries for their employees.

gcuk

ISTflyer. With respect you have posted the same points on numerous occasions but please don’t assume you understand my logic or motivators in making bookings.

I’ve earned GGL/CCR card for 6 years. In that time I have given BA a lot of business and enjoyed the many status benefits, published and unpublished, of my GGL status.

Your assumptions about my reasons for being a July year end on 0TPs are incorrect. I simply can’t fly to my three main destinations, USA, South Africa and Australia. Looking forward, all my flights, long haul and European to the end of May have been cancelled by BA. I would hope BA will extend my GGL again and if they do it’s not going to send me running to other airlines to build status. Loyalty is two way, so I would appreciate their loyalty to me, and I like flying BA. However, the fact they haven’t means I have a booking to the US for the Virgin status match and other long haul bookings on Star Alliance carriers due to an attractive targeted promotion. Had I felt loyalty from BA I would disregard such offers.

You make some very valuable contributions to many of the threads, but on this one your assumptions just don’t represent my reality so on this one so we’ll just have to agree to disagree.

ISTFlyer

I always respect your opinion and value them.

BA6948

I hope they do. I am a Platinum AF and they extended my platinum for a further year and they are keeping my surplus that is equal to a further 2 years of Platinum. They are litterally fast tracking me now to Platinum for life. (3 years of platinum plus 2 extensions plus 2 roll overs, thats 7 out of 10). Love it.

now I am also BA gold too. As we won’t be back to the level of flying of 2019, difficult choice will have to be made and it looks like focusing on AF would be mor rewarding as it stands now.

LCY8737

I was on the phone with GGL a couple of days ago and had a little moan with the agent about the good old times. Agent indicated that BA is about to do something to recognise that people can't travel at the moment. No specifics, but I would be very surprised if status doesn't roll over for another year.

swiss_global

Thanks, ISTFlyer for your thoughts. I agree with your reasoning why a later decision is more likely than an earlier one.

However, I do agree with gcuk in respect of the reasons why people are not flying. At least within my team, nobody is afraid of flying during COVID times. In fact, most have flown once or twice within Europe for their vacations or perhaps a client meeting whenever this was possible. Most of them accumulated between 20 and 160 TP, as compared to 2000 to 4000 in a normal year. This because our clients are mostly located in countries which are closed for non-citizens (Canada, Latin America, South East Asia). I’m pretty sure we would start flying more, if travel bans were removed (and probably replaced by testing requirements).