Flyertalker001342

It seems as if just about every travel related company with a loyalty scheme is giving "status extensions," and I agree that for the most part it isn't going to cost them very much. In the same way that I don't use BA lounges when I'm not flying, I also don't use the "free water bottles" that I get at the Hilton Garden Inn, nor do I use the miniscule dining credit or loyalty points that they don't give me when I am not there. Some people will take advantage of reduced requirements for status and gain status that they ordinarily wouldn't get. A percentage of those latter people will be sufficiently motivated by having status to retain it longer term.

*Most* of the things that these loyalty programs give to their more frequent customers cost them little or nothing as they are mostly allowing "line cutting" in front of other customers, such things as being able to book a specific seat before check-in, boarding the plane early, or getting a preferred parking space near the entrance of a hotel. Free lounge access on an economy ticket certainly costs something, but there simply aren't that many people traveling in economy who are going to get that perk because relatively few people traveling in economy travel enough to get status, extensions or not.

Wozza2404

Will be another couple of months until I go over 2250 (Aug renewal) but frankly if my app and account show me as having retained GGL then I consider that the end of the matter.

They can't move goalposts just because of their shonky IT.

That being said, it's not an easy fight to win if they do play silly beggars, so my plan is to make sure I hit 3500 TPs (and trigger the associated GUFs) and am planning my BA/OW travel accordingly. I'm not sure how much help CEDR would be in this situation if you had to fight.

Tobias-UK

Disputes relating to frequent flyer programs are outside the scope of CEDR. CEDR handles disputes relating to flights and ancillary services.

Wozza2404

Well there you go. So I don't know how you'd go about fighting it then. Hence my decision to put the 3500 through (I also need the GUFs to be fair).

Raises an interesting discussion about valuations of status benefits and their issuance, though.

wylek

It will certainly be interesting to see if they do indeed try to move the goalposts, despite every indication from their website and mobile app. If you are a US-based BAEC member, you could file a complaint with the US DOT. According to their website, "While the U.S. Department of Transportation does not have rules governing airline frequent flyer programs, DOT has the authority to investigate unfair or deceptive practices in air transportation, including complaints from consumers regarding airlines’ frequent flyer programs."

izzik

DOT is not going to get involved with changes to frequent flyer programs. Airlines are free to govern their programs as they see fit. There's fine print in every program that says as much, basically. If you don't like what you see, speak with your wallet and go elsewhere.

Flyertalker001342

I might (slightly) rephrase that as, "if you don't like what you see, speak with someone else's wallet and go elsewhere."

All of these loyalty schemes basically function with the (unstated) myth that because you patronize the business (be it an airline, a hotel chain, rental car company, etc. etc. etc.) more than the run of the mill customer, you will get "special" treatment. In reality, the individual patronizing the business to the extent that it exceeds occasional, casual, use, is doing so with money coming from either a third party (e.g. employer in many cases) or being spent with a credit card/finance card into which is built in a ~3% discount rate that is being used to finance any benefits that are given.

Someone is paying for those perks, even though it may not be you, the user. Some of those perks come at the expense of your fellow travelers (think early boarding, ability to select seats in advance which others can't do, "free" luggage allowances, etc.) and some appear to be paid by the airline (LP GS in the Concorde Room) but in reality the cost of all of this stuff is bundled into the aggregate take from the money that the airline receives, be it from ticket sales, advanced seating reservation costs, excess baggage fees, money remitted to the airline from "affinity" credit cards, etc. etc. etc.

Someone is paying for all of this stuff, and it's either you or your fellow passengers, or your employer or your credit card company bank (but in that case it is passed on to you in the form of every $1 that you spend is discounted by 3 percent, which is what your merchant gets, so he raises the price of everything he sells you by 3%, so in the end it is you who are paying for this stuff).

This is all a giant "shell game," something that would probably be illegal were it structured more transparently.

chris1979

I agree. as said before on here (and yes, partially because I fall into the April - June camp that hasn't been extended yet), I really don't see how BA can think that with US only just reopened and now Day 2 quarantine etc, people would hit their normal numbers.

now, they might say that this is the time to reduce numbers / weed out some members but logically, having done 9 months of extensions, doing the final 3 months makes sense (and possibly even more).

GBOAC

New testing regime changes the game quite a bit, as do continued and new restrictions in Asia, Middle East which will further throttle travel.
At the very least BA need to honour reduced thresholds, or further still continue extensions until, say 90% of their pre-covid schedule is back to normal.

BTW the terms and conditions on the BA website re reduced thresholds seem quite unambiguous
"What’s more, we’ve reduced the amount of Tier Points needed to reach each Tier by 25% for those aiming to retain or reach a Tier up to June 2022."

There does not seem to be much room for wiggle - if you hit the reduce thresholds by June 2022, regardless of when your year end is (June or later), you make the new threshold. I would like to see any other interpretation stand up in a court of law!
the term 'those aiming to retain' is interesting... how do you prove personal intent - I am aiming to reach threshld X by June 2022, I reached it. Great. This puts all the balls in my court. Stupid wording imho.

ledcran02

Has anyone here recently successfully used the 2 week grace period at the end of their TP collection year? Just wanted to see if this was still known to be working, am about to book flights in Jan with that partly in mind.

Rubecula

I wonder if BA will bring back 2 years at 3000 as an entry to GGL

marcopizzaiuolo

if UK resident the dispute could be brought to Trading Standards first and to a small claim court after that. This is because the loyalty rewards are linked to having to buy a product and the advertised conditions needs to be delivered. So right now the BA system tells you you need to achieve X amount of TP to gain status/next level status, once you have achieved that, they cannot change the condition. If you are yet to achieve that and they change the condition based on the fact that it was a temporary exception, that may be fine, but cannot remove the rewards achieved whilst the exception was “live”

Tobias-UK

Of course one could make a complaint to Trading Standards, but what claim do you believe you could bring in the small claims court? How would you establish quantum? I cannot see where the small claims court could have jurisdiction to hear such a claim. There are other remedies available using the civil courts (a claim for declaratory relief) but that would be a very expensive exercise.

marcopizzaiuolo

you could well claim compensation for tickets bought at higher price trying to reach the target. Simply put, let’s say someone trying to reach silver status at the lower 400 threshold, do 3 TP run in CE to Sofia, Catania and Malta, spending (fore the sake of argument) a total of £800 and the same tickets could have been bought from EasyJet for £250, well my claim would be for £550, hopefully having the ruling of Trading Standards as evidence

ISTFlyer

I'm sorry but how would you justify that the only reason you purchased Club Europe is for Tier Points. A Club Europe ticket would offer additional baggage allowance, lounge access, fast-track security, meal onboard, empty adjacent seat, etc... which are not provided at Easyjet's cheapest fare. The only difference between those two products that you mention are far beyond Tier Points.