Dorowilson

Please can you help. I hope to go to Bangkok in November 22, and rather than use my normal Emirates A380 business class, I’m intending to focus on Oneworld carriers this year while the BAEC Tier qualifications remain reduced. I will have Gold shortly( until Sept 23) and intend to retain it for the following year by strategic travelling in the latter part of this year. Among other plans, I’m planning to fly to Bangkok with Qatar so as to get 560 Tier Points return, compared with 280 on BA, which for years have had rubbish aircraft on the LHR - BKK route anyway. When I book, how can I avoid having Qatar loyalty points rather than BAEC Tier Points added to the booking? Also, if I take the cheapest class of their unpackaged business class, will I get full BAEC Tier Points? Or will they be cut back as it’s a basic fare? I’ll get a First Class Lounge anyway on my Gold status but will I be able to select seats on the cheapest business fare using my Emerald/ Gold status? Also do I need to register separately for OneWorld Emerald status once I have Gold, or is this done automatically? I’m not looking forward to transferring my longhaul loyalties from Emirates but it’s all in a good cause as BAEC Gold is useful to me at present as I do regular short haul out of LHR T5 and I like their First Lounge. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Mwenenzi

Just put your BAEC freq flyer number in the QR reservation. No need to join the QR loyalty ff program.

For QR earning to BAEC look the BAEC web site. Will need to know the fare booking class letter

For QR lounge access check more. Can depend on fare class.

BAEC Gold = Oneworld Emerald. Nothing to do. Your status will(should) be recognised by all OW airlines
https://www.oneworld.com/members/british-airways#tiers
https://www.oneworld.com/travel-benefits

Schwann

When you book you can input your BA frequent flyer number. You get full TPs but reduced tier points Avios on "P" aka the QR basic business fare. You can choose seats for free.

Gold/Emerald status will update automatically after the qualifying tier points post but it might take a few days to update.

ISTFlyer

Also another important thing to make not of would be to never sign up/sign in for anything on the QR website and never try to benefit from Privilege Club perks. It's a known issue that once a QR Privilege Club number is attached to the booking, despite what FFP is on the boarding pass, miles would go to QR Privilege Club.

NWIFlyer

I appreciate this is a typo, just the sort I usually make, but so as not to confuse the OP: all QR Business Class fares earn full Tier Points, but the basic Business fare (P) earns reduced Avios - 60% compared to 100% for the full fat versions.

drwook

In case you aren't aware, the "F" lounge for status passengers in Doha isn't the "real" first lounge. Perfectly fine for a short layover and I wouldn't lose much sleep over it, but you may be able to buy your way in to the better lounges if so inclined (Actually; I'm assuming the status lounges *are* open, if you're lucky you might be redirected to the 'good' lounges - not been to Doha since the whole covid thing....)

ISTFlyer

The F status lounge is still closed thus oneworld Emerald pax [ eqv. BA Gold ], in Y or Business Lite ( P fare bucket ) are still being redirected to the Al Mourjan Business Lounge.
Although, the J status lounge ( Silver Lounge ) is open thus oneworld Sapphire pax [ eqv. BA Silver ] are redirected to that lounge.

firstlight

We recently travelled on QR, will do again in a few weeks and depending on the route you can book it directly via BA (or on BA holidays). 560 TPs for the return trip if both legs are 2000 miles or more I understand. 1120 TPs if you book it as a BA holiday with car or hotel for 5 nights or more before (I think) the end of October 22. We downloaded and used the QR app as the connection between BA and QR for seat selection is not as good as with AA (ie it doesn't work), but stayed well away from opening a privilege points account given previous advice here.

southlondonphil

Worth remembering that the reduced threshold for Tier Points only applies up to 31st December 2022, so if you reach the 1125 points between the start of your Tier Point Collection Year and 31st December 2022 you'll need to continue collecting TPs up to the normal threshold of 1500 point to achieve/maintain Gold

henry999

Not according to BA:

Members with a Tier Point collection end date in 2023 can benefit from the reduced thresholds to renew or upgrade their status for the following membership year, if they earn the required number of Tier Points by 31 December 2022 only. From 1 January 2023 the reduced Tier thresholds will no longer apply.

Quoted by Raffles https://www.headforpoints.com/2022/0...r-points-2022/ on 10 January '22.

Schwann

Thank you! Serves me right for replying to FT posts in bed on my phone.

southlondonphil

I may not have explained it well, but the paragraph and the full article you quoted appear to confirm the exact point I was trying to make i.e. that from whenever your Tier Point Year starts in 2022 if you don't hit the reduced threshold by 31st December 2022 you'll need to collect the full target amount during the rest of your 2022-2023 year. Raffles' example using his own Tier anniversary lays it out quite neatly - if he hits 1125 points between 9th September and the end of the year he has Gold through to the end of October 2024,. If he doesn't make 1125 points in the first ~4 months of his 2022-2023 year he needs 1500 points across the whole year to achieve the same result.

ratechaser

...and as a September year end, I have already started looking at holiday options between the 8th September and end of October (when the double TP promo ends) - that's the sweet spot to get me yet another year of silver...

Dorowilson

Thanks. Your info is greatly appreciated. As regards lounges in Doha, I’m not too bothered about not getting their best one as I don’t much fancy Qatar’s style anyway. I’m doing this to maintain my Gold status for another year and as I’ll be Gold for that year anyway, any delay in points coming through won’t matter. Getting full tier points matters - that’s why I’m straying from Emirates- but I don’t care about Avios much so a reduction with their cheap business class is ok.

Dorowilson

Yes, thanks. I’m aware of the 31st Dec 22 cutoff . I’m doing a Barbados package in September for double points plus Bangkok on Qatar in November, both in business class, and those two trips together will leave me only 5 Tier points short of Gold maintenance at the reduced level. I have several shorthauls Sept- Dec so I should retain gold easily until autumn 2024. That’s the plan anyway.