ThatT1Feeling

So the day has finally arrived when I have completed my last flight on BA as a GGL “guest”, unless something unexpected happens in the next 3 weeks.

After apparently 19+ years on FT I hope you won’t mind me having a bit of a reminisce about what has been a long time of continuous GGL membership (I think it’s 13, might be 12 but it’s basically since GGL’s official inception) – the good and the bad!

So, at the start I remember there being (and am happy to be corrected)

- 2 x Jokers

- No additional lounge guests

- It being possible to qualify for GGL with 2 x successive 3k TP years – with the CCR card only triggering if you reached 5k TPs in a year.

- Ability to nominate a single Silver Card holder I think (at 3500 TPs?? My memory is playing games here)… and maybe a second Silver Card holder at 6k??

- An amazing premium team who always seemed to be available.



2013 - An additional joker at 6k, and a choice of rewards at 7k, 8k and 9k



2014 – Removal of being able to achieve GGL with 2 x successive 3k years



???? – Introduction of 1 x Gold & 2 x Silver partner cards



2019 – Introduction of 5 guests into BA lounges



2020? – Access to the CCR for all GGLs?



What this is telling me is that my memory has faded and I wish I had kept more records!



For me the highlights have been:



- The ability to treat my family to partner cards as they were the ones who missed me when I was away so much, especially when the kids were young.

- A much better likelihood of getting redemptions as a family when we needed them

- The premium team, especially at the start when Guest List was a new thing and they were going all out to make me feel I was BA’s only customer!

- The events and dinners which seemed to flow freely especially back in 2012-2015 ish. Especially sitting next to Frank VdP at the Mosimann’s lunches and the Golden Ticket parties and Fortnums events. This also might have been due to the 7 – 10k annual TPs during those years…I fell off quite a lot since then…

- The huge limos at LAX transporting me around for flight connections – this happened 5 times and they were all memorable.

- Preboarding by name for AA flights quite a few times.

- The rugby once BA started sponsoring England Rugby.

- Meeting some of the BA forum’s legends over the years, including CWS, Tobias-UK, SunriseGirl, CIHY, Prospero, Peter01, where next, BeanoHK and others.



The lowlights – not so many, but including:



- The GGL email team now requiring everything including inside leg measurement to get simple things done.

- Nowhere near as many upgrades on BA as I expected over the 12 years!

- My final flight as a GGL which included a flight cancellation, landing 8 hours later than planned and then of course a bus gate to T5. It had to be!



So I will now console myself with GFL for as long as it lasts (GFL, that is, not me!) and watch enviously as BA now decides to include a whole load of new GGL benefits just as I drop off. (this is, of course, idle speculation!)

Thanks for indulging me by reading this thread - I appreciate it has been quite self-indulgent

T8191

Condolences from a humble Honolulu Gold, who never aspired to such dizzy heights!

Tobias-UK

The Gold Partner Card was at 4500 (or was it 4000?) until it became a GGL perk provided on renewal.

orbitmic

You don't really say if you just fly less now and thus won't make GGL any more, have decided to explore new pastures and which ones, or have decided to "stop being a slave" to FFPs and fly whichever airline seems best on every itinerary.

I guess different people treat FFPs in varying ways and expect different things from them. In my case, I've been and sometimes stopped being top tier with a number of them over the years (LX when it was still "Swissair", UA, A3, BD, AF, BA, etc), but usually at least two at the same time as I am happy to privilege an airline but equally don't treat my relationship with airlines as love affairs that would require a deep and exclusive emotional commitment, and because in my experience, no single airline or even alliance is anywhere near perfect fit for all of my flight needs.

Whilst I understand people who feel like giving up on FFPs altogether as they say you get most of the benefits from flying J anyway, it is not my perspective. I value high status, not as some sort of social badge but in terms of primarily caring about getting the best and smoothest possible resolution when problems occur. My loyalty changed whenever I felt that an airline did not deliver on that particular element any more, notably the ones which were closest to being wonderful about it for a while.

Conversely, this is why the relationship with BA is still ongoing for me. Like you, I haven't had that many upgrades where they matter at least (long haul), I do find the GGL line a lot less good and "special" than it used to be, and the airline has by no means been perfect, but by and large, I still think that much of the time, for now at least, when problems occur, they try to sort me a little bit better and more easily than they do many others and that is what I value most in my GGL membership. Sure, CCR is lovely, gifting a gold card is a great privilege and so on, but that "what happens when it all goes wrong?" bit does and always will remain the most important criterion for me because with my travel patterns, an unresolved problem can otherwise have major domino effects i just don't want to deal with.

Best of luck with your next stage whatever it may be.

lhrsfo

For over 10 years now I've been a UA 1K (second tier, equivalent to Gold, I suppose) and a BA Silver. I now have UA Gold (equivalent to BA Silver) for life and UA have massively increased the qualification thresholds for 1K, so I'm switching to BA and will become Gold late next month. I will lose 1K at the end of January. I'm doing this with a sense of dread as UA treats its 1Ks extremely well - I'm upgraded more often than not at no extra charge (unless it's ex-LHR when the APD needs paying) and, on the once every other year occasion of IRROPS which aren't immediately resolvable in the App, they answer immediately and are very proactive.

So I'm approaching BA with a degree of dread, but also I'm sure I will find things which do appeal about Gold, I just haven't figured out what they will be. But currently I'm dreading losing 1K. Yesterday I was upgraded foc from Economy straight to Business and I sat there for 8 hours wondering if I'd made a mistake. But I do hope that the grass will be greener.

bisonrav

The grass, if not specifically greener, is at least green. Mostly.

Swanhunter

I said goodbye in 2016 (I think). TBH I only really miss the jokers, they were an awesome benefit at peak travel periods. Oh and the prodigious upgrade rate that I had! Other than the very early days I don’t recall the GGL line being that amazing. The Gold line has been pretty good IME save for the sometimes awful wait times.

Jpm81

I am UA GS and going to hit BA GGL in the next 2 weeks.

Your UA upgrades must be using PP surely as they do not upgrade on long haul unless in an over sold situation? Plenty of posts on UA forum about comp upgrades being harder due to a lot of people paying for US domestic F.

1k on united is good, I had it since 2014 before making GS last year, if you are flying in the US it's more beneficial than BA Gold as you won't get upgrades on domestic AA flights but you can use the lounges on AA that AA elites can't.

lorcancoyle

And I thought my reaction to a delay was on the strong side, that’s one helluva mic drop

ThatT1Feeling

Ha ha thanks all - esp orbitmic 😊 yes, no big reveal, no stress or particular upset with BA, just now a few years from retirement, I’d always earned GGL organically from my work and when this year it wouldn’t “just happen” but I’d had opportunities to travel enough to get close enough to stretch creatively, I decided that for me there’s no need any more.

It’s definitely been fun along the way and most if not all of us will reach this point eventually unless we reach 100k TPs!

I’m sure over the next year I’ll look longingly at the CCR entrance or be disappointed that I can’t just call up and get the redemption I want, but I’m still lucky to be able to travel with BA without stressing about my TPs any more 😊

PETER01

As the old saying goes "all good things come to an end" however Gold for Life is an excellent position to be in

Here's a memory for you from the Hong Kong Do from 2013 (was it really 10 years ago?!!) and your GGL card trumped my then Bronze card. An absolutely excellent night but too much drink really (more photos in the link below!)



https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/21871778-post3.html

Koru Flyer

13 years of 7-10k annually must put you very close to saying hello to GGLfL ;-)

orbitmic

Not that you need my validation, but I think that it was a perfectly sensible attitude before and is a perfectly sensible attitude now.

As others have said, GfL is also a great insurance policy and I too hope it lasts for whenever I find myself in the same situation as you.

For what it's worth, I'm having small doubts at the moment mostly because much of my travel is one stop anyway, and at the moment, it seems that the vast majority of excellent long haul J fares are offered by the LH group which is pricing very aggressively, so part of me was tempted to be content with my AF PfL, BA GfL, and start building HON on the LH group for a bit of variety, but I still have a portion of nonstop from London and I still can't make myself like LH or FRA (though I like OS and LX) so I have resisted so far despite the LH-LX-OS seemingly making a more economic sense right now...

ThatT1Feeling

ha ha sadly not. The first 4 years were 7-10k, the rest a mixture of 3.5 and 5! Not close enough to make the effort 😊

Greenpen

At the other end of the flying scale I am about to totter from Silver to Bronze at the end of September. Devastated! I never got to the glory of GGL but a few years ago I had Gold with both BA and *A . It’s a hard life!

The fall from grace to base metal grieves me as I will no longer be able to use short haul Y with all the benefits of J. I know J gets food and drink on board but that’s more than compensated for by being able to book an exit row and often having a vacant space next to me. Time to pay attention to all those Barclays upgrade vouchers.