alexoster

Of course there is the first check in, full access to lounges, 50% more miles & etc.

But I remember those days when gold meant so much more then that. It was a real status, a much smaller amount of people belonged to that circle. I recall those days when a gold member checked in with BA & was actually acknowledged. Gold would get upgrades 85% of the time & would usually be the only gold passenger on that plane.

Nowadays an average long haul BA flight would have 7-8 gold passengers. It somehow lost the spice; the kick is not there anymore.

Is the reason that people are flying more then they used to? People earn more money & thus earn more tier points on higher classes? Or is it the cheap method of transferring your account to outside the UK or USA?

latitude

I think it's a mixture of all three.

However, particulary, people are travelling more.

What I think doesn't help though, is BA themselves. When was the last time they properly overhauled the benefits and offerings? Introduced something substantially new to high tier members? Added an additional tier (below Prem) to differentiate between the 1500-2000 tier pointers (like me ) with 3500 plus (like others on here )

BA, in my opinion, have led the "club" go somewhat stale, and you're right, it is not that much of an exclusive thing any more I don't think. Heck, I even see people on the tube with gold cards hanging off their bags !

Fraser

I doubt the reasons that Golds are jumping eight-fold is because of people moving to Europe

Possibly in part from the fact Gold used to 1800/1200 and is now 1500/1500. As the numbers of poeple flying more and more decreases exponentially somewhat you may find lower the threshold by just 300pts may increase the numbers of Golds by quite a large percentage. I doubt it'd double them, or else BA wouldn't have done it.

jameslon

Quite true. You only have to see the manifest of a long haul flight today and usually there is a whole string of BA Golds and Oneworld Emeralds. Asterisks everywhere!

When I am in economy, only once has the CSD personally introduced themselves to me making it clear it was because I am BA gold.

I suspect the BA gold you speak of has now been replaced by BA Premier.

Rambuster

Upgrades 85% of the times ?? 7-8 Golds on a long haul flight?
There are usually more Golds than that just in the F cabin, let alone the CW cabin !

jhm

Perhaps the BAEC needs a new highest level tier attainable solely by flying along the lines of CX Diamond, LH HON or SQ PPS Solitaire ? Even just offering increased J/F availability for awards would presumably encourage a lot of people to go for that level rather than, as a number have posted, flying other airlines once the relevant threshold has been reached.

VC10 Boy

BA have devalued the gold card to a certain degree through the numbers issued. Remember when a Gold Amex used to impress and then a few years later even your local waiter had one.

Of course BA does have a secret premium tier above Gold that is very hush hush. I believe approval to join has to be made at BA board level and there is a limit of 100 cards.

I don't have one so I can't comment on the benefits.

I do remember in the days of the very fast aeroplane that the crews tended to recognise some passengers. If Helen, God bless her, saw you were on the passenger list she would run into Duty Free and make sure there was a bottle of Talisker avialable because she knew a certain person liked it. It didn't need a card of any colour, but by God that really was service.

srbrenna

7-8 Golds out of around, say 300 per longhaul flight? That's saying that as many as 2.5% of the flight may be Gold card holders. A truly enormous figure!!

Actually if I remember correctly in the olden days it was a lot easier to retain Gold. Longer European J class flights earned 60 TPs each way and the renewal threshold was 1300 TPs as opposed to the 1500 now. Add the fact that a lot more companies allowed Business class travel and I would say that Gold is a bit more difficult nowadays. Someone with a better memory than mine will be able to say how many points you needed to get Gold for the first time.

pauldb

It's got to be mainly down to people travelling more. BA have had the benefit of seeing this process evolve with the "Gold club" gradually expanding. If they had a problem with it, the thresholds would be higher.

It therefore suggests BA like the cost-benefit of providing these benefits to more Golds. The marginal cost falls with scale, and the marginal loyalty benefit is probably greater for the 1500 pointer.

There would, by this argument, be room for a higher tier, with the old benefits you've described, but how will they affect your spending (not your loyalty). Better service/recognition is free and obvious, and BA should be hotter on this, but OTOH giving upgrades too consistently isn't clever. Higher milage bonuses may be wasted on super-Golds, given redemption constraints (and if you really do have their loyalty, easier redemption would be similarly self-defeating).

fraisse10

And not so long ones... GVA was a 60-pointer and very good news it was for me too, as I lived there and shuttled to London in Club almost weekly. I kept Gold easily, despite never moving my account out of UK!

jameslon

Some of the benefits can be gleaned from the BA site.

It includes:
- access to Concorde Room irrespective of class of flight + 2 guests
- automatic silver partner card

However, there are some downsides too. A Premier cannot earn tier points on premium flights (not that they would need it I suppose anyway! )

see: http://www.britishairways.com/travel...?prim=execclub Tier: Premier

I would suggest there are far more than 100 in existence.

jhm

In the lounge access guide which somebody posted, I seem to recall that it showed that premiers are allowed (together with 2 guests) access to any BA lounge - including the Concorde Room - regardless of what airline/class they're travelling.

latitude

I don't think that figure is out of line. However, it shouldn't be applied to ALL longhaul flights, just those whose destinations are more popular. JFK, IAD, IAH, SIN etc etc

One wouldn't expect to see many gold card holders on a flight to say, Mauritius!

schofs

If you're talking about Premier, there are more like 1500 I think. Or are you talking about the Concorde Room cards, where there are 101 (but no status)?

jhm

I think I read on here that some of the CCR cards have expired ?