Reactions of various natures, presumably. Some might be OK provided you booked a room that accommodates 4, an All Inclusive will probably be very angry and will produce a card reader and an amount that you might not like. Others might have particular legal problems that need sorting.

If widespread I imagine BAH will kebosh it quite quickly by refusing to award points.

Just to add also, the Hilton at LAX also gives diamond benefits, but not points if booked through an agent.

I've had a series of interactions with the BA team on X and wanted update the thread after the latest answer I received. I have paid for flights for April which are a combination of BA & AY which will (would have?) achieve Silver. I wanted to confirm that the AY sectors would be converted from existing TP to new TP in the same way as BA sectors. The answer I received back was generic and mentioned the 13.3333 multiplier but really told me nothing. My follow up question elicited the response that partner flights would indeed be treated the same way as BA.

So I was happy, - and I posted upthread with the good news!

Then, after reading several more posts here about BA trying to weasel their way out of previously given commitments, I began to wonder if I could trust the answer. After all, the simple question was, are AY sectors treated the same as BA? You'd imagine it would be a Yes or No.

So once again, I asked for a more definitive answer and they gave me some corporate-speak about % of mileage earned on Oneworld partners. So who do I believe? If AY sectors are credited I'm Silver which would be great. If not it's just a lot of money wasted as crediting mileage won't even get me anywhere near Bronze. So, I'm in a bit of a dilemma; is AY a partner airline or not for the purposes of the conversion from old TP to new TP?

Anyone out there in a similar position with perhaps flights booked on QR or CX?

I have been in this situation a couple of times by not paying attention to the number of people in a choice box when booking.
Reactions are different and even between the hotel reservations line and specific hotels. For the case of claimed 2 but 1 turns up nobody really cares.
For claimed 1 but more turned up then they do care and in some cases make it clear that extra charges need to be paid (especially if breakfast was included in the rate).

This is a bit of a side topic from the main discussion, you would also be losing some consumer protection for people not on the package-holiday booking.

There is more to it than an agency being involved. All my business travel is through an agency (AMEX) and I get benefits for Accor, Hilton, Radisson, Strawberry, etc.
The issue is that BA holidays is using some extra special hotel rates, perhaps they are pre-purchasing a block or they are the end customer as far as the hotel is concerned, I'm not sure.

The point I was going with here is although it may be Hotel dependent, it’s not SOP broadly.

If someone books a hotel via BAH and doesn’t not get the program benefits they were expecting from a direct non BAH booking, it shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Caveat Emptor as they say

BA is mistaken if they thinks that BAH adds to their loyalty programme. The limitations of BAH, e.g. rigid holiday itinerary, limited choices and the downsides of booking through a 3rd party, means that the most likely people who will book through BAH are tourists who don’t chase after elite status (probably also don’t travel a lot), love the BA brand and like a convenience of a package or a one stop shop. Since these people do not chase after status, the loyalty programme is pretty much rendered pointless, so if BA cannot provide a better product than others, they will lose the business. I also don’t see a ton of corporate customers using BAH due to reasons like contracts/statuses with hotels & car rental co, or simply the hassle of dealing with a 3rd party. So it really isnt helping to retain customers or encourage people to spend more.

Also, as some posters mentioned, BAH isnt even acting as a travel agent, so I’m not too sure what is the value add here? How can they stand out to other OTAs who have much more and varied inventory, and a better IT system (user experience)? The margin is also probably not much given the competition and that hotels and car rentals companies have been trying to get customers to book directly with them. This coupled with the fact that everyone is getting more tech-savy, I expect BAH to be a shrinking market. So this seriously sounds like a bad long term strategy; instead of improving your core business which is already lagging competitors, you are trying to get into another business which is shrinking and you do not have experience or advantage.

Normally this simply involves paying more local taxes (when they are per person). Quite a lot of the time the hotel staff aren't ... um ... particularly motivated to collect local taxes, will record one person staying, take only one passport, but still give two keys if asked (TBF I ask for two keys when staying by myself, as I'd rather leave one in the 'electricity switch").

A rather niche observation I’d make while sitting in the Biz Premier carriage of the Heathrow Express is that as things stand anyone who spends ~Ł5K for Star Alliance Gold status on an airline like LH will get the free upgrade on HEX, but someone spending Ł35K a year on BA would not. An unusual way to assert dominance over your one and only hub.

Perhaps I’m just bitter - BA have managed to misplace my bag with all my warm clothes in, so I’m about to walk 15min home in just a T-shirt which I am not looking forward to.

if booked on Finnair, BA will have no idea when the flight was booked, so you would receive points according to the terms in place when the flight takes place.

Conversion to Nectar is my plan for any Avios we can't burn on flights while the shiny cards are still in date. However, I plan to spend those Nectar points as soon as possible after conversion because the scheme is fraud-riven and Sainsbury's don't seem to care.

That's extremely helpful. It's not the answer I hoped for but at least I now have clarity. I can safely bin the tickets.
Thank you!

sadly you are misremembering indeed.

Wow I can hardly keep up with this thread. I’m reading it everyday since day 0 but I’m perpetually behind, so apologies if this has already been posted.

Seems to me that the closest US3 comparison as others have called out is Delta.

Delta operates status on spend excluding taxes and is 1:1. $1 on flights = 1 MQD.

Top tier is Diamond Medallion which requires 28K MQD (Ł22.5K). Similar to BAC Gold.

They have an invite tier (360) above that with unpublished requirements likely requiring a lot of flying on Delta metal, similar to AAs CK (and BA GGL).

For credit card spend the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card gives you 2500 MQDs per year for just having the card and 1 MQD per $10 of spend. It also has a raft of other benefits too.

So it seems BAC is pricing status with a similar US revenue model.

As bisonrav I think pointed out, part of the goal here is to augment revenue with non-flying sources. CC spend presents a significant revenue opportunity for BA.

However the UK Amex TP earning model is limited to 2500 (new) TPs. Probably because of the revenue agreement due to lower interchange fees in the UK.

So in short BAC is priced for the US market and (so far) has worse CC earning benefits.

BAH doesn’t make up for it. Many here have commented is not a great option (split earnings and missing out on hotel programs).

There was a period where the threshold was reduced from 1500 to 1125 TP to renew. Probably a Covid thing.