I realise this may be discussed in passing elsewhere but I really can't find any substantive collation of the options for reasonably retaining BA Gold if one is based outside the UK/Europe. I'm fully prepared for the answer to come back as "it's not worth it"/"choose a programme more suited to your travel patterns" but I would like to check my working in public first before coming to that conclusion!

After last year's changes to BA(E)C and recently relocating to Hong Kong, I had resigned myself to not renewing Gold this year and being content with comfortably making Silver, or possibly switching to another OW FF programme if I could realistically attain OWE. However, the recent tweaks to BAC got me thinking: a) whether I could use any advantageously to get Gold for under �20k, and b) why the latest changes exacerbate the unfairness for BAC members not based in the UK or within reach of one of BA's favoured OW partners.

To summarise the hurdles which non-UK based BAC members have to overcome:

• No BA Amex available (even if I retained one, it needs a UK-registered BAC account and most spending would be in FX, attracting a 3% fee). BA-branded cards overseas (e.g. Dah Sing Bank BA Visa Platinum) are very weak by comparison and do not earn Tier Points.
  
• BA service is very thin in certain parts of the world such as Asia due to their myopic focus on the US. HKG is down to a single 787 with no First available. The prices are consistently more than CX's, and BA's is the inferior product.
  
• Flying non-favoured partner airlines is heavily penalised. CX earns 12.5% of distance in J, which on a 3-hour intra-Asia flight (~1,000mi) at ~�1,500 return yields roughly 250 TPs � meaning you'd need to spend something like �120,000 on CX J to reach Gold. In First on long-haul, three HKG-JFK returns (8,000mi each way) at 40% earnings can easily exceed the �20k needed when flying on BA. The point of an FFP is to encourage spend with a particular airline, which was previously enforced by requiring a certain number of sectors on BA metal. Yet BA has now dropped that requirement entirely, apparently content for members to never fly them at all, provided they use the right OW partners. For someone making one or two trips to London a year with significant regional Asia travel, Gold is simply unattainable. I'm very happy to direct spend to BA, but the reality is that when you live somewhere, a big portion of your travel will be regional, and that needs to be rewarding enough to make remaining in the programme meaningful.
  
• BA Holidays are useless when based overseas unless you're going to London. BA simply won't sell me a BAH package to where I actually want to go from HKG (e.g. SYD, TPE, TYO, SEL) because there are no BA flights from here. I'm unlikely to spend �20k on a package to London, and if I were spending that on accommodation I'd want the kind of Virtuoso/hotel status recognition that BAH (read: Expedia) cannot provide.
  

The recent changes which prompted me to reconsider sadly don't make a difference, given their strong preference for BA/AA/IB flights. Obviously, holding Gold currently means I pay nothing for bags or seat selection.

Not to be defeated, I've come up with the following possibilities for retaining Gold in theory:

• LON-HKG BAH and just live in the hotel. I currently bounce between hotels and serviced apartments anyway, so I could simply treat this as paying rent! Downsides: I'd have to return to the UK to start the holiday; it seems difficult or impossible to extend accommodation once booked and still have it credit; and there may be a maximum BAH length.
  
• OW RTW tickets inspired by this trip report, this should certainly be possible, though I haven't found fares in that range from a cursory search.
  
• Explore JL, AY and QR's networks more, taking advantage of their enhanced distance-based earnings rates in the hope of finding a good deal.
  

With the end of the TP year fast approaching I've accepted my fate as a Silver next year, so perhaps the purpose of this post is to brainstorm ways to overcome the hurdles for overseas members going forward. I'll likely give up on BAC after next year if I can't find any reasonable route to Gold. Coincidentally, I'm also about to start working for CX. OWE could be useful for CX lounges on staff travel (it is recognised), but given that much of my flying going forward won't earn TPs anyway, perhaps it's time to give up on this game entirely.

Respectfully, while I understand your frustration, I don't see what is unfair about any of this. It may or may not prove to be bad business for BA, but I don't think it's reasonable to think that BA should serve you as comprehensively as it serves those in its home market from a 'fairness' perspective.

Logically, based in HK, CX would be where you would most likely put your loyalties. BA would no doubt like your business, and logically they need to make the scheme more attractive to the 'non-obvious' customers than the obvious ones, but if they choose not to I think the best option is to move on to whoever serves you better.

I agree that there's no obligation for BA to make it just as easy to attain status wherever you're based, but I think it just contributes to the impression that this whole scheme was poorly thought-out and is being made up on the fly. It's certainly their prerogative to choose a strategy (e.g. London-based executives) and tilt the incentives towards that; but I don't think this has to be to the detriment of people who don't fit their cookie-cutter persona. They could get much more creative with their strategy if they really wanted to, for example, why not offer BA Holidays including non-BA flights and still collect the hotel revenue? Why exclude JAL from the recent TP bonuses especially given they seem to have quite a close relationship? Why not improve the credit card offering in other markets especially those without the interchange fee caps the UK has? Plus, penalising some OW airlines quite so drastically feels like it goes against the spirit of an alliance.

I could switch to CX but I was against hopping around schemes in case I moved again in the future (wanting to keep things like Avios/lifetime TPs concentrated in one scheme). I'd managed to keep BA Silver/Gold until now but maybe it's time to switch although it's maybe a moot point with staff travel/ID tickets.

I read your entire opening post and then after all that read you were about to join CX as staff and thought exactly the same as quoted above. The whole post a total moot point!

I think the only sensible time when you want to retain BA gold if you fly a lot to the US and Europe and wants to stick to BA. If you just need OW Emerald then there are many �better� programs which probably suit you better. So if you fly a lot with CX BA exec club is not going to be the most efficient. I haven�t seen any reason in your post why would you like to keep BA. I do remember that non uk residents actually required less tier point than UK based one. Since that change BA is focusing more and more only on the UK and corporate market. Everyone else is no longer important for BA and yet to see how does this play out for BA on the long run.

The rough rule of thumb is aim for status with the carrier you are most likely to use. Maybe switch that up only if there is an expectional sweet spot from doing something different.

I would sympathise - I really would, but we are who living outside the UK had a huge advantage for years. We qualified at much lower levels than the UK based fliers. That truly was unfair. I put in the address of a place that I had in France on my BA Account so I did not get the Avios. When the anomaly was corrected we were still given exemptions for a year or two and all the Avios accumulated went back on the BA account. They were never lost. I would add that here in Brittany BA is very thin on the ground. The nearest that BA flies to with any level of regularity are Bordeaux (300km) or Paris (500km). We used to have a summer service to Quimper but that has died. They flew to Nantes for a bit which was great, but that has been gone for years and we only have a choice of nasty Lowcosts. The natural airline for me to join is Air France - and maybe I will. Sadly I am a BAlcoholic and as I have requalifed for another year will see. Flying for the sake of flying to get status has never appealed.

I'm not sure how well that rule of thumb holds as much water these days, when you can typically earn substantially more nTPs by flying specific partner airlines using specific booking codes that offer mileage rather than price based earning on BAC. There's a similar reciprocal thing with Finnair's FF program for example. You don't even need to fly a single paid segment on either of these schemes' metal to attain status.