Markie

So, over the next two months or so I will be completing the last 2,000 BA Tier Points required to achieve 100,000 Tier Points. The importance of this is that it makes me, Gold Guest List for Life and so the highest tier of Gold for BA.

The joy of not having to worry about Tier Points earning became clear last week when I booked a trip for Christmas 2024 and could fly direct to LA rather than worrying about connections from JFK in order to rack up the Tier Points. It is going to be strange for sure after decades of Tier Point chasing.

I remember long ago when BA Executive Club required an annual fee to get in to the lounges and there was no Avios (or even AirMiles) earning. I paid for several years when I was first working as it was nice to be able to relax at the airport. The lounges, as I remember them were tiny but served their purpose. Later, I was a EuroCheat, using a European address to obtain Gold as it had lower earning levels.

So as I approach the 100k I want to take you along with me. On the way we will visit Sofia (80 TPs), Madrid (40 TPs but a wide bodied aircraft), JFK (140 TPs from London) and San Francisco (140 TP's from JFK). There will be a side trip to Newcastle (40 TPs). So come along as we fly A320's, A330's, 777's, and A321's.

I do keep a spreadsheet as my Tier Point year end is 8 May (or was until BA announced everyone was switching to 31 March). By then I will have flown 9,220 TP's this year. At the moment, Excel tells me that I will cross 100,000 TPs on 30 May on a flight from Sofia. Likely BA won't notice for a few days that I flew and that it crossed the milestone. I am not expecting anything special to happen even when they have noticed BTW!

eightblack

This is epic! Does BA typically recognize these achievements? I know UA has picked up its game in recognizing Million Miler achievements. Maybe an invitation to the Palace to meet the lunatics who live there? Maybe a high tea at Claridges? Looking forward to the journey...

Markie

No, BA don't do anything except send an email a few days/weeks after I am told.
United let me choose a gift when I crossed 3MM there a few years ago, but that was before UA started to spot it in flight.

hugolover

There are many well-known FTers who claim to be GGLfL offline that you'll bigly trigger by publicly showing you getting this, well done 😂.

AvidFlyer1990

Wow!! GGLfL?!! That's incredible. And this is besides the 3MM 1K for life on UA!! If you can, would love to know your yearly flying stats on BA, and or UA, and how long it took for you from starting from 0 / Blue in BA / UA to getting two very coveted upper-tier lifetime statuses.

Markie

In truth most of my life. I started with United when they took over the PanAm routes from LHR and were offering double miles for the first few weeks. Scored an upgrade on the second flight and never looked back until United introduced Global Services and 1K's no longer mattered to them.
The BA story is more complex - I never had any ambition except to leave UA and whilst I had used them for short EU/UK flights when Tier Point running became a thing on Flyertalk I did a few and got Gold which I enjoyed as AA was much better in those days.

This is the United mileage:

Markie

Woke this morning to the news that my SOF sectors had credited taking me over 9,000 Tier Points for the year.
At 7k, 8k and 9k Tier Points in a year you are given extra awards in the form of a choice of:

- 50,000 Avios
- Another Gold Upgrade Voucher for 2
- A space release Gold Guest List redemption

Usually BA send an email allowing the choice but as with all things BA IT it can be hit and miss and none of my emails came. So, I have written off to the GGL email address this morning to make my requests.

In logging in to my BA account this morning I noticed a new anomaly - BA seems to think you get another choice at 10,000 Tier Points:



This is an error but we will see what comes of it.

Sunday and Monday will see me making my last trip to Sofia for several months. I am sure Bulgarian immigration will be delighted. We have started to joke about residence permits! Not sure that ever joking with immigration is a good move!

SKT-DK

This should be an interesting journey - glad to see this forum coming more and more alive with interesting tales. You lot have much better creative writing skills than I do for sure!

Markie

23 Mar 2024

jaro

What an achievement! For 9k TPs this year, what is the proportion of personal / non-personal travel? As someone with 4k TPs in 4 years I'm amazed

AvidFlyer1990

I would say that post achieving GGLfL on BA, GS on UA is well within reach for you. From what I read in the UA forum, GS for life should be well worth the 385k miles or so you would need on UA.

As a lowly *G for life, it is quite freeing to fly whatever carrier I want, and be sure that you still have your status with you for those short coach hops within the country - without needing to worry for requalification. I still hope to start on BA, and hopefully get GfL someday...

Thank you for sharing your adventures! Safe flying!!

Markie

Unfortunately I am in my 60's now and the idea of 385k miles in United coach fills me with dread. I am using them within the US and either paying for first or waitlisting on short flights.
I do have some BA trips booked after I qualify to see if it makes a difference to the experience.

Markie

Well turns out you do get extra awards after 9k TP's. Bad I didn't know as I did 13k TPs last year, I have written and asked if they can be grated now and the team have gone away to ask for me.

Markie

24 March 2024
Today is a travel day - a quick overnight to Sofia, for the last time after several trips in the past month.
I stayed overnight at the Hyatt Place Heathrow, which is once again becoming my go-to airport hotel if I am not travelling from Terminal 5. It is well located, they have started to give Globalists upgrades on their rooms again, and still have a free cooked breakfast. The room (519) faces the runways and has pretty decent views if you like plane spotting.



I enjoyed room service at the Hyatt Place last night:



Had a good nights sleep and work ready for the day. Breakfast was standard here but more than the Hyatt Place properties in the USA with a wide range of hot items, as well as cold breakfast items, cereal and bakery items.

I have checked in online for the flight and will soon pop off to the airport. The U3 bus from outside the hotel runs only every 30 minutes on Sundays and so I will grab an Uber to Terminal 3.

Markie

24 March 2024
The start of the Easter holidays was evident by the long line for Fast Track at T3. The tensabarriers were full when I got through the boarding pass check. It moved reasonably quickly and I was through in fifteen minutes. The slowest for some time I am afraid to report.

The BA lounge was fairly busy too and I have my voucher for a nice sit down lunch at 11.30 when they start service in the First Dining section as a benefit of being GGL.

The aircraft to operate the flight to Sofia has just been changed to a plane leaving Krakow. It lands at 13:01 and the Sofia flight leaves now at 13:30 - as if BA could turn around a plane in 29 minutes. Almost every flight that I take to Sofia is delayed with no evidence from the ground staff of any feeling of urgency to get the plane out as close to on-time as possible. They know the passengers really have no choice.



In fact BA already knows that tomorrow's return flight is delayed without knowing how much by.