sand372

I have planned flights that will get me to TK Elite.
A couple of trips have come up which give me the option to either be close to TK Elite Plus (Should be able to make it but flights are not booked yet) or get BA Gold which is OW highest status if I choose to fly OW (BA+CX) for those trips...
My flights are usually *A or OW to most of my destinations...
What would you choose if you had this option?

Thanks

AvidFlyer1990

OW EMERALD...this gets you in to all the FIRST CLASS lounge. I wish *A had this feature of a third tier. Some people might frown on this, but that's one feature that I really like about the OW FF programs!

gpia

I've had Elite Plus for 3 years now and it never got me anything. Lounges are all the same, as TK does not have First Class lounges. And as said before, you can't enter the First Class lounges of other *A members.

During all those years as Elite Plus, I never got any status upgrades and never any special recognition.

1) When I was delayed in IST for 6:05 hrs on my way to HKG and sent in a complaint, they told me that it was an "operational issue" and that they were free to determine whether or not to compensate. They sure are, but I would have expected a little more towards their highest status level pax...

2) Not ONCE since I've been Elite and Elite Plus did I actually get a seat when I was waitlisted, even booking weeks in advance and waiting it out for several more weeks.

Granted, these are my personal (unfortunate) experiences. Now for something more substantial:

As far as I know, the only difference to Elite is
- You can gift an Elite status to a friend for 40K (should that be relevant to you)
- You get 2 free upgrade coupons per year. Thing is, there is hardly ever any available award space - I threw my last one out on a connecting flight MUC-IST....my last flight with TK.

Summing up: Elite is nice cause it's *A Gold. Elite Plus is entirely useless. OW Sapphire/Emerald are hugely superior (I say that only having ever made Sapphire, but was fortunate enough to accompany Emeralds on multiple occasions).

airoli

@:-) You don't need award space (i.e. I class) to use these E+ upgrade vouchers. They book into J class, which is a revenue booking class for discounted Business.

I actually find these 2 upgrade vouchers per year (i.e. 4 per 2-year membership term) quite valuable. You can upgrade a round-trip long-haul booking per year, even if you bought a dirt cheap discounted Economy fare.

This being said, if my choice was Elite & OW Emerald or Elite+ & OW nothing, I'd definitely take the former.

TPJ

+1 - even when e.g. AA and BA F-class lounges are pretty mediocre this is a very nice perk. CX and QF lounges are fantastic...

sand372

Thank you all, you made my option much more clearer now...
I will keep the TK Elite just for the *G lounges as it's easy to get/renew...

gpia

That's interesting, maybe i was just really out of luck on all my attempts and Business was completely full. Fact is it hardly ever worked for me on 20+ long haul trips booked in Comfort Class...

WilcoRoger

No brainer - go for BA Gold (OWE) (just remember, you'll need 4 legs on BA metal/code in addition to the TPs)

zap7

also remember that elite+ should soft land to elite as far as I remember correctly, so making elite+ just once and then focussing on OW = 4 years of *G (2 years with elite+ and then 2 years elite)

moeser

True,but that's about it and J availability to N.America is a joke.From my location there are no dirt cheap Y tix and the expensive ones will earn me 50% miles.

Flight delays 12 out of 12 flights with an average delay of 1 1/2 hours.

I would choose OWE hands down !

TlvLove

Chiming in with a few of my own insights & one question as TK Elite Plus:

1) I was able to redeem at first attempt my 2 elite plus "upgrade vouchers" on VERY long haul flight in J class, even upgrading all 4 legs of the trip TLV-IST-SFO and return! However:
this required booking & paying full Y 2 months in advance + patience + at least 3 different calls of 20 minutes at a time to various elite plus/ tk numbers. After all that : it did work - confirmed J seating 2 months in advance with the elite plus voucher. even when my final SFO-IST departure was delayed the SFO TK staff already rebooked me to the next IST-TLV flight - in J of course.

2) In general, Access to *G lounges is the same for Elite plus as with "just" Elites, including the 1 guest allowance if I am not mistaken. The only additional perk I can think of : the "private resting rooms" in TK IST CIP Lounge which are available (or NOT!) first come first serve ONLY to J passengers connecting on long haul via IST with at least 4 hours in the layover, OR if you are a TK Elite Plus on any class flight you can ask for one.
Very nice if you can get them - for me it's been hit or miss, because they are renovating the entire shower/resting rooms area in the bottom floor so availability of rooms has been severely reduced, hopefully, temporarily.

3) Elite Plus has somewhat more luggage allowances / cabin carry on allowance. I don't know the strict rules of this but have noticed it's much more lenient and they never count/ weigh my items as an Elite Plus in J.

so overall if these perks matter to you - I would suggest try to go for Elite +.

4) Now to my own question about OW Gold:
I usually fly *A but have an opportunity for a long haul, 4 legs on BA in J coming up. Should I attempt a status match to BA OW Gold (do they match?) or I can try out for the AirBerlin Top Bonus match which has recently been reported to result, at times, with OW Gold status (but it's AirBerlin):
http://travellingtheworld.boardingar...-status-match/

muchos gracios in advance to all FTers :-)