British Airways sent me two emails this week, and I wondered what was going on? Had my BA account been hacked?
One of the emails indicated that I had requested a new member package, and the second one asked me to use my Partner Cards (two Silvers and one Gold).
You can access BA here.
Then I realized that BA must have extended my Gold Guest List status for another year per their updated extension policy announced on December 2021 (read more here).
British Airways decided to extend all member tiers, regardless of activity, for members whose Tier Points collection year ends by June 2022. The airline also has lower qualification requirements until the end of 2022.
I could nominate, I always have, two of my Friends & Family members for BA Silver (Oneworld Sapphire) and one for Gold (Oneworld Emerald).
Upgrade vouchers are quite helpful on BA as they work for the entire itinerary (not just for one segment), and there is a way to force them even when upgrade/award availability doesn’t exist. But then, you would need to fly on BA. These vouchers have already been extended twice/thrice.
BA Tier Extension & Lowered Qualification Requirement:
Conclusion
The pandemic has severed my flight activity with BA, partially because I tended to use the airline to Latin America and have used several partners whose flights I credited to the program. For example, during my most recent membership year, I credited one Finnair Dubai – Helsinki flight to the program that earned 140 Tier Points.
LATAM has left the Oneworld and, although you can still credit their flights to Executive Club (makes no sense – you should use Alaska’s Mileage Plan), they don’t earn Tier Points.
Malaysia Airlines is a shadow of its former shelf, but some international flights may come back now that the country is opening up for international visitor arrivals.
Let’s not even go to the situation surrounding Cathay Pacific that I used quite a bit to fly around Asia.
I have also found SkyTeam and used KLM and Air France for flights around Europe + they both fly to Helsinki while BA doesn’t. I have used AeroMexico’s lucrative premium fares ex-Europe to Latin America with stopovers in Mexico. I now have enough XPs (Flying Blue’s version of Tier Points) banked to keep Platinum until 2025/2026.
Also, as we and many other media have reported, the BA has completely fallen apart when it comes to operations. You never know if the flight will operate, if your bags will be on the same flights, how long it will be to find a gate upon arrival at Heathrow, if the immigration lines are hour-long, and your luggage is still not on the carousel. It will also be a challenge to get through to the airline whenever there are any issues, and BA’s website simply sucks.
I am less than 8,000 Tier Points short of lifetime Gold that maps to Oneworld Emerald. It won’t be a challenge to keep Gold status with them, but it seems unlikely that I would reach GGL ever again.
