Why BA (Executive Club)?

TonyHancock

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So what has driven me to the fickle mistress that is BA? :?:

Well......where do I start? First up QF has played a big part, the changes last year really knocked me for six. I used the mASA extensively and also traveled on OW airlines. Whilst relatively minor the lack of Lifetime QF Platinum also played its part.

That is all very well I hear you say but why BA and not AA? The redemption rates with AA are much better I am told.

Whilst redemptions do matter they are not the most important thing for me. My travel is booked the best part of 12 months out and is primarily to the UK, 5-7 times per year. In order to maximise the benefits of status I like to fly with the airline I hold status with. I have been P1 with QF for four years and enjoyed the benefits associated with it.

The use of mASA's with QF, alongside two or three paid J fares allowed me to average about $5k per UK trip in J. This also allowed me to maintain P1 status and reap the rewards of multiple complimentary upgrades and excellent service recovery when things went, or looked as though they might go wrong.

I worked out that if I could hit GGL in year one, 5000 TP's, I had a shout at maintaining that level in subsequent years. (3000 TP's per year) Why did GGL matter I hear you ask? Well on the way to that level one picks up upgrade vouchers and upon reaching GGL one collects "jokers" that allow redemptions into revenue buckets. In some respects this will give me similar opportunities as mASA's. :idea:

What I did not realise is just how inexpensive some ex Europe fares could be, and by using MH/UL for positioning into the UK I could book a series of returns from Norway for under $5k per flight in J. :D Of course there is a bit of faffing about, four hours of unnecessary flying and the associated time on the ground.

So for the foreseeable future I have a sustainable means of flying J and maintaining status. As with all FF schemes there is always the spectre of devaluation lurking in the background but for the time being I am happy with my lot.

I hit GGL in just over ten months and in the penultimate flight to make GGL received an op up to F on a LHR-SIN sector.

Three of my UK/US work colleagues are particularly happy as I was able to gift a gold status and two silvers. :cool:

So for the next nine months I will be a QF P1 and a BA GGL..........but it is the P1 that will go by the wayside.
 
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Last year I managed 8000 TP's and at 7000 selected two GUF1's and at 8000 another Joker. these give me a lot of options for the unplanned short notice trips to the UK/Europe.

If you don't mind me asking, do you see yourself hitting LTG soon, and further to that, do you think you'll make it to LT-GGL? I know 100k TP is a lot, but at your current rate it could be just over 10 years of solid travel.
 
If you don't mind me asking, do you see yourself hitting LTG soon, and further to that, do you think you'll make it to LT-GGL? I know 100k TP is a lot, but at your current rate it could be just over 10 years of solid travel.

I don't mind at all. :) LTG is a possibility. I should hit 20,000 TP's by the end of this year. My travel will slow down I think (hope) so in reality I'd expect to need another 10 years to get there.

LTGGL is way outside of my reach, I started too late with BA.
 
I was QF WP, then moved over to become BA Gold. I have an admission to make: being based in HKG, i fly CX most of the time, and hardly ever fly QF/BA.. so i am probably not a valuable customer to both programs.

Made the move to BAEC due to better Avios redemption rates, and slightly easier qualification thresholds versus QF (and CX too)

I am contemplating whether to make the dash (will all be SC runs to GGL)... saves me bringing my daughter on an SC run for her to get BA Silver/Gold. Given my kids are growing up, I actually do need another BA Gold card to get the family into the F lounge!

What I miss from the QF program is lounge access when flying 3K/JQ and the Platinum line for QF related issues!
 
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Ok I am going to make the jump.Have just finalised my plans for the next major trips OS.Both will be combinations of award and paid tickets.Calculated the Tier Points for the paid flights and it comes to 1520.Yes make OWE again.Don't come close if posting to QFF or Aadvantage.
It means I fly BA F on my paid flights to Asia instead of QF J.But no difference in cost.Good TAs are really worth their weight in gold-even if it is BAEC gold!.
Fortunately this year I have a British address I can use.
 
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Why BA indeed… After the abysmal and appalling treatment of pax stranded in May BA has gone from being my favourite airline to my airline of last resort. A complete inability to provide the legally required support for pax (e.g. no water for >3 hours, no food for >6 hours and then only stale sandwiches if you knew where to look), no information and the shocking "we are stopping rebooking at the airport, you will be given information and you are then to leave the airport immediately' announcement. No accomodation, no transport, a refusal to rebook us despite the website stating "if we cancel your flight we will automatically rebook you" and now making trouble getting refunds. Alex Cruz and Willie Walsh have destroyed a once great business. I am now seriously concerned that this complete inability to manage predictable events (i.e. an airport closing and each station should have a plan to be enacted locally) is a reflection of the same lack of risk management and mitigation in other areas, not least safety and maintenance. I was just about to use a UK address for BAEC now there is no way I would consider this with these 2 mismanagers in charge.
 
Luckily I missed the recent meltdown at LHR by a day and my flight to Rome was only delayed by an hour. But I'm glad I wasn't supposed to be flying a day earlier.

BA certainly does have its problems, but I have decided to become BAEC Gold next year (currently Bronze) and forego my Qantas WP, dropping to Gold.

For one, it's now easier for me to retain OWE via BA than QF, and I do quite a bit of flying within Europe, where avios redemptions can be very reasonable. Also, it can be much cheaper to use avios for Qantas domestic flights than to use Qantas points. However, I find it to be generally better value to use QF points for long-haul business awards.

Will be interesting to see how it goes.
 
Calculated the Tier Points for the paid flights and it comes to 1520.Yes make OWE again. Don't come close if posting to QFF or Aadvantage.
It means I fly BA F on my paid flights to Asia instead of QF J.But no difference in cost.Good TAs are really worth their weight in gold-even if it is BAEC gold!.
Fortunately this year I have a British address I can use.

That BA Asia deal is a rip-snorter .... a big shout to the madrooster for bringing it to our attention.

What routing are you doing and what is the TP earn with BA?

We did BNE-SYD(QF/J)-SIN(BA/F)-BKK(CX/J)-HND(JL/J)-SIN(JL/J)-SYD(BA/F)-BNE(QF/J) .... earning QFF we got 530SC and 2 of those QFF~

Might look at shifting to BA if one of these per year is sufficient for OWE.

edit - just worked out it would earn 820TP
 
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Luckily I find it to be generally better value to use QF points for long-haul business awards.

It does become a little more interesting with BA if you can get to the 2500 TP mark and beyond. The Upgrade vouchers can be used to upgraded reward flights, so you only need the points for Y+ to fly J or J to fly F. (I appreciate it is a big stretch from 1500 to 2500 though.)
 
That BA Asia deal is a rip-snorter .... a big shout to the madrooster for bringing it to our attention.

What routing are you doing and what is the TP earn with BA?

We did BNE-SYD(QF/J)-SIN(BA/F)-BKK(CX/J)-HND(JL/J)-SIN(JL/J)-SYD(BA/F)-BNE(QF/J) .... earning QFF we got 530SC and 2 of those QFF~

Might look at shifting to BA if one of these per year is sufficient for OWE.

edit - just worked out it would earn 820TP

I worked out you need 2 of these fares for OWE.you are a little over the 1500 TPs.With QFF a little under the 1200 SCs for requalification.
Wouldn't come close on AA-or disAAdvantage as one wag over at OMAAT describes it now.
Did your BNE-SYD flights have a BA codeshare flight number.I note the 4 BA flight requirement so if only 1 such fare you wouldn't make that requirement without codeshare flights.Fortunately in the next 2 years we will be doing 2 such trips each year.
 
I worked out you need 2 of these fares for OWE.you are a little over the 1500 TPs.With QFF a little under the 1200 SCs for requalification.
Wouldn't come close on AA-or disAAdvantage as one wag over at OMAAT describes it now.
Did your BNE-SYD flights have a BA codeshare flight number.I note the 4 BA flight requirement so if only 1 such fare you wouldn't make that requirement without codeshare flights.Fortunately in the next 2 years we will be doing 2 such trips each year.

QF flight number. IIRC madrooster structured it to get the best value for QFF i.e. the 2 ~ for QFF. I think we could have added more sectors into the itinerary for around the same price.

It's a great deal. Even with the "fairer and simpler" handicap for partner airlines it takes a DSC offer with QFF to come close. We're heading to BKK in a few weeks on a DSC fair ... 640SC for $3,676 as opposed to 530SC for $5,000 travelling in F with side trips to BKK and Tokyo... or Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia....
 
It does become a little more interesting with BA if you can get to the 2500 TP mark and beyond. The Upgrade vouchers can be used to upgraded reward flights, so you only need the points for Y+ to fly J or J to fly F. (I appreciate it is a big stretch from 1500 to 2500 though.)

Interesting will keep that in mind as I gun for GGL!
 
Interesting will keep that in mind as I gun for GGL!

Don't get me started on the benefits of GGL... The jokers each open up award availability for up to five seats on a BA Itinerary BA Metal obviously. They just about eliminate the age old problem of award availability. At short notice last year I used points for J, a joker and a GUF2 for two F returns to LHR. Once you get to 7000 TP's you can choose a joker or a GUF2 or two GUF1's, same again at 8000 and 9000. (I actually finished up doing a status run to get past the 8000 TP mark - I needed an extra 135 TP's.

BA itself may not have the best F or J product but man alive BAEC is a mighty fine FF program......if your flying patterns suit!!
 
Gotta say, having had the opportunity to sample the 'new' (for me at least) club world for the first time recently that the stand-out feature of the seat is the deep comfort. I can't think of another business class seat that comes close as you sink back in to the seat. Very comfortable. I started out with a rear facing bulkhead seat (no one to climb out over to access the aisle) but later moved to a double rear-facing pair in the middle. Lots of space to set up a private 'room' and pretty close to a double bed waist down when both seats in bed mode. The food was pretty good too.
 
Gotta say, having had the opportunity to sample the 'new' (for me at least) club world for the first time recently that the stand-out feature of the seat is the deep comfort. I can't think of another business class seat that comes close as you sink back in to the seat. Very comfortable. I started out with a rear facing bulkhead seat (no one to climb out over to access the aisle) but later moved to a double rear-facing pair in the middle. Lots of space to set up a private 'room' and pretty close to a double bed waist down when both seats in bed mode. The food was pretty good too.

some of my best sleeps in the air have been on BA CW, just booked another ex Norway ticket OSL LHR BKK HKG SYD HKG LHR OSL for next year
 
I recently booked BA J to fly Aus - SIN because the QF price was just ridiculous and I don't need any extra SCs to requalify for WP this year. I've flown BA J before on that route and it was fine, so fingers crossed!
 
Now have my first 2 trips booked with my BAEC number.As flying out of SIN in F they may let me in to Mr.Hancock's private bar in the airport.I thought I should upgrade my appearance so I might somewhat resemble a Devon gentleman.Whilst in Thailand we saw a wonderful replacement for my computer bag.Thoroughly English.
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Being English this is called a Dispatch Case.
As luck would have it Mr.Baker had it on sale on his Australian website so I could not pass it up.
 

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