Will we all need UK addresses?

[jgm]

With the approaching demise of BMI and the predicted move of DC members to BAEC, will Australians be forced to get overseas addresses to stop losing all DC miles? I am waiting for a reply from BA on this, but fully expect to hear nothing until it is too late & I find that BA have effectively "stolen" my points.

 

[kamchatsky]

Just burn all the points with J and F tickets ... Then you don't have that problem again!

 

[markis10]

BA recently sent invites to many Australian email addresses asking them to join the club, putting that alongside the recent QP changes as far as access goes for BA lounges I suspect there is change in the wind!

 

[Happy Trails]

BA recently sent invites to many Australian email addresses asking them to join the club, putting that alongside the recent QP changes as far as access goes for BA lounges I suspect there is change in the wind!

I received one of these last month offering retrospective points for any flights taken within the past three months.
I thought it a bit off that they seemed to trying to poach QFF members. They could only have gotten my details from a recent booking.

 

[Flashback]

BA recently sent invites to many Australian email addresses asking them to join the club, putting that alongside the recent QP changes as far as access goes for BA lounges I suspect there is change in the wind!

That's because they know how much QF is shafting its members (ref: the occasional flyer with QP access) so figure they can offer them something more...

 

[jgm]

BA recently sent invites to many Australian email addresses asking them to join the club, putting that alongside the recent QP changes as far as access goes for BA lounges I suspect there is change in the wind!

How do you manage to join? When I attempt to join I get:

Error

We apologise, you cannot enrol in the British Airways Executive Club in your proposed country of residence. click here for details.


This takes me to:

IMPORTANT CHANGES TO
EXECUTIVE CLUB IN SOUTH WEST PACIFIC
(Australia, New Zealand, South Pacific Islands)​

Effective 16 June 2003, British Airways in the South West Pacific region will close our frequent flyer programme, Executive Club.

As a result, effective 16 December 2002, British Airways will no longer be accepting:

	Existing Executive Club Members transferring from other regions in the world into the Executive Club Programme in South West Pacific and;
	New enrolment applications for the Executive Club programme in this region.

For existing Executive Club Members who have any queries regarding the above transfer information, please contact your local Executive Club Service Centre.

For customers who would like to enrol in a frequent flyer programme in the South West Pacific region, we firmly believe our oneworld partner, Qantas, has an outstanding frequent flyer program. Members of the Qantas Frequent Flyer programme can earn and redeem Points when travelling on British Airways flights.

Qantas Frequent Flyer offers three levels of membership above the Entry level of Bronze: they are Silver, Gold and Platinum. Each membership level has particular privileges. The higher your status, the more Qantas Frequent Flyer Points you can earn, and the greater your privileges.

If you would like more information or enrol into the Qantas Frequent Flyer Programme, please click here.



On the Join page there is a box for a promotional code. Is this the way for Australian residents to join?

 

[jgm]

I have just received the following reply from BA:
Dear jgm

As the takeover has not yet been finalised I am unable to assist. Regulatory approval has not yet been granted and is not expected until 30 March at the earliest.

Regards
Barry
British Airways

I've got a UK address I can use if needed, but still no info on how Australian residents can legally join BAEC.

 

[dajop]

Before I went official and moved my address to Singapore, at one point when QF online award booking engine was having problems accessing BA award inventory, I joined up BAEC to see their inventory, but accidentally put Austria instead of Australia The mail made it through still. But it was low risk to do this as I wasn't intending on crediting any miles to the program.

 

[jgm]

Before I went official and moved my address to Singapore, at one point when QF online award booking engine was having problems accessing BA award inventory, I joined up BAEC to see their inventory, but accidentally put Austria instead of Australia The mail made it through still. But it was low risk to do this as I wasn't intending on crediting any miles to the program.

Good tip. I just joined with the only change being country of residence as Austria (still used Australia as location for phone contact). Just to make sure everything matches up, I changed my country in DC to Austria as well. If I get to spend my DC miles before they disappear, I can easily change it back again. The expectation from flyertalk seems to be that DC miles will transfer directly to AVIOS, so you would think that the simplest arrangement would be for them to merge DC accounts with existing BAEC accounts. I expect that the only thing you need a snail mail address for is to receive a BAEC card, & as I don't expect to get status with them, I don't see any problem with this.

 

[Vincent Hardy]

The enrolment form isn't letting me past, It says it won't allow south pacific members, I don't want to lose my BD status, is there any way around it?

 

[Flashback]

The enrolment form isn't letting me past, It says it won't allow south pacific members, I don't want to lose my BD status, is there any way around it?

You need to find someone outside of Australia, who will let you have your card etc. sent to them. You can then arrange to pickup from them, or have them post it. Have any friends/family who live overseas?

 

[burmans]

You need to find someone outside of Australia, who will let you have your card etc. sent to them. You can then arrange to pickup from them, or have them post it. Have any friends/family who live overseas?

To ask a stupid question, with most things online these days do you actually need a card? If not the use of Austria as country would seem to work?

 

[kamchatsky]

To ask a stupid question, with most things online these days do you actually need a card? If not the use of Austria as country would seem to work?

Well if you are doing a status match to BA Gold (OWE) or Silver (OWS), then you need your Gold/Silver card to have access to OW lounges around the world. So Austria would not help.

 

[dajop]

Well if you are doing a status match to BA Gold (OWE) or Silver (OWS), then you need your Gold/Silver card to have access to OW lounges around the world. So Austria would not help.

Surprisingly when I joined up originally (a few years ago to access BA award availability when it wasn't appearing on QF site for some reason), my card turned up despite being addressed to "xx Name Street, Suburb, VIC 30XX Austria" instead of "xx Name Street, Suburb VIC 30XX Australia"

 

[kamchatsky]

Surprisingly when I joined up originally (a few years ago to access BA award availability when it wasn't appearing on QF site for some reason), my card turned up despite being addressed to "xx Name Street, Suburb, VIC 30XX Austria" instead of "xx Name Street, Suburb VIC 30XX Australia"

Well I guess you are lucky ......

 

[dajop]

Well I guess you are lucky ......

I thought so, but when you think about it's probably not an uncommon mistake that postal services have learnt how to deal with something with a NSW, VIC, QLD and a four digit post code being sent to Austria. But a better option would be to find a reliable address outside the SW Pacific to handle this. Indeed if BA were to find out this practice it could lead to cancellation of membership perhaps?

 

[burmans]

Well if you are doing a status match to BA Gold (OWE) or Silver (OWS), then you need your Gold/Silver card to have access to OW lounges around the world. So Austria would not help.

Agree I was only answering against the original question "will Australians be forced to get overseas addresses to stop losing all DC miles". If I was in that situation (and didn't have some other status to fall back on then yes, I'd be finding a friend to get this addressed to (and would probably have easy options in that regard).

On the question about "if BA were to find out this practice it could lead to cancellation of membership perhaps?" this begs the suggestion they would know that you are doing it deliberately or would spend the time finding this out. Given the stats on addresses are that something like 30% of people move addresses every year I suspect they get a huge amount of either returned mail (or mail just binned) and are unlikely to ever investigate unless someone specifically tipped them off. Returned mail normally just means addresses are slightly wrong or they have moved, no reason there to investigate!

 

[dajop]

Given the stats on addresses are that something like 30% of people move addresses every year I suspect they get a huge amount of either returned mail (or mail just binned) and are unlikely to ever investigate unless someone specifically tipped them off. Returned mail normally just means addresses are slightly wrong or they have moved, no reason there to investigate!

True, and I suspect my particular mail wasn't even returned to BA, just crossed out by someone in Austria who wrote Australia on it instead. I am sure this happens inadvertently all the time.

 

[Flashback]

To ask a stupid question, with most things online these days do you actually need a card? If not the use of Austria as country would seem to work?

BA are very strict on requiring cards, even if your BP shows status, so not having a card is something I would not want to be honest.

I thought so, but when you think about it's probably not an uncommon mistake that postal services have learnt how to deal with something with a NSW, VIC, QLD and a four digit post code being sent to Austria. But a better option would be to find a reliable address outside the SW Pacific to handle this. Indeed if BA were to find out this practice it could lead to cancellation of membership perhaps?

BA themselves have replied to inquiries, suggesting doing exactly this.

 

[tyrolean]

The good old Austria/Australia joke.

With my Austrian address I have always been asked if we have kangaroos and drive on the left side in the US.