BA Executive Club change to spend-based status earning

[BrianQQ]

and also rumours about changes at Alaskan.

Don't think Alaska is going to be changing very soon. They've taken the approach of reducing partner earnings instead.

 

[justinbrett]

IB is the big brother (you hadn't noticed that IAG was Spanish?).

It’s both, and on merge BA was 55%.

The way they structure the company between UK and Spain is largely for tax purposes.

 

[moa999]

taken the approach of reducing partner earnings instead

Ah. I'd missed that. Change kicked in 1 Jan 2025.
Agreed a lot less attractive plus no US lounges on domestic itinerary.

 

[BrianQQ]

Ah. I'd missed that. Change kicked in 1 Jan 2025.
Agreed a lot less attractive plus no US lounges on domestic itinerary.

Also think a condition of the AS-HA merge with the DoT was that there was to be no devaluation on frequent flyer programs for a certain amount of years. So expect Alaska to maintain its miles calculation as it merges the two programs together.

 

[TonyHancock]

AY offer lifetime OWS and OWE

I hadn't realised that AY had gone down a similar route to BA. It looks like it is a fair bit cheaper to achieve OWE with AY but man alive the spend to reach LT OWE is an awful lot. Somebody much smarter than me will be able to work out how to get that status by using partner airlines where TP's are calculated on distance with a multiplying factor, but I fear it will be as out of reach as QF LTP for the majority.

I have a lot of sympathy for those who were working on BA GFL and have had the rug pulled from under them is such a brutal way.

It makes one wonder if QF is looking at this and having a think about what it does with LTG in the future. It always seemed a relatively low target to me.

 

[jase05]

I hadn't realised that AY had gone down a similar route to BA. It looks like it is a fair bit cheaper to achieve OWE with AY but man alive the spend to reach LT OWE is an awful lot. Somebody much smarter than me will be able to work out how to get that status by using partner airlines where TP's are calculated on distance with a multiplying factor, but I fear it will be as out of reach as QF LTP for the majority.

I have a lot of sympathy for those who were working on BA GFL and have had the rug pulled from under them is such a brutal way.

It makes one wonder if QF is looking at this and having a think about what it does with LTG in the future. It always seemed a relatively low target to me.

Most partner airlines earn 125% only in Business however AA, BA and IB earn either 150% or 250% in Business. A base Business fare LHR-SIN return on BA would net you 20,295 miles so 165 round trips will get you LTP. If you stump up for a more expensive Business fare you would get 33,825 miles and “under” 100 return trips would get you across the line

 

[ermen]

There is almost no such thing as a 'bad elite', especially in oneworld.
There are only 2 types of bad customers I can think of, and neither would warrant BA making the changes they did.

Silvers in the back of the bus..... consider this: would they fly BA if they didn't have status? Do those silvers have ba amex cards? Do they transfer avios in from banks? Do they fly more/spend more/do activities beyond a flyer who is equally active but with another airline?

The answer is yes.

But BA doesn't care.
The HfP article summarizes BA's changes perfectly (I'm paraphrasing) - that they're washing their hands of leisure travellers and going balls deep on corporate biz/first class pax.

Nothing wrong with that strategy.

For anyone affected by the BA changes - register your email on statusmatch.com
Something is coming for you.

what about someone like me?
mainly flying CX Y intra Asia with BA OWE status? Won't they lose money everytime I access the CX lounge?

 

[justinbrett]

what about someone like me?
mainly flying CX Y intra Asia with BA OWE status? Won't they lose money everytime I access the CX lounge?

BA profited from all the flights you took to get that status, either directly, or if crediting other oneworld earn to BA, they get paid for those too.

Then of course there’s CX status pax doing the same thing on cheap flights out of LON, so I’d imagine it all comes out in the wash.

AFF reported that the marketing carrier pays for status based lounge access but there’s reports elsewhere that’s changed to be status airline who pays. Either way it’s all a mystery to most and the details would be commercial in confidence.

 

[serfty]

AFF reported that the marketing carrier pays for status based lounge access but there’s reports elsewhere that’s changed to be status airline who pays. Either way it’s all a mystery to most and the details would be commercial in confidence

Last credible information was the default oneworld criteria is that the marketing carrier pays. However, each oneworld carrier can override this by having separate agreements with one or more other oneworld carriers.

It is quite possible BA has such an agreement with AA and IB. I doubt there is one between QF and QR.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

...
mainly flying CX Y intra Asia with BA OWE status?
Won't they lose money everytime I access the CX lounge?

No

 

[kelvedon]

IB is the big brother (you hadn't noticed that IAG was Spanish?).

And 25% ownership by QR couldn't be a factor?

Just look at VA...

It’s both, and on merge BA was 55%.

The way they structure the company between UK and Spain is largely for tax purposes.

IAG is registered in Spain but it’s headquartered in the UK. Traded on both the London and Spanish stock exchanges Qatar airlines owns 25% with a further 59% in the hands of retail investors.
In 2023 54% of its revenue was generated by BA and 22% by Iberia.

 

[BrianQQ]

An open letter to British Airways CEO, Sean Doyle

This is an open letter from our founder, Michele to Sean Doyle, British Airways CEO. Dear Sean We need to talk. After a long and mostly happy relationship with BA

www.turningleftforless.com

Mood.

 

[pauly7]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a huge and overwhelming negative response to a change - the press and blogs have been savage!!

The Velocity one was pretty bad of course on an Australian scale but less vocal flyers and much less of a business / corporates flyer focus who tend to yell the loudest.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a huge and overwhelming negative response to a change - the press and blogs have been savage!!

The Velocity one was pretty bad of course on an Australian scale but less vocal flyers and much less of a business / corporates flyer focus who tend to yell the loudest.

And all over access to a first class lounge! (I mean if Michele from the letter above is flying 150k+ kms a year with BA she’d be getting business class access, but for some reason she needs first?)

Anyway, she’s now - tentatively - going fly other carriers, but will still fly BA when it suits her.

 

[serfty]

And all over access to a first class lounge!

I doubt it is as simple as First Lounge access. It is more than one thing.

For example, those aiming for BAEC Gold for Life status but not there yet having likely made already considerable expenditure towards that goal. They have had the proverbial rug pulled from under them with the target being made prohibitively more expensive. Many likely would never have embarked on such a journey if presented with the new criteria at the outset.

 

[madrooster]

AFF reported that the marketing carrier pays for status based lounge access but there’s reports elsewhere that’s changed to be status airline who pays. Either way it’s all a mystery to most and the details would be commercial in confidence.

Last credible information was the default oneworld criteria is that the marketing carrier pays. However, each oneworld carrier can override this by having separate agreements with one or more other oneworld carriers.

In oneworld it's operating carrier.. but there may be exceptions.

When you're flying on a codeshare, the operating carrier issues the BP and often the BP will have SOLD AS xx_X or MARKETED AS xx_X printed.

However, the BP barcode almost always does not contain any info in the bar code about the marketing code you were ticketed on. This barcode is what lounges use to scan you in, so all they get from the barcode is the operating carrier flight number.

Thus there'd be no way for the lounge operator, to know who's the marketing carrier for billing purposes. I'm not aware of any oneworld carriers doing deep dive matching against the reservations system to check who's code a pax was booked under, for the sake of lounge access billing.

 

[madrooster]

For example, those aiming for BAEC Gold for Life status but not there yet having likely made already considerable expenditure towards that goal. They have had the proverbial rug pulled from under them with the target being made prohibitively more expensive. Many likely would never have embarked on such a journey if presented with the new criteria at the outset.

That's not completely true.

It seems that big numbers scare people... but in reality all they did was take the current TP requirements for each point and multiply it by 13.35 and then they did some rounding.



Lifetime gold is still very achievable, albeit a little harder, if you can adapt and take up the fact that BA has literally given a licence to fly a tonne of QR/JL/AY/EI instead of BA.

If your flying pattern consists of mostly BA routes where QR/JL/AY/EI would be more of a cost (in time and money), then yes, lifetime gold has become much harder.

Someone who used to earn their status flying a lot of EU short haul would be heavily affected, although someone with this kind of flying pattern probably isn't directly aiming for lifetime gold... they would likely just get lifetime gold, when they get there with no specific chase/goal to do so.

For those who earn their status on long haul, the main change is to avoid BA and fly QR/JL/AY/EI instead. These 4 carriers cover most of the world pretty well, except South America.

 

[harryhv]

If your flying pattern consists of mostly BA ... then yes, lifetime gold has become much harder.

"Become much harder?" You mean, these dodgy swindlers have moved the goal posts

 

[TonyHancock]

That's not completely true.

.................

Yes agreed you make some good points about QR/AY/JL

I very much looked at this from my approach which utilised a lot of BA long haul and short haul. This came with significant benefits as one rose up the TP ladder with GUF's and Jokers. The GGL team were (are?) very good and AA treated me like a CK member bizarrely.

 

[madrooster]

I very much looked at this from my approach which utilised a lot of BA long haul and short haul. This came with significant benefits as one rose up the TP ladder with GUF's and Jokers. The GGL team were (are?) very good and AA treated me like a CK member bizarrely.

You mainly lose:

1. Hilton diamond
2. Partner cards (though they're being enhanced™ from 23 months validity down to 12-13 months as part of these changes)
3. Showing on AA's system as "BA VIP" with CK service (hit and miss)
4. Being able to change/cancel redemptions for free
5. Jokers
6. CCR access

Between QR/JL/AY/EI I'd say you would be quite well covered.