The best benefits of British Airways' Gold status? are the ones not written down
As I have had the opportunity to write several times I possess, earned in the field, statuses in all major alliances and [...]
British Airways
Oneworld
As I have had occasion to write several times I possess, earned in the field, statuses in all major alliances And I also have a few "duplicates." Each program has different deadlines And I already have a pulse on how my frequent flyer year will turn out. Those who follow me on App in the Air. sees that I am at 80 flights and should end the year by touching my all-time record of more than 130 flights.
In this article:
Of all the statuses I possess, there are two that I try to defend at all costs: Platinum membership in the Flying Blue program and Gold membership in the British Airways executive club. And today I want to talk about the "secret" goodies of this program and the benefits that make me go out of my way to keep it.
How to get the Gold level in the executive club
What I like about this program is the mathematical certainty with which you can calculate how many and what flights you need to achieve status. Each flight depending on duration and class allows the member to accrue a fixed number of qualifying points. It doesn't matter if you took an ultra basic or flex fare, the tier points always are.
If a flight in economy from Milan to Madrid earns a minimum of 5 points, the same route in business generates 40 points. The deadline of the qualifying period is when the anniversary of registration is celebrated (in my case early September). This year I will cross the renewal finish line in early August, almost to the last, but already I have virtually 1,000 of the 1,500 points needed for renewal in 2024 in my pocket, plain and simple, as it should be.
The benefits that make me want to renew
This is one of the few life-changing statuses, even for business class travelers, and the reason is that this card opens the doors to first-class lounges, where you don't enter with just a biz ticket.
There are other goodies, though, and strangely enough they are benefits that are not included in the official list, but are found between the lines of the regulations or passed down between subscriber and subscriber, and they are mainly two:
- When you fly economy, the seat next to you stays free, until the plane reaches a certain level of occupancy.
- The soft landing, or happy degrowth, which allows you not to go from the stars to the stables, but to maintain at least the Silver level if you miss the gold status renewal, even if you don't fly for a whole year
Then there are the status benefits, and my personal ranking is as follows:
- Access to lounges in first of all oneWorld carriers, although the Concorde Room remains beyond the reach of this status
- The benefits of extra baggage (32kg) and free seat choice extend to all passengers in the same reservation
- 100% Avios Bonus on all British Airways, Iberia, American Airlines, and Japan Airlines flights, and of 25% on Finnair
- Choosing the free seat for a passenger, on the same flight but not in the same reservation
In conclusion
Status hunting is a personal matter and I reiterate that for those who fly little or only in business, it makes no sense at all. Conversely if you fly a lot, in economy, it has an economic and travel quality impact that at the end of the year justifies the investment. From Italy the benefits are not many, but if you fly often to LHR then it changes and quite a bit.
