british airways executive club

credit_crunch

afternoon everyone!!

im on the lookout for advice & opinions

i joined the ba exec club as i have booked flights to vegas.

i booked through expedia, for 4 ppl so im assuming i will get ba airmiles for each person?

anyways i have suggested to my oh that we continue to collect ba airmiles for the next few years and hopefully can use them for a nice holiday or honeymoon (we arent even engaged so i really do mean in a few years!!)

we shop at sainsburys so only get tesco points for fuel & the odd thing that has high points i will purchase - eg do 3 online shops for xtra clubcard points, buy an ipod etc....

i also dont mind using a credit card for general spending to get more points when they have introductory offers.

so really after all my waffle i wonder do many ppl think its a good idea?

we tend to travel on package holidays so dont normally book flights separately - except when we travel to london once/twice a year for chelsea matches

so if anyone has a spare few mins i would appreciate your thoughts on this!

and do you think it is worth collecting ba airmiles for 4 years + to reap the benefit!!

thanks in advance for your time :beer:

richardw

credit_crunch wrote: »

i will get ba airmiles for each person?

No, they are only given to each passenger, or perhaps couples.

dmg24

richardw wrote: »

No, they are only given to each passenger, or perhaps couples.

But they could open a Household Account so they could pool the miles (though not the Tier Points).

OP, if you have a look at the BAEC forum on www.flyertalk.com you'll get lots of information.

malkie76

Yes, join the club and save miles for future travel or upgrades. Each passenger earns miles, not the person who paid, however open a household account to pool you and your partners miles (assuming you live together). Be aware that flying on discounted economy fares only earns a fraction of the full miles.

Tesco is a decent way to boost miles, as does buying online via the BA eStore. Consider the BA Amex which usually has sign up bonuses, and will get you a 2-4-1 if you spend over £10k in a calendar year.

In four years you could earn a significant number of miles.

credit_crunch

Thanks for that. We do live 2gether so il sign oh up soon as well. I just needed someone to tell me i was doin the right thing lol!!

Oh's parents are just back after flying first class to san fran and they did it by vollecting airmiles. Ive just been accepted for the tesco credit card as well so that will help with the miles im sure.

Thanks for the advice. You have all been very kind.

One more quick question. I want to book into an airport loung in heathrow for both inbound & outbound flights as we are travelling to & from dublin and have around 6 hours to kill each way.

Does anyone know of any lounges that i can book & get ba miles for doin so?

becominganobsessivesaver

You won't be able to book a lounge at terminal 5 as they are exclusively for ba premium passengers, you may be able to at the terminal your Dublin flight leaves from on the way home. On the way out from t5 there is a decent choice of restaurants including Gordon ramsays plane food, so that could kill a couple of hours!!!

moonrakerz

To be completely honest, unless you are paying for your own tickets at full fare prices (unlikely, through Expedia) the BA Executive Club is a waste of time. You are far better off just hunting for better fares on the web. (Unless of course you are the Beckhams !)
It is aimed at Business travellers and the very wealthy (who probably don't bother with such mundane things as air miles anyway)

I had a BA Silver card, because my company paid for me to travel everywhere business class.
The "perks" I got from this card were just paid for, MANY TIMES OVER, by the incredibly high fares that my company was paying to BA.
I visited Germany on a very regular basis. 6 trips would earn me enough miles for a free short haul flight. At that time my ticket was £700 return, a tourist class ticket was available for about £120. The tourist class ticket earned next to no miles - far less than the monetary ratio of the fares might suggest.

Find the cheapest fare you can with a reputable airline and pay to use the Servisair Lounge - unless the terminal is "owned" by one airline - like T5 - in which case you are stuffed.

OR spend a HUGE amount on a "linked" credit card - but you are then probably better off using a different card and getting cash back.

No such thing as a free lunch - or flight !!!!

malkie76

To be completely honest, unless you are paying for your own tickets at full fare prices (unlikely, through Expedia) the BA Executive Club is a waste of time.

I don't entirely agree with you there. I agree that flying on discounted economy tickets will only earn a fraction of the total miles (25% iirc), and hence earning enough for a redepmtion flight will take some time. Even in business class there aren't too many miles to be earned flying short haul.

However, even the lowest WTP ticket will earn miles long haul, and business class on the same route will only earn you an additional 25% miles. Two long haul journeys in WTP would be enough for an MFU to business on a third flight - that's a reasonable reward for two flights.

Plenty of opportunity to boost miles from online shopping, tesco clubcard, credit cards (including 2-4-1 vouchers) and even for free from completing online surveys.

Besides, joining the EC is free, and allows you to save your seating preferences etc - so why not do it?

duchy

Asking the lounge question over here too I see

I don't see BA exec club as very useful for the leisure traveller. It depends where you are going but for example on a Vegas flight I can fly with AA from London on a cheap fare and get 100% of mileage versus 25% on the same level with BA. AA partner with other airlines and I earn points with them on those partners (which incidently include BA flights excluding North American flights). If I flew Virgin to Vegas -their partner airlines include for example Continental which gives me a choice of two carriers to the US as well as other partners (and again the miles earned are much more generous than BA). Delta partner with Air France and KLM -again 100% of mileage and more choice of routes/airlines (BA are rarely the cheapest fares).

If you shop at Tesco and really work the Tesco miles conversion then BA *might* be the best way to go depending on where you are planning to travel to-but it isn't a given and I'd suggest too that you take yourself off to www.flyertalk.com and research the different alliances before putting all your eggs in the BA basket.

For me the big advantage of using AA or Delta is the other perks though. I have elite status (earned over time but far easier than with BA)which gives me increased miles, business check in so no long lines at the airport-extra baggage allowance-I can book seats the day I book (don't remember the last time I didn't have an emergency row seat) and I'm usually upgraded on the domestic sectors to first at no charge (and once in a while on overbooked flights to business on the transatlantics)

On this trip alone with 4 people travelling and assuming all are earning miles you earn for 4 people 4 x 25% of approx 10K of miles so that's 10K total-on AA for example that would have been 4 x 100% so 40K across 4 accounts -so if you are looking at the long term you have far more miles to play with. An AA off peak transatlantic award is 40K of miles -so theoretically after 4 trips to west coast USA (assuming you don't use any extra miles earnning promos of which there are many so if you're canny could be as few as two trips) all four of you would have enough miles banked for a free economy transatlantic trip EACH-you'd be nowhere near on BA.

moonrakerz

malkie76 wrote: »

I don't entirely agree with you there. I agree that flying on discounted economy tickets will only earn a fraction of the total miles (25% iirc), and hence earning enough for a redepmtion flight will take some time. Even in business class there aren't too many miles to be earned flying short haul.

I would disagree entirely there, I had plenty of experience of flying with BA. As I said in my OP, in Club I could rapidly rack up good useable miles, in economy it is a waste of time. Economy wasn't 25%, it was something like 5, if that.

malkie76

I've just had a quick check as I wanted to be sure I was accurate.
https://www.britishairways.com/travel/ecmilesearninfo/execclub/_gf/en_gb suggests that "On discounted economy fares (non-flexible ticket), you will earn 25% of the actual miles flown." You get 25%, 50% and 100% bonus miles for flying WTP, Club, and First respectively.

My thinking process was that 6 returns @ £700 (£3600) earned you enough miles for one return valued at £120 (of which about half tax and still payable on a redemption ticket). It's not exactly great mileage earning, nor value for money for spending them.

I visited Germany on a very regular basis. 6 trips would earn me enough miles for a free short haul flight

Indeed, 6 trips would net just over 10k miles, but that's not exactly 'big' mileage considering you'd get ~14k for a single return to the USA in business (~£2000). Similarly a return to China or Japan in WTP would earn you the same (~£1000).