Going for Gold with BA in 2021

ratechaser

Doshwaster said:

ratechaser said:

...and if I were old and free and single (only tick one box there, and not the best one!), then I'd be making a lot more of my BA status than I have done over the past 10 years. But Mrs RC thinks I'm mad for caring about a silver card. Doesn't stop her happily lapping up the lounges, priority check in, security, boarding and seat selection, upgrades etc etc...

I just smile and nod. It tends to work with most things.

I never made it to Gold but I spent over 10 years at Silver with a mixture of business and leisure traffic. It's a status you get used to so I wasn't happy when a reduction in business travel a few years ago meant that I dropped down to Bronze and one year even went down to lowly Blue. I still use the Silver tags of my luggage though!

With the reduction in tier point requirements, achieving Silver on purely leisure  travel would be a fun challenge once international flights become easier.

And it's not really that expensive/difficult to maintain silver if you can be flexible on travel dates and even more so if you want to play the game of tier point running...

That's the sweet spot - silver status, cheap hand baggage only Europe flights, make full use of the seat selection, priority everything, and lounges...

Butts

bagand96 said:

I'm sure BA are delighted with the interest free credit facility you are extending them!

I don't think just over a grand will even pay the paperclip bill

Although shares in IAG are soaring with a peak after my Albania booking by all accounts.

Butts

ratechaser said:

Doshwaster said:

ratechaser said:

...and if I were old and free and single (only tick one box there, and not the best one!), then I'd be making a lot more of my BA status than I have done over the past 10 years. But Mrs RC thinks I'm mad for caring about a silver card. Doesn't stop her happily lapping up the lounges, priority check in, security, boarding and seat selection, upgrades etc etc...

I just smile and nod. It tends to work with most things.

I never made it to Gold but I spent over 10 years at Silver with a mixture of business and leisure traffic. It's a status you get used to so I wasn't happy when a reduction in business travel a few years ago meant that I dropped down to Bronze and one year even went down to lowly Blue. I still use the Silver tags of my luggage though!

With the reduction in tier point requirements, achieving Silver on purely leisure  travel would be a fun challenge once international flights become easier.

And it's not really that expensive/difficult to maintain silver if you can be flexible on travel dates and even more so if you want to play the game of tier point running...

That's the sweet spot - silver status, cheap hand baggage only Europe flights, make full use of the seat selection, priority everything, and lounges...

At the moment you could hit Silver with just two trips from Edinburgh to Romania , Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey and any number of other "240 Pointers" for less than a bag.

Butts

ratechaser said:

Westin said:

@Butts  When TUI build a Sensatori or TUI Blue Hotel and offer 7 night beach holidays in Belfast then I will.

Beach is in short supply, but if you wanted a good hotel in Belfast, I'd always recommend The Merchant, if only for the tasteful Art Deco nudie pictures on the bedroom walls 

Butts - I hope your plan regarding reuse of vouchers for an existing booking works, but that's one area where BA can be a bit picky - I think the rules now specifically state that vouchers are for new bookings only, but you may get lucky when you call...

No need to call you can do it all online.

Just make sure you have cancelled one trip before you book the new one.

They send you an e-mail with the cancelled booking reference and you just reply to it quoting the new booking reference and hey presto the amount magically disappears off the balance of your new booking.

ratechaser

Butts said:

ratechaser said:

Westin said:

@Butts  When TUI build a Sensatori or TUI Blue Hotel and offer 7 night beach holidays in Belfast then I will.

Beach is in short supply, but if you wanted a good hotel in Belfast, I'd always recommend The Merchant, if only for the tasteful Art Deco nudie pictures on the bedroom walls 

Butts - I hope your plan regarding reuse of vouchers for an existing booking works, but that's one area where BA can be a bit picky - I think the rules now specifically state that vouchers are for new bookings only, but you may get lucky when you call...

No need to call you can do it all online.

Just make sure you have cancelled one trip before you book the new one.

They send you an e-mail with the cancelled booking reference and you just reply to it quoting the new booking reference and hey presto the amount magically disappears off the balance of your new booking.

Interesting, so just to be clear, you got the voucher for a cancelled holiday, and then responded with the PNR of another holiday you'd already booked to apply the value of the voucher to? 

if that worked, it's against the rebooking T&Cs, but we know how inconsistently these things work with BA... may have to try that myself next time...

Butts

ratechaser said:

Butts said:

ratechaser said:

Westin said:

@Butts  When TUI build a Sensatori or TUI Blue Hotel and offer 7 night beach holidays in Belfast then I will.

Beach is in short supply, but if you wanted a good hotel in Belfast, I'd always recommend The Merchant, if only for the tasteful Art Deco nudie pictures on the bedroom walls 

Butts - I hope your plan regarding reuse of vouchers for an existing booking works, but that's one area where BA can be a bit picky - I think the rules now specifically state that vouchers are for new bookings only, but you may get lucky when you call...

No need to call you can do it all online.

Just make sure you have cancelled one trip before you book the new one.

They send you an e-mail with the cancelled booking reference and you just reply to it quoting the new booking reference and hey presto the amount magically disappears off the balance of your new booking.

Interesting, so just to be clear, you got the voucher for a cancelled holiday, and then responded with the PNR of another holiday you'd already booked to apply the value of the voucher to? 

if that worked, it's against the rebooking T&Cs, but we know how inconsistently these things work with BA... may have to try that myself next time...

You have to cancel one and replace it with a new one.

As long as you don't do it the other way around you are ok - ie book a new one then cancel an old one and try and use the voucher towards the new one.

Hope that makes sense.

ratechaser

Butts said:

ratechaser said:

Butts said:

ratechaser said:

Westin said:

@Butts  When TUI build a Sensatori or TUI Blue Hotel and offer 7 night beach holidays in Belfast then I will.

Beach is in short supply, but if you wanted a good hotel in Belfast, I'd always recommend The Merchant, if only for the tasteful Art Deco nudie pictures on the bedroom walls 

Butts - I hope your plan regarding reuse of vouchers for an existing booking works, but that's one area where BA can be a bit picky - I think the rules now specifically state that vouchers are for new bookings only, but you may get lucky when you call...

No need to call you can do it all online.

Just make sure you have cancelled one trip before you book the new one.

They send you an e-mail with the cancelled booking reference and you just reply to it quoting the new booking reference and hey presto the amount magically disappears off the balance of your new booking.

Interesting, so just to be clear, you got the voucher for a cancelled holiday, and then responded with the PNR of another holiday you'd already booked to apply the value of the voucher to? 

if that worked, it's against the rebooking T&Cs, but we know how inconsistently these things work with BA... may have to try that myself next time...

You have to cancel one and replace it with a new one.

As long as you don't do it the other way around you are ok - ie book a new one then cancel an old one and try and use the voucher towards the new one.

Hope that makes sense.

Ok yes so as I thought. You can't just cancel a holiday and use that voucher to further pay off part of another holiday you'd already got booked...

Butts

ratechaser said:

Butts said:

ratechaser said:

Butts said:

ratechaser said:

Westin said:

@Butts  When TUI build a Sensatori or TUI Blue Hotel and offer 7 night beach holidays in Belfast then I will.

Beach is in short supply, but if you wanted a good hotel in Belfast, I'd always recommend The Merchant, if only for the tasteful Art Deco nudie pictures on the bedroom walls 

Butts - I hope your plan regarding reuse of vouchers for an existing booking works, but that's one area where BA can be a bit picky - I think the rules now specifically state that vouchers are for new bookings only, but you may get lucky when you call...

No need to call you can do it all online.

Just make sure you have cancelled one trip before you book the new one.

They send you an e-mail with the cancelled booking reference and you just reply to it quoting the new booking reference and hey presto the amount magically disappears off the balance of your new booking.

Interesting, so just to be clear, you got the voucher for a cancelled holiday, and then responded with the PNR of another holiday you'd already booked to apply the value of the voucher to? 

if that worked, it's against the rebooking T&Cs, but we know how inconsistently these things work with BA... may have to try that myself next time...

You have to cancel one and replace it with a new one.

As long as you don't do it the other way around you are ok - ie book a new one then cancel an old one and try and use the voucher towards the new one.

Hope that makes sense.

Ok yes so as I thought. You can't just cancel a holiday and use that voucher to further pay off part of another holiday you'd already got booked...

Correct, now shall we talk about mega vouchers....no that will wait for another day !!

ratechaser

Butts said:

ratechaser said:

Butts said:

ratechaser said:

Butts said:

ratechaser said:

Westin said:

@Butts  When TUI build a Sensatori or TUI Blue Hotel and offer 7 night beach holidays in Belfast then I will.

Beach is in short supply, but if you wanted a good hotel in Belfast, I'd always recommend The Merchant, if only for the tasteful Art Deco nudie pictures on the bedroom walls 

Butts - I hope your plan regarding reuse of vouchers for an existing booking works, but that's one area where BA can be a bit picky - I think the rules now specifically state that vouchers are for new bookings only, but you may get lucky when you call...

No need to call you can do it all online.

Just make sure you have cancelled one trip before you book the new one.

They send you an e-mail with the cancelled booking reference and you just reply to it quoting the new booking reference and hey presto the amount magically disappears off the balance of your new booking.

Interesting, so just to be clear, you got the voucher for a cancelled holiday, and then responded with the PNR of another holiday you'd already booked to apply the value of the voucher to? 

if that worked, it's against the rebooking T&Cs, but we know how inconsistently these things work with BA... may have to try that myself next time...

You have to cancel one and replace it with a new one.

As long as you don't do it the other way around you are ok - ie book a new one then cancel an old one and try and use the voucher towards the new one.

Hope that makes sense.

Ok yes so as I thought. You can't just cancel a holiday and use that voucher to further pay off part of another holiday you'd already got booked...

Correct, now shall we talk about mega vouchers....no that will wait for another day !!

I think the standard terminology is 'e-vouchers' as distinct from FTVs... 

bagand96

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