[GoldClubrenewal]

I was just informed by BA that my tier points had gone away as I had not reached the goal needed for renewal by March 2012. The only date I have ever been aware of is the date on my card which reads valid through April 2012. Working with that date, I now have sufficient miles to qualify for renewal of Gold status. Customer relations says I have no recourse and I should have known about the March cutoff.
I think this is absurd as I have no reason to use the Web site (my asst does) and I only ever see the date on the card.
I have asked for leniency as this is my first renewal, but only get the bureaucratric unbending "no", saying:
"There is no escalation to this matter and as previously advised to you by previous colleagues it simply falls down to the fact that you did not earn enough tier points to renew at Gold level. On your Executive Account you have a 12 month period to collect Tier Points to retain your membership status.
This shows on the log on page of your account which clearly states 'membership ends 08 March 2012' this will remain the same each year.You card expiry date of 30 April 2012 allows for any late tracking to be adjusted onto your account. This is the same for all Executive Club members whether Bronze, Silver or Gold.

If you wish to make a complaint regarding this you can contact our customer relations team however they cannot renew you at Gold level."


I want to make the case that this is not just patently unfair but arguably a violation of truth in advertising as the only advertising I see for my Gold status is on the card. This "late tracking" issue is clear a minor point to how any typical customer would view their account.

While BA can clearly stand on legal/technical grounds, I find this policy wrong, misleading, and their treatment of Gold members, who are supposedly "cherished" and "special", to be offensive.

I want to raise the issue with people higher in the group, beyond the lemmings in Customer Relations.
Is there a way to do this?
Thank you

[milkmeister]

Whereas I don't do quite enough travelling to be a Gold Member, I have been a Silver Member for 3 years now. Last year, I got to 20 points short of the tier points threshold, but was flying BC two days afterwards which would easily get me past the 600 points. Research indicated that BA would extend the point collection date by up to 2 weeks so that these could be included. I contacted Executive Club (from Papua New Guinea), was told this was no problem.

Two weeks later, I was still showing as Bronze. I rang them up again (from PNG again). After 45 minutes on the phone, the upshot was an email had been sent to me (funnily enough never received, funnily enough my suspicions are it was never sent in the first place as I get no end of other emails from BA trying to sell me things) telling me that they **couldn't** promote me back to Silver because that wasn't an eligible flight. So BC in Qantas no longer counts (what is the actual point of One World?) as eligible for retaining status, though you can still collect tier points and miles? The customer service agent was unable to explain the logic behind this rule, and I am struggling to get my head around it.

I would love to contact an executive and hear an actual justification for this restriction. I have colleagues who use other loyalty schemes who have been in similar positions and not had any such issues with their loyalty being rewarded.

[anonymouscomments]

Hi i happen to work for BA customer support. I dont know the reason for the restriction but it has always been the case that you need so many eligible flights a year. I dont know the reason for the restriction but i think its fair to guess that if you join a frequent flyer scheme for BA that they expect you to take flights that will help their profits the most! If you check the link here at the bottom of the page it tells you number of eligible flights for each tier:

http://www.britishairways.com/travel...s/public/en_gb


This link then explains what is considered a eligible flight:


http://www.britishairways.com/travel...s/public/en_gb

[milkmeister]

Hi

Thanks for the reply. I follow that logic completely if these flights weren't BA codeshares, indeed on another page of the Executive Club, it states that codeshare flights ARE eligible. Begs the question of why they even show you as having collected tier points if they're not usable, and as to how I can even be in bronze when all my flights since the new collection year started have been QF...

Regards
Mike

[anonymouscomments]

Sorry i wasnt sure who BC referred to? By the definition on the BA website i would also take it to mean that you should have earned tier points if it was BA codeshare on a QF flight. Otherwise if it was quantas codeshare on another airline it wouldnt count.

[milkmeister]

BC=Business Class

Yes, these were all Qantas/BA code shares, and I have indeed been granted Tier Points, it's just the Exec Club is saying they can't use these to grant me silver, even though I am over 600 points with the 2 week extension.

[anonymouscomments]

Unfortunately sounds like you got screwed over by the small print somewhere. Im still completely stumped as to why the flights werent counted as eligible when there is the defintion if eligible as i said above. If this had been more current i would have looked into this for you!

[milkmeister]

Thanks for your kind offer to investigate if this was recent - I think you may have thought this related to last calendar year. This is regarding my membership year which ended in June 2013, so it is recent. If you were able to look for me then that would be fantastic. If you send me a private message I can give you my membership number?