I’ve discovered British Airways Executive Club one and a half years ago. Until then, I’ve been flying with different airline companies, as Air France or Tarom (this is the Romanian company and I used it a lot, as I was born in Romania).
So, I’ve been flying from Bucharest to London and back for 10 times in the last 18 months. For the first 4 times, I used Tarom, as I thought it is the cheapest (these were personal flights, not business flights, so you’re looking for the cheapest tickets). And I had the idea that British Airways was quite expensive (actually, it used to be, but they cut the prices recently, to keep up with the low-fares airlines). But one day I need to go from UK to Amsterdam for business and my company has a deal with BA. So I was going to Amsterdam with them. I was quite impressed by the service quality, the politeness of the crew,
even the food was much better than any other airlines I’ve been flying with. I’ve been given an application form to apply for Executive Club, which I haven’t done it at that time. Only a couple of months later, when I had to fly again for business, I remember this Executive Club and I had a look on BA website. Amazingly for me at that moment, I could apply very easily online for the membership and I even could claim the miles from the flight I’ve done two months before (actually, you can claim up to 2 years prior to your starting date as Executive member). I got the membership number straight away and the plastic card in two weeks time. Since then, I used BA quite a lot and I am very pleased with all the advantages you can get as an Executive Club member: - you can manage your account on-line - you can book online and pay online (or by telephone) - you get an e-ticket, which means there’s no “paper ticket”, you need to go with you Executive Club card to the airport, use the BA “fast-drop” programme and you get the ticket for the flight - you can have an online check-in with up to 24 hours before departure - you can choose your seat in the plane - you can choose your meal
And now let me tell you how it works: For every mile you fly, you earn one Executive Club Mile. Flying in our premium cabins means you will earn extra Mile. But there are two different things you need to consider:
* Executive Club Points are collected each time you travel on eligible fare types, and are used to progress your Executive Club membership tier upon reaching certain Points thresholds.
* BA Miles are generally awarded for all travel, with the scale of the award varying by ticket type - for example a discounted fare will earn less BA Miles than a full fare. BA Miles can be redeemed for further travel on British Airways and our partner airlines' flights, as well as on family fun days out.
Executive Club Points are awarded at varying levels for travel in the following classes, depending on your destination city/country: - UK Domestic & Ireland - C, Y and D. (B, H, K, L, M, V, N, O, Q, S and G class fares will attract 25% of the BA Miles earned on full economy fares, but not Executive Club Points) - Euro/World Traveller - Y and B (B class only collects Points & Miles when used to Brussels or Rotterdam). - World Traveller Plus - W and T. - Club Europe - C, D and I (I class on Agency Discount(AD) & Industry Discount(ID) tickets and BA Redemptions tickets will not attract Points). - Club World - J, D and I (I class on Agency Discount(AD) & Industry Discount(ID) tickets and BA Redemptions tickets will not attract Points). - First - F and A. - Concorde - R, A, G and I.
BA Miles are awarded like this: - Restricted World/Euro Traveller tickets - 25% of the flown mileage. - Full fare Euro/World Traveller tickets - 1 BA Mile per flown mile (full Miles also earned on B class tickets to Rotterdam or Brussels). - World Traveller Plus - 1.25 BA Miles per flown mile. - Club Europe/World - 2 BA Miles per flown mile (except for discounted travel in I class). - First - 3 BA Miles per flown mile. - Concorde - 4 BA Miles per flown mile.
Points enable you to progress through the membership tiers – from Blue to Silver (from 700 points) and Gold (from 1700 points), whereas BA Miles can be used to obtain free flights. You can also benefit from a full range of airline, hotel, car rental, financial and service partners that will help you earn Miles throughout your travel experience.
Yes, it is quite difficult to get to Silver, for instance, but it’s quite easy to accumulate miles and redeem them against free flights (now I have enough miles to go to Amsterdam and return for free, both for me and my wife – yes, you can use a Family membership and add up to 4 people to this membership, so the miles are accumulating faster)
These are only some aspects on being an Executive Club member, you can find all the details on their website: www.ba.com. (the points you’ll get for each flight, how many points you need to fly for free to different countries and so on). The website is very, very good and the cabin crew has been always very helpful and polite and the food was quite very good, the flights I've been flying were arrived always in time (or even ahead of schedule !!) so I can say that I am very happy using their services again and again. And because British Airways is lowering the price fares quite a lot, they will compete probably very soon with the low-cost airlines. Only that the service you get is second to none !
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Advantages: Best mileage programme on Economy Class and short distance flights. Excellent promotions. Good service and frequent flyer benefits. Disadvantages: Only average on Business & First Class and long distance flights. Alliance may eventually fall apart. Website likes to crash.
From_The_Continent 21.05.2001 (21.05.2001)
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