BA Business Class

[Toffeeapple06]

Hi we’re flying to Toronto business class with our air miles , the last time we flew on air miles we felt that we were treated second class
For example we weren’t shown how to pull out the beds and the crew were generally off with us .. Anybody else experienced this ?

But agree that frequent flier status (gold, silver etc) is on the pax info list so crew will make a special effort to recognise the golds.

I have BA gold status and the cabin services director will always come and say hello when I travel irrespective of class, or whether I paid or was upgraded.

I always travel club long haul but tend to get upgraded to first on every other trip and they still treat me the same as everyone else.

From what I can see, no matter the flight, the crew seem to know my status, and whether I have flown a lot recently but not how I paid for each flight.

I SAID they know who has a lot of airmiles (frequent flyer status just like you said) and treat you a little bit better/more attention as a result.

You're getting things a bit confused here

How many airmiles/Avios you have us totally unrelated to your frequent flyer status

I've been BA silver and had nearly half a million miles on my account and I'm currently Gold but have the princely sum on 20,000 because I've just spent a ton of them on flights

Of course they know what level of status you are but the absolutely don't know if you're in save or spend mode with your airmiles/Avios

jesus are you arguing about the difference between airmiles and status.

The OP asked if they treated you differently because you had used airmiles to buy a flight.

Many of us answered that no, most airlines actually treat you better the better customer you are - measure that by airmiles/gold card status/points/avios/whatever - they know and react accordingly.

You get your gold card status by the number of air miles you accumulate - whether you still have them or not.

I actually can't believe I am bothering to have this stupid argument

I've flown BA business a few times, world traveller plus hundreds, and economy hundreds.. I've found you get cabin crew that are just jaded and arsey. It ruins the flight. I think they get a vibe if you're green in a higher cabin than you're used to, and they're either arsey about it, or amazing to welcome you. Shame really!

They can't tell how you paid for the flight, but they can see flyer status. Blue, Bronze, silver, gold.
I'm silver with 400k air miles, but I'll drop to blue if I don't fly in the next year. Doesn't mean jack!

You get your gold card status by the number of air miles you accumulate - whether you still have them or not

Well actually no you don't
You get gold status from the number of tier points you accumulate
But don't let the facts get in the way of getting all defensive and snippy because you are wrong, even to the point you told a pilot that they don't know what they are talking about

the last time we flew on air miles we felt that we were treated second class
For example we weren’t shown how to pull out the beds and the crew were generally off with us .. Anybody else experienced this ?

If you feel that they treated you second class why did you decide to fly again with them? And why did you book business class again?

DH has BA gold and we always get asked (when flying with him, whether in club world or economy on any OneWorld flights) how we are and if we need any help etc etc. It seems to also happen to me when flying alone on flights he’s booked but not when I’ve bookex the flights (I’m only BA blue). 🤷🏽‍♀️
Almost all our business class flights are paid for with avios and we’ve never felt treated differently so I’m sure they don’t have that info.

Yes tenbob it's tier points not miles! Unless there's some rule for s gazillion avois gets gold for life?!

@ZaphodBeeblerox how are nearly all your flights paid for with miles?! I search reward flights several times a week and there's zero availability unless you're flying locally? I have 3 companion travel vouchers too, which I can never use!

Wtf

1. what were you hoping to achieve by asking this?
2. why can’t you work the buttons/seat - it’s pretty simple!
3. why don’t you just collect miles with a different airline, if you’re that unimpressed?

On BA, you get gold status by accumulating 1500 tier points each year. That's usually 5 transatlantic flights and a couple of shorter ones during the year, or 6 transatlantic flights, as each long haul one gets you 280 points. The number of air miles you have doesn't mean anything for your annual status. You can get lifetime gold when you have 35,000 points (it used to be 30,000), which is maintaining gold status for about 20 years.

@offupop we only fly (longhaul) 1-2x a year. No school aged kids so we fly outside of school holidays and fly on Tuesdays/Thursdays etc. Also fly to secondary airports sometimes. London-Oakland I’ve done twice so far with companion vouchers, whereas London-SFO would be impossible. And we book way in advance too. DH flies a LOT more so accumulates the points.

I'm BA silver and fly business a couple of times a month. THB some BA cabin crews are brilliant but many are very, very arsey. On the whole I've had better service elsewhere when I fly economy - even with Flybe!!! We're just back from a family holiday flying long haul in premium economy - the service was dreadful and the cabin was woefully run down (3 out of four lap trays were broken/unusable - we had to eat off our laps - met with a shrug and 'oh dear' from the cabin crew). The flight was delayed meaning we missed a connection at a nearby airport and the BA ground staff couldn't have been more unhelpful. I think some companies get the idea that they're the dog's bollocks and begin to rest on their reputations. The result is crap customer service (looking at you M&S, BA, Debenhams - to name a few from recent experience). Then the profit warnings come in and they're surprised - but loyal customers aren't. BA needs to pull its socks up or the end will be nigh!!!

Ignore me. Just realised that nowhere in your original post did you say you were flying BA. (Obviously just had a lot to get off my chest!!! :-) )

Have flown with BA a few times and they don't show you how to operate the bed. It is quite self explanatory.

Never had staff be off with me though. What did they not do that you were expecting?

@AdelesBeard in the title - you weren't wrong!

Thanks offyoupop - thought for a minute I'd gone off on a rant there for no good reason!!

@OliviaStabler bed is self explanatory but the privacy blind has a button, green on club means people yank it up for it to fall down - repeat, repeat, until either a nice or arsey crew member shows you how so you feel thoroughly like you don't belong!

It's amazing which threads get snippy these days. 😂

OP, I fly business and first class sometimes using miles and sometimes paying and I haven't experienced any difference in how I'm treated.

I have however had to ask to be shown how things work. I can't remember if I've asked how the beds work but I've definitely had to ask for help with somethings 😬😬

My husband is a whatever the top card is ( I think it's 'higher' than gold but I can't remember) and the crew can be a bit fake simpering when they deal with him but that's regardless of how he paid for the ticket.

Ok, here’s a bit about the difference between Avios points and Tier points. As other posters have pointed out, Avios points are awarded according to the amount you spend and you can redeem them against more flights, Tier points are awarded depending on what flights you book and move you up through the loyalty club status. The passenger information list gives us information about the status of the passenger but not how they paid for it. If you are a Gold card holder you will be greeted personally on arrival at the aircraft, it has nothing to do with how many Avios points you have, or how you paid for the flight. There are statuses above Gold - they are Gold Guest List and Premier. GGL passengers generally are more or less professional business travellers and are highly valued. Premier passengers are usually heads of companies, heads of state or occasionally major high profile passengers. You cannot earn Premier membership through more flights, entry is by invite only.

A quick simple example:
2 Gold members on a flight, one paid by credit card, one paid by Avios. The only info on the PIL is their Gold status and they will be treated as a Gold card holder.
2 passengers on a flight who have both paid the same amount by credit card, one has no BA status the other is a Gold member. The gold member will be greeted as a returning customer, the non-member will be treated as the rest of the passengers in the same cabin as them.

At no point is the information on the number of Avios points you have or how you paid for your flight made available to any of the crew.

My DH has a BA gold and we have never had the Cabin Service Director come and welcome us. Service has always been ropey and one what sticks out was whem my toddler was sick on a flight from Barbados there was no sick bag and crew refused to help leaving us sitting in vomit all night and not to mention the stink for the poor passengers around us! We would happily never fly BA again but DH has no choice as BA only operate direct flights to a lot of the cities he does business.