TRIP REPORT: Miles to Bucharest
Operation Silver with British Airways
It’s time for a trip report, this time trying to get the final set of Tier Points in before total and utter chaos kicks in with certain loyalty programmes and secure Silver Status. Buckle in for some entertainment.
In this adventure
- The Last Gasp of Silver (or British Airways did us all dirty)
- Off to Heathrow and the wonder of Terminal 3
- BA886 London Heathrow to Bucharest (Club Europe)
- Exiting Bucharest Airport and into the city
- Mercure Urinii
- An evening walk with a camera phone
- Morning Explore
- Back to Bucharest Airport and the Visa Satalite Lounge.
- BA887 Bucharest to London Heathrow (Club Europe)
- To the Trains! And a bus too.
- Silver retained. But a New Battle awaits
Kevin’s Rambly Introduction.
Ok, people. This one is pretty simple: there is a back trip for the trip report. But if there are more than a few undercurrents of ABBA (Anyone But British Airways), it comes not from the staff on the front line but from them in Waterside and IAG HQ for their decisions.
And to say it left more of than a sour taste, compared to a certain Canadian coffee chain, would be… an understatement.
Onto the usual bit. Whilst I am using Grammarly a lot more than I should (dyslexia is a pig and gets me most days of the week), my usual detractors who moan about my spelling and grammar can read this press release I wrote a few years ago about this inconstancy and how I deal with it.
Let’s get onto the introduction. Bring the popcorn….
The Last Gasp of Silver (or British Airways did us all dirty)
It’s time for a mileage/tier point run trip report – the simplest of all trips, where I go and fly for the miles or tier points needed to hit an objective, then return home to the comfort of my front room.
It is that simple. There is no dress-up of a holiday or a break. Just a simple there and back again to get a job done.
So what’s the job exactly?
I need around 130 Tier Points to secure British Airways Club Silver for another year (for what looks like the final time at the time of writing).
And that’s fine normally – I wouldn’t have too much of an issue – except my qualification programme for 2024 is best described as a “hot mess”.
From underperforming transatlantic segments giving 20 Tier Points a flight to airlines not crediting points because they are non-qualifying (thanks, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, and British Airways), this year’s qualification programme has been “less than optimal.”
Or, as insinuated above, a hot mess. I can’t remember being this short of points this close to the end of my qualification period.
Let’s throw in the first curveball – BA is changing its qualification year. British Airways, in its wisdom,m decided to switch out the individually qualifying years to an April to March system. I might have benefited from this – who knows?
That in itself isn’t a problem.
Sadly, it was the other shoe-dropping in late December that made life a lot more difficult than it needed to be. British Airways did a bucket of dirty on its lower-value frequent flyers – with its new Tier Point earning plan (with my initial take at the press release, then I got my calculator out).
I’ve typed a few headlines, however, the editor-in-chief ruled out the headline “Go away and fly other airlines, poor people” (and that was the politest version of that I can put on this publication, even after the airline allegedly crunched its numbers).
Even if that – in effect – is what British Airways is saying to its low-value customer base… and to me.
But before I move on, there is unfinished business that needs to be carried out.
There are a lot of destinations on the 160 Tier Point Return List – flights in the 2-4 hour range that are long enough to get enough tier points and call it quits. All of them will be Eurobusiness, sadly (as Finnair is very expensive… even as a codeshare) in that list – which is typically more than 3 hours on a “Club Europe” seat. Even if it’s an update, Collins Meridan’s seat (hint: it won’t be) is… a bad joke.
But then, Eurobusiness is just a bad joke.
In the end, I chose Bucharest as my target for earning points – least of all; I was running out of physical time to get this in the bag.
Yes. The world is burning outside the frequent flyer world. But nothing changes there. I sometimes have to remember to take a physical step back and focus on myself for once, rather than the joy of the office.
So, at least I have a costly flight booked. What else do we need? A,h yes, a hotel. I’m sticking with Accor (shockingly), with a Mercure near Union Square for £61 on an advance rate.
That will do nicely.
To get to Heathrow, I’ll be trusting National Express for the coach ride down south.
For the return, I have a free ticket from London Northwestern Railway across their network, which will save me the £20 walk-up fare to Birmingham.
There’s one slight upside to this—and that I’d be going from Heathrow Terminal 3 as opposed to the joy of Terminal 5. We all know that means at least Dan Dan Noodles. Maybe other things, too, if I can plan a little better.
So, let’s try to keep this trip from being a disaster.
Next: 03:15 from Heathrow? Why, you spoil us with this lie-in.
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