V-Flyer

OK... so due to somewhat dwindling options to get me to BHD, which I need to do on a regular basis, it looks like I'm going to start using BA as my standard carrier. These flights used to be on BMI codes, but they are now showing up as BA on my corporate travel system, so who am I to argue. No doubt a consequence of the takeover.

I just realised that I don't actually have my own BAEC account - all the RC family's avios miles are in my wife's name, from the days when she used to travel with BA a lot (and since topped up via Tesco). I never have...

I clearly need to get myself set up pronto, so can you help me with a few questions:

1) Is there any way to get a status match with BA based on my VS AU status? I hear that they sometimes match to silver, and it would be nice to be able to use a lounge on my Belfast hops (assuming there is one!)? Ditto things like free seat selection. If so, what's the process?

2) Given that I'm now the traveler of the family, is there an easy (and more importantly, free) way of moving my wife's avios over to my account once I get it set up?

3) Given that I've picked up a handful of cathay/dragonair miles over the past week and parked them in a new Marco Polo club account, can I transfer them over too? Personally I'd rather have everything bucketed into Avios if I have the choice with the OW partners.

Probably quite basic questions, and I realise that I could always go and post this on the BA page of flyertalk, but everything I hear suggests that they can be a fierce and unforgiving bunch, so decided to try here 1st!

thanks
RC

Did you have Diamond Club status? BA is matching the equivalent of Diamond Club Silver and Gold to BAEC Ag and Au - there's more detail on the BA web site as well as a 'tool' to move over. Otherwise if you have Diamond Club points you can move these to BAEC too once you have an account (as well as Avios which were formerly Air Miles) - I've done both and by magic have enough Avios in BA for a First trip to the US .

Otherwise set up a BAEC account for you and your wife then link them to a family account (easy to do on BA, not on VS unless you're Au and get a SSA for your family members). If you have Avios.com (let's use that for former Air Miles) you can then move them all into your BAEC accounts and by linking them in a family account you can pool them.

So:

(1) I've never heard of BA status matching VS Au, if they did the equivalent would be BAEC Ag, which is good for lots of things including lounge access and seat requests for example, You could write to BAEC and ask, what do you have to lose?
(2) See above on EC accounts and linking and moving Diamond Club points of Avios.com miles, all made relatively easy by BA.
(3) As far as Marco Polo account miles, they're probably stuck there. Should have had the foresight to create a BAEC account and have them posted there rather than CX .

FT BA is not that fierce, although they certainly can be at times!

slinky09 wrote:Did you have Diamond Club status? BA is matching the equivalent of Diamond Club Silver and Gold to BAEC Ag and Au - there's more detail on the BA web site as well as a 'tool' to move over. Otherwise if you have Diamond Club points you can move these to BAEC too once you have an account (as well as Avios which were formerly Air Miles) - I've done both and by magic have enough Avios in BA for a First trip to the US .

Otherwise set up a BAEC account for you and your wife then link them to a family account (easy to do on BA, not on VS unless you're Au and get a SSA for your family members). If you have Avios.com (let's use that for former Air Miles) you can then move them all into your BAEC accounts and by linking them in a family account you can pool them.

So:

(1) I've never heard of BA status matching VS Au, if they did the equivalent would be BAEC Ag, which is good for lots of things including lounge access and seat requests for example, You could write to BAEC and ask, what do you have to lose?
(2) See above on EC accounts and linking and moving Diamond Club points of Avios.com miles, all made relatively easy by BA.
(3) As far as Marco Polo account miles, they're probably stuck there. Should have had the foresight to create a BAEC account and have them posted there rather than CX .

FT BA is not that fierce, although they certainly can be at times!

Thanks Slinky, and agree that my forward planning was somewhat lacking here. No diamons status unfortunately. Also not like we have huge numbers of miles anyway (I think about 30k avios for my wife and whatever I'd earn in Marco Polo for a Y flight HK to Shanghai and J from Manila to HK), but I think I'm becoming a travel miser that doesn't want to let a single mile escape!

Might give my own corporate travel people a go, having searched a bit more, it sounds like big companies sometimes have the purchasing muscle to get these matches included - failing that will try myself, like you say, not much to lose. Can't really see them viewing me as a high value client if all I'm doing is 20 Belfast hops a year, but as I mentioned on another thread, I might be tempted to try them out long haul soon...

RC