Gold Status - Value?

Hi guys

I have been AG for nearly 3 years now and historically have maintained that with 2x Upper returns a year. Due to circumstance, promotion and having a bit more cash my travels have increased a bit and there is a chance over the next year I could go for Gold, with a big caveat - is it worth it?

Now I have had a debate offline with a friend and had two different responses from VS about this so I want to check this is valid anyway.

July 17 - New York
Dec 17 - SFO&LA
————————-Achvieved Silver 5th Jan 2018 on return from LAX
July 18 - DXB - 200 TP
Dec 18 - SFO - 200 TP (Requalify AG)
Jan 19 - LAS - 100 TP (PE K Fare)
March 19 - BOS & NY - 0TP as on G’S
June 19 - ORD = 240TPs

So in total it gives me 740 TPs from July 18 through to June 19. Now am I right in thinking that I need 240 TP’s in that space of time to get AU?

Now there’s some easy pickings as the sale fares are good and the redemption on Gs could be turned into a cash fare for about £1900 and we need to book some DL short hops in that Boston and New York trip to clear the extra 60 needed.

OR do I book a totally new trip somewhere new to clear the required TP’s, again that likely to be at least £2-3k total spend.

Then the big question, and what I am really not sure about - is this even worth it?

I don’t envisage an uplift in travelling in PE or Y, and most of my leisure travel would be in Upper, normally travelling between 6 days and 14 days so its not like I am travelling and need the extra baggage. So does it really matter if I am not AU status?

Other than the DYKWIA ability of carrying a gold card, and trust me that really does appeal, I am struggling to see if its worth really chasing or am I missing some big benefit?

You’d need 260 TPs, not 240.

Before they changed the requirements, I managed Gold for 3 years. I only travel UC.

Three benefits come to mind:

1. The extra mileage*
2. They cancelled a flight once and they called all Gold members and rebooked them. They let everyone else sort it out at the airport, or so I was told.
3. I’ve been upgraded twice with DL on internal US sectors.

Extra mileage.

An UC return to NYC as Gold gets you 22,125 miles vs 17,976 as silver. So if you continued with your five flights per annum, I’d guess you’d get an extra 20-35,000 miles. Considering you’d need another paid Z flight and something else to get there, your additional mileage gained in your next year membership doesn’t equal the money spent.

I gave up trying to maintain. A few reasons, but mainly the increased amount of TPs needed, combined with having a load of miles to burn. I started to to fly EK across to DXB and prefer their product, even if robotic service. As you’ll know, VS are dropping DXB soon anyway.

I still fly with them to the US as I truly believe they are the best for flying west, but I now just book the best airline based on route and timings and don’t care too much about the TPs.

IF you were to start flying Economy or PE, I’d be giving you different advice, but if you’re only going to regularly fly UC, the benefits are arguably pointless.

From my time as Gold and the last year as Silver, I still have 250,000 miles in my personal account and about 120,000 in a Flying Co account. My best advice to anyone on this forum is to get a FlyingCo account and add everyone you know. Those miles will pay for my VS travel in 2019 so I fear a drop from Silver to Red!

Given you say your travel will be in UC one of the main benefits of Gold - CH and revivals access when not flying UC won’t apply so the only real benefit left is the extra Miles you’d earn.

But you’ve highlight one of the problems of status chasing - you need the paid flights to retain it so you feel locked into that airline.

Oh, and the 4th benefit. The Gold Golf Day out... It was a lot of fun! But unsure I'd be spending £2,000+ for some extra miles and a day at a very nice golf course.

I've found two "good value" ways of earning TPs - Premium 'S' class fares to DXB can be found for ~£1,400, giving 200 TPs at a rate of about £7 per tier point.

Alternatively, given DXB will be off the cards soon, Economy Delight is extremely good value, a recent roundtrip set me back about £450 and I'll net 50 TPs each way, which is about £4.50 per tier point.

I like you will be starting to struggle, but my recent flights were made much more special by being Gold. And the benefit of the Clubhouse regardless of class of travel makes the journey much nicer. That's why it's worth it to me, at least.

The main reason I try to retain gold is because most of our travel is in PE. If we were in a position to always fly in J I probably wouldn't be as inclined to chase it, if I am being 100% honest. For me, one of the biggest things is the guaranteed extra piece of carry on luggage. We often travel with an A2 portfolio so being able to bring an extra bag with personal items when we're in PE is great. I have done TP runs twice in the last four years to retain my status. Were they worth it financially? Debatable! But it's sort of a hobby for me so I enjoyed them.

My OH and I earn enough miles from flying, credit card spend and other avenues to get us both an UC return flight once a year, plus a bit extra so we can usually upgrade one PE flight to upper every so often. The extra miles bonus from being gold is a definite bonus. I will say I hardly ever use the companion vouchers etc. as they rarely benefit us because we usually want the miles and/or TP instead.

I was Gold for three or four years but have let it lapse. The demise of Little Red and many of the non-US routes mean I just don’t fly VS enough to make Gold worth pursuing any more, so I’m now focusing on maintaining status with BA. Their lounges might not be up to much compared to the Clubhouses but at least I can use them when travelling short haul. And their route network is clearly much more extensive.

I’m not giving up on VS completely - I’ll still use them once, maybe twice, a year - enough to maintain silver - but it’ll either be in UC or I’ll use the new credit card lounge voucher to gain Clubhouse access when flying PE so either way the main perk of Gold, lounge access, isn’t really important to me.

The miles are quite important to be honest, I try at least every other year to take my best mate away in Upper.

Thanks for the responses it has helped my thinking, and also like you Spacedog, its bit of a hobby too, so the extra trip is hardly going to be a hardship!

[honey lamb]

I was Gold for years and possibly may have made Gold for Life if it had not been for two separate incidents - the first was the increase in the number of tier points needed to retain Gold which, for me entailed an extra return flight a year and the fact that my home had been flooded in a storm which depleted my disposable income in spite of insurance payouts.

Quite frankly, it has been liberating! I fly virgin when I can, which now mainly means to South Africa where my brother lives. With regard to the USA which really had been my main source of tier points income, my son now works in Aer Lingus and so I benefit from that (and it's not a bad product in J although the lounge is no Clubhouse but Pre-clearance is brilliant) I've flown several airlines completely unexpectedly. Aer John (my son and a former V-flyer) came across a secret flyer trip from LHR -MEL in Business on Garuda Indonesia for £1000 which we took. From there we went to Auckland on Virginia Australia outbound in Y (not as good as when it was Pacific Blue) and back with NZ in economy which was brilliant - as good as many a business class. BA has taken a chunk of flying - sometimes in F but it has never managed to wow me. I've done Emirates DUB-DXB-DUR in business return and again it has failed to wow me mainly because their WOW-factor is on the A380 and those routes are B777. Actually DUB-DXB in economy which I was forced to take at short notice with my niece following the sudden death of her mother was the best I had taken on that airline as the crew were kindness personified to my niece. We returned with Ethiopian Airlines but as my sainted mother said "If you can't say anything nice to say ......." You know the rest!

I'm VS Gold but am not pursuing it. BA Gold to me is far more rewarding so am pivoting my travel to them

I should have been going AG with BA thanks to quite a bit of Club Europe travel and my trip in First to YYZ. BA have messed up so many of those trips for one reason or another and then basically messed me around with the trip to YYZ so Incanned it and am going to SanFran instead with VS.

The problem is though BA Silver probably would have been more rewarding to me than I think VS gold will be. I really hope something positive comes out of the KLM/AF tie in with regards to making short haul more rewarding with VS.

I really hope something positive comes out of the KLM/AF tie in with regards to making short haul more rewarding with VS.

Well presumably it’ll be rewarding for flights to France or The Netherlands but for anywhere else in Europe it’ll be of little value unless you’re prepared to change planes in Amsterdam or Paris.

I really hope something positive comes out of the KLM/AF tie in with regards to making short haul more rewarding with VS.

Well presumably it’ll be rewarding for flights to France or The Netherlands but for anywhere else in Europe it’ll be of little value unless you’re prepared to change planes in Amsterdam or Paris.

Needs must depending where you're travelling to I guess. There are destinations in their combined network across Europe that aren't readily/easily served direct from all UK airports and KLM in particular is present in many UK airports (probably third behind Ryanair and Flybe).

That said, any potential redemption on Air France/KLM is academic for now until we know more what their buy-in will mean on that side of things (if at all).

To answer the OP's question, I'd say that unless you're going to be flying more often and/or are going to benefit from the perks that come with being Gold, I'm not sure if it's worth going out of your way to obtain it. I guess it depends what is of more value to you personally. If you end up Gold anyway due to travelling so much then it is what it is.