I qualified for BA Gold during the family holiday to California by taking a day out from LAX to Las Vegas in American First Class (£115, 60TP each way), the family using an Uber-type credit to get to a shopping mall not far from the hotel.
BA Gold card arrived very swiftly, in fact it arrived before we arrived home from holiday and was followed 2 weeks later by a BA Silver (previous to the Hawaii trip I was Bronze).
To be honest, my expectations of Gold status weren't great. In practice, they've been hugely exceeded as the BA Gold line seems to be staffed by people who know what they are doing, are really helpful and empowered to make decisions.
BA managed to lose 3 of our 4 suitcases on the outbound sector LHR-Austin and 2 were delivered to us in our apartment in Venice Beach 24 hours later and the third arrived on day 4, just as we were checking out to move on. All had been opened using bolt cutters (what's the point of TSA locks?) and stuff was missing. Some of it rather expensive.
I tried the Amex Plat claims procedure and found it not as easy as it perhaps could be, so thought I'd call BA for a moan as it was their fault the bags were delayed and items pilfered. 48hours later, I had £££ to cover the new clothes I had to buy plus the stolen/missing items that we had to replace. Very good!
In addition, I'd booked us using Avios LHR-Chengdu-LHR over Xmas as that was the place to find 4 Club seats, our intention being to get to Bangkok. When 2 seats on BA10, the direct BKK-LHR flight appeared I rang BA to change the booking to 2 Club, 2 economy and the helpful person suggested that as the kids would be 'unhappy' about being down the back perhaps I should use the Gold benefit of using 2x miles for that sector to get them into Club too. I hadn't even realised this was a benefit and we chatted about life and kids and how I'd never been in Club until I was 40something etc. She suggested I watch availability in case 2 more Club seats come up, at which time I could pay the change fee and get the extra Avios back. Very good!
Suitably impressed so far, I'm now wondering what my excuse will be to do it all again. I know, keeping a friend company as a social service. Anyone out there need a companion??
Meanwhile, I've been watching some old youtube videos of trips to the US. They're very childish (like me)....search for metsonij and Groom Lake on youtube.....thanks for reading!
