Every day we are bombarded by customer promotions and loyalty cards. One of the most successful must be Tesco who literally wrote the book on customer loyalty programs. However it is a fine line between offering something of value and intruding or requiring a lot in return and for me, at least, they overstepped the mark. While you can’t argue with the value, the way they knew so much about me (every offer was bespoke) and their communications meant I preferred to give up membership rather than reap the rewards. BA on the other hand have managed for quite a few years to maintain my interest with their Executive program, and while I don’t fly for work, have me addicted to their Avois points.
For many years I have used BA’s American Express card (little bit ironic don’t you think?) to collect the points and have enjoyed a number of business class flights across the world for me and a friend. The card is pretty good in that if you spend so much a year on it then you get another ticket for free. You have to spend your Avios only on business class international flights to really see the value, rather than on an economy European trip which seems to be not much more expensive than the tax Avios makes you pay.
However for my last few flights I have managed to get first class, rather than business, and on my last flight I was able to experience BA’s newest FIRST product. What made it that bit sweeter was that BA were running an Avios promotion on the week I booked so I actually paid less than if we had flown in business class. And boy was it worth it. Although the flight was from Gatwick, rather than Heathrow, as the majority of BA’s Caribbean flights do the experience once airborne was excellent. For some reason the cabin was pretty much empty out (and full coming back) so we enjoyed our own purser and enjoyed the full luxury of the BA experience at its best.
With so many airlines advancing BA in terms of aircraft and cabin quality it was good to see they are slowing getting their mojo back. What was really good to see is how luxurious the soft service is (washkit, food, bedding, pjs and so forth) and how much more classy it felt over the competition. Suffice to say it was the highlight of the holiday and all thanks to the Avios program which means I am now stuck forever in point accumulation hell.
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