One World Alliance - key benefitsof British Airways Executive Club

The one world alliance contains a large number of key airlines for travellers based in the ASEAN region. The founding members included British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, which gave the alliance useful coverage between Europe and Asia and within Asia. Recently Malaysia Airlines, Qatar and Sri Lankan Airlines have joined making the alliance particularly attractive.

Of all of the loyalty programmes within one world, despite the recent changes the British Airways Executive club is my preferred choice. This is despite the fact that the majority of my flights are actually flown with Malaysia Airlines. The key benefits of the British Airways Executive Club are:

1. Clear progression through the tiers- Tier points are straight forward and earned on almost every flight (be careful on Malyasia Airlines though- more to follow on this)

2. Even following the devlauation, generous points earning opportunities from flying- especially on British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia.

3. The household account- this makes earning avios as a family a breeze and means reward flights are earned much quicker than with competing schemes.

4. Tier status benefits are well respected throughout the alliance- sometimes additional luggage allowances can be a little bit of a struggle at check in though.

By having status in the BA programme rather than the MH programme I do miss out on some benefits when flying on Malaysia Airlines. For example, I do not pick up tier bonus enrich points. The additional luggage allowance for enrich passengers with status is generous and quite straight forward (50%/100% extra for Gold/Platinum members). Finally I never get upgraded when travelling on Malaysia Airlines. However, given how empty Business/first cabins seem to be I assume that Malaysia Airlines only upgrade for operational reasons, so I doubt I miss much.

The British Airways Executive club is a good option for ASEAN travellers. However, you do need to have 4 flights on British Airways flights each year to maintain status. This may be a problem for a reader who does not travel once a year or so to Europe (or Australia).

More on the benefits of the Executive Club, and how to earn and maintain status in future posts.