Going for Gold...
Well not the classic BBC quiz show hosted by Henry Kelly. But rather a startlingly reality that for the first time in my traveling career I have achieved status with an Airline.
On exactly the third month anniversary of my time in Dubai I have made it to Silver on Emirates Skywards program. It was nicely punctuated by being greeted by name of the flight and offered a complimentary drink before departure and just before arrival - a nice touch.
I got close last year to making it to silver with British Airways Executive club - but they seem to use every excuse to not award you with all the important Tier miles i.e. you never booked full fare economy, we upgraded you to business and hence no tier miles.
Skywards has made no such exceptions and has been straightforward - you fly and you get miles and tier miles. The only difference with Silver for me is I can now check in at the Business desk and use the lounge at Dubai airport. However with on-line check-in and a Middle-East issues Amex card you can essentially achieve the same thing.
The main thing for me will be getting to Gold so I can use the lounges whilst flying economy in other airports around the world. Judging by my travel schedule I will be gold before Christmas.
Roll on peace away from the masses.
3 comments:
Yeah, it really works, the silver loyalty. We keep wanting to fly different, cheaper (better) airlines, but are in this constant state of panic about "losing" our silver EK status. So we keep flying with them, and getting the silver again and again. Though I may lose it this year.
In which case hello Etihad!
I have silver with BA, Emirates and Air NZ, plus Gold with Lufthansa (Star Alliance). J has all that, but she tops me with the Hons Circle card with Lufthansa.
As you say, BA did everything that they could not to award it!
The best thing about the status is the ability to get into the lounges and away from the masses, but at dxb, the Lufthansa Lounge is pathetic. So we use J's Emirates Bank Al Shaheen card and get into the bigger lounge. It's much better.
With J's LH Hons Circle card, when we use the main Hons Circle lounge at Frankfurt, we're driven to the plane in either a Porsche Cayenne or Mercedes S-Class. We're also met off the planes and if we're catching a connecting flight, we're escorted through the airport shortcuts to our gate, or driven there if it's a long way to the gate. They will also hold up a flight's departure for Hons Circle members. Now that's service!
Only Silver? Lightweight. Took me two months to go to gold. You're in SEE now, get travelling.
Chris
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