British Airways Offering Status Match to bmi Elites in Countries Losing bmi Service

by Gary Leff

British Airways very rarely offers status matches, but they’re currently offering to match bmi Diamond Club elites with addresses in Belgium, Israel, Ukraine, and the Netherlands — places that bmi is pulling out of servicing.

Even British Airways Silver members get lounge access, including when flying on partners like American. And British Airways Gold members get access to British Airways first class lounges — even when they aren’t flying BA. This saved me one time in Milan, where Alitalia’s Boticelli lounge is one of the worst pits I’ve ever experienced (fortunately they had shower kits; unfortunately there was no hot water and the drain didn’t work and the line to get a coffee was 10 minuts long).

If you have a bmi Gold card, this may be a good opportunity for a year of BA Gold status and BA lounges (provided you are based at or transit a terminal with a dedicated BA lounge) provided you have access to an address in Israel, Belgium, Ukraine, or the Netherlands.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. What a circuitous route…

    Used earned TG Gold to get NW Plat.
    Used NW Plat to get BMI Gold.
    Now I can use BMI Gold to get BA Gold and have lounge access while completing an AA Plat Challenge in the second half of 2010.

  2. Yosithezet’s comment would make for a very, very interesting blog writeup. If one can figure out what the easiest program to get some kind of elite status on (hotel or fly program) and then use that easily attainable status to work a circle of achieving top status somewhere else using status match. And roundabout she goes to the top.

  3. This is a very nice match.

    BA Silver is Oneworld Sapphire status, with much more benefits than bmi Silver (Star Alliance Silver status).

    BA Gold (Oneworld Emerald) is more similar to bmi Gold (Star Alliance Gold).

  5. The interesting thing is that the AA Platinum is only Oneworld Emerald. If BA Gold gives a soft landing to BA Silver then I’d only need to do the AA Platinum challenge in the second half of 2011.

  6. David – the only issue with the virtual move is with any BA branded credit card you may hold.

    If you are currently based in the UK and have a BA Amex credit card, a move to Europe will result in the card being cancelled or at best being suspended.

    cc – one of the easiest ways to get BMI Gold at the moment is to take advantage of TK’s very low companion fares from IST to the far east. Someone on FT worked out that it would cost circa £800 per person (min 2 traveling) to get BMI Gold from nothing.

  8. A BA Gold will get you 2 years of lounge access, not one as you imply at the end, since you’ll get a soft landing to Silver for a year after your year of Gold.

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