I don’t usually highlight promotions for paid premium class travel, but this one is interesting.  British Airways is offering residents of Europe other than the U.K. both progressively more bonus points and elite status for a single roundtrip in their longhaul business or first class product.

Details are here and vary by your country of residece.

The offer is for free silver status for a year based on a single roundtrip in business class, and BA Silver is enough for lounge access across oneworld.

In addition the bonus point offers are as follows:

• Residents of Belgium, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Monaco, Netherlands, and Switzerland earn 18,000/50,000/100,000 bonus miles for 1, 2, or 3 roundtrips during the promo period.
• Residents of Andorra, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Faeroe Islands, Gibraltar, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Vatican City State earn 30,000/60,000/120,000 bonus miles for 1, 2, or 3 roundtrips during the promo period.
• Residents of Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine earn 40,000/65,000/130,000 bonus miles for 1, 2, or 3 roundtrips during the promo period.
• Though there’s also a separate offer for residents of Israel, on first glance it appears they get the same generous promo as residents of Russia, Albania, et al.

Someone who knows more about British Airways than I do will need to let me know whether flying Bahrain-Doha return, or Abu Dhabi-Muscat return, will count towards the bonus…

Update: Looks like British Airways is one step ahead of me, from the terms and conditions of the offer:

The following flights in the above mentioned cabins and booking classes are not valid for the promotion: BA125 from Bahrain to Doha, BA124 from Doha to Bahrain, BA073 from Abu Dhabi to Muscat, BA072 from Muscat to Abu Dhabi.