Airlines sometimes send interesting little things to make you feel loved. For example, in Aegean’s Miles+Bonus, you get 500 miles on your birthday. I never thought British Airways did anything, so imagine my surprise when an e-mail unexpectedly arrived marking the 20th anniversary of my membership with them.
As anyone who regularly reads my work knows, I have flown a lot with BA. I’ve always been a fan of their Club Europe product, particularly the food and Champagne, though that has changed over the years.
Happy 20th Anniversary
As you can see, for the 20th anniversary I received a little e-cake with a candle, complete with British Airways colours. It’s all quite cute and it certainly made me feel all warm and happy inside. It brought back memories of wonderful on board service, being plied with Champagne, and fun banter with the crew. To this day I love “landing Champagne” (that’s bubbles in a plastic tumbler you can hold on to and drink through to the gate on arrival!), and I have fond memories of most of my flights with the airline.
Overall Thoughts
While it’s sad that I’ll not darken the doors of a British Airways aircraft anytime in the foreseeable future, I’ll always have the memories. And 174,130 lifetime tier points, which will sit and look at me forever more.
For those wondering, I was never angry at BA. I was just very, very disappointed and saddened that their decision meant that I would no longer get to indulge in flying with the company for the sheer enjoyment of it… and the Avios and Tier Points, of course!
Does your airline do anything for birthdays or anything like that? I’d love to know. Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by BrayLockBoy via Wikimedia Commons.
Thank you for your comment. As to things turning around at AA, I am not holding my breath. Take care and be well
Thanks very much!
American does actually recognize these anniversaries now. A couple of days ago, I received an email with a cute e-greeting from American celebrating my 40th anniversary as an AAdvantage member. I can’t copy the e-greeting into this comment, but here is the text that headed it. And I did appreciate the recognition.
Happy 40-year
AAdvantage® anniversary!
Gillian, thanks for being an AAdvantage® member. We’re grateful to be part of your journey and look forward to more adventures in the years to come.
Good on you. To date this has never happened despite my being a loyal AA Advantage member since 1981 which is the initiation of the loyalty program. I remember signing on and being told that they had just started the loyalty program. So I was among the first few members to sign on
I went back and checked. I joined in 1981 and not 1982 as I had thought That is 45 years ago
Despite all this I never received a single email or letter acknowledging my status. Not even once
It is bizarre. Go figure
How strange, must be something odd in your profile or something. A shame, because that’s very long term indeed for you! Maybe you’ll get something at 50! Here’s hoping!
That’s really cool, Gillian! I think after 40 years, you’d kind of expect something, so that’s really nice and glad you appreciated it. I wonder if I’ll get something from BA when I “turn 40”. Congratulations!
I have been an American Airlines Aadvantage member since 1982. Not once did American contact me to wish me a happy anniversary or to give me any bonus miles in appreciation of 40+ years of loyalty. I guess British Airways is different and appreciates their frequent flyers . As to American Airlines, they suck in every sense of the word. The worst airline in my opinion If I could transfer all my miles to Delta I’d do it in a heartbeat
Wow, that’s a little crazy. I would have thought you’d get something at 25 years or something, particularly if you’re flying regularly. It is a shame to see how far AA has fallen and how well DL and UA are doing by comparison – and that’s just from a customer service perspective. Hopefully things turn around sometime!