Catch me on Radio 4 at 11am in ‘Inside the World of the Frequent Flyer’

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If you came to the Head for Points Christmas party in December you may have met Laurence Grissell from BBC Radio 4. He was – with our permission – looking for interesting characters to feature in a documentary that he was producing.

The finished programme is now ready and will be broadcast at 11am today. It is 30 minutes long.

This is how Radio 4 is promoting it:

Up in the air with the frequent flyers who’ll go to extreme lengths to achieve airline status and rack up air miles. Are they playing the system – or is the system playing them? Georgie Glen narrates their stories

Many hardcore frequent flyers will stop at nothing to achieve the privileges which go with airline status, planning convoluted multi-leg journeys to maximise their points. It’s a whole sub-economy – a parallel currency which the airlines control, and which the frequent flyers seek to exploit.

The consequence is a life which is spent perpetually in transit, on airplanes and in airport lounges. We hear what motivates these individuals, what they gain and what they lose from spending so much of their lives up in the air.

I recorded a long segment for the programme but I don’t know how much of it has made the finished cut.

My contribution should be slightly detached because as a family man I don’t have the time these days to undertake the mileage and tier point runs which are at the heart of the documentary. I do, of course, understand the economics of the process from both the point of view of the airline and the traveller and that’s probably where I will pop up. Part of the reason for hiring Anika was to let me escape much of the day-to-day review travel that comes with this job – the next stop for her is Johannesburg – in order to spend more time reading “Captain Underpants” to an eager 6-year old.

If you have something better to do at 11am – like, erm, working – you can listen online via this link after 11.30am.

Category

General

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Mr(s) Entitled says:

5 Mar5 March 11:29

Not sure impressive is the word. When one has do to it frequently enough the novelty of travel soon wears thin. My initial reaction is one of sympathy but each to their own.
- Ian says:
  
  5 Mar5 March 16:10
  
  Yea. I find it a bit sad that people spend so much time and money trying to get gold for life. There must be something more constructive they can turn this energy to. Start a business or something.
  - Ian says:
    
    5 Mar5 March 16:13
    
    There’s also nothing to prevent BA removing and rescinding their “Gold for life” offer in a few years. It’s happened in other industries where “for life” offers get ditched. Bit of a gamble investing all that time and money in something that might not exist in 10 years time.
    - Rob says:
      
      5 Mar5 March 16:15
      
      Speak to those who had BMI ‘Gold for Life’ and got 2 years of BA Gold in exchange ….
sunguy says:

5 Mar5 March 11:32

Information in the programme was quite good for a basic audience, but the tone…oh the tone….

WTF are the beeb playing at with the tone of that programme….its like the nausiating crud on BBC3….
- John says:
  
  5 Mar5 March 11:37
  
  tbh some of BA’s recent ads on the radio have sounded pretty nauseating too
  - sunguy says:
    
    5 Mar5 March 11:49
    
    Problem is (as is with quite a bit of the BBCs output of recent) that they are trying to be too “clever”…..
    
    Instead of taking it down the narrator line of being pampered and cowtowed to by the airlines and in essence being treated like royalty….why didnt they just present it in the way that Radio 4 is known for – a documentary style, rather than a jokey, p155 take….which is no more suited to Radio 4 than the world at 1 being on Radio 6 music….
    - Michael Jennings says:
      
      5 Mar5 March 16:15
      
      There just isn’t a media organisation in the world that is as patronising and condescending to its audience as the BBC. I despise it beyond words.
RussellH says:

5 Mar5 March 11:49

I forget Rob’s exact wording, but it was along the lines of “our readership even goes up to 70” or something like that. Surely I am not the oldest here??
🙂
- Lord Laker says:
  
  5 Mar5 March 12:44
  
  At least I got a mention!
- mark2 says:
  
  5 Mar5 March 13:01
  
  I will be over 70 in three weeks
TripRep says:

5 Mar5 March 12:06

The occasional voice over (not the narrator) sounds a lot like the lady that does the Virgin Atlantic Upper Class voice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XNxZh9_YN0
What's the Point says:

5 Mar5 March 12:37

Interesting 30 mins, but how annoying is the narrator!!!!!
Trevor says:

5 Mar5 March 12:50

OT but I’m doing a budget run to Barbados in April and I thought this was [marginally] interesting. We started in World Traveller. After a while, BA offered an upgrade to WT+ for £125 but only outbound. Took that. I’ve looked occasionally to see if there are any rate changes. There has been. For many weeks the upgrade to the inbound for us both was stuck at £652. Last week changed to £1280. Today it’s £1480. That’s more than upgrading the outbound to Club! As a relative newbie I found this completely wild. I’ll keep checking but I’m guessing any upgrades at a reasonable [for me] cost for departing on 6th April have long gone….
- Peter K says:
  
  5 Mar5 March 13:21
  
  Prices for flights tend to increase as you reach the departure time, not decrease sadly. I think you are unlikely to get any sort of cheap upgrade now.
  - Trevor says:
    
    5 Mar5 March 15:07
    
    Yes, I agree though some do say that in the last couple of days and even at the counter, if there are empty [in my case] WT+ seats they monetise them as that’s better than flying them empty. We’ll see.
William Kerr says:

5 Mar5 March 13:38

As an avid Avios collector, not an upgrade/tier point “jockey” I found the programme correcly slanted parodying the individual who is status and tier point acquisitive – personally I find this motivation to do with status irritating, small-minded and superficial. The benefit of “working/churning” credit cards in order to acquire either free or subsidised flights through everyday spend is intensely satisfying – with a feeling of getting something for nothing. Nothing to do with a sense of status here. The narrator hit the spot in both her tone and delivery – it was correctly, in my view, mocking the aspiratonal traveller, as though afflicted with a severe case of piles, and unable to be happy with his already priviledged seat. The progamme was both well written and presented.
Cate ⛱️ says:

5 Mar5 March 14:11

I’ve never been interested in airline status so this provides an interesting insight into the thought processes of people who do. It’s also understandable why those who’ve manufacturing no small number of flights are now less than happy being committed to a cost cutting airline.