BRITISH AIRWAYS REPLIES:

We’re delighted to provide our customers with a fantastic loyalty scheme which we know they love, and which offers frequent flyers some great complimentary perks, such as fast-track security, lounge access, priority boarding and free seat selection at the point of booking.

The British Airways Executive Club has more than seven million members worldwide, and the programme rewards customers when they fly with British Airways, Iberia and Oneworld partner airlines, enabling them to collect Avios for every mile they fly.

To reward our most loyal customers, in 2013 we introduced Lifetime recognition – and now members can enjoy Gold membership for life when they reach 35,000 tier points.

Tier points were introduced – and could only be collected – from 1991, and the terms and conditions of the scheme are on ba.com.

Mr Hogarth has been a Gold member for more than 20 years, so would be eligible for two years’ discretionary Gold, based on our loyalty flexibility crietera. So he should automatically be renewed as Gold once more this year.