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Not got your British Airways Executive Club status extension or tier upgrade? This is why

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As we covered yesterday, British Airways has now processed status extensions for the majority of British Airways Executive Club members.

Most, but not all.

There are two scenarios under which you may not currently have the status or expiry date you expect.

My british airways executive account status has not been extended

Is your Executive Club year-end 8th May or 8th June?

If you have an expiry date of 8th May or 8th June, your status has not yet changed.

There is a reason for this.  If you had an 8th May or 8th June expiry date, your membership card is still valid and runs until 30th June or 31st July respectively.

If BA had extended your card year this week, it would have meant extending people who were otherwise due to be downgraded on 30th June or 31st July at the higher tier.

This is what is happening, as BA told it to me:

If your tier point year ends on 8th May or 8th June AND you have retained your status or upgraded your status in your previous membership year, your card expiry date will be extended on Monday 29th.

If your tier point year ends on 8th May or 8th June AND you did not retain your status and are due to be downgraded, your card expiry date will be extended as soon as your downgrade is processed on 30th June or 31st July. 

This makes sense.  Imagine that you had a year end of 8th May, were Gold but only earned 200 tier points last year.  At present, your card shows ‘Gold member, card expiry 30th June 2020’.  On 1st July you were due to drop to Silver.

If your card had been extended this week, along with all the rest, you would have had your Gold status extended.  Instead, BA intends to wait until 1st July when you drop to Silver and then give you a free one-year extension.  Such a person would therefore, on 1st July, see that their Silver status runs until 30th June 2022.

Has your British Airways status not been upgraded as expected?

There is some confusion over how British Airways is applying the new, lower, tier point thresholds.  As a reminder, these are:

Bronze status – 225 tier points (was 300 points) 

Silver status – 450 tier points (was 600 tier points)

Gold status – 1,125 tier points (was 1,500 tier points)

If you qualify by segments flown, these targets have also been reduced by 25%.

It wasn’t clear whether these lower thresholds apply to your CURRENT membership year or only your NEXT membership year.

We now have an official answer from BA.

The reduced tier points thresholds will be applied on Monday 29th June.

If you have reached the thresholds mentioned above (225 for Bronze, 450 for Silver, 1125 for Gold) your tier will be upgraded automatically next week.

These people will ALSO benefit from the lower tier threshold for your next membership year, so effectively benefit from the lower threshold for two membership years.

All other BAEC members should see the reduced tier thresholds showing online too, with the lower target applying for the rest of their current year AND the following year.


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Comments (108)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Nick Wood says:

    My membership rolled over on 8th April this year (Silver retained under the standard rules), but my account still shows an end date of April 2021 – i.e. no extension.

    I should qualify for the extension i.e. till April 2022 ? Right ? OR have I misunderstood.

    But the tier points still get reset in April 2021 ?

    Any thoughts, anyone.

    • Rob says:

      You misunderstood. If you RETAINED status during the year, you don’t get an extension.

      Basically …. your travel clearly wasn’t disrupted, so you don’t need anything.

      You DO get the lower target for next year though.

      • Nick Wood says:

        But BA’s statement says

        “All members will benefit, starting with those who have a Tier Point collection end date of July 2020, through to June 2021”.

        So my renewal is in that window. And clearly it wasn’t possible to fly in April, and arguably still isn’t, certainly for long haul where the big points are.

        • Nick Wood says:

          Realised I was looking in the wrong place !! My card is valid till April 2022, but points will expire 2021. Basically meaning points this year become irrelevant, except in the very unlikely event I get to Gold status……

      • MD says:

        Come on Rob, this argument is nonsense and you know it. I pointed this out on yesterday’s extension thread and you replied, so I know you saw my comment!

        How can you/BA possibly claim that “you already retained your status this year, therefore the pandemic didn’t limit your travel much, so you don’t need an extension” is a valid argument, when the same actually applies EVEN MORESO to people who managed to upgrade their status this year?

        Not only did those people manage to retain their previous status, despite the pandemic limiting travel for a few months they even managed to travel so much more than they normally do they upgraded to the next tier! Clearly they were even less affected than those who retained status. And yet they get basically a two year extension and the more loyal customers get one year?

        That is absurd. As you pointed out to me yesterday it is quite simply that they are so crap at IT that all they have done was roll the expiry date on one year from what was on your card already. For upgrades the card expiry date is amended immediately on hitting the threshold, but for retaining it isn’t. That’s literally all the thought they’ve put into it.

        (And as I said yesterday this doesn’t affect me personally, so I don’t know why I’m so irked by this. It’s just the sheer illogicality of it that offends me, sorry!)

        • Alan says:

          Totally agree MD.

          BA are basically saying ‘We’re taking you for granted suckers!‘ to some of their most loyal customers, who might as well not bothered earning any tier points in their current TP year.

          However I don’t think it’s by design, it’s just their lack of planning and forethought IMO.

          • MD says:

            I agree Alan, it’s just laziness and bad IT. There’s no reason why their system shouldn’t immediately change your expiry date to the following year once you’ve retained status, in the same way that it immediately alerts for upgrades, for example. That would have solved the whole problem.

  • planeconcorde says:

    I am already Silver, currently have 475 tier points. With the status extension rules I was confused as to whether those points would be taken away at the end of my current tier point earning year, or would be retained until the end of the year extension. In the later scenario I would already have enough tier points for renewal at the end of the extended period.

    My account details now show:
    Year ends: 08 Sept 2020
    Tier collection year ends: 08 Sept 2020
    Card expiry date: 31 Oct 2021

    I take that to mean on 9th September 2020 they will take away my current 475 tier points, resetting to zero. To retain Silver past 31 Oct 2021 I will need to earn a new set of 450 tier points between 9th September 2020 and 8th September 2021. Correct?

    • Nick Wood says:

      That’s how I understand it. In theory, if you earned enough before Sept this year to take you to Gold (unlikely, I know), you could still upgrade this year, but basically your tier points this year are now irrelevant. And the lounges are shut anyway…..

      • planeconcorde says:

        Thanks. Yeah, no chance of me reaching Gold. But there never was any chance, as even in a normal year I just scrape into Silver tier renewal each year.

  • Sally B says:

    I have a year end of 8th July and 1060 TP’s – I noticed on 8th June my BAEC account and app showed Gold Achieved and then hours later it was withdrawn. Like everyone else I have been unable to travel since end of March and been told that I have to reach the 1125 point level in 19/20 year of membership to get Gold. Unable to book any travel either up to 8th July or the 2 weeks after.

  • Janie says:

    Just had an email from BA saying it is going to be from the 29th of June – so look after then!

  • Jon says:

    Double lose for me then. Bronze last year with 280 points on 8th June. Looks like I’ll get a one year extension of my Blue status, and won’t qualify for Bronze at the lower threshold. Wonderful.

  • Nevil says:

    I was due to hit 1500 tier points and hence gold with a CE trip to Milan which was cancelled but qualified for the reduced gold upgrade and am now gold but as I am a may year end haven’t got my extra 12 months as yet

  • Pid says:

    So my TP year ended 8 Jun but was given a status hold for silver due to paternity. This is not currently showing on my account, although had email confirmation it would be added, as card expiration is still showing Jul 20. Once that hits will I get a further extension as silver or the reduced TP to requalify?

  • Anna says:

    OH is Bronze with Tier Point Year showing as ending July 8th 2020 but Card expiry date 31st August 2022. What’s the difference between the two? Thinking we may as well push for Silver if possible, how would he get that. He has 320 Tier points but will these disappear on July 8th? We’ve had to cancel all our travel for this year but will be booking cash flights for travel from July onwards next year. Thanks in advance – the status thing is the one thing I haven’t got my head round properly yet!

    • Rob says:

      Yes, they disappear on 8th July so realistically his chances of earning 130 tier points between now and 8th July are slim.

      From 9th July, of course, he only needs 450 points in the following 12 months to get Silver.

      • Anna says:

        Thanks – what about from July 2021 to 2022? We’ve got so many avios and 2 4 1s to use up our next cash flights are going to be August 2021!

        • Chris Heyes says:

          LL@OOOooo The shame of lowly Blue, that’s “ME” lol
          But then it’s over 10 years since I “Paid” for a flight
          So my fault such a lowly pleb lol

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