Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

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.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Comments (108)

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

  • L Allen says:

    My year ends on 8 Jan 2021 but no change yet. Checked the app (logged out first!) and the website. When did the two week period for implementing the change start? I received an email about it from BA on 11 June but there was the post here on 22 June expressing surprise that the changes were already coming through.

    • Rob says:

      You don’t get an extension if you RENEWED an EXISTING status this year, ie you were Silver and retained it by earning 600 tier points. I am guessing this is why.

      • Biki says:

        That’s not how it worked out with my wifes Gold card. Her renewal date is 8th Sept and had already acrued 1750 tier points by March to renew (not upgrade) Gold. She was therefore already gold until end of Oct 2021, and now has been updated to Oct 2022.

        • Rob says:

          Very weird ….

          • Alan says:

            But good news if BA have rethought that anomaly?

            I will see when the smoke clears, after they apply the lower TP thresholds, but on that basis at least worth an enquiry given I would have re-qualified already but for cancellation and am well over the reduced threshold?

      • mark says:

        I renewed my Silver in Feb with year end of June 2020, and after contacting BA they confirmed I would get an extension…just when I though I had clarity it seems it’s all up in the air again

  • SB says:

    My silver year ended 8 June with 590 TP and only 2 BA sectors flown (4 BA flights cancelled due to CV-19). I was expecting to drop to bronze and have that renewed for a further year. However, yesterday BA renewed me at silver. Clearly they are making some exceptions to the blanket May/June renewal date unfairness.

  • PlaneSpeaking says:

    Thanks Rob, very reassuring. My year end date was June 8 and I requalified for Gold on the reduced TP threshold, ending up from memory at around 1,200. I was worrying when I hadn’t seen my account change but will now sit tight and see what happens at the end of July.

  • Ke says:

    All very confusing… I soft landed to Silver in Feb and have not be extended (although got the email saying I would be), is this to do with my card expiry date?
    Tier Point collection year ends
    08 Feb 2021
    Card expiry date
    31 Mar 2022
    Thanks

    • Rob says:

      You have been extended, because your card now expires 3/22 instead of 3/21.

      • Ke says:

        ahh okay- stupid! Thanks. I looked for the reduced tier point target but then I suppose this actually should apply in the extended year.

  • Stuart Langan says:

    There may be another scenario where the change isn’t applied – for those that are Gold for Life – as it’s arguably an academic exercise. Certainly as of now, my Card Expiry date hasn’t changed (I’m GFL) so it may be they’re not applying the change. As I say, it’s largely academic as there is no loss or gain either way

  • Berneslai says:

    For those of you that successfully argued that if cancelled flights had taken place you would have a higher status, who did you contact? I’ve just had a raft of cancelled flights in August that would have elevated me to silver.

    • BS says:

      List them all in an email on the ‘contact us’ webform on the ba website. Include booking references, ticket numbers and origin-destination. They were accounting for flights already booked (but not planned to book) before they announced the 12m extension. I don’t know if they are still doing anything.

  • Rma says:

    Rob, with apologies for misunderstanding. You wrote

    ‘You don’t get an extension if you RENEWED an EXISTING status this year, ie you were Silver and retained it by earning 600 tier points.’

    The BA website states ‘All members will benefit, starting with those who have a Tier Point collection end date of July 2020, through to June 2021.’

    To me, this sounds like everyone but am I missing something in their statement? I’ve read it several times and can’t see the exclusion you mentioned.

    • Rob says:

      “All members benefit from another year of status” – ie, some of them got it by renewing, the rest are getting it as a present!

  • RLH says:

    Currently Bronze on 370TP with 8 Aug year end (and 30 Sep 2022 expiry). Just wanted to check that if I accumulate 80TP after 29 June 2020 but before 8 Aug 2020, I advance to Silver with 30 Sep 2022 expiry? Thanks!

    • Rob says:

      Yes, you’ll be Silver. It would be stupid for the Silver to only last until 2021 so I assume that’s what you get, but you never know with BA!

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

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.