How do I get British Airways Executive Club Silver status?

How do you get British Airways Executive Club Silver status and a shiny Silver card?

Silver is one of four tiers of the Executive Club, British Airways’ frequent flyer membership scheme. In this article we’ll look at what you need to do to achieve British Airways Executive Club Silver status.

As a member of British Airways Executive Club you can collect and save Avios, the British Airways airmiles currency, and use these to pay for future flights (called ‘Avios redemptions’). In addition you will also earn tier points with which you can achieve elite status, conferring you with additional benefits such as lounge access, free seat selection, and better rates for earning Avios.

There are four tiers as part of the Executive Club, three of which are elite.

Blue membership is the most basic and is available to everyone and does not come with benefits except the ability to earn Avios and tier points. Bronze, Silver and Gold are earned and hold varying levels of perks.

Your elite status is dependent on the number of tier points you earn during your membership year and, unlike Avios, your tier points reset on the anniversary of your membership. There is no other use to tier points other than setting your elite status; they cannot be spent.

British Airways is part of the oneworld alliance: holding Executive Club Silver Status is equivalent to oneworld Sapphire status and offers similar benefits on flights with oneworld airlines. These include American Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Finnair, Iberia, Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines amongst others.

How do I earn British Airways Silver status?

To achieve British Airways Silver status, you need either

• 600 tier points and four eligible flights flown in one membership year or

• 50 eligible flights flown in one membership year

In this case, an eligible flight is

• any British Airways operated flight, no matter the flight number (for example BA117)

• a flight with a British Airways flight code but operated by another airline

• an Iberia operated flight with an Iberia flight code (for example IB3163)

Reward or redemption flights (using Avios) are NOT treated as eligible flights.

Once you fulfill the requirements above, you will automatically be upgraded to Silver status. British Airways Silver status includes a number of benefits not available to Blue or Bronze members including:

• 50% bonus Avios on all British Airways, Iberia, American Airlines and Japan Airlines flights

• free seat selection at the time of booking for you and anyone else on your booking, excluding “extra legroom” upgrades and all hand-baggage only fares

• two x free 32kg bags per person in all classes, for everyone on your booking

• use of Club World, Club Europe or oneworld equivalent business class check in desks, regardless of your flight class

• access for you and one guest (traveling on a British Airways or oneworld operated flight) to the British Airways Galleries Club lounge or the equivalent oneworld business class departure lounge

• priority boarding

• reservation assurance on full-fare economy tickets, guaranteeing you a seat even on full or overbooked flights

The official ba.com list of Executive Club Silver benefits is here.

Silver status is the first tier that gives you access to business class departure lounges even if you’re not flying on a business class or higher ticket. It also gives you a choice of seat at time of booking, for free, unlike with Bronze or non-club status which only give you free choice seven days and 24 hours prior to departure, respectively.

Once you have attained Silver status your next goal should be Gold.

You can read about how to get British Airways Executive Club Gold status here and about the benefits you will receive from a British Airways Gold card here.

(This article is part of our ‘BA Q&A’ series which explains how British Airways Executive Club works.  You can see all of our ‘BA Q&A’ articles here. )

(Head for Points is the UK’s biggest frequent flyer website with 2.5 million monthly page views.  Want to learn more about earning and spending Avios?  Click here to read our latest news stories and click here to join the mailing list for our weekly or daily email newsletters.)

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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:

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

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.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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.

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.

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