British Airways extends Executive Club elite status – for some – and reduced tier points
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British Airways has announced another 12 months extension of elite status for some Executive Club members.
The screw continues to tighten, however. The initial extension in 2020 covered all members. The previous extension in September 2021 covered a quarter of the membership base. This new extension also covers only a quarter of members.
The good news is that ALL members will benefit from the extension to the reduced tier point thresholds.
There will be no extension to American Express 2-4-1 companion vouchers or any other vouchers. This shouldn’t be a surprise as BA started to expire 2-4-1 vouchers on 1st October. You can stop your voucher expiring by following this method (click).
Who gets an extension?
Only elite members with a tier point collection end date between the 1st April 2022 and 30th June 2022 have received a status extension today.
If your tier point year ends during this three month period, your existing status level will be rolled over automatically for another year. It will on your BA account by 1st January.
For clarity, your tier points will still reset to zero at the end of your current membership year. BA is not extending the time period you have to earn the necessary points for requalification.
Unlike Virgin Atlantic, which has been able to extend status in three and six month increments, the way that Executive Club is set up means that it can only process 12 month extensions.
This means that British Airways has chosen to limit the status extensions today to those whose status was set to expire in Summer 2022 – ie. those whose membership year resets on 8th April 2022, 8th May 2022 or 8th June 2022.
The deadline for requalifying with reduced tier points has also been extended
To make it easier for everyone else to qualify or requalify, British Airways has extended the period in which you can requalify with reduced tier points.
For your tier point collection year which ends in 2022, you will need the following tier points:
- Bronze status will require 225 tier points (was 300 tier points)
- Silver status will require 450 tier points (was 600 tier points)
- Gold status will require 1,125 tier points (was 1,500 tier points)
These thresholds will revert to their normal levels for your tier point collection year which ends in 2023.
You can confirm this on ba.com here.
What this means (at least as BA has written it, which I do not necessarily believe is actually how it will work) is that if your year-end is 8th January then you get nothing from this. You will be expected to earn 1,500 tier points for Gold between 9th January 2022 and 8th January 2023.
This makes no sense since I doubt anyone outside BAEC is expecting a massive improvement in the global travel situation by 9th January 2022. We’ll find out the truth on 9th January when tier point years reset for 1/12th of members – let’s see what target they are given.
What about American Express 2-4-1 companion vouchers?
There are NO extensions to companion vouchers or Gold Upgrade vouchers.
Vouchers began to expire on 1st October so it would be very unfair to those members who have already lost a voucher to extend those which remain.
You can, in any event, artificially extend your 2-4-1 companion voucher expiry date to 30th September 2023 by following this method.
Conclusion
Whilst only 25% of British Airways Executive Club members have received a status extension today, the extension of the reduced tier point thresholds to 30th December 2022 means that all members have an improved chance of earning or retaining status for 2023.
At some point, however, the airline industry needs to make a call. The good customers of 2019 will not be the good customers of 2023. People change companies or get promoted into roles which need less travel. Many companies will be permanently cutting back on business travel.
The industry will have to decide when it should cut people loose. Businesses need to start rebuilding their elite tiers from those who are travelling now, not those who were travelling four years ago.
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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.
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