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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.

British Airways Executive Club status cards

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.

British Airways BA Amex American Express cards

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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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (142)

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

  • apbj says:
    21 Dec21 December 23:05

    I’m a 8 Jan member so will be particularly keen to see if I’m expected to meet the old GGL thresholds. I’ve already had a some flights in Jan and Feb cancelled by BA. We’ll see!

  • Joe says:
    21 Dec21 December 23:47

    Shame. My TP yr ends Feb 8th 2022. Clearly not going to make flights before the with omicron so will have to go the whole hog for Feb 2023…

  • Dev says:
    22 Dec22 December 07:12

    I need your help… trying to think of the best approach to maximise this benefit. Facts are as follows:

    1) TP year ends on 07 September.
    2) Wife gave birth in October 2021.

    Do I hit 1125 points before September to get Gold for next year, and then between 07 September and before my babies 1st birthday, hit the BAby benefit to get me gold until September 24?

    In summary:

    Sep 21 to Sep 22 – earn 1125 TPs
    Sep 22 to Sep 23 – Gold from previous 1125, use BAby benefit to hit gold for the following year – Sep 23 to Sep 24 – Gold from BAby and earn 1500 TPs for future years.

    Have I got this right?

    • PaulC says:
      22 Dec22 December 15:06

      Whats baby benefit?

      • Rob says:
        22 Dec22 December 15:29

        BA will pause your status if you have a baby.

        However, worth noting that they have been refusing to do this for people who are currently enjoying a status extension.

        • d3vski says:
          22 Dec22 December 18:45

          Interesting to know that BA have been refusing.

          Makes things a little more complicated.

    • John says:
      22 Dec22 December 19:44

      If you earn 1125 TPs between 9 Sep 2021 and 8 Sep 2022, you will be gold until 31 Oct 2023.

      No need to earn any TPs in 2023, apply for baby extension on 9 Sep 2023. If granted, you’re gold until 31 Oct 2025 (yes 2025). No need to earn TPs until the year 9 Sep 2024 to 8 Sep 2025.

      If not granted, drop to silver on 31 Oct 2023 which lasts until 31 Oct 2024. If you wait until 31 Oct 2023 to apply for baby extension, it will still be until 2025, but you will be silver unless you earned enough TPs in 2023.

  • sara says:
    22 Dec22 December 07:21

    Given 8 January 2022 year ends aren’t being extended again… I’m currently on 370 tier points, so 80 short of Silver, with tier point collection end of 8 January 2022.

    Is there a better (cheaper or easier) way to reach Silver than a short Club return from LON to MAN/GLA/DUB for around £300?

    • Simon Miller says:
      22 Dec22 December 08:52

      You should have had your status extended in the last run? I have the same end date and my card expiry shows as February 2023?

      • sara says:
        22 Dec22 December 09:26

        Card expiry yes – whatever status you have now will keep til Feb 2023. But the tier points on the way to the next tier won’t – the TP collection year end is 8 Jan 2022, so they’ll reset to 0. At least that’s my understanding?

        • Simon Miller says:
          22 Dec22 December 11:53

          Ah sorry I misunderstood. Yes that’s what I’m presuming too.

        • Simon Miller says:
          22 Dec22 December 11:54

          PS have you looked at BHD? That’s where I am and CE fares can sometimes get to £179 for a return.

  • DavidB says:
    22 Dec22 December 09:56

    I was expecting this (as a member with a June member year end) after the extension for those in the January to March period. However, it seemed assured this past week or two as the new cases of COVID exploded in the UK and Brits were banned from many EU countries. This would put an end to much anticipated winter travel by elite members and thus the potential to actual “earn” status renewals.

    As a Canada-based Gold member, it’s been virtually impossible to earn miles or tier points for the past two years as we’ve pretty much been grounded and unlike Americans, not even been flying much within our own country let alone abroad. (And our COVID infection rate has been less than 1/4 that of the US per capita, one of the lowest rates in the G20/OECD.) So not even possible to earn with AA (or AS) let alone a trans-Atlantic or intra-Europe/UK on BA/IB.

    So if COVID persists, I can see a similar announcement around Easter for those with expiring dates from July through September. BA seems to be considering its members outside the UK as well as those homeland resident. Cudos for this move.

  • TGLoyalty says:
    22 Dec22 December 10:08

    Has anyone pointed out it seems the BA holidays double TP was extended from March 2022 to October 2022?

  • Ian says:
    22 Dec22 December 10:18

    Pretty sure that January endings already had until the summer to get to the next level with a reduced target.

    All this does is extend that period to the end of the year which is great.

    • Will says:
      22 Dec22 December 11:06

      The previous wording suggested that, now the wording has been changed to suggest that is not the case. Ie they have specifically said reduced TP thresholds will depend on when your year end falls.

  • Amy C says:
    22 Dec22 December 11:25

    I’m currently Bronze with year end 8th June. These changes are not benefitting me are they? Apologies in advance for thickness.

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