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Big news: BA changes the rules AGAIN on how many tier points you will need to retain status

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I hope you haven’t sat down over Christmas and worked out a plan for how you were going to retain your British Airways Executive Club status, because you may need to tear it up and start again.

British Airways has changed the rules – again.

BA will claim that it has simply ‘clarified’ what was announced before, but I have the mechanisms of the previous structure in writing from the airline and the new structure is different.

BA changes the rules AGAIN on how many tier points you will need to retain status

As a reminder, British Airways has been offering the following tier point thresholds during coronavirus. These apply both to renewing your tier and to moving up a tier:

  • 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)

What did BA announce in December?

In December, the airline announced the following, as we covered here:

The reduced threshold would only apply to your tier point collection year which ended in 2022.

This meant, if your year end was Saturday (8th January), you would already be back to the old thresholds for your renewal. As of yesterday, you would be chasing 300 / 600 / 1,500 tier points instead of 225 / 450 / 1,125.

As I wrote back in December, this made no sense. If your year-end was early in 2022 you got nothing from the new policy. I doubt anyone outside BAEC was expecting a massive improvement in the global travel situation by 9th January 2022 which would suddenly make full tier points easy to earn.

BA changes the rules AGAIN on how many tier points you will need to retain status

What has now changed?

On Friday, a new policy appeared on ba.com here.

I will cut and paste it below before I explain it:

“How do I benefit from the reduced Tier Point requirement to upgrade or renew my Tier?

Currently, the 25% reduced Tier Point thresholds apply to all Members until 31 December 2022 as follows:

  • Bronze: 225 Tier Points or 18 eligible flights
  • Silver: 450 Tier Points or 37 eligible flights
  • Gold: 1125 Tier Points

From 1 January 2023, the Tier Point thresholds will revert back to normal i.e:

  • Bronze: 300 Tier Points or 25 eligible flights
  • Silver: 600 Tier Points or 50 eligible flights
  • Gold: 1500 Tier Points

This means that:

Members with a Tier Point collection end date up to June 2022 can benefit from the reduced Tier Point thresholds to upgrade their Tier status.

Members with a Tier Point collection end date between July 2022 and December 2022 can benefit from the reduced Tier Point thresholds to retain, or upgrade, their Tier status.

Members with a Tier Point collection end date in 2023 can benefit from the reduced thresholds to renew or upgrade their status for the following membership year, if they earn the required number of Tier Points by 31 December 2022 only. From 1 January 2023 the reduced Tier thresholds will no longer apply.

Please note, Members with a Tier Point collection end date in 2023 will see the normal Tier Point threshold in the ‘My Account’ area on ba.com and the British Airways app from the start of their Tier Point collection year.

If your Tier Point collection end date is in 2023 and you are eligible to upgrade your Tier status under the reduced Tier Point thresholds, your membership will automatically be upgraded once you have earnt the required number of Tier Points. There is no need to contact us to arrange this.

If your Tier Point collection end date is in 2023 and you are eligible to renew your Tier status under the reduced Tier Point thresholds, your membership will be automatically renewed in January 2023. There is no need to contact us to arrange this.

Please note, you will still need to have flown the minimum number of British Airways or Iberia flights to qualify, which is two flights for Bronze membership, and four flights for Silver and Gold membership.”

What does this mean?

This is what the new rules mean, simplified:

Irrespective of your Executive Club year end, the reduced tier point thresholds will apply until 31st December 2022.

Let’s take my account as an example. My year end is 8th September.

Under the December 2021 announcement, this is what I was facing:

  • earn the reduced tier point target during the year to 8th September 2022
  • earn the full tier point target during the year from 9th September 2022

I now have it slightly easier:

  • earn the reduced tier point target during the year to 8th September 2022
  • earn the reduced tier point target during the period from 9th September 2022 to 31st December 2022
  • get to the full tier point target at some point during the remainder of my membership year, from 1 January 2023 to 8th September 2023, if I haven’t achieved the reduced target by 31 December 2022

The big winners from the policy change slipped out on Friday are those whose Executive Club years end early in 2022. People like me benefit less, and obviously if your year end is 8th December then you don’t really benefit at all unless you go crazy between 9th and 31st December 2022.

This is, however, a sensible change by British Airways which will hopefully allow people – especially those whose year ends are coming up soon – to plan with confidence for the rest of 2022.

Find out more ….

You can find the revised text on this page of ba.com.

Scoll down to “How do I benefit from the reduced Tier Point requirement to upgrade or renew my Tier?”.

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Comments (102)

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

  • John says:
    10 Jan10 January 05:46

    This is what they must have intended all along, which many posters here and on flyertalk expected. Whoever at BA wrote the original explanation just didn’t understand their own policy

    • Rob says:
      10 Jan10 January 07:35

      No. I went back to BA and I was given, by email, an explanation of how it worked. It wasn’t like this. I even told them that I didn’t believe they were correct but they insisted they were and I was wrong. We even had to rewrite our article.

      • Lady London says:
        10 Jan10 January 11:50

        Hum. I would say you were correct all along Rob.

        Looks like BA have just returned from a meeting with their IT. Their IT would have told them the only way to make the reduced tier points work that made sense was to do a one-time reset on 31st December 2022, of the reduced tier point requirement back to the normal, higher, tier point requirement.

        Accounts that had met the tier lower threshold up to 31Dec22 23:59 earned that tier and only Accounts that met the normal higher threshold from 01Jan23 earned the tier. Plus the required 2-4 flights on BA/IB as required for tier in either case.

        Keeps everyone flying in 2022, which is what BA needs, and keeps the IT simple.

        Now BA is free to decide “What does BA loyalty look like in 2024 and onwards from there” and “Who is the loyal customer that we want and what are we prepared to give them”. As IIRC Rob mentioned we can expect changes to be announced in 2024.

  • Bobby says:
    10 Jan10 January 06:14

    Do Iberia flights count towards this now?

  • NorthernLass says:
    10 Jan10 January 06:20

    For some reason I have always struggled to get my head round tier points! I am currently blue and my collection year ends in July. I have a trip which will earn 320 points this summer, 140 points on the outbound in June and 180 on the return after July 8th. Will I get Bronze status from this, given the trip straddles 2 membership years? And if this is the case, would I need to get another 130 points before the end of this year to get Silver?

    • 1ATL says:
      10 Jan10 January 06:26

      You’ll get 140 tier points in this collection year and 180 tier points towards next year’s. If the return trip is within 14 days of your reset date, there’s been a certain amount of leeway whereby you can contact the Exec Club after the points have posted and they MAY re-proportion the 180 to the previous year but there’s no guarantee on this.

      • NorthernLass says:
        10 Jan10 January 06:30

        Thanks – the return trip is July 18th – 19th (GCM-LHR-MAN) so I might be in with a chance! Typical of me to have booked this for those dates 🙄.

        • Ikaz says:
          10 Jan10 January 07:19

          If you are blue, ai guess that your lifetime tier points are not significant. You might be able to create a new BA account before these flights are credit these flights to the new account (and delete/ignore your current avios account). This would ensure that they post for the same year. As long as new accounts get the reduced Tier points and you don’t mind loosing out on lifetime tier points and avios

          • AJA says:
            10 Jan10 January 07:53

            @Ikaz I think the problem with that plan is that you also lose the Avios in the existing account and from.what I’ve seen Anna /NorthernLass write before i believe she has a considerable Avios balance .

            I think I’d sooner go for another trip between now and June to earn the extra 85TP required based on the lower thresholds so that Anna would get Bronze after the outbound flight in June That way the TP on the return in July would count towards retention of Bronze and be a good start towards Silver by Dec 2022.

        • AJA says:
          10 Jan10 January 07:39

          @Anna /NorthernLass you can only apply retrospectively. In other words after you’ve flown the flights that will give you the TP to be promoted to Silver. So although technically your flight departure on 18 July is within the 14 day concession you have to wait until the TP appear in your account. You should definitely contact BAEC and ask for the concession to apply.

      • Thegasman says:
        10 Jan10 January 07:08

        I have a feeling the 14 day leeway is only for status retention not upgrading to a higher level.

        • meta says:
          10 Jan10 January 07:27

          It’s also for upgrading. A few years ago, I was given two weeks extension for missing 40 tier points for Bronze, but only because I had a flight booked.

        • Rob says:
          10 Jan10 January 07:32

          Hmmm …. never heard this.

        • AJA says:
          10 Jan10 January 07:42

          @Thegasman It definitely supplies to both retention and upgrading of status.

          • AJA says:
            10 Jan10 January 07:43

            Ugh #$%%ing Autocorrect 🙁 applies not supplies!

          • Lady London says:
            10 Jan10 January 11:53

            It’s a favour and might turn out not to be given. So frankly with BWC in effect now, I’d move the outgoing and make it all later if I could.

      • Bluekjp says:
        10 Jan10 January 18:01

        I spoke with a veteran call centre rep a couple of weeks ago who said that BA will always let you use points earned within 2 weeks of your year end if it enables you to gain or maintain status. He also said that those points earned in the two week window would be left in the account towards the next year as well. His quote was that they therefore always allow the double dipping in these instances.

    • NorthernLass says:
      10 Jan10 January 09:04

      Yes, currently sitting on about a million avios if you include flights booked for this year (which may get cancelled), plus 241s. Also in a HHA so that would cause complications.
      No chance of squeezing another trip in before June, we have 3 booked already and OH is pulling a face because it’s GCSE year. I was thinking maybe do a tier point run myself October/November to get to Silver.
      Thanks for all the advice, I’ll definitely try the 14 day thing – let’s hope the phone situation has improved by the summer!

      • ColinThames says:
        10 Jan10 January 18:16

        Or consider a 5 day+ BA Holidays break earning double tier points? You don’t mention if you’re flying econ/club so maybe your June/July trip is already earning double points…

  • Barbs says:
    10 Jan10 January 06:57

    Morning, quick question if you please, do we know if the thresholds for Gold List are also reduced? As they are not mentioned in the article? Ta

    • Rob says:
      10 Jan10 January 07:33

      No

      • Mike P says:
        10 Jan10 January 07:43

        Sorry Rob, that’s incorrect. Thresholds for GGL are definitely reduced. My year end is March and I’m showing 2250 to renew GGL. It will be 3750 to attain GGL before the end of 2022.

      • Andrew says:
        10 Jan10 January 07:50

        I thought the consensus was GGL thresholds were still reduced ?

        • Rob says:
          10 Jan10 January 09:13

          I was told not … but I’m not one so cannot confirm. Happy to be proved wrong.

          Perhaps I am confused with the higher thresholds for GUF2.

      • MD says:
        10 Jan10 January 08:45

        Why would they not be?

      • Alastair says:
        10 Jan10 January 09:41

        Why on Earth would GGL thresholds not be reduced until 31 Dec when they were reduced under the previous Covid alleviations? (I was showing 2250 to renew Jan 8, and this has returned to 3000 but presumably everyone else’s target is also showing the original figure).

  • AndyS says:
    10 Jan10 January 07:22

    Anyone had their extension yet? My membership year ends 8 April and should have been extended “by the end of the first week of January” according to BA email. But it hasn’t.

    • Rob says:
      10 Jan10 January 07:31

      I thought they were done? You are looking at the ‘card expiry’ date? It should say 31 May 2023. Ignore the tier point collection date.

    • AndreaC says:
      11 Jan11 January 17:09

      My YE ends Feb 22nd and Ive still not been extended as of todays date?

      Also, how long are people waiting for the refund on their FTV as I called BA on Dec 22nd waited 4 phone calls (was cut off every hour even though I was talking to an agent) who finally advised me that she would refund the monies and Avios and that it would be processed within 3 to 5 working days. We are now 3 weeks later and nothing?

      Any advice please as the thought of going through the 4 hour wait and phone calls again is doing my head in?

      Also, my double tier points for late Nov 2021 for a 5 day holiday package have still not been posted , how do i get this rectified so I dont down from Bronze to Blue as it hard enough coming down already from Silver ?

      TIA

  • Amy C says:
    10 Jan10 January 07:32

    Agh, my brain just exploded. I’m year end June 8th currently bronze. Will get Silver before June (rescheduled CE Marrakesh). So I’m then silver for a year until June 2023. But if I wanted to get Gold I can use the reduced threshold to acquire this between June and Dec this year, am I right?

    • FFoxSake says:
      10 Jan10 January 07:41

      As long as you get 450 points between June and Dec 2022 yes.
      Remember that you will be starting from 0 after June 2022.

    • NorthernLass says:
      10 Jan10 January 09:05

      Lol Amy, it makes my brain explode a bit as well!

  • Chris says:
    10 Jan10 January 07:33

    My YE was Saturday, and my app is showing to retain silver I need 600 TP or 37 flights. Bit of a mix and match?

    • FFoxSake says:
      10 Jan10 January 07:42

      Gotta love BA’s IT systems…

    • AJA says:
      10 Jan10 January 07:58

      I think that’s correct but as long as you earn 450TP by 31 Dec 2022 you’ll be OK. I think I’d screenshot the policy as written on the BA website today just in case they don’t honour their policy next January. Bear in mind you will have to wait until 1 March to see if your status reduces to Bronze.

    • AJA says:
      10 Jan10 January 08:07

      @Chris the website states
      “Please note, Members with a Tier Point collection end date in 2023 will see the normal Tier Point threshold in the ‘My Account’ area on ba.com and the British Airways app from the start of their Tier Point collection year.”

  • Ed says:
    10 Jan10 January 07:42

    I have been flying with BA for 10 years now normally have two flights a year one in January and the other around May Time. I always book club and use some air miles earned from my blue Amex card. Well after all this time I am still at Blue, it’s a bit of a farce, really only for people taking 4 plus flights per year.

    • AJA says:
      10 Jan10 January 09:29

      When is your TP year end? It must be Feb or March meaning your two flights per calendar year straddle your TP year end. That’s why you don’t ever get above Blue.

      If you do one short haul and one long haul return flight per year in Club in your TP year you should consistently be Bronze.

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