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

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.

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.

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?”.

---

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.