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British Airways extends Executive Club elite status – for Gold members only

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British Airways is about to announce another 12 months extension of elite status for some Executive Club members.

The screw continues to tighten, however. This latest extension will only benefit Gold and Gold Guest Lists members, although there is a carrot for Silver members.

British Airways Executive Club status cards

There will be no further extensions 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 last year.

Who gets an extension?

Gold Guest List members

If you are a Gold Guest List member (you can learn how to earn the elite Gold Guest List status here), and your tier point year ends between July 2022 and December 2022, you will receive a full 12 month extension.

Gold members

The extension announced today covers Gold members of British Airways Executive Club who have a tier point collection end date between 1st July 2022 and 30th September 2022.

If your tier point year ends during this three month period, your existing status level will be rolled over automatically for another 12 months.

Silver members

A different policy has been announced for Silver members whose tier point year ends between 1st July 2022 and 30th September 2022.

There is NO extension.

However, the number of tier points you need to retain your status is being halved, from 600 to 300 tier points.

Given that you can earn 160 tier points from a single Club Europe return flight to ‘far’ Europe (here are some ideas), I consider this reasonable.

The reduced threshold will not show for you on ba.com but your status will be extended automatically if you reach the 300 point threshold.

Everyone else

By everyone else, I mean:

  • Gold members with a tier point year ending after 30th September 2022
  • Silver members with a tier point year ending after 30th September 2022
  • All Bronze members
  • All Blue / basic members

….. you continue to benefit from the reduced tier point requirement.

British Airways status extension

The following tier point rules apply until 31st December 2022:

  • 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)

You can confirm this on ba.com here.

Let me clarify how this works, because it has caused confusion in the past.

Let’s assume you are currently Silver and your tier point year ends on 8th February 2023. To requalify you must EITHER:

  • earn 450 tier points by 31st December 2022, or
  • earn the full 600 tier points by 8th February 2023

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.

Conclusion

It is clear that not everyone will be happy with the changes which will be announced today.

However, realistically, BA and the rest of 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 has 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. BA has taken the first steps today to doing that.

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Comments (190)

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

  • John T says:
    20 Apr20 April 10:42

    I’m amazed they are still doing any more status extensions. Travel has fully returned now – if you want to keep your status you should already have been flying plenty this year.

    • Clubx says:
      20 Apr20 April 11:04

      Has it? As someone from Hong Kong it has been impossible to travel there at all since March 2020

      • A350 says:
        20 Apr20 April 11:07

        Hong Kong is just one closed route. The following are routes which have reopened and almost as good as pre-pandemic if one is fully vaccinated –
        – Whole of EU
        – India
        – USA
        – Canada
        – Numerous Central and South American countries
        – South Africa
        – Australia
        – Singapore

        Most of these flying with very high load factors also. So above comment does have a point!

        • Gordon says:
          21 Apr21 April 07:27

          Going to SIN in 4 weeks then Bali, But Bali is a little more difficult but doable….

      • Daniel says:
        20 Apr20 April 12:59

        Sorry mate, travel is fully open. HK can stay closed if they “care” about their citizens soooo much.

        • chris james says:
          20 Apr20 April 14:26

          Completely ridiculous HK is still closed – no flights on BA until winter 2022 at earliest.

      • kevinchoi says:
        20 Apr20 April 14:44

        CX is still flying there from London and Manchester, just fly with them instead of BA. I went there in Dec 2020 and will be going again in a couple months’ time. At least it’s 7 days quarantine now instead of 21!

        • chris james says:
          21 Apr21 April 04:34

          There are about 8 flights a month on Cathay and frequently cancelled due to route bans by HK government (and Qatar also recently had one). 7 days for now, yes.

    • John T says:
      20 Apr20 April 11:16

      There’s always going to be a few destinations where travel is disrupted, even outside of a pandemic.
      Much of Asia is opening up now – look at how quickly Singapore have dropped their requirements.

      • Number5 says:
        20 Apr20 April 11:24

        Travel may have fully returned now however some, like me, have lost multiple trips to China, Hong Kong and India for conferences and client visits due to covid regulations. Yes, you can travel now, but most conferences that I would attend were just cancelled and now will not return until the next year.

        • A350 says:
          20 Apr20 April 13:20

          Well as Rob said in his article, there will have to be a reset at who exactly are going to be the new set of status flyers post-pandemic. Travel patterns have changed and there is a new World out there now. You can still benefit from the reduced Tier Points till the end of the year if you didn’t already benefit from an extension in the previous round. I think this is exceedingly generous by BA and probably also spurred on with the fact that their IT/operational meltdowns are probably what made them realise another carrot had to be dangled!

          • chris james says:
            20 Apr20 April 14:28

            Ludicrous comment if you are in HK – there are no flights until Winter 2022 at the earliest on BA!

    • Babyg says:
      20 Apr20 April 11:24

      but “this year” for people with July TP dates started 10 months ago… whilst restriction free/full travel has only really opened up in the last few months…

  • memesweeper says:
    20 Apr20 April 10:42

    and my TP year ends in October, of course… 450 required for Silver (300 would have been no bother based on flights taken or already booked). First world problem, but ggrrrrr.

  • Danno says:
    20 Apr20 April 10:43

    So my current gold expires 8th Sept 2022. I will hit 1250 TP’s in Aug, keeping gold. Does that mean I expire in 2023 as per extended gold status, or do I get an extra year covering me to 2024?

    • A350 says:
      20 Apr20 April 11:08

      Officially just a year of Gold I believe, however, BA’s IT has been generous and given people another extra year on top (which may not show till after that TP collection end date has been reached)

    • Babyg says:
      20 Apr20 April 11:22

      my understanding is you don’t get any further extensions… you simply qualify for the same end date via two methods (extension and TPs)…

    • Rob says:
      20 Apr20 April 11:32

      2023

  • Alan says:
    20 Apr20 April 10:50

    My tier point collection year ends 8th September 2022, so I just about qualify for Gold for another year.. I am happy with this, as was resigned to a soft landing to Silver next year an unlikely to make Gold again given my change of travel circumstances.

  • nigelwalsh says:
    20 Apr20 April 10:50

    I was just about to make GGL again… ha – brilliant, wonder how that transpires now, will I get two years 🙂

  • Matt R says:
    20 Apr20 April 10:51

    So my TP year ends in June and I’ll be Gold. What does that mean for me?

    • Rhys says:
      20 Apr20 April 11:04

      Nothing. The extension announced today covers Gold members of British Airways Executive Club who have a tier point collection end date between 1st July 2022 and 30th September 2022.

    • A350 says:
      20 Apr20 April 11:09

      You would’ve been covered in the previous round of extensions.

    • Thegasman says:
      20 Apr20 April 11:09

      You’ve already had your extension so will drop to Silver or stay Gold depending on current TP’s. The 8th July year end cohort were first batch to not qualify for last round of extensions.

    • Rob says:
      20 Apr20 April 11:32

      It means you got an extension as announced in December and don’t get anything else!

  • Littlefish says:
    20 Apr20 April 11:02

    I’ll continue my drop down the tiers; Bronze next stop later this year. Which is fine, I barely fly BA these days apart from reward flights.
    Will wait it out and see what the BAEC programme and, more importantly, BA look like in 2024.

  • Harry T says:
    20 Apr20 April 11:04

    So if I make BAEC Gold by the end of my tier point year (8th July 2022), I will keep my Gold status until August 2024 under these new changes, instead of August 2023?

    • A350 says:
      20 Apr20 April 11:10

      Officially only till 2023 I believe but BA’s IT has been generous and renewed people an extra year though I wouldn’t bank on it!

    • Thegasman says:
      20 Apr20 April 11:19

      Depends if it’s an extension or preservation. Think the last round was preservation ie. wouldn’t drop to Silver if short but no benefit if you had already requalified. Makes sense from airline perspective as they want those that are flying to keep flying & earning.

      Those who have failed to requalify have either stopped flying & extended benefits will cost nothing or have moved flights elsewhere but could be tempted back. I’m in latter camp as a July Gold with 0TP’s. If I lost FW & Gold line access then my 3 long haul J/F cash flights next year & numerous SH would be going elsewhere without question whereas now I’m seriously considering giving BA another chance.

    • Babyg says:
      20 Apr20 April 11:28

      i would say no to 2024, you simply have qualified by two different routes for an August 2023 end date… so i dont think they will be cumulative. If you qualified shortly after your renewal date then you get 2 years worth of gold goodness..

      • DZOO says:
        20 Apr20 April 12:41

        Seems harsh if you (newly) qualified with the full 1500 immediately prior to 8 July vs someone who was (before today) going to lose it on the same July date

    • Rob says:
      20 Apr20 April 11:31

      No. August 2023 only.

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

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