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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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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (190)

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

  • Tracey says:
    20 Apr20 April 17:46

    I have 260 points and am currently bronze. My tier point collection year ends 8 May 2022, though card expiry is 30 June 2023. The app says I need 190 more to reach silver. Is this correct? I feel I have missed out somewhere.

    • AJA says:
      20 Apr20 April 17:55

      Yes that is correct – you have stepped up a tier from Blue to Bronze and have that status (ie Bronze) for the rest of your current year and for the whole of the next year ie until 30 June 2023. If you get another 190TP before 8 May you will be Silver until 30 June 2023.

      Alternatively if you get 450TP between 9 May and 31 Dec 2022 you will be upgraded to Silver which will be valid until 30 June 2024.

      • Tracey says:
        20 Apr20 April 19:26

        Thanks. Though it isn’t an upgrade, I was Bronze originally and had that extended at some point, I recall I was silver and just missed out on having that extended by having the wrong year end by a month in 2020.

  • Harry says:
    20 Apr20 April 19:52

    Harry Jeal. I have been a blue member for. 30 plus years. And it seems ba has just
    Dump me.
    Nice one. Ba.
    No wonder nobody likes ba any more.
    H J

    • Chris H says:
      21 Apr21 April 08:21

      Harry a blue member is bottom of the rung. The minimum spenders (typically). Of course blue and bronze will be lower priorities?

    • Rhys says:
      21 Apr21 April 09:00

      Blue is what you get just for signing up, so it doesn’t need extending?….

  • Justin says:
    20 Apr20 April 22:44

    I have just tipped into Silver from a flight today. My TP year is up in July. Does this mean I now only need to get 300 TP in 22/23 to keep my status through 2024?

  • Fraser says:
    20 Apr20 April 23:08

    Hi Nick, It was a new booking. I’m pretty sure also they forgot to apply my 2-4-1 voucher but I still got the benefit of it. I’ll wait and see what happens!

  • MKB says:
    21 Apr21 April 02:05

    Contrary to what was claimed on here would happen in the last extension, I haven’t seen any evidence that Gold members with tier collection year-ends in Q2 who had already re-qualified, got an extension.

    Prior to last December, my Gold expiry date was 31 May 2023, and it has never changed. My partner has 30 April 2023, and that was never extended either.

    • Rob says:
      21 Apr21 April 09:11

      We would never have said that. No way was BA going to extend you on top of your requalification into 2024.

      Basically BA has stuffed people who spent money specifically to requalify. Whereas people like me with one one-way European cash flight to my name in my current year get rolled over ….

      • JC says:
        21 Apr21 April 17:15

        This is the bigger story. Those who have stuck with BA through the rough that is Covid travel have essentially got stuffed, whilst those who have shied away from travel have been rewarded.

  • Robbie says:
    21 Apr21 April 03:26

    So my gold collection date ends
    8th Oct 22, so no extension? So goodbye gold and goodbye me ! Star Alliance it is then, they seem to want me more…

    • Rhys says:
      21 Apr21 April 09:02

      You mean like Lufthansa, who continued to expire members’ miles during covid? I’m not sure you’ll be better off….

      • Rob says:
        21 Apr21 April 09:04

        I really wouldn’t want to be flying LH with no status vs BA with Silver status, which is what you will have once you drop down. Up to you though 🙂

        • Lady London says:
          22 Apr22 April 20:15

          Been there, done that, got the LH t-shirt. Star Alliance has some excellent service and lounges, but you won’t be getting much of those unless you’re Gold. The exception being if you fly on mainly Lufthansa Group airlines and their very close friends. Then, as Star Alliance silvers can only access their own airline’s lounges, you will get access to LH Group lounges. But to get nice servce on LH you really need to be Senator or ideally, Flying First Class which is where the goodies on LH are.

          When by a fluke and a bit of judicious booking I was LH Gold for a while, I also felt there is still a tinge of male Golds getting warmer service on LH Group quite a bit of the time. Surprising really.

          At present as a Silver Oneworld seems to offer more. It will be interesting to see what are the programs 2024/2025.

  • Mark says:
    21 Apr21 April 07:41

    My gold tier point expiry date is Nov 8th 2022 and my company is still limiting flights this year due to COVID so no hope of getting to the 1125 needed. I doubt I’ll even make silver. Is it possible/likely that BA will extend the qualifying period for extension past Sep 30th at a later date? Seems unfair to draw the line in September as travel is still disrupted for many this year. Assume calling the gold line and begging will get me nowhere!?

    • Cranzle says:
      21 Apr21 April 10:50

      Why not travel with BA for leisure?

      • Mark says:
        21 Apr21 April 10:52

        I have 2 trans-Atlantic leisure trips booked with BA but in economy so, by my understanding, that’s not going to get many tier points?

        • Cranzle says:
          21 Apr21 April 11:12

          Have you seen the very generous BA Holidays offer with Double Tier points? Combined with the reduced thresholds, it’s a great offer.

          Out of interest, what is it about Gold that you value so highly? If you travel business or first for work it doesn’t really add anything in my opinion. Personally I’m not really fussed about eating rubbish food in a lounge or getting a couple of drinks just because they are ‘free’. I only value a lounge when flights are delayed (assuming the delay if before I get to the gate)

          • Mark says:
            21 Apr21 April 11:26

            It’s the little things isn’t it? First class access to lounge, reward flights, regular upgrades etc. I’ll live without it but annoying that BA drew the line in September when business travel is still not back to normal. Had a good run and will probably move to Virgin next year…

            BTW, I saw nothing about double tier points when booking the holidays (one direct through BA and one through Kuoni). Is there a way of checking how many TPS they are worth?

  • Dawn says:
    21 Apr21 April 07:49

    I flew three times taking advantage of the double tier point offer but nothing has been credited still. I’m silver and did the tier point runs just to keep my status. Three times I’ve emailed to different addresses to get the points credited to no avail. My year end is 8 Oct but I don’t want to be still chasing these that late in the day. Any ideas?

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