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

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.

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.

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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