BA Holidays extends its ‘double tier points’ offer to December 2023

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If you had been worrying about how you are going to retain or earn British Airways Executive Club status next year, BA Holidays can help.

BA Holidays has extended its double tier points offer by another three months, out to 31st December 2023.

If you book a ‘flight and hotel’ or ‘flight and car’ package for at least five nights, and travel by 31st December 2023 (was 30th September 2023), you will receive double BA tier points on your flights. Existing bookings count.

You can find out more on the BA Holidays website here.

British Airways is now posting these bonus tier points promptly. It only took 18 months, but it has finally cracked it. BA Holidays is now saying that you need to wait just 14 days for the extra tier points. Reader feedback confirms this.

You could get very close to a Silver card from scratch in one trip. For example, booking London to New York in Club World, you would get (140 + 140) x 2 = 560 tier points.

For clarity, ALL travellers on the booking receive double tier points.

How many tier points would you need for BA status?

From 1st January 2023, thresholds return to their pre-covid levels (this happens irrespective of your membership year end):

Bronze status in BA Executive Club requires 300 tier points

Silver status in BA Executive Club requires 600 tier points

Gold status in BA Executive Club requires 1,500 tier points

Remember that you need FOUR BA or Iberia cash flights in your membership year to get promoted, so one return flight to New York wouldn’t be enough unless you were connecting. You’d need a quick hop somewhere else before your status was upgraded.

Three bits of small print to note ….

There are three things to note about the double tier points offer:

you must book flights which carry a British Airways flight number – codeshare flights with, say, Qatar Airways are acceptable but only if your booking shows a BAXXXX flight number

whilst your booking must contain at least five nights of hotel or car rental, your overall stay can be longer

you don’t need to be booking for a couple or family – the offer also applies to solo travellers

The other BA Holidays benefits are still in place

As well as the double tier points offer, BA Holidays is running various other offers which will all stack together:

booking a ‘Flight and Hotel’ or ‘Flight and Car’ package can be cheaper than booking a flight on its own, since British Airways will often use BA Holidays as a way of quietly selling seats without cutting its headline flight prices

you earn an additional 1 Avios per £1 for every £1 you spend at BA Holidays

if you have the British Airways Premium Plus American Express card, you get double Avios via American Express if you use it to pay for your holiday

you only need to pay a deposit now with the balance not due until a few weeks before departure

The only real downside is that BA Holidays flights do not earn On Business points in the SME loyalty scheme.

Conclusion

I think it is worth having a serious think about how you can use this BA Holidays offer to put you well on your way to Executive Club status next year.

Don’t forget that BA Holidays is currently running its 2023 sale.

You can learn more about the double tier points offer on the BA Holidays website here.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (March 2023)

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Successfully apply for either of the Barclaycard Avios credit cards by 2nd April 2023 and you will be entered into a free draw to win ONE MILLION AVIOS! Full details are on the application forms here (free) and here (paid). This competition is exclusive to Head for Points readers. T&C apply.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher for spending £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher for spending £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and unbeatable travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

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.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

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.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

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.

Until 30th March 2023, the sign up bonus on American Express Business Platinum is increased to 120,000 Membership Rewards points – click here. The bonus on American Express Business Gold is increased to 60,000 Membership Rewards points – click here. T&C apply, see the application forms for details.

American Express Business Platinum

Crazy 120,000 points bonus (to 30th March) and a £200 Amex Travel credit every year Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

60,000 points sign-up bonus (to 30th March) and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

British Airways and Avios

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

Michael C says:

27 Dec27 December 09:04

Sorry for having asked before, but does anyone have experience of having actually received the double tier points on an open-jaw holiday booking? At the end of the dummy booking, there is never a “this holiday qualifies you for….” notice.
- Save East Coast Rewards says:
  
  27 Dec27 December 09:06
  
  I got double points on a BA Holiday EDI-LHR-BOS//JFK-LHR
  - Skywalker says:
    
    27 Dec27 December 10:15
    
    @Save East Coast Rewards – do you have to call up to make an open jaw holiday booking or is there some magic that I have missed on the BA website?
    - Sean says:
      
      27 Dec27 December 12:55
      
      You need to select ‘custom trip’ on the FH or FC search box. Here you can book any six flight segments and combination of hotels or cars.
  - Tom says:
    
    27 Dec27 December 13:19
    
    I’m thinking of booking a longer open jaw trip for a month but don’t want to book at the same hotel for >5 days. Assuming I made custom booking on BA Holiday, would I qualify for double tier points?
    - Tracey says:
      
      27 Dec27 December 19:43
      
      Yes, OH had 3 mights in a hotel and 4 days car hire and it qualified.
  - Michael C says:
    
    27 Dec27 December 18:35
    
    Cheers, SECR!
- Nick says:
  
  27 Dec27 December 11:28
  
  @MichaelC the notice doesn’t need to be there for the offer to be valid. For a long time it was set only to display for economy flights anyway before they changed it.
  
  The easiest way to ensure you’ll trigger this offer is to book ONLY through the Holidays sale flow. You can tell because it looks different… and also has badp in the URL (DP = dynamic packaging). Anything else, including choosing flights and adding stuff later, risks it not being picked up automatically (or give you the special IT fares Rob often refers to).
  - Lady London says:
    
    27 Dec27 December 13:43
    
    Hi @Nick, just wanted to say thank you for the very clear insights you’ve given your time to offer over time, on things that may not be clear to us how BA works but you very kindly have educated us about many things.
    
    Shout out to @SamG for the same and also for kind insights about Asia and how to handle some ticketing or route planning issues.
    - AJA says:
      
      27 Dec27 December 17:25
      
      +1 I echo Lady London’s comment. Thank you and everyone else for their assistance and pointers. It is appreciated.
    - Michael C says:
      
      27 Dec27 December 18:36
      
      Totally agree, for both!
  - Skywalker says:
    
    27 Dec27 December 14:36
    
    @Sean and @Nick – thank you for good tips 🙂
meta says:

27 Dec27 December 09:21

Are the extra tier points backdated to the flight date? I had my BAH flight on 19 Dec which if everything goes well should post on 2 Jan. I’d like them to be allocated to this year rather than the next to tip me over to Silver.
- Nectar collector says:
  
  27 Dec27 December 09:31
  
  Yes, should be applied based on flight date
- Ian says:
  
  27 Dec27 December 11:09
  
  Will by default apply to the year in which they post.
  
  If you want them to apply to the year of one flight, then you must get it manually adjusted.
  - meta says:
    
    27 Dec27 December 11:16
    
    Thanks @Ian. That’s what I thought.
- Yona says:
  
  27 Dec27 December 12:33
  
  I found from practical experience that BA backdates points but not status changes. So for instance:
  
  – year 0: you do your holiday getting 300 TPs.
  – year 1: you get the additional 300 TPS for your holiday. Those will appear on year 0. BA changes your tier to Silver for year 1
  – year 2: you are still Silver
  – year 3: you lose your tier
- Lady London says:
  
  27 Dec27 December 13:45
  
  Yes, based on the local time at the departure point apparently.
  
  So care needed at departure points in completely different timezones like Oz, and also, I suspect, for later flights in married segments that are all or part of legs.
  - meta says:
    
    27 Dec27 December 14:39
    
    @Yona I wouldn’t need status for year 0 (we are at the end anyway). I’m currently on 400 tier points. And the offer to reach Silver for 450 TPs ends on 31 Dec. With double TPs from my booking which finished on 19 Dec, I should get additional 80 TPs. So I’d like this to be awarded to 2022 rather than 2023 and my status lasting till my next anniversary date which is Feb 2024.
    I guess it will require some manual intervention.
    - yonasl says:
      
      27 Dec27 December 16:38
      
      One never knows with BA but what I think will happen:
      – 2022 you have 400 TPs
      – 2023 your additional 80 TPs are awarded and correctly backdated to 2022 so you need the year with 480 TPs and get silver.
      
      But BA systems seem to not be able to backdate statuses. They cannot make you silver in 2022 just change your current status from bronze to silver. So you become silver in 2023 and keep it until 2024. This is how it happened to me and hopefully you too!
- BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
  
  27 Dec27 December 17:17
  
  In my case the bonus TPs weren’t backdated to the dates of the flights.
  
  They just posted a week or so after the return.as a single transaction with the description “80 – BA Holidays – Tier Point Award”
  
  For me this was in my favour as the posting day was more beneficial than if they were posted based on the dates of the flights which were right upto my collection year end.
  
  As these are bonus TPs BA system may not automatically pick them up as being relevant to calculating achievement to the threshold targets like normal TPs so it may require a call once they have posted to have it sorted out.
Harry T says:

27 Dec27 December 09:51

Just as a small additional point, you can book flights without a BA flight code in them but you only receive double TPs for the flights in the booking that BA codes. We ended up having some QR flights in our itinerary this November due to BA cancelling so many flights to Cape Town. These QR flights didn’t even initially post to our BAEC accounts either and were QR flight codes for some reason. The three BA flights on the booking posted normally and we then received double TPs for the BA flights only.
- Lady London says:
  
  27 Dec27 December 13:48
  
  If you miss avios or tier points because of involuntary rerouting or irrops you can apply to BA with your original itinerary asking for Original Routing Credit.
  - Du Ri says:
    
    27 Dec27 December 14:44
    
    We hope so (re missing tier points)….and thanks for info on ORC.
    The following all done to elliciit BA Gold for wife and Silver for me – added to existing 2022 tier points.
    Travelled to Marrakesh from Aberdeen in Business including BA 5 day holiday 26th Nov to 10th Dec ….still missing BA Holiday credit 120 RETURN tier points ..was credited BA Hol on way out but not return!
    Then was supposed to travel ABZ- LHR-HEL-DXB on 13th Dec in business but ABZ-LHR flight 2 hours late so missed connecting Helsinki flight with Finnair and was rerouted directly to DXB using BA therefore ‘losing’ 80m tier points to Helsinki….and at todays date only my wife has received the 140 tier points for LHR – DXB which has curtailed her GOLD expedition as wife only has 1100 ( 25 short before 31st Dec!!) and stalled my quext at 400 – 50 short.
    Had hoped wife would travel back as GOLD passenger but BA very slow at picking up issue at best of times and festivities means little chance will be sorted soon!
    But thanks again for Rerouting Credit info was not sure how or if it could be achieved but now have tools to do so!
- Alan says:
  
  28 Dec28 December 09:02
  
  I trust you claimed original routing credit and that they honoured it, Harry T?
Sqeezed says:

27 Dec27 December 10:35

Long time reader (pre BGTP)I’m writing while staying in the Holiday Inn Express Dartford, the one where the lift keeps breaking down and all the breakfast stuff taste like cheese. Your reviews are a kin to Top Gear reviews, years ago they reviewed nomal cars (Jeremy Clarkson +Toyota Prius = funny) but now mainly about super cars costing a zillion pounds. It would be nice to have a more balanced (read as cost effective) reviews. My kids are about the same age as yours, so family reviews and tips are always useful.

BGTP =beef and gravy tesco points
- Rob says:
  
  27 Dec27 December 10:41
  
  But I HAVEN’T reviewed them, that’s the point of this article 🙂 HfP has its own Overton Window.
  
  You can’t be seriously suggesting that I should base my family holidays around what would interest the average HfP reader.
  - Ian says:
    
    27 Dec27 December 11:10
    
    Of course Rob 😂
- Greenpen says:
  
  27 Dec27 December 11:41
  
  I didn’t like the beef, but bought plenty of the chicken to the same effect!
- BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
  
  27 Dec27 December 14:19
  
  There are plenty of other sites that review hotels and offer tips based on family trips.
  
  One of the attractions of HfP is its focus rather than an all things to all men approach.
Sqeezed says:

27 Dec27 December 10:41

The last comment I sent was aimed at the Robs travel highlights thread, not this one 😑
Jim Paterson says:

27 Dec27 December 11:08

My wife and I are still waiting for our double points for a business class holiday to Las Vegas in June. I have telephoned executive club but they can’t put me through to whoever deals with it. I have sent 2 e-mails to the address you previously provided and have not had a response. I have twice claimed for missing tier points and heard nothing. On 24th November I was given a case reference number. I have responded to this twice in the proper manner and still I wait. What do I do next?
- AJA says:
  
  27 Dec27 December 11:17
  
  Put in a complaint via the BA website (or send a letter snail mail to the legal department) listing everything you’ve done so far.
  
  https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/help-and-contacts/complaints-and-claims
- Dawn says:
  
  27 Dec27 December 15:36
  
  @Jim Paterson
  Only thing that worked for me was advice from Michelle at Turning Left For Less. She said to join Flyertalk and then message BAMissingAvios. They replied to me within a few days and this followed with my points being credited. I had tried every other method, email etc. This was excellent.
Dror says:

27 Dec27 December 11:38

If I book a BA one way flight and car for five days via the BA holidays website, would that earn double tier points?

How about if I book return flights for a weekend but extended the car rental for five days?
- BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
  
  27 Dec27 December 14:07
  
  Since the double points are only awarded after the return flight …
  
  On the second one I personally wouldn’t risk doing something like that .
- Cats are best says:
  
  27 Dec27 December 16:58
  
  The T&C say…
  
  “To qualify, you’ll need to book a holiday (flights + hotel or flights + car) of at least five nights for travel before 31 December 2023”
  
  …if the return isn’t >=5 nights after the outbound, it won’t qualify.
  
  If you were to make a separate (non-holiday) booking to return and fly back, it’d be ok (I’ve actually done that for an emergency, didn’t affect the bonus award).
Yorkshire rich says:

27 Dec27 December 13:13

I’m looking at booking BA holidays to Dubai for 4 of us as it’s considerably cheaper than booking direct, but think I’m going to hold out to see if they reduce price. Unless of course this “sale”is as good as it’s gets .