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British Airways has quietly increased the tier points earned to Hong Kong

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Yesterday we updated our list of British Airways tier points by route.

What we didn’t know at the time, although it is now corrected, is that British Airways has recently improved the tier points you earn when flying to Hong Kong.

The distance between Heathrow and Hong Kong has increased – in the BA system – from 5,979 miles to 6,004 miles.

British Airways has quietly increased Hong Kong tier points

This shifts it into the ultra-long haul tier point band and means that, for a one-way flight:

  • Economy flights earn 20 / 40 / 80 tier points depending on flexibility (was 20 / 35 / 70)
  • World Traveller Plus flights earn 100 tier points (was 90)
  • Club World flights earn 160 tier points (was 140)
  • First Class flights earn 240 tier points (was 210)
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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (57)

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

  • louie says:
    21 Jan21 January 04:48

    Leaving Dalaman at 04.45. No thanks.

    No idea why, but this year flights to Dalaman and Bodrum seem to be at almost exclusively hideous times and outrageous prices. And Turkish Airlines aren’t flying direct this year. Glad to have snagged Avios tickets but that means out from LGW and then back into LHR quite late which isn’t ideal.

    • zapato1060 says:
      21 Jan21 January 04:51

      That flight you’ve quoted leaving at 04:45 costs £25-30. What do you expect? Some people easily spend that on one takeaway meal.

      • louie says:
        21 Jan21 January 06:15

        Early July is over €200 p/p with a bag on that flight.

        I’ve never seen flight prices anything like as high and these are routes I’ve been flying for over 25 years. Usually appealing times are pricey and middle of the night more reasonable, as you would expect, but this year they are all so much higher. Tough times for people on a limited budget.

        • Erico1875 says:
          21 Jan21 January 07:15

          Try £400+ to Antalya from Scottish airports WITHOUT, bags or seat selection.
          Prices are just crazy this year. The airlines are just doing a smash and grab at the moment and mugging early bookers. I think prices will come down closer to July

          • SamG says:
            21 Jan21 January 08:05

            Flights do seem very busy (currently in Lanzarote, full BA flight inc 8 rows of Club & hotel is full) but agree, Ryanair wants £100+ base fare for weekday flights to Spain in Sept and I just can’t see it holding myself on all flights, I wouldn’t be buying now if at all possible

    • SamG says:
      21 Jan21 January 07:59

      Was discussing this just last night. Was horrified that a colleague of my mum had paid £500+ pp for school holiday flights to Turkey on TUI. Had to see this for myself, fired up Google flights and actually that is quite reasonable for good timings! BA wants £900 hand bags only

      Wizzair does have some more reasonable pricing but yes it’s a proper overnight run, you’d be exhausted both ways.

      • redlilly says:
        21 Jan21 January 08:44

        Great food, very cheap, beautiful scenery, guaranteed sun, historically the “poor mans” Greece. Lots of people have cottoned on to it now, and I am not surprised flights have been bought up in droves. Though the prices you’re quoting are just nuts!!!

        • SamG says:
          21 Jan21 January 20:03

          That is the flip side , their villa is very reasonably priced, I’d say overall they’re still spending less than it would cost for Greece etc. My dad had his eye on a villa in Portugal that has doubled vs their 2022 pricing so that’s out the question!

      • JDB says:
        21 Jan21 January 09:38

        Air travel was the biggest increase noted by the ONS in the December inflation figures published this week at +44.1%

    • NorthernLass says:
      21 Jan21 January 14:25

      I’ve got all my travel this year booked on avios and 241s left over from covid times, apart from one return leg from GIB-MAN on easyJet, but’s it not a high demand route so relatively reasonably priced. Hoping things will readjust by 2024!

  • BJ says:
    21 Jan21 January 05:40

    Increasing the distance to HKG with more TP as a result is fine only if this is not a prelude to changing the ‘nonexistent’ award chart zones and effectively shunting HKG and HND into zone 8 alongside SIN. 6, 004 looks far too convenient to me! Stealth devaluation phase 2 coming by manipulating reward distance bands possibly?

    • JAXBA says:
      21 Jan21 January 07:05

      Adjusting reward zones already happens; since day one of Avios in 2009, LON-CPT is shorter than it should be. On the other hand, adjusted later, DUB-BOS is further than it should be. Most adjustments are in our favour though.

      • BJ says:
        21 Jan21 January 12:17

        Yes I know, my concern is for more substantial changes of the current distance bands.

  • Dave says:
    21 Jan21 January 07:55

    Hmmm, the Luton flight appears to fly over Ukraine!

  • Wally1976 says:
    21 Jan21 January 08:04

    Slightly off topic but we’re booked for Turkey (or Turkiye as I believe it should be called) in August (Avios reward with nice flight times to/from LHR).

    Getting a little twitchy with the Turkish election due in May/June. Is there anything to fear? Saw an a Economist headline this morning: “Turkey could be on the brink of dictatorship”. I’ll do some research but know there’ll be people on here with good knowledge!

    • david says:
      21 Jan21 January 08:11

      Nobody could really allay your fears. Only advice I can give is, have your travel insurance to hand.

      • tony says:
        21 Jan21 January 08:43

        Without wanting to sound glib, there’s no shortage of reports that the last two elections in Turkey were badly manipulated. Surely showing two fingers to a democratic vote makes it a dictatorship already?

        On the ground, the scale of mosque building is noticeable. I mean, when did you last see a church or temple under construction anywhere? So there’s a definite move to make the country more “conservative”.

        However I also feel that Istanbul (Possibly Ankara too, but never been) lives in a different world to much of the rest of Turkey (maybe the South East is different) where people are just largely happy with their lot.

        And given how damn cheap it is once you’re there, I’m not all that surprised that the airlines are exploiting their position.

        • Chas says:
          21 Jan21 January 12:58

          Barcelona, although that was 20 years ago. Perhaps the cathedral has finally been finished….

    • George K says:
      21 Jan21 January 09:26

      Some would say it’s been a dictatorship for a while now. Doesn’t really affect tourists, especially in beach resorts (unless you happen to be in town when a coup is in progress).

  • Gordon says:
    21 Jan21 January 08:34

    Flew Wizz-Air a year ago or so, Luton to Bodrum, Quite a pleasant experience for an economy flight tbh.

  • Paul says:
    21 Jan21 January 09:17

    Caveat Emptor with Wizz Air.
    My son’s flight LGW LCA last July was a horror story. Sat on board for 3 hours. Turfed off at midnight, waited till 2:30am for bags to be returned. No assistance , no help, only heavily armed police telling passengers to leave LGW. Many slept on floor by checkin till 6am including my son. Voucher for £10 then issued and told flight would leave at 12noon. The departed at 7pm with no further assistance.
    EU261 claim rejected instantly on submission but was approved on appeal then took 5 months to finally be paid.
    On arrival in LCA return flight cancelled, nonsupport. It took several days and many calls to get rebooked using their outrageous premium call line. EU261 claim rejected in full and, 6 months later is still in hands of ADR.

    • Richie says:
      21 Jan21 January 09:20

      Yes. I’m avoiding until their reputation improves.

    • Pablo says:
      21 Jan21 January 09:29

      Premium line is for new reservations. Existing bookings number is standard rate 0330 977 0444.

    • George K says:
      21 Jan21 January 09:29

      My wife was booked on one of those flights to Palma and also experienced exactly the same scenario on the way back. Wizz claimed that the flight was never cancelled – just retimed.. to a day and a half later. LOL

      • Lady London says:
        21 Jan21 January 17:42

        Easyjet was doing that one in 2020. They claimed my flight hadn’t been cancelled, it was only moved 14 hours later to 9pm. They consolidated 3 flights in the same day onto the existing 9pm flight and lied about it calling it a cancellation.

    • Froggitt says:
      21 Jan21 January 09:53

      There’s a running commentary on ThisIsMoney about how people have sued Wizz for not paying up money the court has determined. Someone even sent the bailiffs round, they claimed they had no assets in the UK, not even a laptop. Apparently the journo found hundreds of unpaid court orders.

    • NorthernLass says:
      21 Jan21 January 14:29

      Airport police are always armed, they don’t just get issued with weapons to deal with disgruntled passengers! You make it sound as though the passengers were marched off the plane at gunpoint. I imagine they were pretty annoyed at having to do the airline’s dirty work for them when it’s most definitely not their job.

  • AirMax says:
    21 Jan21 January 10:13

    How much were flights to Turkey before the low fares revolution of the noughties?

    People complaining about £200 each way but it’s much further than la Côte d’Azur for example

    • JDB says:
      21 Jan21 January 10:19

      Yes, many people here are too young to remember that the price of a cheap Club ticket to Nice today is lower than an economy apex ticket (book 28 days in advance, non refundable, limited seats etc.) was twenty years ago, not even allowing for inflation.

      • NorthernLass says:
        21 Jan21 January 14:32

        I remember paying about £150 for a flight to Malaga the summer after my A levels in the late 80s – it was far and away the most expensive part of the holiday!

    • Colin MacKinnon says:
      21 Jan21 January 11:28

      25 years ago, we thought it a result if we could get sub-£200 each returns from Scotland to Malaga for the summer holidays.

      • Colin MacKinnon says:
        21 Jan21 January 11:36

        Until now, that sub-£200 was still easily achievable.

        Possibly still is with careful use of Avios?

        • Erico1875 says:
          21 Jan21 January 15:18

          I’m using one of our 2 4 1 for CE EDI to BCN this year.
          Yes you are right though, I remember back in 83 (scary but that was 40 yes ago 😲 ) spending £200 on a flight to Alicante

  • Londonsteve says:
    21 Jan21 January 16:12

    I used to be a fan of Wizz Air but their recent behaviour has been extremely shoddy and they deserve to be hauled over the coals for it. I’d still fly them where I’ve little to lose, like a cheap off season flight to a well-served destination where I could use Avios for a last minute alternative, but I’d be extremely wary booking peak season flights to popular holiday destinations on a completely new route. If the bookings are not what they hoped for, they’ll cancel a la Cardiff and just refund your fare, if they cancel close to or even at departure time you’re in big trouble and better have a credit card with a large credit limit and a good travel insurance policy. Personally I’d wait for routes to bed in for at least a season before I’d book onto them at peak times.

    Will the usual trick of waiting for fares to fall 6-10 weeks before departure fail this year as busy times are going to be a complete sell out months in advance? I detect an element of FOMO with so many people scrambling to book this far out. Were I a family man it would be a ferry to France and a campsite in the Dordogne during the mad prices of the summer school holidays with more interesting travels at other times of the year when it’s off-peak for the location concerned.

    • Erico1875 says:
      21 Jan21 January 16:43

      We have booked exactly that, although in Spain.
      Eurosites price £1K for the week. Sun Holidays £280.

      • SamG says:
        21 Jan21 January 20:07

        Sun holidays abroad are amazing value , been doing them for 20 years! You can get the codes from moneysavingexpert forum so no need to buy the papers

        We have our own caravan now, spent a month in Normandy last summer which was brilliant. We are going back to Asia this year using my massive expiring Krisflyer stash but taking that to France will definitely be my summer holiday plans for the foreseeable future !

        • Gav says:
          22 Jan22 January 00:43

          Don’t plan on getting a cash refund on a cancellation either. All Cardiff flights were refunded as a credit note which states is non refundable.
          A call to them was basically told tough. We won’t refund . Credit only. Which is useless to most.
          Everything is a fight with them.

        • His Holyness says:
          22 Jan22 January 01:14

          What’s Sun Holidays? Link please.

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