Which British Airways Club Europe routes earn 160 tier points?

Which British Airways Club Europe business class routes offer 160 tier points for a return flight?

We often get emails from readers who say “I need XXX tier points in the next few weeks to reach British Airways Bronze / Silver / Gold status – how can I do it?”.

If you need to earn a small number of tier points – between 80 and 160 – the easiest way is a weekend break to one of the few destinations flown by British Airways which offer 160 tier points return in Club Europe.

This is twice as many tier points as the usual Club Europe return which earns 80.  On some routes, you won’t pay much more for a 160 tier point route than you would for one with 80 tier points.

You could even get 320 tier points for one trip

Until the end of December 2023, British Airways Holidays is offering double tier points when you book five nights of hotel or car hire along with your flights.

Full details are here on ba.com.

A relatively cheap holiday in, say, Malta would get you 320 tier points for the return flights.

Tier point thresholds are now back to pre-pandemic levels

British Airways has now ended its covid mitigation measures. Status requirements have returned to their pre-pandemic levels. What this means is:

• Bronze status requires 300 tier points – key benefit is free seat selection from 7 days before departure for your entire party

• Silver status requires 600 tier points – key benefit is lounge access for you and a guest and free seat selection at the time of booking for your entire party

• Gold status requires 1,500 tier points – key benefit is Galleries First lounge access for you and a guest, use of the First Wing at Heathrow Terminal 5 for you and a guest and access to Row 1 seating for your entire party

Which Club Europe routes earn 160 tier points for a return flight?

We introduced ‘the Head for Points BA tier point calculator’ chart – click here.  This article listed every British Airways route together with the tier points it would generate in each class.

However, to save you having to sort that, I have published the full list of 160 tier point Club Europe routes below.

Remember that, as well as earning the required number of tier points, you need to have flown four segments (ie two return flights) on cash tickets on British Airways or Iberia planes (or codeshares with a BA or IB flight number) to get Silver or Gold, and two segments for Bronze.

You cannot earn status purely by flying on partner airlines such as Qatar Airways, even if you earn the required number of BA tier points, unless you booked under a BA or Iberia codeshare.

The price next to each city was the lowest fare showing yesterday (19th June 2023) in the ba.com Low Fare Finder for Club Europe flights over the next 12 months.

• Algiers (£371)
• Antalya (£432)
• Athens (£360)
• Bucharest (£316)
• Catania (£364)
• Chania (£560)
• Corfu (£390)
• Dalaman (£426)
• Fuerteventura (£390)
• Funchal (£394)
• Gran Canaria (£434)
• Heraklion / Crete (£496)
• Istanbul (£338)
• Kalamata (£528)
• Kefalonia (£638)
• Kos (£436)
• Lanzarote (£360)
• Larnaca (£602)
• Malta (£352)
• Marrakech (£314)
• Mykonos (£510)
• Paphos (£428)
• Ponta Delgada (£610)
• Preveza Lefkada (£350)
• Reykjavik (£308)
• Rhodes (£576)
• Santorini (£534)
• Sharm El Sheikh (£727)
• Skiathos (£694)
• Sofia (£212)
• Tenerife (£396)
• Thessaloniki (£398)
• Tirana (£326)
• Zakynthos (£466)

Whilst Helsinki is still listed in Low Fare Finder, British Airways no longer operates this route. All flights are operated by Finnair and fares in Business Class are high. It will still earn 160 tier points return.

I ignored Amman and Cairo because, whilst earning 160 tier points return, they are technically long haul flights – albeit on short haul aircraft – and priced accordingly at £962 and £956 respectively.

Sofia remains the stand-out bargain at just over £200 return on certain dates.

This list is more about convenience than price, however.  After all, you could spend £320 on two x 80 tier point Club Europe return flights to Inverness over two different weekends which would be a cheaper way of earning 160 tier points than many of the places above. This list is for someone who needs up to 160 tier points and wants to achieve it in one go whilst visiting somewhere different – and, in Winter, somewhere warm.

Don’t forget to look into the BA Holidays ‘double tier points’ offer before you book. Full details are here on ba.com.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (September 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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

EDIT: Applications for this card are temporarily suspended due to IT issues with the British Airways On Business SME loyalty scheme.

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.

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