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Which British Airways Club Europe routes earn 160 tier points?

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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.

Club Europe British Airways routes earning 160 tier points

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
Club Europe British Airways routes earning 160 tier points

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)

Agadir will be added to this list in 2024.

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.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

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:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

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

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £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 £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

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The Platinum Card from American Express

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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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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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.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

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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

Comments (65)

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

  • alig4th says:
    20 Jun20 June 06:33

    I’m needing 240 TP. If I don’t travel before my TP reset, I’m genuinely considering LHR-MAN (overnight) – one of the above via LHR (overnight) – LHR. This seems to work out cheaper than one trip above and one return to MAN at some other point… Unless someone could suggest an alternative?

  • rams says:
    20 Jun20 June 06:43

    Need 20 tier points for bronze. Suggestions for cheapest method?

    • Richie says:
      20 Jun20 June 07:33

      Consider Basel, Luxembourg, Stuttgart.

    • Michael says:
      20 Jun20 June 10:54

      A short-haul return flight in Economy will bring you 20 TPs (however, be careful that you do not book in the cheapest fare buckets, e.g. G / O / Q, as then you will end up with 10 TPs only).
      You can use the explore functionality of Google Flights to find the cheapest acceptable destination based on your preferences (origin, time, etc.)

    • KS says:
      20 Jun20 June 12:07

      Not really the question you asked I know, but IMHO, spending money to achieve bronze is a marginal call. The benefits are relatively meagre unless you might subsequently push to silver. Even if it ‘only’ costs you £150 to get to bronze, that money could probably get you a much improved flight experience (seat booking, lounge access, priority boarding) with another carrier across a couple of bookings. Plus you won’t be tied (to the extent that you would be) to BA for future bookings so you’d be able to shop around.

      Others may see it differently…..

    • TGLoyalty says:
      20 Jun20 June 17:14

      Might be better booking a cheap eco with lots of business availability and op up one leg for £60-70.

      Personally I think being so close it’s still worth going for bronze if you travel regularly on Avios / eco flights. Seat 7 days out, slight priority and even bump up the queue a bit

      • rams says:
        20 Jun20 June 19:55

        thank you all. My use of Bronze would purely be to book seats 7 days out on redemption flights. My work flights are limited now so silver days not likely again (my bronze was after my silver elapsed).

        It’s marginal if I do it/have time. Have until early August.

  • Manya says:
    20 Jun20 June 06:46

    As someone who travels for leisure only and is price/points sensitive I don’t see the value proposition of making tier point runs. The value of the benefit compared to the cost of attaining the tier points would seem marginal for someone that is a leisure flyer and would also tie that person flying with one world.

    Am I judging it right or missing something?

    • Rob says:
      20 Jun20 June 07:26

      Totally depends on your situation – if you’re flying BA Economy for work every 2 weeks then lounge access would be hugely valuable. If you’re doing a couple of flights per year, no it’s not really worth it.

      We’re don’t recommend pure ‘out and back’ runs anyway – far better to use the list to find a couple of interesting places for a weekend break.

      • GeoffreyB says:
        20 Jun20 June 07:59

        “if you’re flying BA Economy for work every 2 weeks then lounge access would be hugely valuable”

        You’d get silver through 50 eligible flights in that case, so wouldn’t need to waste valuable time on tier points trips.

        • ClubSmed says:
          20 Jun20 June 08:56

          You are not factoring in holidays in that, I certainly don’t work 52 weeks of the year.
          If have ~5 weeks of holiday (25 working days) and only one of those you fly, then you would be short of the number of flights needed and need to do a tier point run.

          • GeoffreyB says:
            20 Jun20 June 09:22

            Depends. I got 50 tier points return for London to Berlin recently.

            Even once a month would be enough to get silver based on that.

          • TGLoyalty says:
            20 Jun20 June 17:15

            Can be worth doing when you’ve just started too as it could make the next 20 flights much more bearable.

    • GeoffreyB says:
      20 Jun20 June 07:35

      “Am I judging it right or missing something?”

      Judging it right

    • Gavin says:
      20 Jun20 June 09:32

      I’ve not done a pure tier point run, but I’ve used lists such as these and advice on FT to arrange my trips in a way that maximises tier points gained while often reducing cost. For example, last year I did a BA holiday to Sofia, a city I wanted to visit anyway, and gained a chunk of tier points for it too. When I fly long haul, I usually try to book ex-EU business class or Premium Economy.

      I’m a leisure flyer who has retained BA Silver status for about 8 years. The extra luggage allowance is valuable to me as I do a lot of skiing / cycling trips in Europe for which I usually book an economy Avios redemption or cash ticket. Apart from that, I’ve saved a lot of hours being able to skip check in + security queues, and lounge access is a good benefit too although hard to put a value on it. Plus it’s nice to ensure I don’t get a rubbish seat without paying extra.

  • Geoggy says:
    20 Jun20 June 06:52

    So if I’m going on a BA holiday to Tenerife, flying Club with no other paid flights I’ll get Bronze?

    And does that upgrade happen immediately or do I have to wait until the end of the year?

    • Rob says:
      20 Jun20 June 07:24

      Correct. Upgrade is immediate on your return.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      20 Jun20 June 14:34

      The change in status takes a couple of days to feed through after the bonus TPs have posted (usually about a week after the return flight) but it’s as Rob says not a wait until the end of the year thing,

  • Mark says:
    20 Jun20 June 06:58

    Rob, Any ideas if ba will extend the double tier points on holidays after 31.12.23?

  • memesweeper says:
    20 Jun20 June 07:53

    Does a BA club holiday starting in MAN/NCL/BHD/INV/EDI earn (40 + 160 + 160 + 40) doubled ?

  • Robert D says:
    20 Jun20 June 08:24

    They seem to leave out Tirana from low fare finder and you have left out also.

  • Robert D says:
    20 Jun20 June 08:26

    Ignore previous, I see Tirana now, going blind

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

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