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BIG NEWS: British Airways is changing your tier point collection year

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From 2025, British Airways is changing your Executive Club membership year. It will be aligning tier point collection years for all members to start on 1st April.

The official British Airways page announcing the changes is here.

British Airways has updated its Q&A during Tuesday to reflect issues which we raised earlier in the day, and we now have a little more clarity.

British Airways changes your tier point collection year

The biggest winners are families where everyone has a different tier point year end. You can currently have a situation where each family member takes exactly the same flights but some gain status whilst others don’t. This problem will go away.

The biggest long-term downside is that the ‘grace period’ is cut from 7 weeks to 4 weeks. At present, your year ends on the 8th of the month but you retain your old status until the end of the FOLLOWING month. Going forward, all membership years will end on 31st March and all tier statuses will adjust on 30th April.

Why is British Airways doing this?

The official reason is ‘simplicity’.

You can’t argue with that. The current trial of awarding tier points for British Airways American Express spend, for example, is not working as well as it should because of different membership year end dates.

The real reason is probably to align the BA system with Iberia, which already uses April to March membership years, in advance of a joint change to the BA / Iberia tier point system at some future date. This seems likely to involve some sort of revenue or credit card spend metric, given how the world is moving.

How BA tier point collection years currently work

At the moment, your tier point collection year is based on the anniversary of the date you joined British Airways Executive Club. Your tier points would reset on the 8th day of your anniversary month.

For example, if you joined in March, your membership year would reset on 8th April. If you joined in November, it would be 8th December.

This meant that the entire cohort of British Airways Executive Club members is spread across twelve possible membership year end dates.

(This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Whilst frustrating for families, it avoids any spike in call centre activity or tier point runs which will occur when everyone has the same date.)

British Airways changes your tier point collection year

How tier point collection years will work going forward

From 2025, British Airways is aligning tier point collection years for all members.

That means that instead of twelve possible combinations, everyone’s tier points will reset on the same date.

British Airways has chosen to follow the UK fiscal year, starting on 1st April and ending on 31st March.

That means you’ll need to earn enough tier points to qualify for Bronze, Silver or Gold status within this period.

The change will occur on 1st April 2025.

I’m not sure that 1st April is, logically, the best option because of how Easter moves from year to year and this tends to be a period with reduced corporate travel. In some years it will make it harder to push through additional flights in the weeks leading to 31st March. It will also impact leisure travellers who use long-haul cash flights over Easter to drive their tier points.

What this means for you

Depending on your current membership year, this change will affect you differently. For that reason, we have put together a separate article outlining how the transition from now until 1st April 2025 will be handled, which you can read here.

However, the bottom line is:

– If your membership year ends before the new rules kick in (1st April 2025), this year will be as normal
– Your next membership year will end 31 March 2025 regardless of how short this will be
– To make up for it, BA will re-credit any tier points earned in your old membership year from 1st April 2024 to your new partial membership year

Everyone’s tier point balances will reset on 1st April 2025, which will become the first full year under the new, aligned system.

What about your existing status?

Here is what British Airways says:

British Airways changes your tier point collection year

“No, there will be no change to:

  • Your current Tier status
  • The benefits you receive according to your Tier status
  • The way you can renew or upgrade your status during your Tier Point collection period ending on or before 8 March 2025

Any Tier status earned in your next Tier Point collection period ending on 31 March 2025 will be valid until 30 April 2026.”

BA has now updated the FAQ following our queries to add:

Any existing status valid beyond 31 March 2025 will continue for the full duration.

These means, for example, that if you have already earned Gold status in your current membership year, which ends 8th October 2024, your status will remain valid until 30th November 2025. It will not be shortened to end on 30th April 2025.

However, your ‘soft landing’ period will be reduced. In the example above, even though British Airways is allowing you to keep your Gold status until 30th November 2025, your soft landing to Silver – assuming you don’t requalify – will only last until 30th April 2026 and not 31st November 2026.

Conclusion

The changes BA is making to the Executive Club mean it make it simpler to understand. Rather than twelve different possible membership years, based on your anniversary of joining, everyone’s years will start and end on the same day.

(Of course, this also means that a lot of people will be doing tier point runs at the same time. I suspect flights to Sofia in Club Europe will be fully booked for all of March 2025, as this route earns 160 tier points return for around £200 in a sale.)

The change will also align BAEC with Iberia Plus, and should also simplify the IT backend required to make it all work if the programmes are moved to the same platform.

The good news is that BA is implementing a year-long transition period. This is a fair way of moving to the new system and allows everyone to earn status under both the new and existing system.

You can read more on the British Airways website here.

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Comments (358)

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

  • Colin says:
    6 Feb6 February 08:18

    Hi HFP you seem to be contradicting yourself

    Earlier in the text you wrote
    Jane Doe has a collection year ending 8th Dec 2024. Jane crosses the 1,500-tier point threshold and qualifies for Gold in late November. Any status earned during the transition period will remain valid until 30th April 2026, regardless of Jane’s collection year. (This in in line with what I was advised when I called the GGL tel no to ask about my own 8th Dec 24 collection year end.

    Then later on you wrote

    “These means, for example, that if you have already earned Gold status in your current membership year, which ends 8th October 2024, your status will remain valid until 30th November 2025. It will not be shortened to end on 30th April 2025.”

    I think the 2nd example is incorrect in that if you earned status in your current membership year, which ends 8th October 2024, your status will remain valid until 31st March 2026

    • Rob says:
      6 Feb6 February 08:36

      No. In example 2, the status was earned before the start of the transition year (1st April 2024) so different rules apply.

      More generally ….. there is a risk that we are misdefining ‘transition year’. We are assuming – because of the word ‘year’ – it is the period from 1/4/24 to 31/3/25. But does BA actually mean ‘the period from the end of your current year to 31/3/25’? If so much of our analysis is wrong.

      • Stu_N says:
        6 Feb6 February 09:16

        I think there is a high chance you are. It’s horribly ambiguous but there is an FAQ item covering what happens if you don’t hit the status threshold for year to 31-3-2025; this says you get downgraded.

        “What happens if I don’t earn enough Tier Points to renew my current status in my Tier Point collection year which ends on 31 March 2025?
        There will be no changes to the way Members earn status. If you don’t earn enough Tier Points to retain your Tier status, your status will be updated at the end of your Membership card expiry date.
        We’ll look back at the full 12-month period from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 to determine the status you hold in the next membership year.
        If you don’t meet the required Tier Points to maintain your status you’ll be downgraded from 1 May 2025.”

        I think the way it works for a May month end is:
        – Current year ending 8 May – I hit 1500TPs (with 400 between 1 April and 8 May) and retain Gold. Card expiry unclear but probably on old rules, i.e. 30-6-2025.
        – Transition year. My 400 carry over and I need to earn a further 1100 by 31 March 2025 to retain Gold. If I don’t do this, I would drop to Silver on 1 July 2025.
        – First full year of new end date. I need to earn 1500 TPs between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026 – card expiry 30 April 2027.

        The alternative analysis, where the status I earn on 8 May 2024 is valid until 30 April 2026, means I have no need to earn TPs in the period 9-5-24 to 31-3-25 – I can start again in April 2024.

        • Stu_N says:
          6 Feb6 February 09:24

          sorry error in last line – should be “I can start again in April 2025”

        • Mouse says:
          6 Feb6 February 09:43

          No – the FAQ specifically says

          “For Tier Point collection periods starting on or before March 2024
          There will be no change to how you earn Tier status and any status earned within this period will be valid for at least 12 months. Any existing status valid beyond 31 March 2025 will continue for the full duration.”

          So if you don’t then requalify between April 24 – April 25 then you are downgraded at the point when your previously-earned status would have expired 12 months after the end of your old collection year.

          • Stu_N says:
            6 Feb6 February 09:57

            Thanks @Mouse – I think the wording you’ve quoted is new or has been amended since yesterday. This therefore confirms my worked example.

            Basically current year (Year -1) to 8 May 2024 works as always has for collection and expiry.
            Next year (Year 0) runs 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. TP adjustment for collection brings in my 400 TPs so I do need my 1100. Status earned in this year expires 30 April 2026.
            First full year of new dates (Year 1) runs 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026. Entirely straightforward for collection, some grandfathering of expiry dates from Year -1 for people who didn’t re-qualify in Year 0.

  • Gary1 says:
    6 Feb6 February 08:52

    I think I am clear on this but would appreciate it someone saying I have it right. Year end 8th July – currently Silver and have enough TPs to retain it in the current system when it would renew in August 2024. Have holiday booked in May – which will earn 320 TPs – so to retain Silver (or better) until 31st March 2026 do I need to earn minimum of 280 extra TPs between 1st April 2024 and March 2025 ?

  • J says:
    6 Feb6 February 09:05

    Hi.
    I dropped down to Silver.
    I have now just got another 160 tier points so will maintain Silver.
    My collection reset is 8th October 24
    So I take it my Silver status would last to April 25
    Was aiming to get to gold status again hopefully before the 8th October 24.

  • Dan says:
    6 Feb6 February 09:25

    Under the scheme I have one week in February 2025 (half-term) to earn 3,000 TPs and wife and children to earn 1,500 TPs, as from April 1st 2024 until February 2025 we have book Rewards flights for every holiday. Some will benefit from this change, but we have definitely been kicked in the teeth by this change.

    If people can book flights 12 months out, you shouldn’t change how TPs are collect with 2 months’ notice, surely you should give people 14 months’ notice. But what do I know.

  • SammyJ says:
    6 Feb6 February 09:32

    My current Gold card has an expiry of 31 July 2024, based on a TP year end of 8th June. I won’t have enough to regain gold beyond that, so I guess I’ll now only have softlanded silver until end of March 25 instead of July 25 (unless I renew which will be harder as I’m losing 2+ collection months at the useful end).

    I have a return flight that goes out before 31 July 24 and returns in August – will I still be classed as Gold for the outbound, and Silver for the return? Nothing has changed that I’ve missed in that part?!

  • Ian says:
    6 Feb6 February 09:44

    The article does seem pretty heavy on relying on the BA press release rather than analysing it, which is unusual for HfP. Given unlikely to have travel booked in Feb 25 and for 8 Apr TP year it makes little difference, essentially anyone who has a TP year between 8 Apr (24) and 8 Jan (25) and has travel booked during that 24/25 TP year now has the value of that travel massively reduced.

    In my case, 8 Oct TP year. 1500 TP of travel booked between 9 Oct 24 and 31 Dec 24 (say). That gives Gold until Nov 26 as was. But now only until Apr 26. This could affect lots of people – the effect of travel during the 24/25 TP year.

    Changing the earning implications of travel already booked and reducing the status it earns on existing bookings is really poor. Yes BA can do as it likes, but the article should do more to call this out IMHO.

    • Rhys says:
      6 Feb6 February 09:50

      We spent all day yesterday trying to work out what the BA site ACTUALLY meant…and we’re still not 100% sure.

    • Rob says:
      6 Feb6 February 09:52

      For better or worse, that falls into the ‘tough luck’ category and the article would not be enhanced (given how complex it already is) by having a long moan about how a few people are disadvantaged who have a unique combination of membership end date and timing of existing bookings.

  • Kim says:
    6 Feb6 February 09:45

    Thanks for all your hard work on this guys!
    I am currently silver which ends in April 24. I have earned my 600+ TP this year to retain it but have a short hop booked in March to achieve my 4 eligible flights. Am I right in thinking I should delay that trip until after 1st April so I don’t get silver until the ‘new’ earning year begins?

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      6 Feb6 February 09:57

      What do you mean ‘ends in April 24’?

      Is that your collection year or your status year?

      They aren’t the same thing and getting it wrong has conseqiuences.

  • Angelamc11 says:
    6 Feb6 February 09:55

    Nov year end here. I will finish with 2500 by 31st March 2024. Will achieve GGL with 3000 points in April 2024. I expected to have secured GGL to Nov 2026. Is this no longer the case? There seem to be mixed answers to this across various platforms. Do I really need to gain another 3000 between April 24 and March 25 to keep GGL?

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