Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Which British Airways Club Europe routes earn 160 tier points?

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

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 30th June 2025, 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.

How many tier points do you need for status?

This is what you will need to earn to get British Airways Executive Club elite status:

  • Bronze status requires 300 tier points – key benefit is free seat selection from seven 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 on Friday (17th May 2024) in the ba.com Low Fare Finder for Club Europe flights over the next 12 months.

  • Agadir (£396)
  • Algiers (£359)
  • Antalya (£466)
  • Athens (£444)
  • Bodrum (£612)
  • Bucharest (£302)
  • Catania (£458)
  • Chania (£568)
  • Corfu (£446)
  • Dalaman (£452)
  • Fuerteventura (£426)
  • Funchal (£616)
  • Gran Canaria (£500)
  • Heraklion (£582)
  • Istanbul (£424)
  • Izmir (£600)
  • Kalamata (£544)
  • Kefalonia (£472)
  • Kos (£516)
  • Lanzarote (£430)
  • Larnaca (£548)
  • Malta (£534)
  • Marrakech (£384)
  • Mykonos (£530)
  • Paphos (£486)
  • Ponta Delgada (£628)
  • Preveza Lefkada (£522)
  • Reykjavik (£394)
  • Rhodes (£594)
  • Santorini (£534)
  • Sharm El Sheikh (£762)
  • Skiathos (£690)
  • Sofia (£312)
  • Tenerife (£500)
  • Thessaloniki (£452)
  • Tirana (£290)
  • Zakynthos (£422)

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. Tel Aviv will join this list from April 2025 when it drops to 160 tier points return.

Sofia, Bucharest and Tirana are the cheapest options at around £300 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 Newcastle 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.

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 (December 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

Get 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

30,000 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

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

Huge 80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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

20,000 points (ONLY TO 9TH DECEMBER) Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

30,000 points (TO 9TH DECEMBER) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus 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.

Comments (63)

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

  • LittleNick says:

    I remember seeing one of these articles a couple years ago and can definitely notice the rates for these long CE routes have clearly gone up! Not surprising though!

  • Andrew T says:

    If know anybody working for BA, Iberia or Avios you could also get a 5-10 % discount on BA holidays 🙂

  • Bernard says:

    Just a heads up not to book too far ahead.
    There’s a Tier Point review being carried out if you talk to the right people. 80 might stick, but don’t be surprised if these become 50 tier point routes instead.

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

      Don’t they homour the terms in effect at the time of booking, not the time of travel? That’s what happened with the move to revenue-based Avios earning. I can’t see BA wanting the uproar

    • AJA says:

      I hope that you’re wrong about that. On the other hand if you book today with the TP at the current rates surely BA is bound to honour the current TP earning rate or they have to give you notice that they are changing them like they did with the Tel Aviv flights

      • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

        They had to give a years notice because of Israeli consumer law.

        But I agree BA would be mad to apply any TP reductions retrospectively to already booked trips.

      • JDB says:

        The long notice period given for the reduction in tier points on the TLV route related to the specific requirements of Israeli consumer protection law. There is not really any contractual set number of tier points for any particular route – BA simply says it will give advance notice (time not specified) so it’s a matter of how fair or generous BA wishes to be.

    • Londonsteve says:

      I’d suggest it’s the opposite, book sooner rather than later to lock in the 80 TPs. If these routes went down to 50 (strikes me as stingy, 60 minimum considering they’re longer and usually more expensive than 40 TP routes) there will be many fewer BAEC status holders (esp Silver) which, in turn, will reduce the incentive to fly with not just BA, but all OW alliance partners too. It’s a delicate balancing act.

      Speaking personally, I’m not sure I’d renew my status with BA if these routes went down to 80 TPs. At the moment most short haul flights I take are with BA, but I wouldn’t fly them without the benefit of status unless they were price competitive with LCCs as there’s literally no on-board benefit versus Ryanair, only the fact that flights depart from Heathrow which is accessible by the tube. My status is the only thing keeping me loyal to BA because I get sufficient perks when I travel that I feel it’s worthwhile.

      • NorthernLass says:

        +1, especially when the regional route network is so lousy.

      • Bernard says:

        Good luck finding club seats, lounge access, priority checkin, free seat allocation on Ryanair!
        BA is well aware there is no business cabin alternative on most of these routes. You can see that from £900 return fares to some bit La of the eastern med.
        believe it or not, most passengers dying chase tier points….

        • NorthernLass says:

          And you wouldn’t expect any of those things at Ryanair prices, that’s the point – that and the convenience of a direct flight for those of us outside the LHR/LGW catchment area.

          • Bernard says:

            BA has abandoned the regions to easyJet and jet2. I don’t think it’s that bothered especially when it’s presently bloated with silver card holders.
            It’s either going to have to cut silver benefits or make it harder to get/maintain. The last course is easier when there are many marginal card holders who just scrape in.
            Like it not it’s the way airline FFPs are going and why these things are under constant review. (F Avios redemption also under review I’m told – to be restricted to gold or higher, and to BA members first before other OW schemes.)

          • NorthernLass says:

            That seems pointless because there’ arestill plenty of F redemptions available even after BA reduced the number of F cabins.

        • Meck says:

          I used (to still do mainly about to renew BA Gold) have the status vs Ryanair mentality, but recently routes needed have meant Ryanair and the “luck” comes from Priority Pass for lounge, €12 for seats in row 1 and happening to be near the front of the line for “Priority Boarding” (which most of the plane seems to have!! Unlike old days the Ryanair app is very good and £536 for printing a boarding pass less of a fear factor now 😂

  • al says:

    can someone please annotate the tier point list above with Heathrow only flights. really difficult to split heathrow and gatwick flights. reason is i prefer heathrow due transport to airport, thanks

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    Helsinki can be reasonable depending on your baggage needs. AY does the unbundled fare thing.

    In the summer I’m doing a HEL – LHR one way business lite (no checked bags, no free seat selection, no lounge, no priority boarding) for £ 250 booked via AY.

    BA want £ 342 but with those things included.

    I don’t need the baggage allowance and I get seat selection, lounge and priority access via my BA status.

    A return on AY is roughly £ 550 but BA want £ 734.

    You get the same TPs if you credit to BA.

    And lots of people on here say they can do a long weekend away with only carry on bags.

    • aseftel says:

      Unlike with BA, I think oneworld elites even get the free bag on the AY business lite fares.

      • Jess says:

        That is right – I flew business lite last year to Dubai and this included a case as I was gold at the time.

  • Martin says:

    I’ve just come back from a Sofia trip, 12 full rows of CE,
    I chatted to a few singles flying, (tier point runners seem to be men, like me) an example – all row 1 all were tier point running, 2 of them were flying straight back on same flight.
    3 in row 2 were tier point running, 2 doing it as a holiday.
    I’m sure it would continue through most of CE.

    • Bernard says:

      With the low yield and using up an aircraft for the whole day one wonders how long it will be before BA finds a better return on assets by cutting the route and using the plane to go to Corfu for £980 return in club instead?

  • Holyphuket says:

    And this is why if you look at ba holidays right now Tirana seems to be 700 odd .. in October

  • Swifty says:

    Morning everyone! If i want to check a fare bucket for a bah how do I do that? There is nothing when you go on holiday finder tool, nothing at all about fare class, and looked on Ft which says they may bucket into G. Been looking at doing it this way: the actual flight (to get right tier) then adding a hotel to get the double tower points, or is it a case of ita? I’m a newb at ita. Basically rather than 160 from return to Sofia in Oct, wanna do a quick break in June economy and get them through a basic holiday. It’s for my daughter and I don’t think she would be up for just going and coming back in a day. She needs 150 for silver.

    • Rob says:

      No choice but to ring BAH and ask them what it will book into.

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

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.