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BIG NEWS: BA moves to revenue-based tier status for Bronze, Silver, Gold and Gold Guest List

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As we have been predicting for some time, British Airways has announced the move to revenue-based tier status.

The net effect is that earning Gold status will now be very, very difficult, bordering on impossible, for leisure travellers.

Some changes are unexpected – the speed of the launch (1st April) and a rebranding of British Airways Executive Club to ‘The British Airways Club’. Whilst a bit more 21st century, it’s ironic given that only ‘executive’ travellers are now likely to qualify for the higher tiers.

British Airways Club membership cards

Here are the new British Airways status thresholds that kick in from 1st April 2025:

  • Bronze: 3,500 points
  • Silver: 7,500 points
  • Gold: 20,000 points
  • Gold Guest List – new member: 65,000 points (with at least 52,000 earned through British Airways-marketed flights and British Airways Holidays)
  • Gold Guest List – renewal: 40,000 points (with at least 32,000 earned through British Airways-marketed flights British Airways Holidays)

There will be milestone bonuses of 2,500 Avios at 5,500 tier points, 4,000 Avios at 11,000 tier points and 5,000 Avios at 16,000 tier points which will be triggered on the way to Gold. Assuming 1p per Avios of value these are not exactly generous.

These changes were made “based on our Members’ feedback” according to BA’s press release so if you don’t like them, you only have yourself to blame.

What is a ‘point’?

1 point = £1 of spending on British Airways-marketed flights.

ONLY the base fare and BA-imposed surcharges are included. Airport charges, Air Passenger Duty etc are NOT included. Seat selection and luggage fees ARE included.

On a £11,990 fully flexible ticket to New York in Club World, virtually all spend (£11,687) would qualify towards status. On a £387 economy flight to New York, only £189 of spend would count.

There are other ways of earning ‘points’

You will be able to earn up to 1,000 points per year by purchasing Sustainable Aviation Fuel credits. You will get 1 tier point and 10 Avios per £1 spent on SAF credits.

You will be able to earn up to 2,500 points per year via spending on the British Airways Premium Plus American Express credit card. It isn’t clear what the ‘conversion rate’ will be – I suspect something close to 1 point per £10 spent.

You will earn 1 point per £1 spent at British Airways Holidays. For high end leisure travellers this could be an attractive way of earning status. However, BA has potentially messed this up because tier points will be split equally between all travellers. You can’t book a £20,000 holiday for a family of four and get Gold – in fact, at 5,000 points each, you wouldn’t even all get Silver.

(What you COULD do is book a BA Holiday – flight and hotel – for one person, and then have the rest of your family book their flights separately. This ensures that you receive all the tier points.)

One upside is that there will no longer be a minimum stay requirement for earning via BA Holidays.

What happens with partner flights?

You will earn tier points based on a percentage of miles flown for non-alliance partners.

For Malaysia Airlines, for example, it will increase from 2% of miles flown on a discounted Economy ticket to 30% of miles flown for a fully flexible First Class ticket.

This structure means that it is VERY unattractive for people buying flexible tickets to choose a partner airline over British Airways. For low cost premium cabin tickets it is probably roughly equal – eg Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur in discounted Business Class on Malaysia Airlines would earn 1,600 tier points under the new structure which is roughly what a £2,000 sale cash ticket on BA would earn.

Some airlines are rewarded more generously. Qatar Airways, for example, earns 25% of miles flown in deeply discounted Business Class. This is double what you receive for flying Malaysia Airlines.

There will be bonus tier points for the first few months

Flights booked BEFORE 14th February for travel after 1st April will earn bonus points. It isn’t clear if these are one-way or return, I suspect one-way:

  • Euro Traveller: 50 points
  • Club Europe: 100 points
  • World Traveller: 70 points
  • World Traveller Plus: 140 points 
  • Club World: 210 points
  • First: 330 points

These are bizarrely small numbers based on the new tier thresholds. 420 bonus tier points for a Club World return flight isn’t going to make much impact on hitting 20,000 tier points for Gold.

What happens with existing bookings for travel after 1st April?

It’s not clear. We are told:

“Customers who already hold bookings for travel after 1 April 2025 will be awarded Tier Points based on a conversion of the existing method. Any existing bookings will earn proportionally the same number of Tier Points, or more, as they would today.”

The implication is that it will be based on the same % of status as you would need today. A flight earning 140 tier points (currently 23% of Silver or 9% of Gold) will presumably earn somewhere between 23% of the new Silver threshold (7,500 points) or 9% of the new Gold threshold (20,000 points).

The implication is that this only applies to existing bookings made before today. If you book today, you will be on the new system for travel from 1st April.

What happens with existing BA Holidays bookings for travel by 30th June?

People have booked with BA Holidays expecting double tier points (for trips taken between 1st April and 30th June) based on the current tier point system.

On paper you won’t be worse off. The tier points you would have got will be multiplied by 13.5 and then doubled. Trust me that this is fair.

The bigger issue is that if you will need additional tier points for status, the gap is bigger. For example, if your BA Holiday would have got you halfway to Silver it still will – but you’d still need to spend £3,750 to earn the other half of the points needed.

British AIrways Club status changes

Are ‘soft landings’ remaining?

It isn’t clear. However, a BA employee has told me that they will be removed. If correct, a Gold member will now drop directly to Blue.

What is happening to Lifetime Gold?

Your existing tier points will be converted. Take a look at the FAQ here for details.

Conclusion

This is, clearly, a pivotal move by British Airways. It is effectively washing its hands of the leisure market and going all-in to attract the dwindling band of full fare business travellers.

With Gold now available for just over one and a half £12,000 fully flexible Club World return flights to New York, it is clear who the target market now is.

Realistically, it will now be impossible to earn Gold for small business travellers, economy travellers or self-funded leisure travellers. Even Silver will be a major stretch. British Airways Holidays spend could have offered a lifeline, but by splitting the tier points equally among all travellers it’s not going to make any real impact.

It’s not clear to me why BAEC members asked for this, since it was done ‘based on member feedback’ according to BA but that’s people for you ….!

It will also be virtually impossible for corporate travellers to earn Gold status based on economy travel. This leads to the question of why you’d even want to push for status – if the only people who can earn status are flying in Business Class, they don’t need Silver status anyway as they have the benefits. Gold doesn’t add much on top.

The long term issue remains. Business travellers have their flights paid for by their employers. Many of these are tied to BA or oneworld via a route deal. Many get huge end-of-year rebates which means their headline spend is not what they actually pay – in reality business travellers with a high rebate will need to spend LESS to earn status than leisure travellers. BA is rewarding ‘loyalty’ from people whose loyalty is contractually enforced on them.

Remove status from those people who DO have a choice of airline – leisure travellers, small business owners – and their reasons for flying British Airways shrink dramatically.

What I don’t understand is why the offsets for leisure and SME travellers are so half-hearted. Capping credit card tier points at 2,500 is pathetic – just 12.5% of what you need for Gold and still leaving you £5,000 of ‘before taxes’ BA spend short of Silver. American Airlines now lets you earn status based ENTIRELY on credit card and partner spend if you wish. If someone wants to put £200,000 through their BA Amex to earn Gold status, why not let them?

The British Airways Club, of course, is not the only game in town for earning oneworld status. I suspect that most people will now find it easier to earn Silver or Gold-equivalent status via another oneworld airline – you would get virtually the same benefits except for Gold access to additional Economy Avios inventory. We’ll be looking at these options in detail as we get nearer to April.

As a starter, remember that oneworld member Royal Jordanian will give you 12-months of BA Bronze-equivalent status for just $49 if you have hotel or airline elite status elsewhere – click here to read more.

You can find out more about these changes on this special page of ba.com.

PS. If you are reading this but are not a regular reader, please consider signing up for our FREE daily or weekly newsletters full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news. Visit this page of the site or click any of the ‘Subscribe’ links on this page.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (3839)

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

  • Duncan says:
    3 Jan3 January 14:49

    It’s all about cost cutting alongside the brunch offering. Less people in the lounge means less staff and less outlay on food and drink.

    • Rob says:
      3 Jan3 January 14:57

      Indeed. I wonder if their next brainwave will be to stop offering flights altogether – some brilliant cost savings on fuel and crew salaries to be made there.

    • Free Hopkins says:
      3 Jan3 January 14:59

      IAG has told BA to cost save to the tune if £500m or so in 2024/5. Their IT revamp (called Nexus) is over budget by millions & millions. BA are having to scramble around to find the cost savings, hence the sell off of BAH to IAGL, who despite trying to distance themselves from these tier point changes, have been working with the likes of BCG & McKinsey pulling the strings,

  • Tom James says:
    3 Jan3 January 14:52

    I do wonder how much of an impact BA are projecting this to have. Clearly the tier point runners are not profitable for their business model, and that’s precisely why they (myself included) use it as there’s a lot of value for those that travel frequently and appreciate the status benefits. I think it’s a pretty drastic change to make, where even silver will become unobtainable for most people where previously you just needed one or two BA holidays and some cheap Club Europe return flights. I think this change will hit BA’s revenue harder than expected as there are lots of far cheaper alternatives to obtain lounge access including priority passes and alternative airline loyalty programs available.

    Regarding soft-landings, it would be a slap in the face if they did change their stance and remove it before or during the upcoming tier point year, given that many people earned status under the existing model expecting any gold membership to essentially guarantee silver from April 2026. I pushed for gold this autumn and reached the gold threshold in December, knowing that it essentially provided a full year of gold, with the year of silver already in the bag. Of course BA won’t be pleased with customers that don’t intend to spend a reasonable amount whilst holding status but those are the rules that they established. It’s part of the game. Now if they pull the rug then it’s a breach of the terms that their existing revenue is based on. I suspect soft landings will disappear for status earned in the new tier point year, not for existing status holders, as they want to maintain some of the huge base of tier point runners that may at least settle for silver, bronze or blue if it means avoiding the likes of the bottom-feeding airlines.

  • Aaron says:
    3 Jan3 January 14:57

    In terms of Plan Bs: the gold-for-gold status match with Virgin Atlantic looks attractive – I flew (grudgingly at the time) a flexible domestic first-class round trip LGA-RSW with Delta last year for just under $1000, I didn’t even think to check my Flying Club account after. I just did, and there are 240 TPs credited for that one domestic US trip. 1000 TPs are needed for gold, so even without the status match, VA are basically offering elite SkyTeam status for not much over $4k. I could switch all my work flights to SAS and earn further Virgin TPs and miles from those. Am I going wrong somewhere?

    • Throwawayname says:
      3 Jan3 January 15:19

      I don’t think that you’re going wrong, but it can definitely be done for less. The really determined can get UX Elite Plus by doing 26 £20 MAD-BCN segments, and hopefully there won’t be too many Little Englanders getting incensed about it in the Barajas catchment area.

      • danstravel says:
        3 Jan3 January 15:39

        Interesting regarding Air Europa Assuming based in the UK (starting at LGW and connecting onwards via MAD) it would take roughly 6.5 return trips (4 segments per trip) to get SkyTeam Elite Plus. I am seeing a trip from LGW to BCN via MAD costing £150 return so it can be for a little over £1000.

        Any other airlines that let you get status via ‘just’ flight segments?

        • Throwawayname says:
          3 Jan3 January 15:48

          I think one of the Asian airlines (VN?) also has segment qualification, but FB is considered the easiest, if not the cheapest, as you get 15XP per cross-border business class segment and you can do double connections via AMS and CDG, so 90XP per ticket (gold is 180, but you need to have done another 100 to get to silver). There’s stuff about it on Flyertalk.

          Air Europa also offer some itineraries with double connections as they’ve got a mini hub in PMI.

      • Aaron says:
        3 Jan3 January 16:02

        Thanks for your reply – I am going to dip my toes in the water and book SAS Plus CPH-LHR round-trip for the end of this month, with credits and points going to Virgin. If that goes okay, I might end up jumping more quickly than first intended. I believe my BA Gold runs out in February ‘26. I will likely fly 50-60 sectors to/from/within the Nordics, plus another 3-4 long-haul trips to US and ME in that time. Made peace with the fact that this doesn’t get me Emerald any more with BA. So I need to look at plan B.

        • Throwawayname says:
          3 Jan3 January 17:57

          If you’re mostly in Y as opposed to Plus, I would make sure you pay attention to the fare codes, some of the very cheapest SK fares may not earn Virgin points.

        • PeterK says:
          3 Jan3 January 18:21

          Remember SAS Plus on shorthaul is going to be replaced with a proper business class offering soon so don’t assume your SAS Plus experience is going to be the future offering.

          • Aaron says:
            3 Jan3 January 19:19

            Thanks Peter and Throwawayname for the words of caution. I’ll use Jan to March this wear while the BA renewal periods align to test the waters and learn as much as I can – no point in responding to BA’s announcement with a misstep of my own.

  • Dino says:
    3 Jan3 January 14:59

    I have my Gold status secured for 2025/2026 and thanks to a few bookings made post Christmas and before 30th Dec, I should be able to squeeze another year of gold for 2026/2027 with a few additional bookings I plan to make. No way after that but may still aim for silver.

    Not sure the additional tier points for booking by 14th Feb will encourage many bookings as they are derisory vs the tiers. For flights later this year I am going to wait for a few months and see if any better incentive comes out

  • Definitas says:
    3 Jan3 January 15:05

    I have read the majority of comments with interest, mainly because the changes don’t affect me. I have been “tied” to BA for different reasons. I have flown transatlantic in J twice a year over the last 12 years on BA using an AMEX 2-4-1 and Avios earned through CC spend, sign up bonuses and referrals. The only exceptions are a CX flight to Australia which I credited to BAEC and a handful of short haul to Europe. All that means that I have never had any BA status other than Blue but always had business class terms and conditions. I retired 10 years ago but we have always just managed to make the spend for two 2–4-1 vouchers and earn/boost Avios. Retirement means I am able to book very early. Unfortunately, the increase in spend requirement means that earning 2 vouchers will now be out of reach. That, plus the change in terms for “churning” credit cards and dearth of referrals means Avios earnings will be so meagre as to no longer warrant paying for a credit card. So, it’s been a great game to play over those 12 years (all thanks to Rob and this website) but I have one more 2-4-1 to use and a little over 250K of Avios and it will all be over. I will still be wanting to fly once per year to MIA and at least once to ORD, (all in J) but I will soon be needing to look at all options for revenue flights, e.g. different airlines, ex EU, etc. I will be motivated mostly by cost so it will be interesting to see how BA compares and whether we carry on with them or whether we find a better option, maybe including a short break somewhere enroute. Whatever the outcome, I’m pretty confident that, even when card fees and extortion charges are removed, it’s going to cost me quite a bit more than reward flights have done hand our next flights are in F). Lastly, I am one of those low revenue customers clogging up the lounges that the BA warriors have complained about so, if there are many others like me, maybe our disappearance will help!

    • jj says:
      3 Jan3 January 16:45

      I don’t think that anyone is complaining about people travelling in Club being in the lounges. What upsets people is a lounge over-full of Economy flyers who have got there by making a couple of trips from Edinburgh to Sofia with some cheap car hire thrown in.

      • Matt says:
        3 Jan3 January 19:27

        How dare the economy fliers that have played the game, based on BA’s own imposed rules got onto hallowed turf.

        BA doesn’t like it change the rules – they just have, and everyone has just realised that loyalty is a one way street.

  • AlanD says:
    3 Jan3 January 15:08

    Jim Royle is back! Just copy and paste the corporate nonsense on BA.COM
    “Planet
    At British Airways, we care about the impact of every flight. That’s why we’re driving urgent action towards net zero emissions. We have a long history of managing and reducing our carbon emissions and a clear roadmap to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050, with ambitious short, medium and long-term initiatives to achieve our goals.”
    Mon derrière.

  • AlanD says:
    3 Jan3 January 15:16

    Business – Club World
    In Club World you can choose your main course, served with a starter, dessert and cheese. During your flight you can choose from snacks, plus hot, cold and alcoholic drinks, all delivered to your seat. Our signature afternoon tea features on some routes. Some routes? Delivered to my seat? No I’d rather come and collect. Mon derrière. Love Jim.

  • John says:
    3 Jan3 January 15:17

    I had prevaricated for several years over shelling out for a tier point run to reach gold, and settled instead for a status match to RJ gold sparrow. As I am (even more) unlikely to ever reach Gold under the new thresholds, I was wondering if it would be completely nuts to hit BA holidays between now and end-March to see if I could make the existing threshold for Gold via double TPs. Presumably this would only yield Gold for 13 months, though to 30 April 2026? Am I mad?! *fastens helmet*

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