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

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• David Collett says:

  4 Jan4 January 10:12

  BA have just made it easy to stop flying with a second rate, nearly always late, poor in flight service and substandard seats airline!
  The only reason in the immediate past to fly with BA was to retain a decent status in their exec club.

  Now we can all start flying with decent airlines.

• Garethgerry says:

  4 Jan4 January 10:29

  I just can’t believe people kept flying with BA if they thought it that bad, especially if flying business.

• Supersub says:

  4 Jan4 January 10:31

  Interesting to dig out this recent Financial Times (free) article including a quote from Rob Burgess – particularly on some of the key differences between the expectations of corporate versus “premium leisure” customers:
  https://www.ft.com/content/fcda8eec-8cf1-4059-a1c7-9c79b519aef3

  • Yona says:

    4 Jan4 January 10:55

    Erika Enne, head of in-flight customer experience at Finnair, says that there are some “base needs” that corporate and leisure travellers have in common, notably “a hassle-free journey and high quality experience”.

    … they won’t find that on Finnair …

• PB2 says:

  4 Jan4 January 10:37

  The old system was inflation-proof unlike the new one..so I assume thresholds will rise further 5/10 years down the line. And what about the lifetime limits. The 35k TP figure represented 23 years of successive Gold. In 20 years will they bump the already high lifetime targets too…

• Metty says:

  4 Jan4 January 10:39

  I’m in a philosophical mood today. I have to thank Rob and team for creating HfP in the first place. I used to while away night shifts reading flyertalk forums but when HfP came along, creating a blog that translated all the flyertalk jargon into language that I could understand, I was able to start flying the family in the pointy end on hols after 40 years of economy travel.

  Inspired by HfP I did my first Tier Points run 13 years ago. BA GGL status has been brilliant, I’m less fussed about champagne and posh dining but have appreciated the relative calm of the CCR on occasion if with guests/family. Ordinarily I don’t bother, so although one of the hated – according to badnewsfairy on flyertalk – low profit TP run folks that the changes are designed to eradicate, I’m not drinking a bottle of LPGS a trip. The GGL ‘giveaway’ 1x Gold and 2x Silver cards have been welcome, being able to cancel Avios bookings for free and the excellent GGL phone line/customer service will be missed and the space releases have been the best benefit for us as it means we can almost always get 4x F seats to SIN etc when we want. But clearly, from April 2026, that’s the end of all that.

  I see it more of a separation where one partner in the relationship ‘just can’t do this any more’; it’s annoying that BA’s managers decided to hit their year end target by rolling the changes out in a hurry after the false starts in the last couple of months when clearly having a start date outside of the D-355 booking window would create far less annoyance from those who have numerous bookings already – in my case 29 BA sectors – in pursuit of GGL retention in the short term and GoldForLife which I would have achieved in 2028. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my relationship with BA and thank HfP for introducing us in the first place.

  Yes I could still fly BA after 1-Apr-26 using Avios but as I was summarily dumped in a previous relationship (by Amex) for (presumably) spending £20-25k in a month in pursuit of BA Tier Points in the 2023/4 TP challenge, I no longer have 2-4-1s. So using Avios on BA would feel like dating the ex and other partners are available – Qatar, Finnair, Malaysian etc – who feel different to BA and more consistent, be it robotic, cool or fabulous. Having a relationship with BA is akin to having a partner subject to extreme mood swings.

  Today’s task is to book a trip to get the 350TPs to trigger some more GoldUpgrade vouchers. A few NCL-LHR-NCLs or ARN-LIS-ARN….

  • Phil says:

    4 Jan4 January 11:38

    Same, our peak BA period was 6-7 years ago. Multiple 241 redemptions a year coupled with paid ex-Eu business TP runs for pittance. Flying first on a 747 in 1A/1K will never be repeated. My children will never believe me when I tell them about the golden age of BAEC shenanigans.

    To all those saying we took the p*ss and only have ourselves to blame for the demise of BAEC – I have no regrets and many fond memories.

    • pete says:

      4 Jan4 January 18:00

      4E/F or 5E/F were the best in F on a 747. Used to call them the “giggle” seats. 1A/1K too far apart to have a laugh with your partner.

    • pete says:

      4 Jan4 January 18:02

      4 E/F and 5/EF were best on the 747 if flying with your partner. Used to call them the “giggle” seats. 1A/K too far apart to have a laugh

  • Track says:

    4 Jan4 January 12:54

    AMEX didn’t like a sudden £20-25k in a month spending and did something with a care (eg, closed the account)?

    • PH says:

      4 Jan4 January 14:48

      Don’t think Amex would have closed an account for genuine spend in line with T&Cs…

      • Rui N. says:

        4 Jan4 January 18:52

        You think wrong

        • Andy G says:

          5 Jan5 January 08:44

          Forgive me, but your cryptic comment makes little sense. Genuine spend is genuine spend and I don’t think anyone reading this thread believes Amex would close you down for that. If you have additional insight, please do share though!

        • Jonathan says:

          5 Jan5 January 09:48

          Amex have closed accounts who abuse their Shop Small promotion when it runs. When it’s been highlighted here on HfP, there’s a warning that HfP readers have had their accounts closed for trying to make a quick bonus that’s clearly rule breaking or brazenly looking for trouble

      • Metty says:

        5 Jan5 January 10:31

        I don’t want to re-open my Amex divorce thread; the fact is that only Amex and the Ombudsman know exactly what triggered account closure. I didn’t knowingly do anything ‘naughty’ but did buy a lot of Avios to trigger the TP spend target shortly before I was terminated and Amex never did give me the TPs I ‘earnt’ in good faith.

• David S says:

  4 Jan4 January 10:55

  If BA genuinely have been told to make £500 M savings , why don’t they have a much stronger focus on not cancelling routes, not cancelling flights or suffering extensive delays ? I know it’s an industry wide issue but BA simply seem to be worse at dealing with it and end up paying millions in Compo. If they get it right it would dwarf savings from the loyalty scheme changes.

  Just about to start a trip to SEA. BA flight to KUL cancelled, out of six internal flights , only a 15 minute delay on one and they came across as sincere in apologising for this. Had seven internal flights on our trip to SEA last year and zero problems. I reckon that at least a third of my BA trips in CE have one problem or another, particularly at LGW.

  • George says:

    4 Jan4 January 11:14

    Many CEO’s etc see a cost as something to cut rather than understanding that cutting the cost might lead to lower revenue and lower profit in the future. They can’t see beyond the current quarter/year though and quite they often leave before the stuff hits the fan or fail upwards

    • Phil says:

      4 Jan4 January 11:45

      BA just can’t decide what they want to be. If I want the cheapest option, I wouldn’t go near BA. But I’m not looking for cheap, I’m looking for a positive enjoyable travel experience. Honestly don’t know where to look for that now.

    • Richie says:

      4 Jan4 January 12:59

      You are spot on @George. Revenues aren’t a given.

    • Phil says:

      4 Jan4 January 14:29

      Short-term bonus goals have entrenched this culture.
      If they make a change with benefits 3 yrs later a successor might reap the rewards instead

      I have seen this in companies and where presenteeism is seen as more important than knowledge or output

• Phil says:

  4 Jan4 January 11:12

  Here is a simple climbdown BA could achieve that could both drive people to need to spend more to attain, reduce some load on the lounges and also not make loyal BA flyers feel like they have been viewed as parasites for not dropping eye watering sums for not great service.

  Option 1:
  Introduce intermediate levels between the existing ones with some of the benefits at more attainable levels in between.
  Also introduce a tier above gold with higher req but some benefits in between G and GGL.

  Lastly introduce a step between blue and bronze with no real benefits but free seat selection x days before boarding at 1/2 pts of Bronze but only on Prem Ec or higher class ticket.

  So Blue, Bronze-, Bronze, Silver-, Silver, Gold-, Gold, Gold+, GGL. Obviously with BS marketing names like Platinum and Titanium.

  Blue – as is

  Bronze- as discussed

  Bronze – as is

  Silver- nets off the free seat selection and business lounge access in domestic only with Prem ecc ticket but gives ability to buy LoungePass for overseas for a year ( the PremEc feature).
  Price 1/2 way between bronze and silver

  Silver as is

  Gold- this gets you first class lounge for domestic as upgrade on silver but only if you are flying business class.
  Price 1/2 way to Gold from silver.

  Gold as is but a single CCR pass with guest redemption if flying business or higher

  Gold+ you just add in 1 free pass to the CCR for 2 regardless of flight class.

  You can tweak these as needed but as the extra ones don’t correspond to OW status no clash and people drop levels without feeling too aggrieved and losing all benefits.
  The one above blue gives new people a feeling ‘in the club’.

  Option 2 is reduce the TP levels but introduce flight reqs so you cannot achieve higher status on all economy.

  So you get:
  Silver = £7500 or £4000 inc 2 business class flights
  Gold = 20k or £12k inc 4 business class flights

  You could do similiar with GGL.
  Could even set a specific number of CW vs CE thresholds or WTP or above and impose BA metal reqs.

  A combo of this and option 1 would be complicated but definitely stop a lot of ill will and limit the ability to get status ‘on the cheap’ as BA thinks, while driving spend.

  • Phoenixed says:

    4 Jan4 January 11:26

    Some variant of this I.e. more milestones with selectable benefits, and changes to benefits in the status tiers, was part of a proposition I understand from contacts that was considered but ultimately rejected or is indefinitely on hold. A different consultancy was involved in the proposals, and it would have included milestone benefits in lower tiers.

    Maybe we could see the Avios milestones that have been announced evolve into something more interesting in future.

  • BrancasterLancaster says:

    4 Jan4 January 11:52

    Possible Option Three – Legacy Multipliers.

    It would require some maths, but would offer BA some face saving without having to reverse course or water down the future direction (“we listened to your feedback and are doing something, but this change is staying”).

    Essentially give all existing Exec Club members a multiplier based on a number of factors (time served, average status, average spend). Have it last a few years or forever unless spend fell below a threshold.

    Advantages: recognises customer loyalty and allows BA to thin the herd (the multiplier function could be done in such a way as to penalise TP runners or others deemed a burden – their club, their rules).

    Disadvantages: Delays full implementation of this new model.

    • Phil says:

      4 Jan4 January 14:00

      I think doing those calcs might be more room for cock-ups, probable data errors and complaints tbh.
      Also any delay extends the pain point beyond April and the rolling negativity

  • Tim S says:

    4 Jan4 January 12:52

    so you’re rewarding people who fly domestic and sticking up 2 fingers to people who fly international

    let me guess, most of your travel is domestic

    • Phil says:

      4 Jan4 January 13:28

      No most of my travel is international.
      Tell me why you think this is sticking 2 fingers up to international travellers?

      Give your reasoning rather than just a throw away comment.
      When you say domestic are you meaning those not based overseas or are you trying to say this is great for someone flying around BHX to LHR a lot?

      • Tim S says:

        4 Jan4 January 15:33

        you said giving extra benefits of “lounge access to people flying domestic”, but not international

        It is you who introduced the term. I just repeated it

        • Phil says:

          4 Jan4 January 17:51

          If you mean the Silver- “business lounge access in domestic only with Prem ecc ticket” this would fall under you not understanding / misinterpreting.
          There is no domestic prem ecc ticket. Its WTP.

          The benefit is only available in BA lounges in the UK so only in ‘domestic’ lounges. You could use T5 business as Silver- but you need to either do LoungePass overseas or get to full Silver / fly higher ticket.

          So no does not reward domestic travellers at all under that guise.
          Devil is in detail and looking at the travel class you must be.

          This is why I wanted you to show your working / how you figured it was ‘two fingers up to intl’ rather than just bark and run.

          You’d get it outbound at LHR but not be able to use BA biz facility in US, JNB, Geneva or any partner lounges so preventing it becoming a big cost centre and point of contention / deter going full silver.

          See how working it through instead of just dismissing out of hand with a missive comment gets things further.
          Is this looking a better proposition now you have read it and had it explained a bit?

          If you have viable improvements suggest them and why. Who knows it may improve it.

          I don’t work for BA because I put some actual thought into this from multiple types of traveller 🙂

        • Phil says:

          4 Jan4 January 18:47

          May having accidentslly replied to myself before…

          If you mean the Silver- “business lounge access in domestic only with Prem ecc ticket” this would fall under you not understanding / misinterpreting.
          There is no domestic prem ecc ticket. Its WTP.

          The benefit is only available in BA lounges in the UK so only in ‘domestic’ lounges. You could use T5 business as Silver- but you need to either do LoungePass overseas or get to full Silver / fly higher ticket.

          So no does not reward domestic travellers at all under that guise.
          Devil is in detail and looking at the travel class you must be.

          This is why I wanted you to show your working / how you figured it was ‘two fingers up to intl’ rather than just bark and run.

          You’d get it outbound at LHR but not be able to use BA biz facility in US, JNB, Geneva or any partner lounges so preventing it becoming a big cost centre and point of contention / deter going full silver.

          See how working it through instead of just dismissing out of hand with a missive comment gets things further.
          Is this looking a better proposition now you have read it and had it explained a bit?

          If you have viable improvements suggest them and why. Who knows it may improve it. But having a series of angry Blue on Blues isn’t going to come up with a practical alternative

          I don’t work for BA because I put some actual thought into this from multiple types of traveller 🙂

  • PH says:

    4 Jan4 January 14:52

    Too complicated for marketing to customers and implementing but they should have thrown some bones eg Bronze gets X LHR/LGW lounge vouchers per year under the new regime

    • Danny says:

      4 Jan4 January 15:06

      To be honest a few OW Ruby schemes give lounge access to their own flyers flying on their own airlines – Qatar and Cathay I think? While Qantas did/does offer a couple of lounge visits to their own OW Ruby flyers

      • Phil says:

        4 Jan4 January 18:44

        Yes and as long as the benefit is not conferred to a OW status group equiv nobody can complain if they are that OW status and don’t get it anyway.

        Its up to BA how they implement in their own scheme but intermediate steps with names ( obviously flowery marketing like Bronze Plus or Sterling Silver instead of Silver- ) seems the logical to me

    • Phil says:

      4 Jan4 January 15:16

      It could be fairly straightforward and offers the opportunity to offer a non-OW boost as a promotion – you don’t get a TP boost we will bump your status to one of the intermediate notches if you book a BA holiday or flights of X class in the last months before status reset to be flown by 1st July and attached high refund cost.

      BA literally creating the TP run but on their terms.

      You could even add a Silver for Life level as a step towards GfL to give another aspirational step

      Offers lots of marketing opportunities

  • Tim S says:

    5 Jan5 January 15:34

    I have a problem with this bark and run comment.

    I made a reply, stayed around to reply to your reply and I’m here again ready to reply but you have turned replies off

    who’s doing the running here?

    Though I am running now. I am spending far too much of my time reading/replying to a thread which is only going around in circles – general comments, not your comments specifically.

    None of us here can do anything to change this scheme, all we can do is make our ire known to anyone at BA who is reading. I think that has been achieved.

    And I have learnt that I am the minority – someone trying for silver on WT ticket purchases (paid for out of my own money, though that part isn’t relevant to the discussion).

    I see the majority are people routinely travelling J/Y complaining that they will no longer get to gold.

    And I genuinely don’t get that. Why would someone who receives most of the perks of OW status in their ticket price complain about not accruing status?
    .

    • Phil says:

      5 Jan5 January 16:54

      I haven’t turned replies off at all.
      In fact I’m replying now so please direct your anger elsewhere as I don’t have that power. Perhaps someone else thought you might pop a snarky comment and closed it off?

      The bark and run was the fact you made a massive assumption, threw in a missive and seemed a bit irate rather than engaging and explaining or suggesting something constructive. The tone was very accusitive by you if read back yourself. That’s why I said its a case of blue on blue and while I know its an emotive issue blurting out that someone is sticking two fingers up at you and being alright jack isn’t going to help. You misunderstood and now you’ve doubled down accusing me of something else. Easy does it everyone here didn’t cause you an issue, BA did

      As I’ve explained several times as a Northern Monkey status allowed me to use an economy conx on way home having been on a business or first flight.
      Nothing more.

      There are quite a few people I know who that is the benefit and reason for wanting status as you get sweet FA regardless of class of plane you came off without.

      • Tim S says:

        6 Jan6 January 07:16

        It wasn’t anger, I was just commenting. The 2nd post that you replied to me has the reply button missing.

        And I did explain why I made the comment that I made.

        You introduced the concept of intermediate status only qualifying people to use the lounge only for domestic travel

        and I pointed out to you that such a move disenfranchises people who earn their points whilst never making a domestic journey (admittedly somewhat aggressively, so sorry for that)

        And then you argued that I hadn’t defined (your term) domestic travel properly, no wonder I got annoyed.

        I do not think that I got into an argument about anything else.

        As to any suggestion that I need to make constructive points here, My view is that if you want to start making proposals for Silver-lite or Gold-lite, then they need to be changes that affect all travellers the same – E.g. removing the free second checked bag, or downgrading pre-seat selection. Not suggesting things where some types of travel, be it domestic, short haul, or long haul gain access to a perk whilst others (on the same TP count) do not.

        Perhaps if you want to downgrade lounge access, then how about introducing a limit of, say 10 times per year (that number sems a bit low, I’m negotiable here).

        • Phil says:

          6 Jan6 January 08:23

          Tim, firstly thank you for replying and the comments around benefits, the doubling down was accusing me of turning off replies, which I don’t even know if is a feature.
          Bark & run is what I call short seemingly angry responses to a long post rather than you disappearing entirely. From my forum mod days. Apologies if thought was accusing you of doing a runner / not replying.
          It was more the “bet you’re a…”and then doubling down by quoting something I can’t find anywhere written in my post.
          If you’d put the bit you just have about all travellers equally at TP level the way you have now we both would have probably looked at each others replies in different light.

          I can see where your confusion came in but the thing you put in quotes I never wrote – it doesn’t appear anywhere in what I typed and you’d also misunderstood the proposition.
          I hadn’t written that anything that anyone purely travelling short-haul as a domestic traveller would benefit from. I had written something that a UK based international traveller would have but only in UK lounges ( the domestic bit)

          It applied to domestically run lounges hence the difference between a BA UK lounge and a BA overseas lounges / OW lounges abroad.
          Limit to WTP as giving it to economy makes it same as Silver so pointless. However economy get ability to buy LoungePass for a year ( regardless of flying in UK or abroad).

          Gold light is simply allowing business class into BA UK based terminals first lounge. That makes controlling rollout easier.

          Perks are already limited by travel class regardless of tier points for some bits. Completely get the fairness angle and spot on needs to be seen fair

          I think this has just been a misunderstanding and misreading, perhaps could have been clearer and as its emotive replies came across accusatory / angry.

          I also think the Reply button is disappearing once replies go a certain as say a reply to a reply to a reply. Maybe to prevent long tangents or discussions.

          To be clear silver- benefits intl travellers in WTP when flying from / to UK with business lounge in UK airports. Eg LHR you get Galleries access.
          Economy can buy LoungePass for a year to use anywhere as upgrade option to your account ( normally limited to WTP and one flight only).

          Gold- just gives business class flyers an upgrade to First lounge ( not concorde) in BA UK lounges

          If a success can apply to BA run overseas lounges.

          Hope that clears things and again thank you for replying and the constructive comment

• RC says:

  4 Jan4 January 11:21

  stages of grief:
  Denial – the reaction to badnewsfairy in September
  Anger – most of the post 1-2000
  Bargaining – posts today – like many above
  Depression – coming next week when nothing changes
  Acceptance – sooner the better – book the schedule and price/quality that suits you. And this is where BA has a problem, I think – it schedule is poor, the product is mediocre – and has become more so, and the price is uncompetitive in many situations. So ‘acceptance’ means BA becomes an even more commoditised purchase for the majority.

  • cats_are_best says:

    5 Jan5 January 08:46

    You left out…

    Revenge 🙂

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