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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.

  • GUWonder says:
    5 Jan5 January 17:03

    I am looking at the Royal Jordanian or Qantas way, in terms of a replacement for BA status as my back-up Oneworld elite status for lounge use when flying AA and AS “domestically”/“regionally” and wanting lounge access for those flights in/from the US.

    • LittleNick says:
      5 Jan5 January 22:08

      Agreed, this is why I’d steer clear of AA/AS status. Not all status is created equal!

  • Garethgerry says:
    5 Jan5 January 17:36

    The interesting thing about the article

    https://www.headforpoints.com/2015/04/16/how-many-ba-passengers-with-status-use-terminal-5-in-a-day/

    Is the shape of the distribution. I was expecting a pyramid, more bronze than silver, more silver than gold.

    However Gold was the biggest group , yet it’s supposed to be just the most valuable, showing even back then gold was too easy.

    • GUWonder says:
      5 Jan5 January 17:46

      I think it’s because people with higher elite status are just more likely to be taking more flights than those with lower or no elite status. It’s sort of the same thing with hotels. For example, the Sheraton at a European airport will often be majority elites being Platinum+ while Golds are far fewer. Sometimes it means the hotels will do a “Gold of the day” and upgrade them to Platinum+ type benefits for the stay anyway since Gold’s for the night are really a drop in the bucket compared to Plats/Titaniums for the same night. So it really has less to do with ease of qualification/retention than those with higher status tend to be using the travel service providers way more often than lower status elites.

      • Jc says:
        5 Jan5 January 19:01

        That makes complete sense I flew more when I reached silver to keep the status even more so when I reached gold. As leisure travellers it’s the only way to get the tier points. My wife and I are not wealthy. We also have to take the cost of time off into. Account as I’m self employed. I would have thought BA had us trapped and would have done everything possible to keep us so especially as we don’t cost them much in benefits. Six or seven trips a year maybe two in long haul and all in premium cabins mostly with BA holidays.

  • Garethgerry says:
    5 Jan5 January 17:44

    Looking at Tim S calculations above 30% of travelers have some status and 20% silver or above , 11% gold.

    Plus of course non status business travellers.

    • GUWonder says:
      5 Jan5 January 19:15

      There are times when I have had access to a city pairs’ passenger manifests for the period and generally it was not going to be anywhere close to as high as 30% of passengers on board a flight having elite status. There are some business-heavy routes/flight times where that would be the case for some flights on a day, but 30% would generally be an exaggeration on the high side.

      And nowadays pure business travelers really don’t amount for as high a proportion of passengers as used to be the case and their status levels based on flight distances and segments flown just on work travel is probably down when it comes to the European and North American markets.

  • Jay says:
    5 Jan5 January 17:46

    Dissatisfied flyers choosing other oneworld FFPs, achieving OWS and OWE statuses and will continue use BA lounges, FW access and other oneworld status benefits. Big spenders who become OWS and OWE start or continuing to use the same permises and benefits. How that makes the whole situation at the airport better, less crowded lounges and check.-in desks and brings more revenue to BA?
    BA still have the time just add the monetary spend and not change anything regarding TP earning and status requirements.
    Destroying the loyalty is another thing, you can loose the trust only once.
    BA F meal cardbox was the highlift on the BA premium service. Was that suggested by McKinsey or by BA “creativity” department? Apparently, it was great idea, followed by “brunch enchantement”.

    • GUWonder says:
      5 Jan5 January 18:26

      What I have seen go on with Delta in particular after they led in the charge to massively increase the cost of getting elite status, many didn’t pay attention to the changes and were late to learn they had been hi. Others among the “leisure” elites and leisure travel “status toppers” dropped back from the DL elite status game and instead went with just buying premium cabin tickets on the same or other airlines since elite status benefits weren’t amounting to all that much anyway. Add in credit cards with included lounge access, and elite status chasing in the program (and maybe even airline programs in general) will drop in popularity.

  • Nick says:
    5 Jan5 January 18:48

    If it’s all about revenue going forward to me it feels fairer that you scrap the tiers. If you’re flying First you get access to First Wing and Concorde Lounge and free seat selection. Club World you get First Wing, Gold Lounge and free seat selection. Club Europe you use the Club check in and Galleries lounges with free seat selection, apart from front row where you pay an extra premium. For economy they can run it like every other carrier and layer charges and the passenger can choose.

    • Andy says:
      5 Jan5 January 19:13

      This makes a lot of sense… as someone who pays for long haul J flights I object to being ‘nickle and dimed’ for seat selection so tend to choose other carriers that don’t charge for seat selection

    • GUWonder says:
      5 Jan5 January 19:19

      BA/IAG still wants a loyalty program to make money for it. Scrapping the program in entirety would be bad for business and leave it even more dependent upon (and vulnerable to) core operations.

      • Clive says:
        5 Jan5 January 19:27

        I remain convinced that a lot of people who were previously prisoners of their points – as I was – will now shop elsewhere, especially as BA’s standards have drifted steadily downwards for so long. I agree with Andy on the cheek of asking non-status J passengers to pay for seat selection, I certainly won’t do that once I’ve lost BA status. Rather as AF once lost £5K of business from me (when I was with SkyTeam) because they wanted me to call a premium rate telephone number, little things matter, however illogical they might be. So I really don’t see how this will increase premium passengers numbers at all, but my word, I’m convinced that it will hit those numbers fairly drastically, so causing a significant loss of revenue to BA.

        • GUWonder says:
          5 Jan5 January 19:34

          I think what I saw go on with Delta will hit BA even more. The level of disposable income in the UK and Europe in general among frequent travelers is a fraction of what it is in the US, and so massively increasing spend requirements for airline status will hit a bigger proportion of the elite status roll numbers at BA and other European airlines than it would at say a Delta Air Lines.

          Delta’s changes seemed to be more about running up revenue for Delta, while BA’s changes seem to me to be about cost-cutting.

          • Phil says:
            5 Jan5 January 20:43

            The cost cutting angle leaves BA in an even worse position than pushing revenue.

            Greed is an airline squeezing its customers but not axing basic services

            Cost-cutting puts a mindset that it is an airline needing to trim and nothing off limits.

            People hate greed but run a mile from cost-cutting unless the ticket price makes it the clear winner and worth the risk.

    • Phil says:
      5 Jan5 January 20:29

      Wouldn’t that disadvantage BA vs every competitor / OW prog?
      BA customers would have OWR boarding ahead of them if don’t pay extra and have Europe bound OWE in a lounge BA flyers can’t get.

      CW getting first access might also exacerbate the claims of overcrowding.

      Last question how would the status translate overseas if paid for upgrade in economy as OW status other airlines get, but anything beyond that are normally own airline only so codeshares and overseas lounges might just ignore.

      Its not beyond wits to workaround and definitely something they may have in their minds to do.

      Loyalty progs do drive spend in the jam tomorrow sense too – if I can choose someone else and get OW status and that benefit for each flight then why would I choose to pay top dollar each and every flight to get it just for that one?

      That’s the connundrum as BA do not operate in isolation no matter how much they like to think they are the market.

    • SXPARKIN says:
      5 Jan5 January 21:18

      Club world – no ‘automatic access’ to First Wing though I thought ? Sorry If I got that wrong.

      • PH says:
        6 Jan6 January 15:11

        That is correct, the poster above is proposing a way they *could* operate

    • Scott says:
      6 Jan6 January 18:46

      They might as well turn GF into the CCR, send GCH upstairs to GC, making that GF, and CW / CE to GC North. Maybe let silver in and charge everyone else.

      Those checking into F and GGLs will have sole access to the first wing.

  • Bertie says:
    5 Jan5 January 19:33

    If this helps get the silver economy traveller bludgers out of the lounges it can only be an improvement.

    • GUWonder says:
      5 Jan5 January 19:47

      It might do that, but a lot of people will instead buy Club Europe/World and use the lounges anyway. And maybe BA will consolidate lounges at LHR and thus the packed lounge experience will remain anyway.

    • SBIre says:
      5 Jan5 January 19:48

      I cannot see that happening, I can only see more silvers as a result (lots of downgraded Golds, high spending BAH-ers and the CE/CW payers) so much more crowded lounges apart from the F Lounge in T5, the CX F Lounge in T3 etc

      • GUWonder says:
        5 Jan5 January 20:05

        The proportion of Silvers to Gold+ is definitely going to be a lot higher than it currently is. But will even most regular Golds today make Silver? I have my doubts about that. Either way, more people should ditch chasing airline elite status and go full mercenary on the airlines and have loyalty to only their own personal bank account.

  • PB884 says:
    5 Jan5 January 19:45

    Any thoughts why it was Iberia who first announced Avios earn based on spend, then BA who adjusted TP years to same as Iberia, and now BA first to announce status via spend. It felt that Iberia Plus, which I presume is less popular and of less value to IAG, was trialling these changes. I guess the “The Club” makes amalgamation a little easier.

    • sigma421 says:
      5 Jan5 January 19:56

      I wonder if they’re really unsure what the thresholds need to be for IB. They’re much smaller than BA in the US, less business driven as a whole and there’s no way the Spanish market could cope with the thresholds BA has set (not that I’m convinced the U.K. market can)

  • EDSG says:
    5 Jan5 January 21:00

    This is pain for me. Fortunate enough to travel business/1st for work, but love the Gold Tier status so can use fast track check-in speedy boarding for family holidays with all my kids when travelling economy on my own dime.

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