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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.

  • Dubious says:
    9 Jan9 January 13:44

    Nice additional kick in the teeth in the form of short-notice…
    Two relatives just recieved this email from BA about the tier point collection year end date which was discussed many moons ago by others:

    “We’re contacting you with more information on the changes announced to your Tier Point Collection Year, and what this means for you.

    This change will move all Executive Club Members onto the same annual collection period of 1 April to 31 March. When your next collection period begins on 9 February 2025 it will end on 31 March 2025 instead of 8 February 2026.”

    Woohoo! A whole 51 days to collect the requiste TPs! Thank you for the notice 30.5 days in advance!

    [The actual situation is moot because I obviously knew about the situation already and both relatives are Blue members. Yet it does seem like a bit of a kick-in the teeth for anyone in this situation who hasn’t already been informed].

    • Rhys says:
      9 Jan9 January 13:58

      I was re-informed a month before my old TP collection year ended. So they probably have been informed, and this is a reminder?

      • Dubious says:
        9 Jan9 January 14:33

        Quite possibly, and perhaps due to the wording of the introductory sentence was
        “We’re contacting you with more information” which suggests they did get some prior communication but also that this is new (additional) information.

        • Rhys says:
          9 Jan9 January 14:40

          Sounds exactly like my follow-up email.

          • George says:
            9 Jan9 January 14:47

            “If you’re off to Frankfurt, why would you just book BA now by default if Lufthansa was cheaper / more convenient?”

            Why would you do that anyway?

          • Rob says:
            9 Jan9 January 15:17

            Because if I book BA tomorrow for £20 more than LH I get First Wing access, Galleries First access, Group 1 priority boarding, fast track security etc thrown in plus goodies on the return too.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      9 Jan9 January 15:21

      Nice partial quoting from the email!

      The next sentence is this

      “This is a shorter time for you to collect Tier Points, so we’ll add a Tier Point Adjustment to your account, consisting of any Tier Points earnt from 1 April 2024 to 8 November 2024. This Tier Point Adjustment will be added within 14 days of 8 November 2024 and the Tier status earned will remain until 30 April 2026.”

      (Obviously the dates are different for you)

      And every was sent an email about the changes when they were first announced,

      • George says:
        9 Jan9 January 20:08

        “Galleries First access, Group 1 priority boarding, fast track security etc thrown in”

        Everyone says the lounges are rubbish, half the plane has group one so you only really get fast track security, which barely saves any times from my multiple experiences

  • qc says:
    9 Jan9 January 15:30

    I am one of those who has little chance of even getting to Silver now despite having been Gold for at least 10 years and Silver before that. We retired early and have always funded our travel ourselves apart from a few trips to Tokyo, SIN, and HKG that my husband took about 20 years ago.
    I think it’s a bit galling to have those whose flights funded by their employers still be able to attain status.
    We only ever did one TP run and that was to HNL where we had always wanted to go but unlike those who turned around and came home we had 3 weeks there touring the other islands. We have done a couple of BAHs but we always hire a car when we travel so I consider those TPs legitimately earned as it was a BA promotion.
    Without the assurance that soft landings I won’t book any revenue flights with BA but will instead burn through our Avios. The Amex membership points will go to another airline.

    • Lady London says:
      9 Jan9 January 16:16

      Of course it’s galling but you are now commercially useless to BA and BA is very clearly telling you so.

    • Danny says:
      9 Jan9 January 23:21

      BA is telling you to B-Off

  • Parvin says:
    9 Jan9 January 16:15

    My first flight since the BIG NEWS BA announcement. Currently sitting on the tarmac in CE 1A for flight at LGW to SVQ….45 mins and counting delay……this in itself is not a big deal considering the adverse weather. What resonates is the impression you get from BA…. Cabin crew seem inexperienced, clueless about how to communicate and engage with passengers, the one and only toilet up front is out of order…. So I ask myself…..why am I here…. currently it’s because I am BA gold (spending my own money)….but the reality is it’s just not value for money regardless how one got their status…..all the snobbish sneering at gamers and TP runners miss the point. Everyone will realise sooner or later (including myself) that there are better places to spend your own money.

  • Keith says:
    9 Jan9 January 17:19

    Assuming BA silver and gold status is now out of reach for most…..what is the most cost effective one world airline to credit my spend to in order to get the equivalent one world status, ie sapphire etc.

    Or is it not a simple question?

    Apologies if covered already

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      9 Jan9 January 19:35

      @Rob said, in response to a question on an other article, that he would write some articles on other programmes but these won’t appear immediately as they take a lot of research and there are so many to choose from.

      As a a start I’d head over to flyer talk as each of the major airline boards usually has an introduction to their programme article.

    • GUWonder says:
      9 Jan9 January 21:40

      Some people with time are looking at Malaysian Enrich with the status arising from use of a travel pass. But how many have time to bounce around like crazy on MH regional flights? I guess there are ways to make that into a vacation too, but still.

  • Garethgerry says:
    9 Jan9 January 22:29

    Funny when I said some time ago club Europe wasn’t worth the extra, got a real telling off, from almost everyone.

    Now everyone who loved BA be cause of staus is saying B is rubbish

    I still think they had to tighten up, and on the end the more you spend the more you are worth to BA

    • Points Hound says:
      9 Jan9 January 23:01

      “Almost everyone’, ‘Now everyone’……………………🙄

      The other egoistical fantasists that dwell here have gotten the better of you over the last few weeks @Garethgerry. Take a breath, reality isn’t far away.

    • Scott says:
      10 Jan10 January 06:17

      If everyone starts spending more with BA, then no-one will really be worth anything.

      If you suddenly start spending £25k/or rather than £3k for gold, BA aren’t going to suddenly start welcoming you like an old friend, throwing this and that at you etc. You’re going to be the same old non-enity on the ground and on board, barring the odd crew member who might deviate from the script.

    • JDB says:
      10 Jan10 January 08:09

      I would have been one of those supporting Club Europe that is very much worth the extra as far as we are concerned. In our early sixties, we really don’t want to be jostling in economy or on an LCC. The price of CE a small premium to pay for a journey that is better in every way; it’s actually a very good product save for the wine. I couldn’t say the same for Club World.

      There is though, as you say , a great irony that we have had all these people jumping through hoops and spending money for this very important BA status saying they never fancied her anyway, she’s rubbish and they have got their eyes on another that looks a lot more attractive. We’ll see how that goes in reality.

      We will probably lose our silver cards next April, but so blooming what! We will stick with BA.

  • Kevin says:
    10 Jan10 January 06:57

    I would like to know why I’m penalised by the new rules because I book 10 months in advance at the price BA set, and the people that book last minute for the same flight pay more obviously last minute but they will make some status and I won’t. That doesn’t seem right.

    • George says:
      10 Jan10 January 07:50

      Because they’re spending more

      • Kevin says:
        10 Jan10 January 08:13

        So I lose out because I book early as I need to which is not by my first choice which is a benefit to BA who have my money early, so are you suggesting I should ask BA for the ticket price to be adjusted to the peak price. And not the price they sell it early at ??

        • Throwawayname says:
          10 Jan10 January 08:37

          You’re not being penalised, instead they’re doing you a favour by nudging you to move your business to a better airline/alliance.

        • Swiss Jim says:
          10 Jan10 January 09:06

          Why don’t you phone up nearer the time and ask to pay more? I’m sure they’d accommodate you.

        • George says:
          10 Jan10 January 10:31

          “are you suggesting I should ask BA for the ticket price to be adjusted to the peak price. And not the price they sell it early at ??”

          Yes that’s exactly what I’m suggesting.

          • Kevin says:
            10 Jan10 January 11:52

            Ok just tried that with a ghost booking and as I thought it’s not possible, you pay the price that is on the system. So back to my original gripe I’m penalised through no fault of my own. Booking late is of no use to me. Any other bright ideas ??

    • jjoohhnn says:
      10 Jan10 January 10:01

      You have always had the choice to book a more flexible booking class in advance if desired!

      • George says:
        10 Jan10 January 12:14

        “Any other bright ideas ??”

        Pay extra each time for the benefits you’d get from status or use another airline (which is going to either be as good/bad or better)

        • planeconcorde says:
          10 Jan10 January 13:58

          “Any other bright ideas ??”

          At 10 months in advance just buy the most flexible ticket instead of the cheapest available.

          Give BA a donation by buying £1,000 worth of fuel credits.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      10 Jan10 January 13:28

      Where have you been?

      This is how avios earning has been for the last couple of years.

      The more you pay the more avios you get.

      This is an extension of that.

    • Gerry says:
      10 Jan10 January 13:43

      Even 10 months out, you don’t have to book the cheapest fare bucket. Most of the other buckets should be open and a ticket can be issued in Y or B instead of S, T or whatever is cheapest. Even via the website, you can always pick the most flexible ticket instead of checking “cheapest, earning lowest Avios” or whatever that box says.

  • Throwawayname says:
    10 Jan10 January 08:35

    @JDB , have you ever flown in business class with Aegean, TK, TAP, Swiss etc? Admittedly it’s been a long time since my last BA flight, but the claim that they offer ‘a journey that is better in every way’ than the competition seems very ambitious indeed. And, if you’re going to be using LHR (which is pretty much unavoidable with BA), T2 offers a much better experience than T5.

    • Kevin says:
      10 Jan10 January 08:47

      To be honest I don’t want to move airline as sad as that sounds been with BA 22 years, I fly mostly to the US and know I have various options but…. Always BA but I think my loyalty will end when I drop out of gold in 2026 sadly😞

      • Swiss Jim says:
        10 Jan10 January 09:09

        No idea why people are loyal – crazy & only ever one way. In terms of consumerism I mean, nothing more.

    • Chas says:
      10 Jan10 January 08:57

      He didn’t say that Club Europe was better in every way than the competition. Just that it was better than Euro Traveller, and worth the price premium over those seats.

      • Throwawayname says:
        10 Jan10 January 09:18

        @Chas, in that case it was a case of comparing apples and oranges (although I suppose BA will likely be cheaper than the competition when it comes to routes like IST).

      • JDB says:
        10 Jan10 January 09:40

        Thank you @Chas! Yes, I thought it was obvious too.

        @Throwawayname – yes, I have been flying in many European business classes many times a year since the 1980s. I like BA CE and it’s incredibly competitively priced for cash or Avios which have become easier to earn than before.

        Do you remember what Swissair (European first) or AF, KL etc etc. used to be like compared to today?

        • Throwawayname says:
          10 Jan10 January 10:42

          I’m just about too young to have travelled in European first class. I’m certain it would’ve been a good experience, but I doubt they had flat seats and espressos like you can get on Turkish today.

          I definitely wouldn’t go out of my way to fly the likes of KL business class within Europe nowadays- in fact, last time I did, I asked the FA if I could move to the exit row (Embraer, no blocked seats in C) and was pretty miffed when I was told I couldn’t.

          • JDB says:
            10 Jan10 January 11:41

            Turkish offers better seats from London to its home base for aircraft/cargo optimisation and as a lure for connecting traffic. Point to point seats to Istanbul are priced to discourage. I’m not sure why a flat bed is of any merit on intra-European routes! Swissair used to be one of the best airlines in the sky with superlative coffee; perhaps that’s one of the reasons it went bust.

            There are things that just don’t work very well in the air, such as individual steaks and espresso is generally another.

          • Throwawayname says:
            10 Jan10 January 11:55

            You’re absolutely correct in terms of the the cash pricing, but redemptions with Aeroplan etc are the same price as for any European *A carrier, and, beyond P2P, they offer great connecting options across the Balkans (plus obviously Turkey, N. East, and the Caucasus).

            I do appreciate flat seats on 4-hour flights, although they clearly are not absolutely necessary. Same goes for coffee – it’s not a life changing experience, but it’s much better than what others serve.

          • JDB says:
            10 Jan10 January 12:54

            @Throwawayname – one thing you ought to take into account when lauding the likes of Turkish or Aegean for being better is that they (for different reasons) aren’t saddled with legacy issues/costs like BA, LH or AF/KL or indeed SAS that’s only just re-emerged from bankruptcy. It is a huge millstone around the neck of these airlines not suffered by LCCs, newbies/those that have shed legacy liabilities/working practices, ME carriers (inc TK) or indeed US carriers.

          • Throwawayname says:
            10 Jan10 January 14:53

            Of course that’s true, but, as a consumer, I don’t feel responsible for fixing their issues. If anything, capitalism only works when poor companies can fail and create space for new entrants- to use an obvious example, Aegean could’ve never grown to its current size if it had to compete against a state-owned OA making huge losses.

        • Lee says:
          10 Jan10 January 18:33

          Swissair, AF, KL, Lufthansa and SAS I do not mind at all.

  • Hugo says:
    10 Jan10 January 08:50

    Does this at least mean we can have proper lunch food again instead of ‘brunch’?

    • Rob says:
      10 Jan10 January 09:34

      Brunch has just been formally scrapped. Article to follow.

      • sigma421 says:
        10 Jan10 January 09:38

        Does the Supper menu (which tbh I thought was the bigger problem) remain? It’s particularly daft on some west coast departures where the lounge offering is v limited.

        • Rob says:
          10 Jan10 January 09:40

          Not on longer routes.

          • sigma421 says:
            10 Jan10 January 09:41

            Ahh okay. It definitely had popped up on routes like San Francisco and Los Angeles (whereas I believe pre-COVID supper was only on East Coast flights?)

      • ReadRuth says:
        10 Jan10 January 09:42

        We were on BA flight to Barcelona yesterday leaving 10.30 . We were surprised to not be offered brunh, offered chicken curry or leek and mushroom pie, both very good, and a lovely flight

      • JDB says:
        10 Jan10 January 11:42

        Are they bringing back caviar as well?

      • RC says:
        10 Jan10 January 16:38

        But very quietly… with the spin at the Better BA Day that it was a ‘trial’.
        It obviously wasn’t as that comment was counter to other comments from IAG to investors. So when the customer experience manager allegedly lies like that, you start to question everything else he says. Without going further, the unnamed individual is now seen as a credibility problem by investors, it seems.

        So let’s see what follows. Can’t wait to see the PR spin they try. Probably will blame RT/787 somewhere in it. I wonder if they’ll mention ‘customer feedback’ ;0

        • Rob says:
          10 Jan10 January 17:11

          BA is now claiming it was ‘seasonal’ and with spring approaching we, erm, want proper meals. Apparently brunch is only suitable for autumn?!

      • Namster says:
        10 Jan10 January 18:53

        @Rob regarding brunch , Lounge raiders green light 🙂

    • JDB says:
      10 Jan10 January 10:00

      They didn’t have ‘proper’ food on Club World before, doubt it will be any better on reintroduction. That was the odd thing about brunch just swapping one bad thing for another. The now lost cost saving will be clawed back elsewhere.

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