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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 elsewhereclick here to read more.

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

Comments (3839)

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

  • Bertie says:

    I really don’t see the problem in all of this. BA have chosen to reward its highest spenders, surely that’s the point of a loyalty system. Obviously a load of freeloaders have had their wings clipped, but hey ho.

    • GUWonder says:

      No one who chased BA status has really been a freeloader. All such customers have been paying what BA wanted for what BA was providing, including in relation to BAEC status.

      • Bertie says:

        Gold status and whatever benefits BA decide to apportion to it should only be available to the highest spenders. Thresholds have been very low and only now has a realistic threshold been put in place. Many people seem to have had their put their noses out of joint, but it’s just a realignment to bring the club into the 21st century.

        • @mkcol says:

          @Bertie You’re conflating loyalty with spend.
          £10K on one ticket does not equate greater loyalty than someone spending £9K on more than one ticket.

          • Bertie says:

            Someone spending £10k on one ticket is more valuable to BA than someone spending £9k on multiple flights.

        • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

          “…but it’s just a realignment …”

          Laughable.

          BA has COMPLETE CONTROL over how many TPs people need to reach a certain status.

          They could have increased them on a regular basis over the years to make it harder if they wanted to reduce the numbers of golds. But they chose not to.

          They know exactly how many people there are at each status level. They know who based on current earnings and bookings made who is likely to retain, gain or drop a level.

          They could have just made Gold 1,750 or whatever TPs then reward the high spenders on a full J booking with more TPs than someone on an R or I code booking making it easier for them to make gold.

          They do it for economy so it’s not like it’s a new concept for them.

          But instead they CHOSE to make a simple system complicated and blame their customers for flying too much and earn status!

          Plus they bring it in with very little notice when many people will have planned and booked travel for 2025/26 under the old system with an expectation that they would achieve a particular level of status.

          So yes people are angry.

          • RC says:

            I think you misunderstand how businesses work. They owe you nothing beyond the contracted terms.

            Best advice: learn to accept it and move on.

          • George says:

            “So yes people are angry”

            The anger will subside when they realise that paying for the best airline/option each time is better than being “loyal” to any company

          • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

            @RC I’m quite aware how businesses work thanks very much.

            The point here is that BA has trashed their own loyalty programme with very little notice.

            This change won’t affect me (due to a change in my flying pattern that has noting to do with this change) but the loss of soft landing in 2026 does irk me. It might not have been contractual but it was custom and practice for so many years that a case could be made that it is contractual.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      Freeloaders?

      Surely you can come up with a better insult that that for something that’s been said dozens of times already. Something that is patently untrue.

      There are no freeloaders.

      Everyone with BA status has paid for and flown the flights required following the rules BA set down and using the offers BA made to passengers.

      It was BA that kept extending the BA holidays double TP offer multiple times. Yet those who partook are now according to you and others have just been freeloading.

      What nonsense.

      No one forced BA to offer this in the first place or to keep extending it. They are the ones that did that.

      They happily too the money for those holidays.

      Just as they took the money for those that used ex-EU flights because it was BA that priced them cheaper than a direct flight ex LHR. Oh and took the money for flying those people to Dublin or Arlanda or where ever they started their trips.

      • Points Hound says:

        For once I agree with you @BA Flyer IHG Stayer, spot on.

        @Bertie, I flew 120 segments in 2024 with BA in CE and CW. This represented 83% of my segments last year with all carriers. You class that as freeloading?

      • Throwawayname says:

        I hate to repeat myself, but IAG sold me a business upgrade (including access to the LHR lounge) for forty quid.

        I find it amusing that some people are convinced that those poor sods spending time and money to fly LHR-SOF-LHR on the same day are ‘freeloaders’ and somehow less worthy of lounge access than someone who hasn’t flown BA since 2009 and on his second ever visit to T5 paid barely £100 for a LHR-MAD-BIO journey with an overnight connection and then another £40 for a glass of wine and a portion of carrillera onboard.

    • Londonsteve says:

      These freeloader comments are tiresome and insulting to (by definition) BA’s best customers that often went out of their way to fly with them. There’s something wrong if people can go from Gold to ‘freeloader’ status at the stroke of a pen.

      If BA is flooded with passengers willing to spend £20k per year then I’m happy for them. However, I strongly suspect the number of these high spenders won’t increase as a result of the changes whereas the mass affluent will defect en masse unless BA drops flight prices to a genuinely tempting level. BA’s loyalty scheme now generates no loyalty from 99% of its customer base, surely it’s therefore largely pointless.

  • Dubious says:

    I think part of people’s annoyance comes from fear. That fear is probably strengthened by the perception of a lack of alternatives to BA, particularly for London-based travellers.

    I’m not saying that perception is correct, but in a lot of scenarios it is.

    • George says:

      The perception isn’t even close to true. I live half an hour from Heathrow and an hour and 15 from Gatwick. Between the two airports there’s always been a choice of airlines. I’ve chosen BA only when they’ve been the cheapest or most convenient option

      • Paul says:

        There are many airlines to choose from but you need to look at this on a much wider basis. Firstly choosing IB AY AS JL or BA gives cash to more than just that carrier. This is also true of other alliances and the legalised cartels.
        Frequent flyer programmes and the reach of those programmes in local markets via credit cards and other collection opportunities are a major factor in choosing an airline. For that reason the legalised cartel of BA/AA/IB deliberately do not have a credit card in the U.K. market for anyone but BA. Indeed Amex block transfers to AA here but not in the USA. No doubt to protect the grip BA have
        So if you want to fly to Frankfurt from LHR it’s BA or LH. But you will need to do a lot of flying with LHG carriers to get the miles for a redemption as there are few other opportunities in the U.K.
        no one should be in any doubt that a FFP is a remarkably powerful business tool. More so in a small market like the U.K. where BA/VS have a strangle hold at LHR and have successfully killed off genuine competition.

  • Nathanielhp says:

    https://www.headforpoints.com/hfp/ba-holidays-double-tier-points-21-september/

    https://www.britishairways.com/content/en/us/executive-club/offers/holidays-double-tier-points

    Is it me or has BA removed the original double tier point page with extension to end of Jun 2025 and replaced it with end of Mar 2025? If it is so, it’d be legally shady! Would someone verify please! Thank you!

  • David S says:

    I flew with Malaysian to KUL because BA cut the route temporarily. Best thing BA ever did as no way would I fly the route with BA when it comes back. It’s a clear example of trying another airline and coming out better. Every single aspect of the trip was better.

    • numpty says:

      +1.
      Now had to BA cancellation for KUL, and rerouted using QR (as flying from EDI). I’d never pay cash for a BA ticket eastwards, and now even using my Avios to book QR and sacrifice a 241 voucher. Also find them more reliable, with no delays – unlike Heathrow.

      • Numpty says:

        Two cancellations (not to)

      • Paul says:

        Looking to do a quick week in the Sun of DOH. With BA 241 in club it’s 160000 Avios plus £700. Availability is desperate.
        From almost anywhere in Europe it’s 165000 plus approx £700 for QR and no need for 241. Why would you not do this?

    • Metty says:

      +1 here too; no idea whether MH seats ever appear for Avios, but if paying cash unless BA are significantly cheaper, we’ll happily pay a bit more for MH. I wasn’t expecting a great time based on reviews but on a sample of 1 trip in MH F, they were great. Charming, chatty, fun crew, as much satay as one can eat and 2 loos for 4 pax. And a spotless A350.

      I think the (grumpy BA manager) comment about freeloaders doesn’t understand that status holders do actually pay cash too and by killing us off, that cash will often go elsewhere due to better customer experience. And so far, thanks to BA cancelling routes and making status unachievable post Apr-26, my experience with other airlines has been better. MH definitely, KL with a free G&T in economy like Cityflyer, even TAP and SAS ok with expectations at an easyJet level.

      • George says:

        From the customer’s point of view, surely it’ll be a good thing if they switch to better airlines? They’ll probably thank BA for this eventually! (Even though everyone has always been free to use other airlines)

      • LittleNick says:

        MH redemption flights made available to partners are very scarce on long haul routes specially in premium cabins

    • GUWonder says:

      That’s not a loophole. That is doing exactly what BA wants its loyalty program customers to do to get BA Gold status: pay a lot of money to basically buy BA Gold status.

      A fool and their money will soon be parted. How many fools can BA attract?

      • Niall says:

        You have missed the joke I’m afraid

        • GUWonder says:

          I caught the joke, as this went around even before it got posted on HFP. I just wanted to make it clear that it’s not a loophole and it’s exactly what BA would love to see be done.

          It’s a small mercy that most people with enough money to buy such a ticket aren’t a fool willing to prop up BA at crazy expense. 😀

          • Niall says:

            You caught the joke but felt the need to clarify that a £25k tier point run was ‘not a loophole’ 😅

      • Richie says:

        There might be enough fools, but they not be that cash rich.

      • Ken says:

        Whoosh

    • Ilou says:

      Thand BA, it’s a steal and bonus gold in one trip ! 🙂

      It non sense that such pricing exist !!!

    • Clive says:

      When this link was first posted, several pages ago, I queried whether even this ridiculous fare would achieve Gold, because of the taxes and charges issue. Someone replied to my query, having worked out that the base fare eligible for TPs was only in the £23-24K range, so not getting to Gold in one booking. This alone illustrates one absurdity of the new system, one simply can’t plan with any certainty to achieve any given status.

      • ChasP says:

        But isnt discouraging people planning (& doing TP runs) for status exactly the point ?
        The people BA really want to encourage don’t aim for status they just get it from their usual travel and they don’t want millions of others to easily achieve it

        • lcsneil says:

          Why is there this misunderstanding that a Tier Point run is somehow getting something for nothing? You pay the normal going fare for that route that BA want to charge. If there are less seats the price is higher and vica versa. You could argue that Tier Point runs are actually a BONUS to BA as they get cash for seats that would otherwise be empty. Surely loyalty is regular flying and paying money. Tier point runs are both of which. Those are BA’s rules for their status game which they have now changed. As maddening as it is (Gold myself) if you dont like the rules change which game you play. Like others here I am now revenue based. The best price for the best service is what I will be flying in future and not longer feel that weight to stick with BA for Tier points. Note the best price isnt always the cheapest but in my opinion the best value for money given the product on offer. I’m obviously still hoping that giving their customers a 2 finger salute *will* hit their bottom line but I fear it wont be as drastic as we would all hope.

        • WiseEye says:

          I am not someone who has done TP runs etc. and have been GGL for last ten years. I do want to know whether I will requalify / hit certain milestones (e.g. Gold Upgrade vouchers) because that given the amount of travel I do, these things are important. If I was slightly short, I would direct some legitimate spend to BA (which is what BA wants, I assume). That is all part of the inventivsation.

          • ChasP says:

            so now if you really value GGL you will just have to direct ALL your spend to BA to be sure 🙂

        • GUWonder says:

          If that were the case, BA would go to unpublished requirements for the elite status levels whose headcount they want to more than decimate with a decapitation like this. [All puns intended.]

        • Dubious says:

          “ But isnt discouraging people planning (& doing TP runs) for status exactly the point?

          The people BA really want to encourage don’t aim for status they just get it from their usual travel…”

          What would be the point in having a scheme that doesn’t encourage customers to spend money with your business? If people get status as a result of
          their usual travel only, there’s no need for a scheme at all.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      lol

      has anyine tried to recreate it and actually click through to book?

      google flights might show something as available but it isn’t always.

      • Bervios says:

        I’m waiting untill BA increase the price of LHR-OTP to 5K return then I can do 5 b2b and get Gold.

  • Kevin says:

    Not sure whether this has already been covered but if I book a return flight starting before april1st and returning after will I get tier points at the current rate or revenue based?
    Thanks

  • Daniel says:

    Is there an argument to be made that if Tier Point Runs are abandoned across the board, then the price of some flights will decrease due to reduced demand on the routes, therefore benefitting passengers who actually want to visit destination X?

    • George says:

      Depends how many people actually did that kind of stuff. I’m guessing not that many. Where would people get the time from to just take a flight and come straight back ?

    • lcsneil says:

      You seem to be under some misapprehension that this change is there to benefit passengers. Our passengers have already told us that they want to spend more money and get less in return 🙂

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      Ticket prices are set based on what the market will pay not necessarily based on actual cost of operating a flight.

      In the scheme of things there aren’t that many people doing TP runs just for the points.

      Sure people will fly to e.g. DUB to start a trip from there but that’s because it’s a lot cheaper doing it that way (even if you just fly back to LHR and get on a long haul from there) and the extra TPs are a bonus not the purpose of the trip.

      Post on flyer talk saying things like “10 TP runners on the SOF flight on Saturday” aren’t an accurate reflection of what happens across the network.

      Change SOF to 40 instead of 80 TPs and those 10 seats likely wouldn’t have been sold and the TP runners would have moved to another destination.

    • Daniel says:

      Lots of people do day trips to Dublin to get the last 80 points they need, or the 4 BA sectors they need for Silver. Given the scale of the feedback on HfP I just wonder if that number is significant in the overall scheme of things. I suspect probably not much but…

  • Matty says:

    Anyone remember this:

    ‘You may remember we wrote to you in 2012 to tell you about changes we were making to tier thresholds.

    To be fair on everyone in the Executive Club, we wanted to align these so that no matter where a Member was in the world, they would need to earn the same number of Tier Points to achieve the same status.

    This meant that for you to retain your status as a Gold Member in the future, you would have to increase the number of Tier Points you earned from 800 to 1,500 Tier Points. Realizing that it might take a little time to adjust to this, we offered you two years to prepare for the change.

    The two-year grace period has now ended, but we’ve decided to extend this for one more year until 1 March 2015. This is to allow you more time to adapt your flying to suit the new thresholds so that you can, if you wish, continue to enjoy all the benefits of your Gold membership.

    We hope this extra year gives you the time you need.’

    This was when BA raised the Tier Point qualification for Gold from 800 Tier Points to 1500 Tier Points for Executive Club accounts based in mainland Europe. Two years to adjust!

    Also, anyone remember Open Doors? If Gold, you could use any BA managed business lounge even when flying a different airline. How times have changed…

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