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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)

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  • Andy B says:
    30 Dec30 December 13:18

    Well that is me done then – no more TP runs to give revenue to BA. As a mainly leisure traveller even Bronze looks difficult – will just take the lounge access based on flight class. From a corporate perspective, this looks a bad move when large employers are cutting back on travel – my employer (500k people globally) virtually bans travel these days. Just feels like BA cutting its own throat.

  • Swiss Jim says:
    30 Dec30 December 13:19

    I wonder where this leaves Rhys btw…

  • Alex G says:
    30 Dec30 December 13:21

    As a lowly Blue member who only flies in J or F, I will benefit from these changes. I find it annoying that it is hard to find a seat in a OW lounge filled with people flying economy, or that I join a Group 2 boarding group where most people are flying Economy.

    But I realise that I am in small minority, and these changes will be highly unpopular with people who currently have status; particularly those who game the system.

    I can see this backfiring as frequent flyers start crediting their flights to Finnair and Qatar.

    Presumably, Iberia will make the same changes as BA.

    • Swiss Jim says:
      30 Dec30 December 13:29

      You make a very good point. Now retired and awash with Avios points, I never pay for flights and my status has gradually fallen from Gold to Bronze and was going south anyway absent manufacturing what was was needed – though RJ has sorted me for now. Booking business in Avios and spending time in a far less crowded lounge as members dwindle will be a bonus. Though I suspect until others catch up some will re-appeared with OW status…

      • Big Mac says:
        31 Dec31 December 08:44

        Like yourself Swiss Jim, RJ have pretty good Tier Points for basic Business flights. If changing to Royal Club for all future flights, do you know what percentage BA will remove with having your Tier/Avios points credited to RJ in stead of BA ?

    • Gosia44 says:
      30 Dec30 December 15:40

      It looks like I will also benefit from these changes. I have no status (just blue) but generate well over 200k avios a year on various credit cards and use them to fly in Club – reward flights only. If spending on BAPP and paying for seats will give me Bronze, nice, otherwise happy to see fewer people in any BA lounge at LHR T5.

    • Toilet Paper Man says:
      31 Dec31 December 05:45

      Isn’t that the entire point of a loyalty program?

      If it only rewards people who always receive the benefits flying in Business Class, then what is the actual benefit?

      • Steph231 says:
        31 Dec31 December 11:09

        Indeed, except for the “free” flights, when you travel in C or F you have the benefits of status even without any loyalty card. And opposite to some comments here – even though I understand the point of view as lounges are really getting overcrowded – the real benefits are logically for people flying in economy. I have been Lufthansa Senator (equivalent to Gold status) for 15 years, mainly flying economy or PE because my employer (SME) would not pay for business class. Not being based in the UK all my miles were coming from flying and not credit cards which means I was spending a lot of time in the air. Getting access to the lounge, taking a shower, having the “best” economy seat through status was a real plus. And compared to someone who is flying once or twice a year in business class my employer was spending more money so I find it logical to be rewarded with business or some first class benefits. Now it is the opposite, I am working from home and mainly travel for leisure but at an age I can afford flying C and see those overcrowded lounges however can’t help thinking about the time I really needed those extras due to constant jet lag and squeezed seats.

    • Retron says:
      31 Dec31 December 06:29

      I’m with you on this one – I’m also someone who flies for leisure and only in J or F. I’ve been bronze before (which could be had for a single return to Japan), but of course that doesn’t really do much – even the free seat selection 2 weeks out isn’t that hot, considering that First gets you free selection and in (old) Club World the best seats tend to be snapped up well in advance.

      Ideally something like the CCR/First lounge would be sorted out for silvers/Club at Heathrow – if you fly Club you get into the “real” business lounge, while the rest who are flying economy but have status get punted into a “business” lounge. It’d be much like the way the CCR is the real First lounge and Galleries First is really for Gold/OneWorld Emerald card holders!

    • RS says:
      1 Jan1 January 18:55

      This is me as well.

      Lounges will actually be for people who are flying business class or those who are high spenders, no longer “frequent travellers with low spend”

  • Jenny says:
    30 Dec30 December 13:21

    It will be interesting to see what the TP requirement is for Gold for life, and how they will convert historic tier points.

    • JK says:
      30 Dec30 December 14:11

      https://www.britishairways.com/content/executive-club/faqs/introducing-the-british-airways-club#lifetime

    • Will B says:
      30 Dec30 December 14:14

      550,000 new TP. Existing TPs translate across as a percentage ie if you were at 17,500 current TPs (50% of GfL requirement) on 31 March, that would convert to 225,000 new TPs on 1 April.

      Incidentally, I share the view of pretty much every poster that this is a dreadful decision on BA’s part. And to say that it reflects customer requests/feedback is utterly and disgracefully dishonest.

      • T says:
        30 Dec30 December 14:51

        One assume that the feedback was that lounges are too crowded 🤣

      • 26left says:
        31 Dec31 December 04:02

        It’s interesting that there’s two exchange rates going on here.

        Gold for life was 35,000 old Tier Points (TPs)
        Gold for life is now 550,000 new points (£1 = 1 point)
        So the one off conversion rate (a pro rata % conversion) is equivalent to 550,000 / 35000 = £15.71 per lifetime tier point. Some of those old TP runs at approx £1/TP look very good value right now.

        Conversion of other airlines TP allocation is now at the rate of £13.35 (267 points per 20 TPs).

        Under that logic BA have not only made it massively more expensive to collect lifetime TPs, but they have also shifted out the goal posts for Lifetime Gold, from 35,000 Tier Points to 550,000 points (which at the other airline rate is equivalent to 550,000 / 13.35 = 41,199 old TPs).

        Those close to the new number post conversion won’t be too badly effected, but those just getting started will have to spend considerably more to reach Gold for life.

      • Adam says:
        1 Jan1 January 22:47

        Gold for Life will become 18% harder to get under the new BA Club. Currently 35,000 tier points is equivalent to 23.3 years of Gold. At 550,000 new tier points that is 27.5 years of Gold.

  • Chris says:
    30 Dec30 December 13:22

    I can’t decide if Rob’s two comments are laced with sarcasm or not. It feels like not, but surely nobody is believing this is based on member feedback??

    • John says:
      30 Dec30 December 13:23

      BA believes it

    • gumshoe says:
      30 Dec30 December 13:30

      Depends who and what they asked.

      “Are you GfL or GGLfL? Are our lounges too crowded?”

    • Alex G says:
      30 Dec30 December 13:30

      Well downgrading lunch to brunch was apparently based on customer feedback! BA has a history of making changes that upset their loyal customers and then backtracking, and their reputation continues to suffer as a result.

      Interesting that this comes just two days after a Guardian fluff piece about how BA is improving.

      https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/dec/28/is-british-airways-getting-better-complaints-7bn-turnaround-plan

      But these changes will probably further improve the bottom line, and shareholders should be happy.

    • Peter K says:
      30 Dec30 December 13:33

      Not laced but heavily enrobed with sarcasm I feel.

    • D says:
      30 Dec30 December 14:00

      It would be interesting to hear any examples from GGL’s who fed back to BA, but I’d guess the questions were skewed to give whatever outcome BA preferred.

      • Will B says:
        30 Dec30 December 14:16

        GGL for 12.5 years. Never asked about the change; have already fed back that while it might be nice for BA the business, it’s anything but nice for customers, is very disappointing and is going to drive away custom (certainly mine).

        • Marc says:
          30 Dec30 December 14:44

          Recent GGL. Have spent time with the prem team in recent months. No conversations remotely touching this. I’m glad I’ve gotten the status, something ticked off a bucket list. At 3,000 TP to retain I’d have spent my own money doing so for years to come. Given these revenue levels, no chance, and I say that as someone who can burn money on corporate flights.

        • Julian says:
          30 Dec30 December 20:36

          Never been asked.
          Kept up GGL even though it costs probably 5k a year more to do so than low cost carriers. Just about worth it.
          Spending an additional 20/30k to get to 40k is not worth it, so my 10-20k annual spend will go to gulf and easyJet.
          Can’t blame BA, will just spend my money elsewhere.

  • Chris W says:
    30 Dec30 December 13:22

    What an odd time to drop such a huge program change.

    I think Silver had long been too easy to earn and that’s what is driving the changes. The double TPs offer has gone on far too long – earning up to 2 years of Silver status with one Euro holiday never made sense.

    • meta says:
      30 Dec30 December 14:08

      It’s the perfect time as journalists are on holiday and so are members who will not realise this until 1 April and unaware book BA flights for the whole of 2025 and possibly into 2026.

      • Rob says:
        30 Dec30 December 14:21

        Our PR person did tell me that virtually everyone she contacted for a quote came back as ‘out of office’. I think you’re relying on Simon Calder to beat the drum.

        • Alan says:
          30 Dec30 December 16:08

          They’ve not even emailed existing BAEC members, just dropped a page on their website!

          • Andrew says:
            30 Dec30 December 18:29

            I’ve had an email…

          • Novelty-Socks says:
            30 Dec30 December 19:31

            I received an email, FWIW. And I’ve not flown with them for over a year now, given my shift to a new job without much in the way of travel required.

        • Bob says:
          31 Dec31 December 18:18

          I’d be very surprised to see Simon Calder give a monkey’s about this as he loves cost efficient cheap travel, a regular hitchhiker.

  • Macca55 says:
    30 Dec30 December 13:23

    Everyone I speak to that is a member of BAEC, have not been asked a single question about this change, so I don’t know where they got their “member feedback ” from???

    • Chris W says:
      30 Dec30 December 13:33

      Members complain the lounges are too crowded because Silver is too easy to earn through the double TP holiday offer

      • Richard says:
        30 Dec30 December 14:05

        So the solutions to the loyalty program working – generating a customer that’s paid for CE or loyally in Y with BA – is to cut the program rather than eek out more lounge space? Genius..

    • Peter K says:
      30 Dec30 December 13:34

      I’m pretty sure all those involved in this decision are also members who can give their feedback….

  • Ian says:
    30 Dec30 December 13:24

    Whilst I am currently Gold, this change doesn’t affect me.

    We only fly business or above.

    The only benefit of Gold is being able to select Row 1.

    Most other benefits are the same as you get flying in a premium cabin.

    • Barrel for Scraping says:
      30 Dec30 December 13:46

      That’s not true. If you’re flying business then not having gold only gets you into the club lounges whereas gold lets you through the first wing

      • meta says:
        30 Dec30 December 14:11

        You also can’t select seat in advance without Silver (or 7 days for Bronze) unless you fly in F.

        This is a major downside, but then again if nobody has a status everyone will be selecting at the same time 24-48 hours before the flight or people will just have to suck up high seat fees.

    • VerdantBacon says:
      30 Dec30 December 21:12

      What BA charges for J in what they try to pass off as a decent J product, should really include free seat selection. Now while I only fly BA F and have only been in J twice, Gold is very useful to select your seats, as if you’re unlucky enough to be in CW, not every seat is equal by a long mile

    • Sharron Barnett says:
      31 Dec31 December 06:26

      Except when you call the gold line line, you’re talking to staff in Newcastle, who are brilliant and I understand what they are saying.

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