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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.

  • andy says:
    1 Jan1 January 11:45

    Adding to my thoughts from above, as someone mentioned that 99% are unhappy with the changes here in the forum – thats exactly how it should be. BA is taking a shot at you guys. They want the business class traveller that pays full fare. Feel free to take your spend elsewhere. For reference, the revenue engines for Airlines are the business class (first class) seats. The economy seats are sometimes sold below cost. So, from their point of view, they want to make it more attractive and more appealing to the customers that pay the bills. Whether BA will actually be able to do that is a separate topic. But if their thinking goes – ‘we want more CW full fare purchases, we need to make our offering more appealing, lets make this genuinely exclusive’, then this makes sense from their point of view.

    Everyone else feel free to queue at the runway in GLA for the next Ryanair flight (for example)…

    • Rob says:
      1 Jan1 January 11:55

      This view would have more weight if BA had an offering that could in any way be described as ‘exclusive’. I suggest you haven’t popped your head in a Galleries First shower for some years …..

      For example, when IHG launched One I thought it was well done. This is despite the fact that, personally, it hurts me. I could see the benefits of milestone rewards and there was good stuff there (suite upgrade at 20 nights, lounge pass at 40). If there was real meat in the BA proposals they would have more support. What AA has done, for example, is genuinely revolutionary in terms of status earning. Perhaps Qatar will now revive their plan for a UK credit card that gives status.

      It only really makes sense if BA plans to shut one of the T5 lounges which would be an immediate 7-figure rent saving.

      • andy says:
        1 Jan1 January 12:09

        you are right – i have not popped my head in the showers in the Galleries First. This is not something that i value. I always found it weird for people to go to an airport to take a shower, but to each their own. I am sure there is a market for this if it exists.

        More broadly, i get the tone of your comment. I am in no way suggesting that BA’s ‘premium’ offering is on par with anyone else’s globally. It clearly is inferior. This is not the point. The point is, this is what is available in the UK market. BA is the standard setter, not Malaysia Air or Qantas or anyone else. For what it is, it is prob the best available across the UK. So, they are trying to make the feel more ‘premium’ for the ones that actually pay for all of that. There are many ways to do that and clearly spending more to refurbish the existing offering isnt on the cards, not in the lounges, not in the CW cabins. So, culling the existing occupancy is another way of doing it.

        The real meat in the proposal is, ‘this is what we have to offer, it won’t get better but is still the best in the UK. We want to make it more exclusive and worth it for the ones that pay for it.’ Nothing more, nothing less.

        • Danny says:
          1 Jan1 January 12:22

          andy I doubt you’ll find many in the UK that feel so patriotic that they align their travel spend to be on BA only.

          If you think anyone would choose BA over QR to fly East…?

          • George says:
            1 Jan1 January 12:25

            “If you think anyone would choose BA over QR to fly East…?”

            Direct vs having to change in an airport? I probably would it the price was right

          • Danny says:
            1 Jan1 January 13:36

            For BA to be competitive in business class, they’d have to undercut QR prices severely, while offering a direct flight as well…

          • andy says:
            1 Jan1 January 14:14

            you are right, my comment was mostly regarding BA to Uk and/or EU, clearly ME or Asia if you pay cash you opt for another airline to begin with.

        • KyaCat says:
          1 Jan1 January 12:32

          😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 Oh, so naive.

        • KyaCat says:
          1 Jan1 January 12:33

          😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 Oh, so naive andy

        • Jingle says:
          1 Jan1 January 13:27

          A shower at Doha en route to Asia and a good ground meal are two things I look forward to on 15 hours of travel. BA and its tired offering are a now redundant Jag to a top range Tesla. Yesterdays news.

          • Tim S says:
            1 Jan1 January 13:54

            The problem with doing all this at DOH is the 1 hour 50 minute connection that is routinely scheduled.

            I had a Boarding card that BA had printed with a Boarding time for the onward flight as 1 hour before departure (instead of leaving it blank as most onwards flights are). By the time that I had traversed security I arrived at the lounge about 5 mins before this time.

            Desk clerk said “you should be at the gate now and declined to let me pass. I said “look at the screen. It doesn’t even say “go to gate” let alone, boarding now”. She eventually relented so I rushed in with enough time to grab a light snack and use the rest room before the screen changed to “go to gate”

        • Tim S says:
          1 Jan1 January 13:44

          I had a stop-over in the Malaysia lounge in KL and was distinctly underwhelmed

      • Dace says:
        1 Jan1 January 12:17

        Which part of the IHG programme changes hurt you? Was it the dynamic pricing?

        I only ask as I feel IHG is the only programme in the past decade that has actually made its programme better. Although, this may be because I do not travel much to the US/ME and go off season, so dynamic pricing has no affect on me, or even make the points amounts need more manageable.

      • George says:
        1 Jan1 January 12:24

        “ I suggest you haven’t popped your head in a Galleries First shower for some years”

        If the lounges are so bad why are so many people FUMING about not being able to get access to them in future?

        I have no view either way as I’m not bothered about lounges but people seem to be quite upset about something they think is a load of rubbish anyway

        • Barrel for Scraping says:
          1 Jan1 January 12:42

          Rob is showing his ignorance here. Galleries First has no showers. In the south lounge complex the showers are shared between the three lounges

    • Danny says:
      1 Jan1 January 12:19

      andy you are forgetting that business travel has fallen off a cliff. Those expensive full fare CW tickets are sold in far fewer numbers now.

      BA will need to make tweaks to this new programme if they want to maintain the bottom line. BA simply isn’t an aspirational airline anymore. Nobody is excited to fly them. The EC programme generated a lot of goodwill and directed a lot of discretionary travel to BA.

      Tickets sold by BA will now be to those who are increasingly price conscious, I suspect – The market that Alex Cruz wanted to court.

      Probably lots of double TP offers to come to boost travel… And I doubt it’ll sway many.

      • George says:
        1 Jan1 January 12:30

        “ andy you are forgetting that business travel has fallen off a cliff.”

        Business travel spend is only a few % below pre Covid (obvs helped by prices being much higher) so hardly falling off a cliff

        • Danny says:
          1 Jan1 January 13:34

          Are you sure George?

          • George says:
            1 Jan1 January 13:48

            Yes google it. Many sources say this.

            Just to be clear I’m not saying that business travel hasn’t declined versus 2019

      • andy says:
        1 Jan1 January 14:17

        its not really. I fly business a lot with BA. i can tell you that it is still one of the most affordable business class offerings on many routes (esp westbound). Not always and not all the time, but quite often. So, its not the best CW offering for sure, not the best lounge either. But you get what you pay for.

        • Really says:
          1 Jan1 January 19:27

          You say you “fly business a lot with BA”, yet upthread you appear to say you’re Bronze.

          How do you “fly business a lot with BA”, yet get fewer than 600 TP for Silver?

          • andy says:
            2 Jan2 January 07:39

            I never said i am bronze. someone bitter up there wanted to assume i am bronze, when i said that the real-life, practical benefits of bronze vs gold are not that apparent to me at all.

            If you read carefully further, you would notice that i say that i am actually Gold.

            What i say is that i do not care about the ‘perceived mental status’ that Gold seems to bring to some people’s minds, i care about practical use-abe benefits, which for most of the time for most people’s practical needs would be covered on 99% by Bronze.

            This is 1) ability to check in via CW desks, esp abroad. This becomes very valuable when you travel w kids. 2) the ability to select free seats – this saves you actual money. w Bronze, you can do that 7 days before a flight. And while it is not as good as w Silver or Gold, in reality 7 days advance seat selection gives you pretty much the entire plane. 3). lounge access for a family of 4. No BA status gives me that. And this is what i value a lot based on my circumstances, as this is when it starts to matter. If i fly solo, Long Haul is already CW, short haul 1hr flights i usually dont go to lounge (try to cut to a minimum my time at an airport), or i can still go w PP.

            i do not care about a glass of free alcohol or the ability to tell others that i have been in the first wing lounge. Others do. to each their own. I almost never go, despite the fact that i can.

    • BrancasterLancaster says:
      1 Jan1 January 12:49

      “They want the business class traveller that pays full fare”

      As the article points out though, this change only really benefits those travelling on corporate deals that have no choice on airline and literally don’t pay a penny/dime for their travel.

      For the “loyal” leisure and small business traveller the change isn’t great.

  • Globetrotter says:
    1 Jan1 January 11:51

    FWIW re soft landings, have seen a few replies from BA twitter staff stating that this isn’t changing. So I tested by asking as well:
    “Can you confirm if the new BA Club will continue to offer soft landings for members who dont re-qualify for their current tier, as is currently the case under the existing BA Exec Club? Thx”

    … and received this in reply:
    “We are making no changes to our soft landing proposition. Julie”.

    Obviously there are some loopholes here in their response, in that there is no official soft landing proposition … or it could be that the Twitter team are uninformed …

    Either way BA’s twitter staff are actively telling customers that there are no changes to the “soft landing proposition”. Would be good if BA could soft landings to be fairer to customers, given the rushed way in which The Club is being implemented … and it may help stave off some of the rancour and malice the BA Club has generated.

    • Littlefish says:
      1 Jan1 January 14:08

      Yes this is what I’ve seen too. Since BA twitter are replying in multiple cases using the line you quote “We are making no changes to our ‘soft landing’ proposition”; it confirms in black & white there is a proposition and its what we and they all know it has been these last multiple years (ie. you drop one tier at most following the annual collection cycle).
      Plainly, they have confirmed that is not changing (and the FAQ on the tier point collection changes don’t say anything at this point); so not sure what more BA can do to provide confidence on this?

      • Globetrotter says:
        1 Jan1 January 14:42

        I’ve since had a message from BA on X/Twitter that they will not change the soft landing proposition this year but they cannot guarantee what the situation will be in 2026.

  • Clive says:
    1 Jan1 January 11:52

    Amongst the many sensible comments in this discussion, reflecting the different experiences of those contributing, I still cannot agree with those describing people who choose (usually) to pay extra to fly with BA, in spite of its steady deterioration, as ‘freeloaders’. Nor is it freeloading to take advantage of rules set by BA to increase one’s TPs under the old scheme; we’re paying to do so, it’s BA’s job to set its fares at a level which makes a profit.

  • Frankie says:
    1 Jan1 January 11:56

    Awful news! (And I want to contribute to what is surely the most commented article ever on HFP)

  • Spaghetti Town says:
    1 Jan1 January 12:02

    HAL be happy with all that extra terminal spend

    • Throwawayname says:
      1 Jan1 January 13:11

      I somehow cannot see all those who’re switching to flying via AMS/FRA/CDG instead of LHR spending any money with HAL and their customers!

  • Frankie says:
    1 Jan1 January 12:02

    I wonder what Shoestring thinks. Is he still around here in a guise?

  • Spaghetti Town says:
    1 Jan1 January 12:04

    Could we see the emergence of a AF/KL co branded credit card?

    Lot of individuals looking to switch FF programmes judging by this.

    • KyaCat says:
      1 Jan1 January 12:27

      I hope AF/KLM start doing more flights out of UK airports.

      • Barrel for Scraping says:
        1 Jan1 January 12:30

        Can KLM realistically cover any more UK airports?

        • dundj says:
          1 Jan1 January 12:37

          Liverpool, Prestwick, and Southend are three they could add to their route network off the top of my head. Highly unlikely based on proximity to other airports they currently fly from though.

        • AL says:
          1 Jan1 January 12:59

          Probably not, to be honest. Their strategy of cover the regions has long been a good one, especially for those travelling east and those that live in, say, Anglia, where AMS is closer than LHR.

      • Catalan says:
        1 Jan1 January 12:37

        Just be wary of the mice in the KLM Crown Lounge at Amsterdam!

      • andy says:
        1 Jan1 January 14:18

        you are so naive

        • patrick says:
          1 Jan1 January 16:22

          andy are you hosting any New Year soirees one might attend? You sound delightful.

    • Ranger43 says:
      1 Jan1 January 12:42

      The card processing fee, took its toll on airline credit cards many years ago, MBNA issued 7 different airline cards, we had a United one for app 20 years and gained a lot off points.
      I don’t think there enough money left to support promotions.

    • Throwawayname says:
      1 Jan1 January 13:19

      Visa and MasterCard are limited, but AMEX aren’t. If the fees cap only applies to the duopoly, it might be an opportunity for one of the smaller players (Union pay, JCB, or even some kind of alternative by neobanks or the likes of Mercadopago/M-PESA) to enter the European market and capture a bit of a niche in the loyalty space.

      In the meantime, using VS credit cards for travel on AFKL is the sensible thing to do.

      • Rob says:
        1 Jan1 January 13:55

        Amex fees are capped – they took it as far as they legally could and lost. They are just not capped in the same way.

        • Throwawayname says:
          1 Jan1 January 14:07

          Fair enough, I hadn’t been following closely but was under the impression that they’d managed to win something!

  • David S says:
    1 Jan1 January 12:36

    I’m Silver and fly at least 6 return CE trips per year but couldn’t retain Silver for myself and OH long term if tier points have to be shared. I think I’m profitable to BA and despite many comments on here, it’s people like me that have kept BA afloat post COVID as business travel tanked.

    My OH hates flying BA because the service offering is rubbish in her eyes and on hearing the news says (can we stop flying BA ?). Not yet….maybe after April 2026.

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