BIG NEWS: BA moves to revenue-based tier status for Bronze, Silver, Gold and Gold Guest List

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• Cli says:

  2 Jan2 January 15:46

  What are the thresholds for members outside the UK?

  • Rob says:

    2 Jan2 January 16:43

    Same.

  • David says:

    2 Jan2 January 17:05

    Should be a 2,500 discount for people who live in countries where you can’t get the Amex card

    • Rob says:

      2 Jan2 January 17:23

      I suspect the threshold will be so high that most can’t reach it anyway, potentially 1 per £10 spent above the £15k voucher trigger, so £40k needed for the max.

      2,500 is so paltry though it makes no real difference.

      • LittleNick says:

        2 Jan2 January 21:13

        If the 2500 was given for the £15k spend that would be a sweetener on the prem Ba Amex card. But the fact that you don’t get anymore tps for spend is stingy

• Alexthenotsogreat says:

  2 Jan2 January 15:54

  Interesting BA response on X for anyone with partner flights after 1 April. The question doesn’t quite address the right issue – as the problem is flights not marketed by BA/IB/AA as opposed to flights on those airlines only – but the response doesn’t include that requirement. Obviously just an X post by one employee but…

  Question: For flights booked before 1300 GMT 30 December 2024 for travel from 1 April 2025,TP earned on partner airlines at the time of booking were clearly displayed on the Tier Point calculator on the BA website. BA,IB,AA get new points per FAQ but Finnair excluded

  BA reply: thank you for your message and your patience while we got back to you. Flights booked before 13:00 GMT on 30th of December ’24 travelling after the 1st of April ’25 will earn based on multiplying today’s distance-based Tier points by x13.3333.

  Follow up: So just to clarify, are previously booked flights on partner airlines (in my case Finnair) earning at the same new rate as BA and IB?

  BA reply: As long as the flight booked falls within the parameters of my previous message, Tier points would still be earned based on multiplying today’s distance-based Tier points by x13.3333, even when flying with one of our partner airlines.

  • yonasl says:

    2 Jan2 January 16:25

    That makes sense …
    – 140 / 600 = 23%
    – 140 x 13.33 / 7,500 = 25%

    So this is a fair conversion.

    • Calvin F says:

      2 Jan2 January 17:18

      I’m guessing the interesting part of the BA response was that partner airlines were included rather than confirming the 13.33 multiplier? So a previously planned trip with QR/AY for after April 1st which would have earned 600 TP would now also earn 7,999 under the new scheme, thus retaining Silver. Previously the FAQ only specifically mentioned BA, IB, AA, but the BA response now seems to say that partner airlines are included

      • Tony says:

        2 Jan2 January 20:56

        Ok but does BA know when the ticket was purchased if you booked a flight with a partner airline? Surely they have no way of knowing when the ticket was purchased when it credits to BAEC.

        • LittleNick says:

          3 Jan3 January 16:18

          That’s sort of what I’m wondering. I can only think you’ll need to put in a manual request with e-ticket confirmation which should show date of booking/confirmafion, I expect they won’t make it easy

• Aaron says:

  2 Jan2 January 16:00

  I’d echo Nick P’s request above for an article on the other oneworld partners. The reality is that BA has set the price of oneworld Emerald at £20k plus tax, minus some wiggle-room with credit cards. Can this be beaten by much in any scenario? I, for one, haven’t had to think about other airline loyalty programmes since before COVID, and am thus well out of the loop. Apologies if this has already been talked to death in the comments.

  • Throwawayname says:

    2 Jan2 January 22:58

    Segment-based qualification on RJ should be a lot cheaper, particularly if you enjoy flying around Spain.

• Clive says:

  2 Jan2 January 16:04

  I have just compared recent flights with a partner airline (QR) under the old and new systems. In Nov I flew LHR-DOH-KHI; LHE-DOH-LHR in J, but the return leg was the QR ‘Lite’ fare. Under the old system that earned 360 TPs, so 24% of the way to Gold (which I had already retained by then). Under the new system it would earn slightly over 2,000 TPs, so only 10% of the way to Gold: fair?

  • LittleNick says:

    2 Jan2 January 16:47

    Yes, BA have realised they deem the whole partner award TP as a loophole, and too easy to gain status so they’ve killed that off too by only giving small proportions of distance flown. TBH I will only use BA now for avios redemptions before that moves to revenue based spend, I think that’s likely in the medium term

  • Alan T says:

    2 Jan2 January 18:05

    Do you actually mean “J” or are you just using that for generic “Business: , as the fare buckets for QR as as follows:

    Tier Points awarded (percentage of miles flown)
    From 1 April 2025:
    Economy Lowest (T, O, W, G): 4%
    Economy Low (K, M, L, V, S, N, Q): 7%
    Economy Flexible (Y, B, H): 15%
    Business Lowest (P): 25%
    Business Low (R, I): 25%
    Business Flexible (J, C, D): 50%
    First Low (A): 40%
    First Flexible (F): 60%

    And LHR to DOH is over 6000 miles return.

    • Clive says:

      2 Jan2 January 22:16

      I was working on the 25% figure, which the Lite fare certainly was, and the outward leg wasn’t expensive enough to hit the 50% level.

• Giles says:

  2 Jan2 January 16:13

  Just had a very generic reply back from BA about the changes – so have gone back asking for specific clarity on my BA Holidays bookings made last year.

  Thanks for getting in touch and sharing your feedback on the new British Airways Club.

  We do understand that any changes made can affect our customers in different ways, so your comments are always welcome. As our customers’ needs evolve, we are always looking at ways to make our loyalty programme more rewarding.

  The new British Airways Club has been designed to better recognise our Members’ loyalty and offers more ways to earn Tier Points than ever before. This includes earning Tier Points when paying for extras such as seat selection and additional bags, and limitless earnings on British Airways Holiday package spend with no minimum stay requirement.

  There are other new features as well, such as new Tier Milestones that unlock bonus Avios.

  For BA Holiday bookings, you will continue to earn Tier Points on British Airways Holidays “Flight + Hotel” and “Flight + Car” bookings.

  For more details on this, please see the link below where its gives you the FAQ’s for this:

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

  Thanks again for contacting us. We look forward to welcoming you on board again soon.

  Best Regards

• Tom says:

  2 Jan2 January 17:05

  The FAQs are pretty basic and don’t cover nearly all the frequently asked questions!!

• Simon Schus says:

  2 Jan2 January 18:09

  lol. I just tried to calculate what I’d be at in the new regime. I’d be Bronze based on spending from 2024 but probably would end up pushing it into Silver in 2025 with inflation if I chose to spend with BA. This is based on 150 segments/flights, 30 of which are between UK and US. Roughly 65% BA, 90% Economy. All my main US Cities are well serviced direct by VS (IAD, BOS, JFK) and so are the ones I sometimes visit (SFO, LAX). I also mostly need to take connections in the UK anyway (MAN, NCL, or EXT) so moving into another airline with a connection does not affect me.

  I’m going to look at options later in the year to see where things end up with other programs. My initial thoughts are:
  – RJ but would have to put up with paying for AA seats. Doable but would probably end up sitting on BA anyway which I’d prefer not to do due to sour taste, at least for a while.
  – AS would have to do without Soho/Chelsea/Flagship lounges and Flagship first check in when on US domestics. Doable, but sucks during summer travel.
  -KLM/Flying Blue: Annoyingly, my work doesn’t allow me to travel with work laptop or phone in France (something to do with their laws and it being deemed a “Location of Concern”) so Air France isn’t an option but KLM has enough good connectivity to the UK regions. I didn’t realize that EXT now has a KLM connection which is nice after we lost FlyBe. Hopefully it stays year-round.

  • Occasional Ranter says:

    2 Jan2 January 18:41

    Yeah, the EXT-AMS route is getting me interested in Flying Blue

    • dundj says:

      2 Jan2 January 18:56

      150 sectors in economy, with 30 to the US should equal Ultimate status in Flying Blue if all are on AF/KL Metal.

      • Simon Schus says:

        2 Jan2 January 19:03

        I know nothing about Flying Blue yet! I don’t think I realized they were sector based. I shall take a look (albeit probably second half of the calendar year, just in case they change over too).

      • Simon Schus says:

        2 Jan2 January 19:04

        A fair few would probably be on Delta too, I’ve got reading ahead to do!

        • dundj says:

          2 Jan2 January 19:39

          If Economy just understand within any country (say JFK-LAX, CDG/ORY-NCE) you would only earn 2 XP, whereas EXE-AMS would be 5 XP and AMS-JFK would be 10 XP, though AMS-LAX would be 12 XP. PE is a multiple of two and J is a multiple of 3. F is a multiple of 4. UXP which is 900 UXP, and depending on your sectors and how many are US domestic you would likely be Platinum within 12 months, with the resets for each new tier restarting the 12 months there and then. There is currently Platinum for Life after 10 years of consecutive Platinum status though you can earn more than one year per year by reaching at least 900 XP, though would lose XP from 601 to 899 XP, 901 to 1199 XP and so on if not achieving the 300 XP threshold after reaching 600 XP.

          It can be complicated, but once understood is a simple scheme, with the downsides being poorer awards if no savers available.

  • Gerry says:

    2 Jan2 January 20:46

    AS has lounge access on US domestics (ironically, it uses the old BA lounge at T7).

• Derek Gordon says:

  2 Jan2 January 18:24

  Lifetime Tier points for Life

  I am approximately 20% (7000 Tier Points) off GFL at this time, however using the proposed conversion rate of 13.33 which has been talked about on this forum, it will convert to 373k TPs on the new system and will be 32% off GFL! Is this the way that the conversion will work?

  • LittleNick says:

    2 Jan2 January 18:55

    Nope that’s not how Lifetime status will convert. If you’re 80% now which is 28000/35000 then you’ll have 440000 out of 550000. So you’ll still be 80% of the way but to fill that last 20% is no doubt going to cost you way more than 20% under the old system

    • Derek Gordon says:

      2 Jan2 January 20:09

      I hope that is how it works – But someone on X said the conversion is based on 13.33 new TPs to the old TP model. Which actually means a current GFL exactly 35k – Would not satisfy the new criteria! Does anyone know how this will actually work?

      • LittleNick says:

        2 Jan2 January 21:06

        @Derek “someone on X” perhaps you should look at the official BA page and posts by Rob and team etc. 13.33 is the conversion for bookings already made under the old system for TPs in the new one

    • Greeny says:

      2 Jan2 January 20:17

      £1per point just another 110k to spend to get there not the five years of 1500 TPs you would once had to get if gold status for those years

      • LittleNick says:

        2 Jan2 January 21:05

        “Just another 110k” 🤣
        Five years of 1500TP under the old system is about £4k x5 so £20k. I’d much prefer to do it over 5 years at £20k then £110k despite being able to do that quicker

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