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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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  • Craig says:
    2 Jan2 January 19:06

    Just read a post from Andrew Neill saying it is a cock up. That it is. This new plan is not for the ordinary traveller but the corporate traveller. Was looking forward to a tier point run as a retirement idea. Surely Sean Doyle and co will see common sense.

    • Phil says:
      2 Jan2 January 19:34

      That is someone who’s take-home was £500k a year complaining, and let’s be honest its not spent on haircuts, so if he thinks its ludicrous then imagine how someone on £50k would feel.

      They may not listen to someone on Twitter on the latter wage but someone on the former may set off alarm bells.

      • Charles Martel says:
        2 Jan2 January 19:54

        I’m sure someone will offer him a Premier card to keep his business.

        • James says:
          2 Jan2 January 21:58

          Nigh on impossible to get a Premier card these days. They’ve been taking them off people for the last few years, even from CEOs of businesses with >£5MM p.a. BA spend

        • Tom says:
          3 Jan3 January 04:24

          One of the things that makes me laugh is everyone defending these changes who just assumes there will be no competitive response to this, despite this being one of the most cut-throat businesses on the planet. Mr. Neill seems to do a lot of US travel so I’m sure someone from Virgin/Delta and United will also be interested in reaching out to Mr. Neill now. The wave of attacks from competitors to poach BA’s customers even if these changes are now rowed back is just about to begin.

    • Paul says:
      2 Jan2 January 19:48

      But corporates fly in F/J at the sort of fares you’d pay in WT+ once all the incentives, discounts and deals are done. Are they going to rewarded on basis of the ticketed fare or on the average of all spend over a year. If the latter they are just as screwed as the rest of us.

      • Rob says:
        2 Jan2 January 19:49

        Rebates are paid at year end. Used to be a good money maker in my banking days because clients would reimburse our expenses based on the ticket price then we’d get a big extra kickback from the airline, making travel into a profit centre.

    • Qrfan says:
      2 Jan2 January 20:00

      Corporate travellers also have families and travel for fun, and there must be others out there who are none too impressed that their families will be dropping down to blue or bronze from silver due to the penalising of lower cost leisure fares. One gold card doesn’t get a family of 4 into a lounge.

  • Supersub says:
    2 Jan2 January 19:53

    Struggling to think how the new changes will encourage BAH bookings to spend more.
    Self employed and was going to treat myself to an East Coast TATL trip in First for a business conference. Was looking at BAH to lock in Silver from one trip but now I’ll still be nowhere near the new threshold. So I’ll maybe just stick with the flight and sort my own hotel out.
    As an aside, and at the risk of making you rummage through the seat pocket for a sickbag, the 2000+ posts on here have emphasised (a) there is no such thing as a “typical” BA customer and (b) Rob and colleagues really have created a proper community here.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      2 Jan2 January 20:06

      On my long haul trips I use Flight + Hotel then custom trip and just add in an airport hotel to make it a holiday and then book accommodation separately.

      Advantage is only paying a deposit until 7 weeks before the trip.

      A BA holiday doesn’t have to be flight plus hotel (or car hire) for the entire trip.

      • Phil says:
        2 Jan2 January 20:18

        Careful now. Carry on with cheap tricks like this and BA might decide no one deserves a holiday.

        • Callum says:
          2 Jan2 January 20:56

          Who said it was a trick? I’ve done this before when a hotel on booking.com for the whole tri[ has been cheaper but I’d fancy an airport hotel for my early morning flight. Perfectly legitimate.

          • Phil says:
            2 Jan2 January 21:44

            I was being sarcastic. Point is that BA allow these method to optimise a booking, then accuse us of being cheap and undeserving of the status we achieved via their own rules. ‘Cheap’ apparently being the exact words one BA exec used.

      • NorthernLass says:
        2 Jan2 January 21:35

        I do this all the time – in fact it was one such booking which got me to Silver 2 years ago!

    • Steveh says:
      2 Jan2 January 21:00

      I freely admit that I haven’t read all 2000+ posts, but I get the distinct impression that no-one – not even you Rob! – has any kind of coherent explanation as to what BA is aiming to achieve here. Is mightily pissing off a large number of your committed paying customers a sensible business move? Surely not! If the strategic aim was to thin out the numbers of Silver and Gold members then why were BA heavily pushing the double tier point BAH offer up until just a few years ago? Is there a factional war at the top of BA?

      • Rob says:
        2 Jan2 January 21:20

        Beginning to think there is a massive cash saving if they can close two of the four T5A lounges given the rent bill ….

        • Steveh says:
          2 Jan2 January 21:41

          Hi Rob I don’t really by this explanation. (a). T5 was built at least in part to BA’s specification, so having the two main business lounges was part of their core strategy (b). Any savings from cutting down the T5 lounges is peanuts compared to what they are going to lose by customers switching spend patterns in the light of losing hope of retaining status – (ie. people like me, of which I can assure there are many)

          • Rob says:
            3 Jan3 January 04:57

            BA is very good at understanding cash savings and very bad at understanding lost future revenue. See Brunchgate etc.

        • LittleNick says:
          2 Jan2 January 22:04

          I think you’re right Rob, close Galleries North and T5B leaving them just the south complex

        • Barrel for Scraping says:
          2 Jan2 January 23:32

          What about all the gold sparrows and platinum tits? There’s lots of ways to get oneworld status from other airlines. Only the CCR requires BA status

          • Throwawayname says:
            3 Jan3 January 00:17

            It’s amazing that even the huge thread on Flyertalk is all about people who are moving away from BA altogether. Had I been that emotionally invested in an airline, I would change FFPs well before considering whether I should ditch them.

        • vlcnc says:
          3 Jan3 January 00:07

          This was my thought. Thin out lounge use so much that you can close a few down or reduce in size to save money.

      • Steveh says:
        2 Jan2 January 21:27

        Sorry should be “up until just a few days ago”

      • jjoohhnn says:
        2 Jan2 January 21:53

        A few years ago was covid and they needed to encourage people to travel. Now flights are busy, 83.3% load factor, £0.5bn profit, and there’s little incentive to give away status benefits when you are doing well.. Why not cut the costs. Make the lounges more manageable and friendly for people who actually pay for J+ tickets..

        Main benefit of status for me when i had silver was lounge access, and seat selection. I paid for seats recently on easyjet and would do so on BA too probably (although not long haul), but less incentive as they will seat family together. Lounge access can be attained in other ways (3rd party lounges are everywhere now) or via reward flights.

  • Fred says:
    2 Jan2 January 20:44

    The move to an airline group ownership structure in 2011 was never going to benefit the BA consumer. I work in similar circumstances and the layer above (e.g IAG), will dictate and overall any proposal or plan for the good of the profit centre (BA). The brand or business unit mgt ultimately are beholden to group managment and their strategy.

  • Callum says:
    2 Jan2 January 20:54

    Controversial opinion here and this might upset some people but I’m entitled to my opinion as much as you are to yours. Why should someone who books at a discount get rewarded the same way as someone who pays nearer to full price? I know most leisure travellers don’t pay full fare but taking the current example – they have just offered an extra discount on top of their current sale prices. I can’t book until after the sale ends due to the way leave in my job works so I will inevitably pay more for the same product as someone else. Revenue based spend is the way to go in my opinion. And the “new” thresholds aren’t that high compared to the old ones (but a bit lower would be nice) if you don’t count double tier points. I just looked at a trip to Vancouver in both WTP & CW with a hotel package in July/August which is on the cards once I can book my leave. I make more progress to silver and gold under the new system with this package than the old one. And that is at the sale prices. Inevitably I’ll pay more because I have to wait until April and then will be better rewarded for having to pay more. Double tier points would have left me better off under the old system but we knew that would end. A trip to Norway in December also works out better at ET prices with a hotel we make more than twice as much progress to silver or gold than the usual 20 points on the old system. CE is roughly even. Again prices will inflate by April and I’ll therefore be better off (rewarded TPs, not by paying more obviously!). If you can book well in advance and snag the cheap fares I understand your disappointment but unfortunately we can’t all do that and it pleases me that I’ll now get some greater recognition for having to pay more because my employer is restrictive with advanced leave bookings.

    • Danny says:
      2 Jan2 January 23:07

      “Why should someone who books at a discount get rewarded the same way as someone who pays nearer to full price?”

      They don’t. That’s why more expensive fare buckets get more Avios.

      • Callum says:
        2 Jan2 January 23:11

        They do. Why should someone booking the cheapest ticket in town get the same tier points as someone who is forced to book much later and pay a higher price? Avios is one thing. And it used to be just as bad as tier points being based on distance rather than spend. Now it has been rectified. Why can this not apply to tier points as well? If I’m having to pay 1.5x to 2x more than you surely I should get a proportionately higher amount of tier points?

        • Steveh says:
          2 Jan2 January 23:55

          Nope. Why should someone paying for their flights with their hard earned personal cash, and therefore obliged to seek the best deal, get less tier points than people whose tickets are paid for by their corporate company? That cannot possibly be fair, can it now……

          • Callum says:
            3 Jan3 January 06:03

            I’m not sure what comments you’re reading but I’m not talking about corporate bookings. I’m talking about not being able to book leave for leisure trips as far in advance as other people and therefore having to pay more. Avios is just one reward. It’s a portion of your fare given back to you. Tier points are another reward. Why should I get fewer tier points in relation to my spend with my hard earned cash just because I have to pay more for the same tickets as you? You can try and justify getting more for less any way you want but it won’t wash with me. This change means quite simply spend more, get rewarded more. Spend less, get rewarded less. I don’t see any issue with that.

        • Throwawayname says:
          3 Jan3 January 00:06

          Rewarding people for being captive [to either a hub or an employer policy] doesn’t seem to make much business sense. What are you going to do if you aren’t getting rewarded, fly on an airline without minimum wage cabin crews and/or regular IT meltdowns?

        • Danny says:
          3 Jan3 January 00:18

          If BA wanted, they could have tweaked tier points to align with fare buckets, like BA’s economy fares already do.

          They chose not to.

          You talked about passengers being ‘rewarded’. Avios are a reward.

          • LittleNick says:
            3 Jan3 January 08:07

            Well said, all they needed to do was increase TPs for those on BA fully flex fare buckets but they never distinguished them

          • Callum says:
            7 Jan7 January 01:24

            No Danny, avios is not a reward. If you consider the avios as a reward then I have concerns about your perception of the word “reward”. Avios is a pathetic reward that is worth very little. Unless you take a stupid amount of flights or are constantly flying long haul in premium cabins there is no way to accrue any significant amount of avios to mean anything. Most people with any real significant amount of avios accrue it in other means such as credit card spend. Tier points are the real reward. You can try and whitewash this anyway you want to suit your personal opinion but this new system means quite simply more spend, more reward and less spend, less reward. Pretending tier ponts are not a rewards and calling avios “the reward” does not change this. A loyalty programme rewards customers for their loyalty.

  • Kyle says:
    2 Jan2 January 21:16

    There will probably be some backtrack here in a few weeks or months but not a total reversal. Anyone want to hazard a guess at what this will be?

    • LittleNick says:
      2 Jan2 January 22:07

      Probably restate double TPs for Ba Holiday bookings, making silver much more achievable for many and gold doable for heavy spenders

  • Fan of CR says:
    2 Jan2 January 21:19

    Down to brass tacks.
    Have a BAH “holiday” booked pre 30/12 for CW LHR to Denver in April. Paid £200 deposit and £4k left to pay for 2 x PAX including 5 days Avis car hire.
    Am GGL through March 2026 and LHR closest airport.
    Have *A Krisflyer elite gold but most travel to date BA because of CR.
    Best non-BA cash business fare I found is SAS ticketed ex Arlanda for £1,620 each.
    Should I eat the BAH deposit and cost of flights to Arlanda or stick with existing BAH?
    Get RA2 from Woking to LHR so T2 takes longer than T5.
    Never flown SAS longhaul and last SAS flight was in a MD82 in the noughties- very noisy at the back but Baileys in economy!
    Not getting GGL any time soon again after April 2026 so no point in Avios/TP from existing booking.
    Any thoughts welcome?

    • Scandinavian traveler says:
      2 Jan2 January 22:01

      SAS has a pretty good hard product on long haul flights and service is often (but not always) good. Not too difficult earning status with SAS either.
      Short haul is pretty bad though!

      • Thaliasilje says:
        3 Jan3 January 08:54

        SAS is a terrible airline with a much worse program since joining SkyTeam. Detouring and connecting for SAS is madness.

    • Greeny says:
      2 Jan2 January 22:29

      Depends who you think you’re punishing by moving your holiday BA don’t care whether you stick or leave clearly by the changes they’ve made. My advice do what suits you best and ensure you maximise your lounge and flight experience if you choose to stay with BA

    • Barrel for Scraping says:
      2 Jan2 January 23:06

      According to Rob this change doesn’t affect GGL members as they spend so much anyway 😂 As a GGL will won’t be able to renew on £40k spend I know that’s nonsense

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      3 Jan3 January 00:01

      RA2 is a bus / coach? it takes 10 extra mins to get from T5 to the central bus station! Or 10 mins less if it stops at central bus station first. No way would I let affect something like that affect my holiday flight choices.

      If you do dump the BA holiday and associated flights then wait until the final payment is due in case there is a cancellation and claim a refund,

  • KyaCat says:
    2 Jan2 January 22:16

    Damn. Well said. https://www.turningleftforless.com/an-open-letter-to-british-airways-ceo-sean-doyle/

  • Raad says:
    2 Jan2 January 22:28

    I spoke to BA today regarding the existing BA Holidays bookings for travel by 30th June, they said each current tier point is equivalent to 13.33 using the new system (and not 13.5). Thought to share as this can make a difference in calculations.

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