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

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• Clive says:

  2 Jan2 January 22:31

  dundj gave an interesting summary of Flying Blue a page or so back, but there was no reply facility. As I understand it, but I shall need to check, one positive point about FB is that once you have achieved status, if you earn more of their TP equivalents in a year you can carry some forward to the next year. Having once been Platinum with FB, using my local airport, I shall certainly be looking again at their scheme.

  • Barrel for Scraping says:

    2 Jan2 January 23:10

    Everything goes full circle. Flying Blue had their ‘April fool’ changes around about 2008 which made me jump ship to bmi with a status match, then BA took over bmi so I ended up with them and I reached GGL thanks to the reduced TP thresholds due to covid and then the double tier points with holidays. Maybe I end up back with Flying Blue. Who knows…?

  • LittleNick says:

    2 Jan2 January 23:11

    Yep, I hope Rob does a piece on FB as correct me if I’m wrong I don’t think it’s been covered much on here. I hear AF whilst not perfect have more consistency to their service compared to BA where sometimes it is really great and others it’s lacklustre

    • Barrel for Scraping says:

      2 Jan2 January 23:17

      Best to do your own research! HfP doesn’t really know FB so they’ll be using the same public info you have. The FlyerTalk forums will feature real FB members who know the scheme in and out and will know how it compares to the marketing

      • Throwawayname says:

        2 Jan2 January 23:53

        If you want the perspective of someone who uses Skyteam as their backup alliance (so definitely not authoritative but certainly able to compare), FB is great for relative ease of achieving status, but can be a bit stingy with reward miles (they’re based on price, so business class usually means you’ll get more flying Saudia or AM than AFKL)

        A lot of uninformed people on the blogosphere think Skyteam is a poor alliance, but I had no complaints from my decade+ of experiences as an Elite Plus member of OK+ (Czech Airlines)- everything was smooth, even in China and other places where they’d never seen a CSA frequent flyer card before.

        Despite prioritising *A, I qualified again for Skyteam status in 2023 and, aside from having to argue once with the Aeromexico check in staff about additional luggage on a domestic Light ticket (ultimate got it checked in for free), everything has been great. I had a soft landing to FB Elite last year, so I grabbed an AZ status match which I was then able to use during my SK millionaire challenge. Despite my status being absent from the boarding passes, I managed to enjoy all the status benefits (including, once again, luggage on cheapo fares) by showing my status on the AZ app, and the only lounge I didn’t manage to get into during the challenge was the VS contract facility at BOM.

        In a nutshell, I think FB status is both reasonably easy to achieve and shockingly underrated – perhaps because of the lack of domestic lounge access which irritates Americans (though I sympathise with the likes of Air Europa who have to sell £20 domestic fares to compete with RENFE). As long as the earn/burn ratio works for you (might be worth noting that FB is also an AMEX partner and you can convert your points). I think that anyone unhappy with BA should give it serious consideration.

        I’ve never been a fan of BA (even when I used to live in London, I enjoyed spending the odd afternoon hopping around the T2 Lounges), but in my view anyone who is based in the UK but outside of the immediate LHR catchment area would’ve been better off staying away from BA even when it had a compelling FFP- now it’s a complete no brainer.

        • Dev says:

          3 Jan3 January 08:13

          … and with FlyingBlue, you only need to hit Gold (OWS equivalent) to get lounges, and it also has a family pooling feature for miles as well. Push for Platinum if you want to redeem
          In AF F when the time comes to take the wife/husband to take them somewhere, just make that extra push to Plat, and drop down the following year back to Gold.

          As above, it is (along with SkyTeam in general) massively underrated.

  • dundj says:

    3 Jan3 January 05:38

    Thanks Clive, I tried to keep the most basic points of the scheme in that summary. There are a lot more involved as well, but they are mainly about the earn based on revenue versus miles flown based on carrier flown, against the ability to earn Ultimate status (a very niche point within the scheme).

    Also, as Barrel for Scraping points out, redemptions can be costly if no saver availability is around as it is based on price and demand in a slightly similar manner to VS Flying Club now.

    One reason why I have previously mentioned Alaska (OW) and Air Canada (*A) programmes as possibly being better for those looking to earn status and redeeming. A3 (*A) is another good option for earning status too, but redemptions I’ve no idea about.

  • Pangolin says:

    3 Jan3 January 10:49

    KLM has way the best route network for serving UK regional airports (for me it’s a godsend due to the excellent frequency at BHX to EU destinations via AMS).

    I also did the AZ status match and having access to Clubrooms at BHX and decent lounges like Fantazja (much better than the PP offering) at WAW makes it worthwhile keeping, so I’m doing the status run with ITA to hold on to it for another year.

    KLM always seems to screw up my FFP so that only the number shows on the booking or BP, and not the airline code itself. This means I usually have to show the digital card in the ITA app but that’s always worked without any issues, whereas some *A lounges have insisted that I show the physical card (Gold) to get into the lounge.

• James Andressen says:

  2 Jan2 January 22:51

  As an exit strategy.. can I upgrade a normal virgin point flight using the credit card reward voucher and then status match Gold across to it? Is that the cheapest way to maintain status?

  • Jonathan says:

    3 Jan3 January 03:07

    It’s probably best to go to the forums for an enquiry like this

• NoWayBA says:

  2 Jan2 January 23:22

  Having read through a significant proportion of the messages posted over the last few days, it is clear that this has gone down like a lead balloon.
  I share the views of some others who have posted before me – I think that this is about BA reducing lounge usage to allow them to sell off lounge space. I think that they would likely keep Gallery North and relinquish Gallery South. Given the likely reduction in Gold status holders over the next 2-3 years, they will not need a First Lounge the size of the current lounge. BA will same millions in relinquishing the real estate.
  Only issue is, where will they put all those Americans who only qualify for status and lounge access through credit card spend. Maybe we will hear changes to BA Prem Amex in the next few months and they will allow you to spend and earn a lot more than the proposed 2,500 points. My card renews in March and I have usually triggered my 2-4-1 by July. Appreciate that was when it was £10k.

• Sean says:

  2 Jan2 January 23:48

  Why would you spend 20k for the first wing or first lounge? Might as well just book first as a package holiday when the ground product is worth it. LHR JFK. I travel from Manchester so don’t use the first wing unless I travel from London. Not worth staying long in club lounge might as well miss the tight connections they have in place and get compo when they don’t arrive on time. Do you think they will start to charge for lounge access?

  • Barrel for Scraping says:

    2 Jan2 January 23:54

    Not every route (none on shorthaul!) has F. I want my travel to be as stress free as possible and the GGL benefits mostly achieve that. If they had an upsell to get F ground services (first wing. CCR, etc) when on a route with no F then I’d consider it. I know it would be expensive but maybe it would be priced at a level I thought it was still worth it.

    • Throwawayname says:

      3 Jan3 January 00:02

      Serious question: have you ever flown from LHR T2? As a *G member who could only access business class level facilities, I never spent more than 15 minutes from tube/taxi to the lounge, even with checking luggage in. The one time I flew from T5, the business check in queue alone took me a lot longer than I would normally need for check in+security+walk to the SEN lounge.

• Ollie says:

  3 Jan3 January 02:51

  Very late to the comments but after some days to digest the news, my thoughts have crystallised:
  – Everyone is saying that BA has given up on the leisure traveller with these changes, but what I find bizarre is that BA are working off the leisure traveller definition of 20 years ago. Their focus seems to be either on full-fare work travel, or on “bucket and spade” missions i.e. the only other type of travel is people who want to book a package holiday. First of all – that only works if you have fairly typical holidaying patterns – once you get to multi-centre, staying with friends/relatives, round-the-world, BLeisure, anyone wanting to take advantage of hotel status – then the inflexibility of booking through BA “holidays” makes no sense. I can’t remember the last time I had a typical out-and-back trip of the pure “holiday” sort, staying in just one hotel and not caring about hotel status. I often combine work and travel, try many different hotels from hostels to Amex FHR properties, and stay with friends. Nevermind that I am now based in Hong Kong – so I’m guessing BA only cares about my “Holidays” if it involves flying with them to London, not Phuket on CX.
  When they literally had a campaign just a year ago talking about the many different reasons to travel, it strikes me as archaic that they think everyone in their “Club” is a UK-based family who holidays in the traditional sense.
  – And as for earning on partner airlines, I only do the minimum 4x BA sectors per year to retain Gold. The earnings rates are laughably low e.g. on Cathay (20% of miles flown for First) mean that you must travel 20000/.2=100000 Miles (i.e. circumnavigate the Earth FOUR TIMES in First, every year), so probably looking at about 80k GBP of spend
  – The UK is the only market where the credit card spend method is available – so sounds like you’re only welcome in the new club if you’re UK-based. There are BA cards available elsewhere but the one in HK has been left to languish — it’s with a bank that stilloperates via fax.
  – Like most other people, 20k is too much to spend for Gold – I’d rather just pay for enhancements and J/F travel on the open marked (read: not BA) when I need rather than chase status for marginal improvements
  – My travel pattern is so sporadic that usually any lounge will do as long as I can eat and work. I don’t care about sitting around drinking fine champagne, just some dedicated area where I can get my admin (eat, shower, work, steal some nice teabags) from.

  • Ollie says:

    3 Jan3 January 02:55

    Ran out of space for my comment but my personal conclusion going forward is just to keep the HK Amex Plat (for all its faults), earn in an alliance-agnostic scheme eg. HSBC EveryMile reward $ and Amex MRs, and just fly with the most appropriate airline/route for my needs each time. I believe it is the ultimate status to reach nirvana during travel, able to endure anything from the Manchester security experience to the heights of the CX First Pier – a journey of personal enlightenment that no airline can take away from you. I say that only half tongue-in-cheek — @Rob if you want me to write an article about stoic travelling then I’d be happy to!

    • ReadRuth says:

      3 Jan3 January 06:34

      Hello Ollie I am relatively new, don’t know all the abbreviations what are amex MRs ? Please. Thanks very for your comments so interesting and i like your calm attitude. Regards from Ruth

      • HertsSam says:

        3 Jan3 January 09:42

        At the foot of every page is a link to a glossary which covers many of the abbreviations used across the site.
        Amex MR’s are American Express Membership Reward points. These points are available on some Amex cards and are a product of spending on the card. MR points can be transferred to some airline and hotel loyalty schemes to help pay for flights or hotel stays.
        I’d there is an abbreviation not defined in the glossary, sometimes Google has the answer.

        • ReadRuth says:

          3 Jan3 January 11:24

          Thank you HertsSam I did not know about the glossary, will mug up on acronyms .

      • yonasl says:

        3 Jan3 January 09:59

        Amex MR are the Amex point. Usually 1 MR per £1 spent (unless you buy flights in which case they give you 2 or 3, can’t remember). You can then exchange these MR into Avios, Flying Blue, hotel points, etc.

  • Brightstar says:

    3 Jan3 January 03:37

    Ollie, you say it so well. Sadly, BA has adopted a UK-centric, myopic view of the world. They are stuck in the 2010s. This will be their undoing. My prediction is that some key executives will go, over this.

  • LittleNick says:

    3 Jan3 January 10:17

    Well said Ollie, BA have gone against the spirit of the Oneworld alliance and are merely giving a token gesture if you credit oneworld flights to BA. They’ve taken the view we’re better than the rest (they’re not) and you’re not wanted if you try and remain loyal to the whole ecosystem not just BA. They’ve changed it from what was a frequent flyer scheme to just a paid membership scheme and if you don’t like the fees don’t pay.

  • Tim S says:

    3 Jan3 January 18:14

    Rules for DTP say
    “The booking must be made by a UK resident and must originate and end in the UK”

    It’s an incentive specifically aimed at UK residents.

    That’s not unusual for FFPs. Many of the foreign ones have incentives only aimed at their locals that Brits can’t take advantage of.

  • Art Web says:

    16 Jan16 January 18:42

    So insightful Ollie, well done

• Mouse says:

  3 Jan3 January 06:01

  Will be interesting to see whether/how they reconfigure the T5 lounges in the new world to align with these changes (i.e., to reduce benefits to economy & short haul travellers, and maybe close any loophole of chasing status with a different Oneworld partner).

  Something like:
  – First Wing for BA Golds (not Oneworld Emeralds) flying premium economy or higher (maybe even long haul only or Club World as lowest qualifying cabin). CCR becomes First Dining / First Bar section of main Gold lounge for First customers and GGLs (as they have elsewhere)
  – Very basic business lounge for everyone else, with dining section reserved for Club World passengers

  • Barrel for Scraping says:

    3 Jan3 January 06:10

    The benefit of oneworld emerald is first class lounge access, BA are already going against the spirit of the scheme by having the fake first lounge in T5 and then calling the real first lounge the Concorde Room and excluding emeralds. If non-BA emeralds were excluded from the galleries first it would go totally against the spirit of the rules.

    • Cranzle says:

      3 Jan3 January 06:26

      I agree. They already don’t allow J passengers into BA lounges in other countries too (unless Gold or First).

      It’s only a matter of time before any lounge access and additional luggage becomes chargeable in J, just like seat selection. I mean, you’ve got to retain exclusivity right…..

      • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

        3 Jan3 January 08:26

        Which lounges don’t they allow club passengers into if they aren’t gold?

        • Cranzle says:

          3 Jan3 January 17:33

          Dubai

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      3 Jan3 January 08:30

      BA isn’t going against OW policy with the CCR specifically for F passengers.

      Other airlines have similar lounges across the OW network.

• Barrel for Scraping says:

  3 Jan3 January 06:39

  Many say “if you want the extras then pay for them” but it’s not possible to pay to use the first wing, Flounge or Concorde Room if your flight does not have first class. BA also has to try and stop people defecting and filling the business lounge with RJ gold sparrows.

  There needs to be some incentives to stick with BA. I would tweak the lounge rules so that BA silvers (but not any other oneworld sapphires) can use the Flounge if they’ve booked a business class ticket. A lot of people are happy with economy on shorthaul so this would both give someone (who doesn’t plan on spending £20k/year) a reason to book Club Europe if they’re silver (or close to silver) and would give people a reason to stick with BA as other oneworld sapphires wouldn’t get this lounge upgrade, they’d still get business lounge access.

  Maybe give bronze a couple of lounge vouchers too, give them a taste of silver.

  Presumably any changes like this would be post 2026 when a lot of people will drop status.

  • Danny says:

    3 Jan3 January 09:47

    The LHR Flounge isn’t much better than Galleries Club though. The food offering was different/better but then they got rid of the menu and then the buffet was downgraded. Flounge is also uncomfortably hot at times

    • LittleNick says:

      3 Jan3 January 10:30

      They have better self pour. The flounge actually feels like a business lounge funnily enough. Sad I won’t be able to access it again

      • pete says:

        3 Jan3 January 17:50

        I much prefer self pour in the Flounge rather than have my consumption noted by the staff in the CR. Prefer the buffet so I decide exactly what’s on my plate. And not possible to steal cans of coke and bags of crisps in CR. Yes, Flounge can be busy – just need to sharpen your elbows. 🙂

• Robert Newel says:

  3 Jan3 January 07:19

  I’ve refrained from commenting while I’ve considered my strategy, primarily as all the fun has now gone out of the program and I didn’t see the point, but heres my 2 cents. As a London based GGL who was 4 years from GfL, now 10+ years, my plan is:

  – Fly more than planned in Q1 to hit 3,500 TP and get one last GUF.
  – Personal travel from Q2 onwards will be on BA to enjoy the CCR snd use up my avios balance (close to 1 million).
  – Business travel will be on Sky Team. Virgin, Delta, AF, KLM and SAS can get me everywhere I need to go.
  – By April 2026 I will cancel BAPP and hopefully have no avios left. It was fun while it lasted.

  • Kaye says:

    3 Jan3 January 07:34

    So similar to our thinking (both partner and I are GGL although Midlands based).

    – planned flying for Q1 takes us both to GGL renewed until April 26
    – personal travel for remainder of year will be redemptions to get enjoy CCR and get Avios balance down. Around 1/2 million
    – paid business and potentially paid personal depending on how our plans develop will be on Sky Team
    – BAPP will be cancelled by April 2026

    Also agree it was fun while it lasted!

    • Chris H says:

      3 Jan3 January 15:04

      Yes same here, GGL based near LHR:

      – Planned Q1 travel enough to re-qualify for GGL through to April 26
      – 1.5 Million Avios to use (family of four but easy to burn even with GUFs)
      – Will hopefully soft land to Gold for 2026 and Silver for 2027?
      – Focus all new spend/booking on crediting to QR – Superior product and I like the OW alliance in fairness, plus I’m usually heading east.

      Agree, great while it lasted, but really no point chasing status at these ridiculous thresholds. May as well be Emirates platinum for £25 or so.

  • Kaye says:

    3 Jan3 January 07:35

    Oh and part of the frustration – 2-3 years out from GfL now closer to 10 years!

    • Barrel for Scraping says:

      3 Jan3 January 07:58

      Seems a common position, I’m also a couple of years off GfL but as I thought BA would have allowed a year for the new aligned membership year to bed in I expected to be able to double my bookings in 2025 to get to GfL but that’s no point now.

      • Kaye says:

        3 Jan3 January 08:13

        I wonder if this is part of the driver for change. More people predicted to reach GfL in the next few years then they expected.

  • TomB says:

    3 Jan3 January 08:05

    This. Just put £4K of work flights that would have been with BA through VA instead. Already have more short hauls booked with BA for a few months but any new ones will be SAS/KLM.

  • Track says:

    3 Jan3 January 09:49

    Similar thing goes on at the lower levels…

    TP runs don’t make sense for Silver, unless one flies regularly. Yes, precisely the cohort BA wants to get rid of but again, people who earn Silver from holiday/personal travel shouldn’t cost that much to BA — lounge visits are occasional.

    BAPP and BA Avios cards will be the victims here, because people will stop maintaining them today. Travel plans, OK might persist through 2025, 2026.

    Looks like IAG Loyalty Group will notice a drop in income (less Avios sold to CC issuers).

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