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

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• Td8 says:

  3 Jan3 January 11:00

  I am gold, typically do 3-4 business class trips for work (typically a X-LHR, then LHR-JFK) that cost ~4k GBP each and ~15 economy in Europe. those short haul biz allowed me to reach gold.

  Typically spend closer to 12-18k, maybe 20k pushing it.

  I have always favored BA for personal and work, but this has changed.

  Rob, would love to see what the alternatives are.

  I don’t spend that much, but typically a good profile for BA. Can’t believe they are willing lose that.

  I have a trip to end of Jan booked in J for over 5k but will 100% cancel it and try star alliance.

• David S says:

  3 Jan3 January 11:04

  If a BA Holiday includes flight (CE) and car hire. Do you get any tier points on the Car Hire ? We book 3 weeks stays with an Avis Car so I fully understand the conversion factor on trips already booked before the end of June but not sure how the Car Hire element is treated. Advice appreciated

  • yonasl says:

    3 Jan3 January 16:09

    If your holidays are BEFORE April 2025 you will go with the old TPs method.

    If it is AFTER March 2025 then the new system is used:

    For previously booked BAH and flights what they will do is simply apply a factor to the TPs you would have earned.

    So instead of 100 TPs you will get 100 x 13.3 = 13,300 new TPs. Use the 13.3 multiplier.

    If you book a BAH NOW then you get the amount paid / by the number of passengers. So your £5,000 for flights and car for 4 people are now 1,2500 new TPs.

• nick kennedy says:

  3 Jan3 January 11:23

  Is it possible to discern BA’s strategy here? They must have had a plan (surely?), because at first (and second!) glance, it seems this is a change that is designed to drive passengers away, and attract no-one.

  High spending corporate accounts (typically single individuals), will probably continue to earn at least Gold status, whilst ET/WT-only business travel and Premium Leisure seem to be most affected. Premium Leisure is invariably with a spouse (and maybe kids), so the qualifying spend required for Gold for a couple is probably going to required a figure of around £45K per year for that family (£20K eligible spend + taxes etc, x 2). Factor in income tax and NI, and for a UK based Premium Leisure couple, it’s well on the way to £100K of gross salary. Even for Silver, the equivalent figure would be around £40K of gross salary. With the exception of the seriously wealthy, these levels are surely set to dissuade the PL couple?

  During and Post CoVid, the high margin business traveller realised that Zoom and MS Teams can work, and BA needed a group to take up the slack towards the front of the aircraft. I class CW fares, and double TP marketing to the rescue! Those PL travellers have got used to all the benefits that Silver and Gold bring, and will be reluctant to give them up, and I wonder if BA’s strategy is to ‘force’ that group to buy CE tickets for their weekend breaks around Europe? My wife and I have achieved previously-unheard of Gold through a couple of I class CW holidays a year, which then gives us lounge access for our several EU breaks (when we fly in ET). By any metric, if you have Silver and above, and then strip out the TP earning to achieve (unachievable) status, the CE seat itself gives you slightly more distance to your spouse (an upgrade, my wife would say!), and a ‘meal’ – that’s it. The marginal cost of that to BA is minimal, and yet they are able to charge £100s more for that seat. Maybe, without attracting new passengers, that is where increased yields will come from?

  In summary, if I can’t achieve status, then there is no point in chasing it by putting my discretionary spending to BA. When we wanted to book some flights, we used to fire up BA.com, and the only decision was ‘which flight shall we buy?’. Today we started with Google Flights and SkyScanner – sad.

  • Jc says:

    3 Jan3 January 12:27

    A very accurate description of my wife and myself travel choices. We are both gold which we managed acouple of years back after being silver for 6 years. We achieved this through the lower tier point limits brought in during covid. We didn’t use Avios for redemption unless. We had reached the teir point requirement for that year and we chose our holidays from BA only since around 2010. We actually enjoyed flying with them and we feel safe with them. Yes there are better airlines but it was our choice and our money. We maintained silver and gold purely with leisure travel and flew only in c/w and c/e. We seldom bought flight only as we liked the option of adding a hotel and the advantage of paying just a deposit upfront. No credit cards No hotel loyalties just lots of fun travel in the classes we enjoyed.
    Whar will we lose. We may make silver under new terms but I doubt it. We will still be able to use the lounge for whichever class we fly as we don’t fly anything less than c/e. We won’t get to use first wing which is no great loss as most c/e is from Gatwick anyway. Long haul we will still get fast track and lounge business check in so the only thing I will really miss is ability to choose seats when I book and a slightly faster answer to my calls.
    This in my opinion is something you should get anyway with premium tickets as well as free WiFi on board.
    In conclusion I will still fly BA until my gold runs out in April 26. Depending wether I make silver will help decide for 27 onwards but from now as with most others I will just choose my travel with whoever offers the best value for my hard earned money rather than chase status. If BA don’t want my repeat business thats their choice. I personally in my own business would love to have many many customers like myself who don’t expect much other than the odd treat and reasonable value.
    I feel sad for BA customer facing staff are going to face the wrath from flyers through no fault of their own. . Such a shame that good workers can have terrible bosses sometimes.

  • Tim S says:

    3 Jan3 January 19:00

    Wow, you’ve been taking a leaf out of Lennon/Macartney’s book.

    I’m one of these PL people who barely manages to scratch to Silver under the old rules (avg 8 LH holidays per year)

    If I were to try to make up the gap by adding in a few European weekend breaks as well there’d need to be 500 days in a year.

    Nope, not possible, there simply isn’t enough time in the year to take more holidays. (these are holidays, the time spent at the destination need to be substantial to justify a 24 hour end to end travel time, whatever the cost. This isn’t a business trip with a purpose which if achieved by Wednesday means I can fly home early!)

    I can only achieve silver under the new rules by spending more per trip. Which would be bad enough if it were a calculatable amount, but as it’s not, there’s no likelihood of my doing it

• AlanD says:

  3 Jan3 January 11:26

  Connecting Britain with the world and the world with Britain
  British Airways is a global airline, bringing people, places and diverse cultures closer together for more than 100 years. Serving our community and planet is at the heart of everything we do, and we look forward to sharing our exciting sustainability initiatives with you.

  Message from Sean Doyle (aka Jim Royle) our CEO and Chairman
  “British Airways exists today because of you. This is why we want to make every trip you take with us a great experience.
  Our entire team is here to provide exceptional service – from our signature warm welcome to ensuring that you arrive at your destination safely.
  As the UK’s flag carrier, we have a responsibility to help create a sustainable future for our planet, and we’re on a mission to be carbon net zero by 2050.”
  25 years? Really? Mon derrière.

• Clive says:

  3 Jan3 January 11:37

  At risk of contributing yet again, like Tim, and no doubt many others, I’m now reviewing my options. I have already secured Gold to Mar 26.

  My wife and I are going to the Caribbean next month in CW on an AMEX 2-for-1 voucher. Before the date change for all of us, I would have booked a J class ticket to get to SE Asia in Mar, but once it became clear that any TPs earned from 09 Feb – 31 Mar 25 would in effect be wasted (in my case), I used Avios for those flights.

  So what next? In the old world I would have been able to retain Gold, even with an extra weekend trip if necessary. I had already booked a 320 TP BAH trip in May, getting part of the way towards Gold. In the new world, however, as I’m no longer travelling Transatlantic on business, Gold will well beyond my reach.

  If – however big an if this is – soft landings are retained, then there’s no point in my earning a single BA or OW TP in 2025-26, as I can realistically only expect to get to Silver, to which I’ll drop anyway on 01 Apr 27 with a soft landing.

  So effectively I need to spend my money elsewhere in 2025-26, to see what status I can secure with SkyTeam or Star Alliance, then review the position before the 2026-27 year. So well done BA, you’ve driven me away for one year at least.

  If, however, BA decides that its scorched earth policy hasn’t yet gone far enough, and abolishes soft landings, then I’ll have to think again. For some years I’ve said to my wife (who is Silver) that actually Silver gives most of what one wants, free seat selection and lounge access, but I shall miss the First Wing. Group 1 has become pretty meaningless now, and for short-haul one is better joining the front of Group 4, who are usually released from the pen at the gate at the same time as Group 1.

  But like all of us, I am still wondering how BA can still be claiming that this new system is in response to customer demand and is an improvement, quite apart from the abysmal way it’s been introduced. It was many pages ago that I pointed out one very serious defect, that one can’t plan ahead now with any certainty, as one can’t be sure how many TPs a given ticket will earn. Did nobody at Waterside consider that point alone?

  Yours despairingly……..

  • SBIre says:

    3 Jan3 January 13:00

    I completely agree with the point on not being able to forecast in advance how many TP you will get. If i’m not sure I’ll be close to gold, there is no incentive in an otherwise pointless upgrade to CE when I fly LCY to DUB, or the occasional splurge from J to F (if available and reasonable)

• Danny says:

  3 Jan3 January 11:48

  Excellent insight from Bisonrav on FT

  https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/36783376-post2848.html

  • Tim S says:

    3 Jan3 January 19:06

    Hm,

    The flaw in this strategy is that not everyone who travels premium has the means to qualify for these super-dooper credit cards that give points. As someone who is (relatively) cash rich but income poor, my application for such a card would very likely be rejected.

    I’m all for booking my hotels via BA.com, if that is what they want. But they need to make it easier. The interface is too clunky and the choices too restricted.

• patrick says:

  3 Jan3 January 11:54

  As someone who has enjoyed Gold benefits extremely cheaply for a number of years, I completely understand and agree with BA`s changes. It is the insultingly dishonest manner in which these changes have been communicated that is unacceptable in my opinion. There are some excellent QR fares ex-FCO to BKK at the moment; I have purchased two of these which will earn me the equivalent of BA silver from April 2026 and I have smashed into my avios stash with Q suite return flights to Adelaide for the third test in December. Net result is no more First wing and no more flights with BA. The QR lounge @ T4 is terrific and I feel far more sanguine about all of this now.

  • James says:

    3 Jan3 January 13:11

    How can you possibly completely understand and agree with the changes?

    Even if you think a solely revenue based model is fair (which it isn’t) then the positioning of the level of spend required should surely give you concern. I and many would have no issue with BA looking to update their model either with a bit of devaluation under the existing scheme or some revenue additions to allow additional routes to TPs while upping the totals needed say by 25%. Even going full revenue they could have aligned doubled/tripled the cost of status say to (eg the equivalent of 3000 TPs for Silver and 9000 TPs for Gold. This would be without the QR and AF sweet spot to be clear) and it wouldn’t have been good but some could claim it was reasonable.

    What BA have done is completely unreasonable and way beyond a course correction if that is what they felt was needed. If their announcement numbers were half what they are I could see a small amount to the arguments claiming some level of positivity. At this level its laughable and there is none.

    • Maples says:

      3 Jan3 January 13:34

      How is revenue based model not fair? Lets say Silver required 3K points instead of 7.5K to reach, would that still not be fair compared to the 600 tier points required?

      BA changed their model and it looks fine to me and fair. What’s not fair is the large amount of spending required to reach the levels right off the bat. No more min-maxing flights to maximise tier points – is that the main reason why it’s not fair anymore?

      • Throwawayname says:

        3 Jan3 January 13:48

        I don’t know about fairness, but it’s certainly not rewarding those who have/choose to put up with connections at LHR. The BA product isn’t competitive, and pricing already reflect that. If there’s no elite status on offer, frequent flyers will simply not be biting unless the fares are even lower (hence the €1700 Spain-GRU business fare we mentioned yesterday).

      • Danny says:

        3 Jan3 January 14:05

        BA is totally at liberty to do whatever they want with their loyalty programme. Whether it’s fair or not.

        However, they are fools.

        Loyalty programmes should fufill a sense of loyalty among those participating in it.

        This new programme doesn’t do that. It is sustaining a sense of ill will. The scope of changes are making previously loyal flyers feel actively hostile to the airline.

        • Tim S says:

          3 Jan3 January 19:24

          I don’t think it’s the new scheme that does that

          It’s the way that it’s been communicated, that causes the disloyalty

      • Rob says:

        3 Jan3 January 14:19

        My best guess is that 95% of people who now reach Gold will be on tickets bought by their employer and at least half of those will be forced to fly BA via a route deal. If you seriously think this is sensible, evicting those who buy their own tickets, then I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

        • Tim S says:

          3 Jan3 January 19:22

          But that’s got nothing to do with fairness

          I don’t support this change because it does adversely affect me, but I would still argue that it’s fairer than the old system.

          the issue of people who don’t pay for their own tickets is unfair in both old and new schemes. So no change there.

          If this scheme is unfair to people who don’t live in London and forces people to fly MAN-LHR to connect instead of flying MAN-DOH to connect in order to keep full points then including all partners in the cash base scheme is the way to go.

      • James says:

        3 Jan3 January 16:59

        Revenue models ignore that not all loyalty is about how much the flights cost and also that different regions have different purchasing power. You can still have a scheme that is fair and which includes some form of revenue recognition but being solely revenue based makes it explicitly unfair.

    • patrick says:

      3 Jan3 January 14:06

      ….then you will presumably move elsewhere James. I hope that all goes well.

• Freddy says:

  3 Jan3 January 12:01

  Whilst I understand there is some upset here, I also think there needs to be a bit of balance.

  BA is ultimately a commercial company, and they must have decided to target more profitable, higher spending business customers and reward them for their loyalty rather than less profitable, lower spending business customers or leisure customers. It really is their decision, and from my understanding they are not taking anything away now that they promised, just making it harder to get the same benefits in the future. We might not like it, but there we go.

  Let’s also be honest and accept that there are some that do try to exploit the system and take advantage of circuitous routings, partner carriers, etc. to get benefits that BA was perhaps not perhaps intending – maybe even highlighted on this very site? So can we really blame them for some of this?

  • Flier33 says:

    3 Jan3 January 13:27

    Who are they targeting exactly that aren’t already customers? All I see is letting go of customers…

    • Danny says:

      3 Jan3 January 14:07

      Let BA let go, I say. With these changes they are telling a lot of their flyers to foxtrot oscar… And many will.

  • Tim S says:

    3 Jan3 January 19:29

    But you have to think long term.

    Corporate air spending is only on the way downwards

    Leisure air spending is on the way up.

    Your low spending leisure customers of today may become your high spending leisure customers of the future. Chase them away now, and you will have lost them forever.

    and I assure you, you wont be able to make up the shortfall by increased spend by corporates.

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