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Too little, too late? British Airways backtracks on sector based tier qualification

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As expected, British Airways has announced a rollback of some of the Executive Club changes.

What wasn’t expected is how weak the rollback is, especially as it doesn’t address the Iberia-shaped elephant in the room.

I suspect it will do very little, if anything, to calm those who are already planning to break with the airline.

British Airways Executive Club changes

Qualification by sectors will return

From 1st April 2025, Bronze and Silver (but not Gold) status will again be possible based on sectors, as it is now:

  • Bronze will require 25 sectors
  • Silver will require 50 sectors

Unlike the current system, these flights must all be on BA-coded flights. Iberia flights will not count.

This is good news for weekly short haul commuters, without a doubt. (A number of cabin crew on Flyertalk have said that this change was made to placate commuting crew members, of which there are many.)

However, it makes little sense if you believe that these changes were driven by a demand from members for quieter lounges. Someone taking 50 one way economy domestic commuter flights each year will be using the lounges 50 times per year more than their tickets would usually allow, with all 50 visits at peak commuter times.

Someone taking three long haul Club World flights, however, will not be retaining Silver status under the new system unless those flights are quite expensive. This person won’t be adding any additional lounge capacity (their Club World flights came with lounge access) and yet won’t be earning status going forward.

Why would you do this when RJ is out there?

Royal Jordanian will give you British Airways Gold equivalent if you credit 46 segments to its programme (our series on the other oneworld schemes is on its way). This is for your first year – after that it is even better, requiring just 80 segments every two years.

You don’t need to fly a single segment on Royal Jordanian itself.

Why credit 50 BA flights to Executive Club to earn Silver when 46 of those flights could get you Gold equivalent? OK, you will lose the Avios from those flights, but you will have some RJ miles instead which can be redeemed on British Airways.

The bonus points scheme will be extended

The weak bonus points scheme, for bookings made by 31st March 2025, will be extended and the bonus points increased. You need to opt in to this – it is not automatically applied.

It now covers bookings made by 31st December 2025 for travel at any point.

You will earn:

  • 75 bonus tier points per one-way Euro Traveller flight
  • 175 bonus tier points per one-way Club Europe flight
  • 150 bonus tier points per one-way World Traveller flight
  • 275 bonus tier points per one-way World Traveller Plus flight
  • 400 bonus tier points per one-way Club World flight
  • 550 bonus tier points per one-way First flight

Whilst better than nothing, these numbers remain a drop in the ocean compared to:

  • 7,500 tier points for Silver status
  • 20,000 tier points for Gold status

You could, for example, spend £5,000 on a Club World flight and the bonus represents just (800 / 20,000) 4% of what you will need to earn Gold status.

The requirement to book by the end of 2025 also means that business travellers can’t benefit for the final quarter of the new qualification year unless their plans are fixed well in advance.

British Airways Executive Club changes

BA says ….

British Airways has supplied the following examples – which INCLUDE the limited time bonus – to show how you could maintain status:

Silver (7,500 tier points):

  • 1x Geneva in Euro Traveller (economy), with bag £343 + taxes
  • 1x New York in Club World (business) £3,240 + taxes
  • 1x Singapore in World Traveller Plus (premium economy) £2,561 + taxes
  • 1 x BA Holidays package to Barbados in World Traveller (economy) £1,429
  • £300 spent on Sustainable Aviation Fuels

Gold (20,000 tier points) for a modest 16 business class flights:

  • 13 x return flights to Geneva in Club Europe (business class) £9,971 plus taxes
  • 3 x return flights to Club World (business class) to JFK £9,720 plus taxes
  • A British Airways Holidays package to Tenerife in Euro Traveller £759

These are very bizarre travel patterns (are any New York-bound bankers taking economy holidays in Tenerife?) but there you are. Remember that when the bonus points promo is stripped out you will need to fly more than this.

The Silver example is also assuming that you hand British Airways £300 for nothing … well, some SAF credits, but you get nothing from it except good karma. Whilst I’m sure some members will do this, using it as an actual example is bizarre.

BA made the following statement:

“Our members are passionate about their status, and we always knew this fundamental shift would take a while for members to get their heads around, considering how long we’d had the previous system in place.

This isn’t an effort to reduce the number of members we have in each tier, but to reward our members more fairly, and we want to do more to reassure them that retaining their status is achievable, so we’re providing more examples of how they can do that.”

Conclusion

It’s hard to see what is going on here. Placating commuters removes any idea that these changes were made in response to member concerns about lounge overcrowding.

It also does nothing to fix the issue that someone paying £500 for Club Europe flights to Frankfurt is no more valuable than someone on a £500 economy ticket to Bangkok, although they clearly are.

In some ways these changes are helpful for you. If you had already decided to step off the status hamster wheel because you had no chance of retaining it, nothing here will change your mind. This is an easier decision than spending your life keeping speadsheets of the net cost of all your planned flights to ensure you reach the spend targets. Walk away and enjoy your ‘free agent’ status.

As US site View From The Wing says:

What remains most striking to me here is that in trying to get more card spend, more vacation package bookings, and more ticket spend, they aren’t giving customers any carrot in the process – just a stick.

The real issue is still to come though, and it is with Iberia. Iberia, we understand, has already delayed its own changes until 2026, giving a one year window to earn status there. There is also very little chance that Iberia will set its thresholds for status so high given the nature of the Spanish market.

British Airways is facing an exodus of frequent flyers to its own sister airline if the Gold threshold at Iberia is set at, say, €15,000 – although this is arguably better for IAG than an exodus to Royal Jordanian and Gold equivalent with 46 sectors.

Details of Executive Club changes are on ba.com here.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (February 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Comments (522)

  • Olly says:

    I agree with the comments about how the perks of even bronze will have kept people putting up with ticket cost and a poor product. A brief Google of review sites made me realise BA are actually worse that I thought. TripAdvisor’s headline of 3.5 stars before the truth that out of the first half a dozen pages of review, most of them are only 1 of 2 star reviews. Trustpilot being 1.4 stars and other sites echoing the sentiment. Without a sweetener, people will vote with their feet. Looking at how aggressive the recent BA Holidays advertising has been, I have the impression that they’ve had little take up as people have decided to put their cash elsewhere, as there is now no reason to put up with dirty aircraft, late or cancelled flights, costly ticket prices, paying for seat allocation and all the other negatives of coding BA that have been put up with for the double tier point incentive.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      I rarely trust review sites. The rating isn’t important but what people write.

      If they don’t write anything specific then I ignore that ‘review’ . This with more info get a sense check – is that really a problem or an expectation issue.

      But many airlines have dirty planes and all of them have late or cancelled flights. Despite what some people think it’s not just a BA issue.

      Seat fees? just don’t pay them!

  • points_worrier says:

    One thing not mentioned yet (I think, but there have been many pages of comments!)
    Now it is £££ spend based, BA will have to change threshods every few years to account for inflation. We will get this backlash far more often albeit predictably.
    Have BA set the levels deliberately high to ensure they wont have to increase them for several years – all the bad new in one lump rather than dripping out over years??

  • Garethgerry says:

    See article in Independent for all who praise jumping to Emirates. At least on BA you know if you dodge Gatwick or 380 routes out of Heathrow you will get a decent seat .

    https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/emirates-business-class-flat-bed-b2694149.html

  • Garrett FITZGERALD says:

    Roll back?
    Not much of a rollback.
    Taking my international spend to KLM and Delta so far.
    Will go back to more rail journies from Scotland to England, some LNER, some Caledonian Sleeper.
    April 2026 I lose gold, April 2027 I lose BA silver, I will be happier for it knowing that I am reducing spend with BA.

    Looking at cancelling some of my booked Edinburgh to London fliggts as I am totally fed up with being kettled in to a corridor for up to 30 minutes when I reasonably expect to board a plane as my boarding pass and photo ID have just been checked. Most of my BA flights from Edinburgh do not leave on time

    BA have gone fownhill from the 70s and 90s, they were good then, not now

  • Ilou says:

    Quick question : would we earn tier points under the new scheme for award redemption .. a big chunk goes to BA ?

  • Suzanne says:

    How do you calculate spend towards tier points if you are flying on a FIT ticket as a lot of people do when flying for leisure. These tickets help make premium cabins slightly less expensive.

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