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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.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (522)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Gary says:
    5 Feb5 February 14:16

    why was this email titled: CORRECTED: New BA Cape Town flight added, huge amounts of Avios availability

  • Gareth says:
    5 Feb5 February 14:43

    I’m now thoroughly confused about bonus TPs and relevant dates. I’m currently Bronze with 480 points. I’m booked J fromLondon to Belfast the week after next so that should give me 40 points each way(?) That will leave me 4o points short of Silver. I’m looking at London to Edinburgh the following week. I was thinking about doing 1 sector in J and hitting the 600 that way. Is that still the case?

    • planeconcorde says:
      5 Feb5 February 16:22

      Yes. The current 40 tier points per club Europe (short flights) segment still applies for flights taken up to and including 31st March 2025. The changes in the article only apply for flights taken starting 1st April 2025.

      • planeconcorde says:
        5 Feb5 February 16:38

        The bonus tier points mentioned in this article do NOT apply to flights flown before 1st April 2025.

  • cin4 says:
    5 Feb5 February 14:55

    Absolutely no interest in flying BA. Airline status is more or less pointless anyway.

  • MKB says:
    5 Feb5 February 15:04

    I have just received the email from BA inviting me to register for the increased tier points. I suspect BA think that people like me who have said they will direct travel to other carriers are venting and not serious, and this is the test to see if I register or not for the promotion.

    But, you know what, I’ll register anyway. I have nothing to lose in doing so. They would be very silly if they think that is indicative of my future plans to embrace my new-found freedom from loyalty to BA once my status is gone.

    • BSI1978 says:
      5 Feb5 February 15:14

      Whilst I can see where you are coming from up to a point; as has been shown, BA will take your day one sign-up as indicative of people still being content/willing to fly under the revised rules.

      You, and/or others choosing to ultimately not avail of the promotion won’t really be felt until sometime into the future by which these changes will be baked in.

  • Paul says:
    5 Feb5 February 15:11

    Had fantastic service on SAS this am. T2 Lounge, seat selection etc, cheaper than BA. All in all excellent. That would normally have been a BA flight before now. And easier points building.

  • Ian Stedman says:
    5 Feb5 February 15:30

    My daughter lives in Athens and BA has been our default club europe carrier always. I was so angered by the changes my next five flights are all with other carriers. I’ve always enjoyed gaining silver status, but clearly loyalty has been one way only. My usual annual flying pattern has averaged two long haul business class flights and several short haul, european, business class flights. Possibly we would still qualify, but i’m not flying with a carrier that clearly doesn’t really care, so i’m voting with my feet.

    • Throwawayname says:
      5 Feb5 February 15:53

      Aegean are in a completely different league.

    • Mark says:
      5 Feb5 February 15:56

      Apparently Aegean is very good.

    • MKB says:
      5 Feb5 February 16:17

      For several years, I’ve been keeping my Star Alliance Gold status alive courtesy of Aegean and four annual sectors with them. They can be quite variable in terms of customer service, but the short-haul travel experience is slightly better than BA, but not much. HfP covered Aegean last year: https://www.headforpoints.com/2024/05/28/review-aegean-airlines-short-haul-business-class-between-london-and-athens/

      • MKB says:
        5 Feb5 February 16:35

        … just in case that was misleading, I should note that for Gold renewal I also have to earn 12,000 Tier Points annually from any Star Alliance carrier (24,000 to initially qualify).

        • John says:
          5 Feb5 February 23:17

          More than 36000 miles and 6 Aegean flights to qualify as you need to get to silver before you can start working on gold.

          And distance multipliers are often very low eg business tickets of other airlines often earn 1.5x miles only, most economy class on other airlines earns nothing

          Sadly I had to give up my A3 status this year, as I couldn’t justify spending £500 extra on a higher booking class just to make my long haul flight earn a pittance of miles, nor was it worthwhile spending £400 to fly A3 to the Balkans when wizz air was £25 return and 2 hours direct instead of 10 hours via ATH

  • Mikeact says:
    5 Feb5 February 16:17

    My understanding is that BA carry over 40 million customers per year….you really think these changes are going to make any significant difference ? Of course not.
    Loyalty has long since gone.

    As I’ve said before, please, just get myself and wife wherever safely.

    • memesweeper says:
      5 Feb5 February 16:53

      “you really think these changes are going to make any significant difference ?”

      yes, yes they really have (and indeed already have)

    • StanTheMan says:
      5 Feb5 February 16:57

      Agreed. Imagine shlapping your wife to amsterdam to get a connecting flight to head to the US – to “teach BA a lesson” and get in to some stinky lounge at a future date.

      Never gonna happen

      • Pat says:
        5 Feb5 February 17:00

        It gets worse than that. There are some saddos on FlyerTalk who shuttle back and forth just to sit in the LHR lounges all day, flying on a cheap domestic flight upgraded with POUG. I assume they think the staff are their friends.
        These people need serious help.

      • Rob says:
        5 Feb5 February 17:08

        If you live near Humberside Airport you don’t have a lot of choice.

      • Alastair says:
        5 Feb5 February 17:17

        You realise that VS and DL fly to many US destinations from Heathrow and that for huge numbers of people outside of the South East, it’s actually easier to connect via Amsterdam?

        • jj says:
          5 Feb5 February 23:16

          Tried that. After lost luggage, overbooking and hefty delays in AMS, I came back to BA with my tail between my legs. BA is usually cheaper, too.

          • BahrainLad says:
            6 Feb6 February 05:14

            Lost luggage, overbooking and delays being entirely unheard of at Heathrow of course 😉

      • Phil says:
        5 Feb5 February 18:25

        Imagine having to fly to LHR to fly anywhere as is the experience of anyone north of Watford flying BA…

  • Tom says:
    5 Feb5 February 16:33

    “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”
    ….am I missing it, or have they removed this from the press release?!

    • Rob says:
      5 Feb5 February 17:01

      Yes (or there are two versions, one of which went online and one of which went to the media, I don’t know).

      Let’s be clear – the BA press team are lovely people who I’m sure are trying their best with the set of cards they have been dealt. Comms is very difficult inside highly bureacratic organisations where everyone thinks they can do the job better than the people they actually pay to do the job.

      • apbj says:
        5 Feb5 February 17:11

        Does anyone have a screengrab of the original? Asking for, er, me…

        • Rob says:
          5 Feb5 February 17:52

          We don’t but The Times quoted it so you can assume it was there.

        • Cicero says:
          5 Feb5 February 21:53

          “Lacy added: “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.””

      • PH says:
        5 Feb5 February 23:04

        In big orgs, comms people either drink so much company kool aid or are so bent out of shape by stress that they forget to apply the ‘what would my mate say about this in the pub’ (or whatever) test and spout inauthentic corporate speak almost as a defence mechanism. I bet they thought they were sounding friendly and channelling some Virgin Atlantic chuminess with the ‘get their heads around’ line

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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