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

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.

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.

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

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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.

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

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.

Run your own business?

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

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