BA Holidays vs Virgin Atlantic Holidays vs Qatar Airways Holidays – which earns more tier points?

A relatively new development in the frequent flyer world has been the ability to earn tier points towards airline status by booking a package holiday.

You have always earned tier points if you booked a package holiday where the flight is with an airline with an elite status programme. I am talking about ADDITIONAL tier points earned on top as a ‘thank you’ for booking a hotel or car too.

With exquisitely bad timing, we ran a version of this article last Sunday. Four days later, Virgin Atlantic ripped up its scheme and started again. This article reflects the new Virgin Atlantic offer and the old article will redirect here.

These are not the only three airlines globally which offer status points for booking a package holiday, but they are the three most relevant to a UK reader.

Earn tier points with BA Holidays

The ability to earn tier points from British Airways Holidays is controversial. The airline has been offering double tier points on flights booked via BA Holidays since the pandemic. The influx of status holders this has brought has been blamed – fairly or not – on BA’s decision to ‘fire’ leisure travellers from the elite tiers of British Airways Club from 1st April.

(The tipping point was probably allowing double tier points on codeshares, as long as your flight had a BA flight number. This meant that a Qatar Airways business class flight to Asia, booked via BA Holidays, earned 1,120 tier points return – a very large part of the 1,500 needed for Gold status in Executive Club.)

Every £1 you spend via BA Holidays will earn 1 tier point. Remember that you will need 7,500 tier points for Silver and 20,000 tier points for Gold.

However …. there is a problem. The tier points are shared between ALL passengers on the booking, including children, irrespective of whether the traveller has a British Airways Club account. Only infants under the age of two are excluded.

This means that if a family of four spends £10,000 with BA Holidays, each passenger will receive 2,500 tier points. It would arguably be more attractive to either allocate tier points to the lead booker or, at the very least, split them only between adult travellers.

There are no longer any restrictions on which BA Holidays bookings earn tier points. Whilst the details are not yet published, it appears that you will no longer need to stay away for five nights and you will no longer be restricted to BA or codeshare flights.

One upside is that the entire cost of the flight, plus the hotel and/or car, earns tier points when booked via BA Holidays. For flights booked on their own, you would only earn tier points on the NET cost, deducting taxes and charges.

The BA Holidays home page is here.

Earn tier points with Virgin Atlantic Holidays

Virgin Atlantic Holidays launched a brand new proposition in March 2025. If you booked before 13th March 2025 then your booking is under different terms and you should ignore what is written below.

Book a holiday with Virgin Atlantic Holidays and ALL PASSENGERS on the booking will receive double tier points.

As an extra carrot, for bookings made by 30th September, the lead booker gets an extra 200 tier points on top if the booking is for £4,000 or more.

Here are the key points:

• your booking can include flight and hotel or flight and car hire (or indeed flight, hotel and car hire if you wish!)

• you must book at least three nights of hotel accommodation or car hire to receive double tier points

• all passengers on the booking will receive double tier points

• you will only receive double tier points if your holiday includes Virgin Atlantic-operated flights – codeshares do not count

• for a temporary period, for bookings made by 30th September, the lead booker will receive 200 additional tier points if the total booking is for £4,000 or more

• irrespective of whether your booking qualifies for double tier points, the lead booker will continue to earn bonus Virgin Points based on your spending – 2 per £1 spent for Red members, 3 per £1 spent for Silver members and 4 per £1 spent for Gold members. This is totally separate to any Virgin Points earned from your flights.

What is interesting about this deal is setting the minimum stay for double tier points at only three nights. This makes it a realistic possibility for business travellers, especially the self-employed who have complete freedom to book their own travel.

How many Virgin Atlantic tier points do you need for status?

The tier point earning chart is here. In simple terms, you receive (before any doubling):

• Economy Light – 25 tier points each way
• Economy Classic – 25 or 50 tier points each way
• Economy Delight – 50 tier points each way
• Premium – 50 or 100 tier points each way
• Upper Class – 100 or 200 tier points each way

Where a range is given, it is almost certain that you will receive the lower number on a holiday booking. The higher numbers are only for refundable flexible flight tickets.

There are two elite tiers in the Virgin Atlantic programme.

Silver requires 400 tier points in a rolling 12 month period. The key benefits are free seat selection in Economy Light, use of premium check-in and 30% bonus miles on cash flights. You do NOT get lounge access. You can see full details of Silver status on the Virgin Atlantic website here.

Gold requires 1,000 tier points in a rolling 12 month period. The key benefits are access to Clubhouses and the Heathrow Revivals lounge, use of Upper Class check-in, use of the Upper Class drive-thru wing in Heathrow Terminal 3, additional luggage allowance and 60% bonus miles on cash flights. You can see full details of Gold status here.

Note that, unlike British Airways Executive Club, Virgin Atlantic status is initially earned on a rolling 12 month basis. There is no defined ‘year end’. Instead, each time you earn tier points, Virgin looks back at the previous 12 months and if your tier point total takes you above the tier threshold, you are promoted.

Once you earn Silver status, you move to a fixed year and have 12 months to earn enough tier points to renew. If you don’t, you drop back to the base level and back onto the rolling basis.

Full details are on the Virgin Atlantic site here. The Virgin Holidays website is here.

Earn tier points with Qatar Airways Holidays

This offer launched in 2023 although was not widely publicised.

You can see details on the Qatar Airways website here.

You earn 1 Qpoint for every US$100 you spend.

There is no cap on what you can earn per booking but there is an annual cap of 600 Qpoints earned from non-flying activities, such as this offer and from spending at Qatar Duty Free.

Qatar Airways Privilege Club status requires the following number of points:

• Silver (equivalent to BA Bronze / oneworld Ruby) – 150 Qpoints initially, 135 Qpoints to renew

• Gold (equivalent to BA Silver / oneworld Sapphire) – 300 Qpoints in one year after you have already earned Silver status, 270 Qpoints to renew

• Platinum (equivalent to BA Gold / oneworld Emerald) – 600 Qpoints in one year after you have already earned Gold status, 540 Qpoints to renew

Unless you are spending substantial amounts – which you may be, admittedly, if you book one of the Qatar Airways Holidays Formula 1 packages – this is unlikely to be a route to meaningful status. Remember that you need Gold status with Qatar Airways to receive lounge access across the oneworld alliance, including British Airways.

You can find out more here.

Which option is best?

Awarding tier points for non-flying activities is the new battleground in the frequent flyer industry.

The three propositions (British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Qatar Airways) are now similar, with Qatar Airways Holidays arguably having the edge. The Virgin Atlantic deal is weakened by Silver status not coming with lounge access.

If you are spending a substantial sum per person (say £5,000+) the British Airways offer becomes the most attractive.

However, if you are spending £20,000+ on a holiday, I would not use BA Holidays or any other aggregator unless there were substantial savings. If the hotel element is £10,000+ then you do NOT want to book via a third party. You want to be using a specialist hotel booker like our partner Emyr Thomas (click) who will get you extra benefits, negotiate the ‘best’ room and be on the phone to the resort before you arrive to ensure everything has been done. Direct bookings will also earn you hotel points whereas BA Holidays bookings do not.

Here are three examples

For a family of four spending £10,000 ($13,000) on a Premium Economy holiday:

• BA: each passenger gets 2,500 tier points which is 33% of Silver status (needed for lounge access)

• Virgin: each passenger gets 200 tier points which is 20% of Gold status (needed for lounge access). For bookings made by 30th September, the lead booker would get an extra 200 tier points. The lead booker would have 400 tier points which is enough for Silver status and 40% of Gold status (needed for lounge access).

• Qatar: the lead booker gets 130 tier points, which is 44% of Gold status (needed for lounge access) AND each passenger earns extra tier points from the flight itself

For a couple spending £10,000 ($13,000) on a Business / Upper Class holiday:

• BA: each passenger gets 5,000 tier points which is 66% of Silver status (needed for lounge access)

• Virgin: each passenger gets 400 tier points which is enough for Silver status and 40% of Gold status (needed for lounge access). For bookings made by 30th September, the lead booker would get an extra 200 tier points. The lead booker would have 600 tier points which is 60% of Gold status (needed for lounge access).

• Qatar: the lead booker gets 130 tier points, which is 44% of Gold status (needed for lounge access) AND each passenger earns extra tier points from the flight itself

For a couple spending £20,000 ($26,000) on a Business / Upper Class holiday:

• BA: each passenger gets 10,000 tier points which is 133% of Silver status (needed for lounge access) and 50% of Gold status

• Virgin: each passenger gets 400 tier points which is enough for Silver status and 40% of Gold status (needed for lounge access). For bookings made by 30th September, the lead booker would get an extra 200 tier points. The lead booker would have 600 tier points which is 60% of Gold status (needed for lounge access).

• Qatar: the lead booker gets 260 tier points, which is 88% of Gold status (needed for lounge access) AND each passenger earns extra tier points from the flight itself