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British Airways Club is here – what do you need to know?

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Today, 1st April, sees the launch of British Airways Club, replacing British Airways Executive Club.

More importantly, it sees the launch of revenue-based tier status. Your elite status from 1st April 2026 will be based on how much you spend in the next 12 months, not how many flights you take.

This article is an introduction to British Airways Club. Note that we are still missing information on how you will earn tier points from American Express – this element will not launch today.

You can find out more on ba.com here.

British Airways Club is here

What are the new tier thresholds?

From today, all British Airways membership years move to a fixed 1st April to 31st March calendar.

The thresholds for elite status are:

  • Bronze: 3,500 tier points (Bronze benefits here)
  • Silver: 7,500 tier points (Silver benefits here)
  • Gold: 20,000 tier points (Gold benefits here)
  • Gold Guest List – new member: 65,000 tier points (with at least 52,000 earned through British Airways-marketed flights and British Airways Holidays)
  • Gold Guest List – renewal: 40,000 tier points (with at least 32,000 earned through British Airways-marketed flights and British Airways Holidays)

You will earn milestone bonuses as you progress through the tiers. You will receive:

  • 2,500 Avios at 5,500 tier points
  • 4,000 Avios at 11,000 tier points
  • 5,000 Avios at 16,000 tier points

Using our 1p per Avios base valuation, you are getting a milestone bonus worth under 0.5% of your spending to that point ….

Can you still earn status based on sectors?

Yes. Bronze and Silver (but not Gold) status is possible based on sectors:

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

Unlike the previous Executive Club model, these flights must all be on BA-coded flights. Iberia flights under an IB flight number will not count.

British Airways Club is here

How do you earn tier points?

Tier points are now based on spending, not distance or travel class.

1 tier point = £1 of spending on British Airways-marketed flights.

ONLY the base fare and BA-imposed surcharges are included. Airport charges, Air Passenger Duty etc are NOT included. Seat selection and luggage fees ARE included.

On a £11,990 fully flexible ticket to New York in Club World, virtually all spend (£11,687) would qualify towards status. On a £387 economy flight to New York, only £189 of spend would count.

You do NOT earn tier points on the charges added to Avios redemption flights.

You will see the number of tier points that your flight will earn under ‘Manage My Booking’ at ba.com.

There will be bonus tier points for 2025 bookings

You will receive bonus tier points for cash flights booked by 31st December 2025, for travel at any point.

You need to opt in to this – it is not automatically applied.

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

These are not exceptionally generous in the context of 7,500 tier points for Silver and 20,000 tier points for Gold.

Club Iberia Plus has a more generous – and permanent – bonus scheme for British Airways flights which is a reason to consider crediting there.

Note that bonus points are NOT included in the total shown in ‘Manage My Booking’ for the number of tier points your flight will earn.

What happens with existing BA flight bookings?

Bookings made from 30th December 2024 will earn tier points based on the ‘1 point per £1’ model.

Bookings made before 30th December 2024 will earn tier points under the old system multiplied by 13.33.

British Airways Club is here

There are other ways of earning tier points

Buy them from British Airways:

You will be able to earn up to 1,000 tier points per year by ‘purchasing Sustainable Aviation Fuel credits’. You will get 1 tier point and 10 Avios per £1 spent on SAF credits.

You can use Avios instead of cash to pay for SAF credits and still earn tier points.

This means that BA is effectively allowing you to swap Avios for tier points albeit at a rate of 125 Avios to 1 tier point.

Earn via British Airways Premium Plus American Express cards:

You will be able to earn up to 2,500 tier points per year by spending on the British Airways Premium Plus American Express credit card.

No other UK credit cards will earn tier points.

Members in the US will be able to earn tier points from multiple credit cards. We believe that US members will not have the number of tier points they can earn per year capped.

Despite promises to the contrary, British Airways has not provided details of how this will work. It will NOT launch today – we are now told that it will be ‘during 2025’.

I suspect it will be something around 1 tier point = £10 of card spending. The question is whether it starts to count after you’ve triggered your annual 2-4-1 companion voucher at £15,000 of spend (so requiring £40,000 of spend to earn the full 2,500) or not (so requiring £25,000 of spend).

Earn via British Airways Holidays:

You will earn 1 tier point per £1 spent at British Airways Holidays.

Read the small print before doing this. The tier points do not go to the lead booker. They are shared equally between every traveller aged 2+ on the booking – if a traveller does not have a British Airways Club account, those tier points are forfeited.

You can’t book a £20,000 holiday for a family of four and get Gold status for yourself. Instead, assuming your children were both 2+, everyone would receive 5,000 tier points.

(What you COULD do is book a BA Holiday – flight and hotel – for one person, and have the rest of your family book their flights separately. This ensures that the lead booker receives all the tier points. It could, however, cause issues with your hotel. You should also know that BA has added a clause to its T&C to deal with this: “All passengers using the hotel and/or car hire must be named on the booking prior to travel, any subsequent additions to passenger mix made locally could result in the booking being deemed ineligible for tier points.”)

There is no minimum stay requirement for earning via BA Holidays.

You will also receive bonus tier points if you register for the bonus tier point promotion discussed above and fly with British Airways.

You can learn more about earning tier points from BA Holidays here.

British AIrways Club status changes

What happens with partner flights?

You will earn tier points based on a percentage of miles flown for non-IAG and non-transatlantic joint venture partners.

For Malaysia Airlines, for example, it will vary between 2% of miles flown on a discounted Economy ticket to 30% of miles flown for a fully flexible First Class ticket.

Some airlines are rewarded more generously. Qatar Airways, for example, earns 25% of miles flown in deeply discounted Business Class. This is double what you receive for flying Malaysia Airlines.

If you are flying oneworld carriers on a regular basis you may find the Club Iberia Plus scheme to be more generous, because tier points are awarded on a flat basis. Business class flights over 3,000 miles earn 1,250 tier points per sector in Club Iberia Plus.

What happens with package holiday bookings?

If you book a flight where the fare is not disclosed (such as a ‘flight and hotel’ package), you’ll earn tier points based on ‘your cabin, booking class and a percentage of the miles flown’.

Are ‘soft landings’ remaining?

British Airways has not made its policy on soft landings clear.

The original plan, we believe, was to end them but that this has softened and they are likely to continue.

It is worth noting that soft landings have NEVER been a contractual part of British Airways Executive Club so it is not unreasonable that BA is not taking a formal position.

What is happening to Lifetime Gold?

Lifetime Gold will be available at 550,000 tier points, so £550,000 of NET British Airways spend. Your existing tier points will be converted on a pro-rata basis.

Should I credit my flights to another frequent flyer scheme instead?

Potentially, yes.

Once we have information on the final American Express tier point rules we will run a series of articles looking at the alternatives.

There is no ‘one size fits all’ answer but you may find Club Iberia Plus, Finnair Plus, Royal Jordanian Royal Club or Malaysia Airlines Enrich to be better suited.

Where can I find out more?

You can find out more about these changes on this special page of ba.com, unless the page was removed overnight.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 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

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Capital on Tap Pro Visa

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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.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (300)

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

  • John says:
    1 Apr1 April 07:10

    The article on alternatives should have been out prior today no point publishing it mid May.

    • Rich says:
      1 Apr1 April 07:51

      I’d demand a refund of your HfP subs then John.

      • John says:
        1 Apr1 April 13:16

        They aren’t running a charity. They do make money in case you didn’t get the economics of modern day blogging

        • Ziggy says:
          1 Apr1 April 17:55

          And you are paying what, exactly, for the information this non-charitable site offers?

    • executiveclubber says:
      1 Apr1 April 09:09

      Tbh I agree

    • CJD says:
      1 Apr1 April 18:07

      What, do you mean you don’t care about a re-hashed article about the difference between Amex Gold and Platinum?

  • James C says:
    1 Apr1 April 07:14

    ‘Bookings made before 30th December 2024 will earn tier points under the old system multiplied by, I believe, 13.5.‘

    It’s 13.33 based on what’s in the BAC FAQs on BA.com.

    • Rob says:
      1 Apr1 April 07:25

      Thanks. Couldn’t find this yesterday.

      • elt164 says:
        1 Apr1 April 08:53

        My flights on fri, made before dec 2024 , will now be credited to Iberia. Originally was on system to BA
        But do I have to do something to get them credited under old scheme as you say you do for BA?
        How do you do this?
        Cant even log in to BA
        Urgent help appreciated

        • Rob says:
          1 Apr1 April 08:56

          You need to swap your BA number in the booking to an Iberia one.

          • elt164 says:
            1 Apr1 April 13:03

            Thanks Rob, I already did this. It was the comment ” you have to opt in” to get the extra bonus for flights booked before dec 2024 that concerns me – how do I do this with Iberia credited flights.
            Thanks -and I learn so much from HfP

          • Rob says:
            1 Apr1 April 15:11

            That’s not what it says, and in any event the ‘opt in’ wording is a clickable link. You do NOT get a bonus on Iberia flights credited to BA.

            If you mean you are crediting to Iberia, the bonus is automatic – no registration needed.

  • Matt says:
    1 Apr1 April 07:18

    I’m actually quite pleased about the change now. I used to just make 600TP a year and would spend a lot of time planning and working out how to get there… Working holidays and business trips to coincide with BA flights etc. Now there is no chance of doing it, it is much easier to book trips, as I can just search, find the cheapest and book. I’ve booked holidays with virgin, business trips in EZY etc. Actually a lot less stressful now!

    • John says:
      1 Apr1 April 07:25

      Not what websites like these want to hear. Diminishes their business model

      • BBbetter says:
        1 Apr1 April 07:36

        True, when BA goes full dynamic pricing, many of the blogs might disappear.

        • Charles Martel says:
          1 Apr1 April 08:13

          I get the feeling Rob is savvy enough to find another niche, be it a shift to another frequent flyer programme or a focus on hotels.

      • Rob says:
        1 Apr1 April 08:18

        Where do you think people are going to find out about these cheap flights?!

      • patrick says:
        1 Apr1 April 08:41

        John sounds upset.

  • DaveP says:
    1 Apr1 April 07:22

    To add to the BA debacle, my Barclaycard Avios Reward voucher has disappeared from my BA website account. I feel a phone call coming!! Thankfully my two 2-4-1s are showing there so that I can book redemptions but def not revenue flights.

    • dsm83 says:
      1 Apr1 April 07:27

      Hi Dave, if you attempt to make a booking they may show as I have the same problem but they are there on the book and upgrade page if you attempt to make a booking.

      • DaveP says:
        1 Apr1 April 07:52

        Thanks. Will try that later and hopefully it will reappear. 🤞

      • Steve says:
        1 Apr1 April 07:53

        Thanks for sharing this, I had/have the same issue and was hoping it would correct itself absent me having to call up.

        • DaveP says:
          1 Apr1 April 08:48

          The voucher is there under ‘Book and upgrade’ – relieved!

  • Boberta says:
    1 Apr1 April 07:23

    I asked Amex support this morning about whether tier points are being credited to BAPP spend.

    Me: Hello – how do you earn tier points through Amex on the new BA club that launched today? It was mentioned in all the promotional material last year as happening from 1 April.

    Them: You do not earn BA Tier points on your BA Premium Card. We can only issue Avios and Companion Voucher upon spending.

    Regarding Tier points earning, kindly consult BA Support directly to inquire if you have further questions.

    Me, quoting from BA website: Earn with American Express®
    In 2025, British Airways American Express® Premium Plus Cardmembers will be able to earn up to 2,500 tier points by spending on their card. More details of this offer will be announced closer to the launch date.

    Amex: Yes. The BA Tier points promo is published by British Airways itself. It’s their offer they released that you will earn Tier Points upon spending using BA AMEX Card. For more information, kindly contact their support itself to inquire.

    • Larry says:
      1 Apr1 April 07:36

      if you’re hassling any customer support about this please direct your queries to BA, this is certainly not amex’s fault/responsibility

      • Ziggy says:
        1 Apr1 April 11:22

        Amex chooses to have a partnership with BA, Amex sends out credit cards with its logo alongside the BA logo, and Amex has allowed BA to use its logo alongside the benefit being discussed here.

        Calling Amex up to ask about an Amex benefit that BA has been saying is on the way for 3 months is not “hassling” customer support. It’s a legitimate thing to ask Amex about given that it doesn’t appear to have asked British Airways to remove all mention of it from the airline’s UK site.

        Of course, if Amex does feel like it’s getting hassled about this, it can always take it up with its chosen partner, but I don’t see any reason why cardholders should refrain from asking Amex about what’s going on.

        • FL360 says:
          1 Apr1 April 14:10

          There is no point asking a customer service bod who is reading off a script. They will not know any more than what is already public (i.e. nothing)

          • Ziggy says:
            1 Apr1 April 15:47

            That’s not necessarily true. Whenever the time comes that for this benefit to be rolled out the CS personnel will, presumably, have to be briefed on it in advance, so they may well know something that we don’t. When that time will be, however, is anyone’s guess.

        • Larry says:
          1 Apr1 April 19:07

          Amex never announced or promised anything, all the announcements came from BA, so why would you hassle Amex?

          • Ziggy says:
            2 Apr2 April 16:19

            I refer you to the comment I made directly under yours a little way up this thread.

  • Charlie says:
    1 Apr1 April 07:29

    Has anyone else’s Barclays Upgrade voucher dissappeared from their account now it’s changed from BAEC?

  • Paul says:
    1 Apr1 April 07:31

    First flight tomorrow and have updated with IB number. Have had 12 sectors (S/H) since Jan 1st and have a gold card. In the past they would have been upgraded but none were.
    2 personal greetings on those flights but one of those perfunctory and I told him this was never worth £22k a year. The other gave me a drink.
    Since 2008 I have never once been upgraded for free on any flight.

    I can’t see anyway to make it work for me

    • Craig says:
      1 Apr1 April 10:09

      I have flown BA (and had various levels of status, included Gold(current)) for several years, and I have not had one single UG… like ever.

      I flew to NY with United last November, my first ever flight with them, I was booked in PE, and was UG’d to Polaris (Business).

      I’m often amazed by tales of “frequent / expected BA UG’s” as clearly I must be the very unlucky one! Lol

      • Craig says:
        1 Apr1 April 10:14

        *Sorry for context, I do hold United Silver status… but again, a very stark contrast to years of BA versus first ever United, which btw, was also an excellent flight and experience.

      • LWH says:
        1 Apr1 April 14:29

        Being retired I generally travel with She Who Must Be Obeyed on BA holiday flights. We are both BA Gold and have been upgraded to First twice in three years possibly because we are two Golds on one booking.

        • Craig says:
          1 Apr1 April 14:41

          (Crying into my Guinness!) Well done though, I have read a lot about such UG’s @ BA but as per my earlier post, I have never been “lucky” enough to have been gifted one!!

        • Hilda M says:
          1 Apr1 April 16:03

          Good grief 😲 Do give me your lotto numbers LWH ! GGL for 10 years, usually travelling solo so easier to be upgraded, you would think – never once ! And personal greetings have all but disappeared, even when I’ve paid for F.

  • MGOR says:
    1 Apr1 April 07:39

    Embrace the freedom unleash the shackles! Fly when you want to at times to suit at cheaper costs and to more destinations rather than be tied to a ‘loyalty’ scheme which only wants a limited target audience. If BA meets those criteria then go with them if not exercise your right of choice and go elsewhere. I’ve not given up on BA it’s just since 2020 they’ve not offered me options that I want so I’ve gone with the choices to suit me. So what I don’t get lounge access or preferred seating. Being from the regions BA is an afterthought anyway. Short haul go direct with EasyJet Ryanair etc and long haul the choice especially East from Manchester is far superior to anything BA can offer. Go on you know you want to take that leap into the unknown and move away from BA – you won’t regret it!

    • DaveP says:
      1 Apr1 April 07:56

      I have started doing so by flying with China Eastern, JAL and QR over last few weeks with Emirates to follow in May.

    • AIAER says:
      3 Apr3 April 14:40

      Yep, I’m flying Easyjet from Southend in a few weeks. Flight 1/3 the cost of BA. Easier to get to in some ways than Gatwick. Premier Inn night before on the seafront cost £36. Quite looking forward to some fish and chips and seeing a place I’ve never been to rather than staring into my soul in the Bloc hotel. It’s quite liberating giving up on BA.

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

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