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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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:

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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