‘Earn BA tier points by buying SAF credits’ is now live but not recommended

The biggest difference between the new Club Iberia Plus and the new British Airways Club is the way that you can earn tier points from partners.

BA’s failure here is total. Club Iberia Plus has done a decent job of making tier point collection from partners fun and worthwhile, but BAC is a mess.

(As I was discussing at the Executive Club farewell party on Tuesday, I still think this can be turned around. American Airlines has shown how to do it. Personally I’d love it if most partner activity counted for status – it would be great for our content and great for member engagement.)

There are three ways of earning tier points outside the airline. No 1, Amex, is a disaster. Not only has BA failed to get the American Express tier points deal up and running in time for the launch of the Club, it hasn’t even shared details of how it will work. A national newspaper is meant to be covering this debacle at the weekend.

The second route to tier points, through British Airways Holidays, is so badly structured that it is distorting booking patterns and BA has had to add this clause to the T&C:

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.

If you don’t understand why this was necessary, read our primer to British Airways Club here.

This leaves the third option – buying tier points making a contribution to the use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel.

How to earn British Airways tier points by buying SAF credits

There are two things to remember about SAF before we continue:

• British Airways is now legally required to purchase specific volumes of SAF (2% of its fuel needs in 2025, rising to 10% by 2030)
• the amount of SAF available for purchase in the UK is very low – the airlines can’t get more even if they want it

What does BA actually do with your money? It’s complicated.

The T&C says:

“When you contribute to SAF today, you are doing so by purchasing the attributes associated with a given amount of unblended, physical SAF which British Airways has flown or will fly on in the next 12 months. The sale of these attributes provides you, a buyer, with a claim to the carbon reduction benefit associated with the purchased amount of SAF.”

This sounds like you are NOT buying SAF. As does this:

“When you contribute to SAF through this programme, you do so by purchasing a certain amount of SAF attributes (i.e., the carbon reduction impact associated with a given volume of physical SAF). Within this program, one (1) SAF environmental attribute equates to a one (1) tonne of CO2e reduction.”

However, British Airways has told us that a SAF ‘attribute’ is actually SAF. You ARE actually paying for SAF even though the website appears to say that you are not.

It wasn’t clear to us, as anyone who read the original version of this article will know, but we are told this is the case.

What does it cost to buy SAF credits?

You can buy SAF via this page of ba.com.

For every £1 you hand over to BA, you receive 10 Avios and 1 tier point.

There is a maximum of 1,000 tier points per year to be earned via this route.

The transaction is handled by a partner, Choose, so I suspect that credit card payments on a British Airways Premium Plus American Express are NOT treated as BA spend and will not earn double Avios.

You can pay with Avios

For masochists, you can also pay with Avios.

The rate is 0.8p per Avios.

You still earn tier points and earn Avios back if you go down this route.

1,000 tier points will cost you 125,000 Avios (!) although you will receive 10,000 Avios back for a net cost of 115,000 Avios.

Remember that Silver status now requires 7,500 tier points and Gold requires 20,000. Your £1,000 or 125,000 Avios buys you only a fraction of what you need.

Conclusion

It’s obviously a personal decision as to whether you want to use your money to buy Sustainable Aviation Fuel for an airline which made £2.0 billion of operating profit last year.

Purely from a tier point perspective, it’s terrible value.

The ONLY time you should be considering this is on 30th March 2026 when you have 24 hours left to hit your tier point target for the year. If you find yourself a little bit short, it MIGHT be worth it.

I’ll re-run this article next March. For now, you don’t need to think about it.

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 (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.