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BA has extended status for some (not all) expecting a mid-year drop

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British Airways appears to have extended elite status for some people who were due to lose it part-way through the 1st April 2025 to 31st March 2026 membership year.

This includes my wife and I which is good news if it sticks.

Let’s take a closer look.

British Airways extends status

Back in February 2024, when British Airways announced the moved to fixed membership years (1st April to 31st March), some people were NOT given a 31st March end date for their current status.

This was done out of fairness to those who had just earned status. It wasn’t perfect but it helped.

Here’s an example:

  • Imagine that you earned Gold during a membership year which ended on 8th October 2024
  • Your Gold status was due to expire on 30th November 2025
  • When the new membership year system was announced, it was assumed that this Gold period would be shortened with status ending on 30th April 2025

A few days after the original announcement, BA changed its T&C to clarify that:

Any existing status valid beyond 31 March 2025 will continue for the full duration.

This meant that everyone would get the ‘rest of their current year plus the full following year’ to benefit from their status.

It wasn’t the perfect solution. Your ‘soft landing’ period was still reduced. In the example above, even though British Airways allowed you to keep your Gold status until 30th November 2025, your soft landing to Silver – assuming you didn’t requalify, and assuming soft landings continue – would only last until 30th April 2026 and not 30th November 2026.

What has changed?

Both my wife and I were impacted by this.

My status was due to end on 30th November 2025. My wife’s was due to end on 30th September 2025.

However, looking at my British Airways Club membership card:

…. my Gold status will now run to 30th April 2026. My wife’s account shows the same. I’ve gained an extra five months, she has gained an extra seven months.

British Airways seems to have decided that dropping some members down a tier during the new fixed membership period doesn’t make sense.

If your British Airways Club status was due to expire mid-year, take a look at your BA account. You may be pleasantly surprised. However, looking at the comments below, it seems 50/50 as to whether you were extended.

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Comments (151)

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

  • Cindy says:
    5 Apr5 April 12:49

    I was on my way to earn gold status and now I must battle to retain silver. Previous tier collection month was end October. I lost all my accrued tier points flown since November last year. I am actually in between my return flights. I will not be so loyal to BA in the future and shop around more with other airlines.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      5 Apr5 April 14:33

      That’s the way it’s worked for years! This is nothing new.

      Once the new collection year starts the TP counter is reset to zero.

      Your status for 25/26 would be based on all the points you earned from 1/4/24 to 31/3/24.

  • Bob says:
    5 Apr5 April 12:49

    I wouldn’t assume anything you see in your account is accurate at the moment. I’ve been waiting for 420 oTP to credit from last month and today my lifetime gold amount has just gone up by 100,000 nTP.

  • OnTheRun says:
    5 Apr5 April 13:09

    Scenario 1:

    You’re all part of an experiment where BA extends the statuses of bloggers and some members of its customer base, in order to create online discussion that it will monitor to gauge the moods and intentions of those who swore blind they would never fly BA again.

    Scenario 2:

    BA’s IT department has simply screwed up again.

    • Paul says:
      5 Apr5 April 18:17

      Not sure it’s true people said they’d never fly BA again. That’s a pretty high bar if you live in the U.K. and fly to Europe a lot and want to exploit a FFP.

      What some are doing is using another FFP such as IB or AY or the more exotic RJ or QR.

      I am still trying to work out what’s best. Quite a bit of domestic flying plus EU and Far East. Thinking IB might be best but far from certain.

      • OnTheRun says:
        5 Apr5 April 18:31

        If people are not based in London, not flying at all with BA is very possible, since those who are based in other UK regions for example are bettered catered for and to by other airlines.

        SkyTeam for example would become the favourite here over OW

  • Alan T says:
    5 Apr5 April 13:22

    I’m going with Scenario 2.

    I’m showing April 26 as expected, with the loss of 7 months of Gold from what would have been Nov 26, having requalified for Gold in our former’ grace period’ last Oct/Nov 24.

  • memesweeper says:
    5 Apr5 April 13:33

    I’m the first to criticise BA’s poor IT but this does not seem to me like the kind of thing that is purely the result of a bug.

    It’s not impossible they are running ad-hoc database changes in large batches to cause this shift in status, and eventually everyone who was in scope to loose out gets it. We’ll know in a few days.

    If it’s targeted based on unpublished criteria that’s really poor form. A superb way to further alienate people, just when BA needs to shore up loyalty.

  • FZ says:
    5 Apr5 April 13:50

    Strangely my wife got this too, readjusted 1200oTP become gold again from silver

  • Stuart L says:
    5 Apr5 April 13:59

    I had this bonus re qualification last year as a Silver, I had only reached 400 tp’s. I had been Gold for a long time before.
    Since being served the divorce papers by BA, I’ve been seeing other airlines and some of those first dates have blossomed.
    So no chance of status again, gone from almost all Ba, to not seeing T5 for quite sometime.

  • MJ says:
    5 Apr5 April 14:14

    I have lost tier points from a First Singapore flight in march 2025 that would have achieved silver and allowed progression to gold in the old 2025 collection year.
    The tier points were awarded for only the remaining 10 days of March 2025. !st April 2025 they have been removed, which seems entirely unfair and incorrect, given that these BA Holidays were booked way back in September 2025.
    I have written to BA asking for a review and will update you when I receuve a reply.

    • JDB says:
      5 Apr5 April 16:16

      Isn’t that how any points awarded in the last part of the collection year have always been treated? When booking the BAH in September, the realignment of years was already known. The deduction of points on 1 April is the reset for the new collection year now common to all.

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

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