Forums › Frequent flyer programs › British Airways Executive Club › BA Executive Club status 2025 – first cracks ?
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Times is reporting that BA are starting to buckle.
Now there’ll be a flight count going towards status (25 bronze, 50 silver) and extension of the tier points bonus offer to December 25 with higher points for premium cabins.New Tier Point bonus details from BA.com – also note that flights that are part of a BA Holiday are included now, this wasn’t the case in the previous version of the Ts and Cs
Cabin Bonus
Euro Traveller 75 bonus Tier Points
Club Europe 175 bonus Tier Points
World Traveller 150 bonus Tier Points
World Traveller Plus 275 bonus Tier Points
Club World 400 bonus Tier Points
First 550 bonus Tier PointsHere’s an Internet Archive version for anyone without a subscription of some sort: https://archive.is/FVOAq
I was sent some details on Monday, one month after returning from my previous flight (with email subject matter “it has been one month since your trip to xxx)”. It was hardly front and centre and appears half way down a broad email and points to the T&Cs online.
I did wonder if this was a roll-back or if some long standing promo.
How it works:
Register between 30 December 2024 and 31 December 2025 with your Executive Club membership number.
Book your flights, or your Flight + Hotel or Flight + Car package by 31 December 2025.
Fly between 1 April 2025 and 21 December 2026.
Earn bonus Tier Points to get you one step closer to upgrading or renewing your Tier Status.Cabin Bonus
Euro Traveller 75 bonus Tier Points
Club Europe 175 bonus Tier Points
World Traveller 150 bonus Tier Points
World Traveller Plus 275 bonus Tier Points
Club World 400 bonus Tier Points
First 550 bonus Tier PointsLink to flyer talk thread on this.
Still no mention of soft landings.
My view? If you put lipstick and a wedding dress on a pig it’s still a pig.
Colm Lacy, the chief commercial, said “This isn’t an effort to reduce the number of members we have in each tier, but to reward our members more fairly, and we want to do more to reassure them that retaining their status is achievable”
@John – it’s laughable.
Do they really think any of their passengers have a flying pattern like this example for earning gold?
13x return flights to Geneva (e.g. a commuter) in Club Europe (business class) 9,971
3x return flights to Club World (business class) to JFK 9,720
A British Airways Holidays package to Tenerife in Euro Traveller economy) 759
Link to flyer talk thread on this.
Still no mention of soft landings.
Why would there be, BA customer services consistently told members no change in this policy, the less said the better unless anything changes for the worse imho.
@John – it’s laughable.
Do they really think any of their passengers have a flying pattern like this example for earning gold?
13x return flights to Geneva (e.g. a commuter) in Club Europe (business class) 9,971
3x return flights to Club World (business class) to JFK 9,720
A British Airways Holidays package to Tenerife in Euro Traveller economy) 759
There probably is one similar to that just to validate the example, but imho it simply proves the fallacy. Regular Business travel, paid for by an employer, who may well also specify which airline must be used. Then despite that perceived ‘loyalty’ the individual spends virtually none of their own money with BA.
Link to flyer talk thread on this.
Still no mention of soft landings.
Why would there be, BA customer services consistently told members no change in this policy, the less said the better unless anything changes for the worse imho.
What CS say carries no official weight though. I want to know well before April ’26 whether I’ll be silver or blue!
Link to flyer talk thread on this.
Still no mention of soft landings.
Why would there be, BA customer services consistently told members no change in this policy, the less said the better unless anything changes for the worse imho.
Indeed. It seems most unwise to keep pressing this point.
While it may have been an accepted feature for many years, there is no official policy on soft landings. It obviously doesn’t help us, but whatever happens it is correct that there will be no change in official policy.
@John – it’s laughable.
Do they really think any of their passengers have a flying pattern like this example for earning gold?
Agree, though I was actually trying to emphasise the laughable claim that they are not trying to reduce the number of status holders (my text under the quote seems to have got lost)
There really must be some seriously incompetent people in BA. First ‘brunchgate’ then this. They need to create a ‘Department of the Bleedin’ Obvious’, it would seem.
The thing is, even if tbey do give slightly or think they still have our attention if they run promos when they feel like it that could help some people that haven’t turned away fron British Airways to earn a few more tier points from time to time, they’re d4mned if tbey do and d4mned if they don’t now for anyone who actually chooses which airline they travel with. As they can’t be trusted.
In other news, for those who fly from the regions and are now looking favourably at KLM and avoiding Heathrow and connecting in Amsterdam instead, SkyTeam member Vietnam Airlines has just launched a status match and the fee might work for some.
Just got an email from BA asking me to register for Bonus tier points – and it includes all bookings made since 30 December.
Looking at the press release:
“It’s expected the airline will always offer members a Bonus Tier Point proposition in addition to the general 1 Tier Point for £1 earning mechanism.” (emphasis mine)
Assuming for a minute this is a long-running offer, when combined with cheapest fares on-sale data this makes for some effective minimum new Tier Points per cabin.
Some quick examples:
LHR-BCN return economy O class £75 (eligible: £23)
Was: 10 TPs [2x 5 TPs]
(equivalent of 133 nTPs)
Now: 173 nTPs [23 spend + 2x 75 bonus]
(equivalent of 13 TPs)
Result: 30% increase in the new ClubLHR-BCN return business class £365 (eligible: £299)
Was: 80 TPs [2x 40TPs]
(equivalent of 1067 nTPs)
Now: 649 nTPs [299 spend + 2x 175 bonus]
(equivalent of 49 TPs)
Result: 40% decreaseLHR-JFK return economy O class £394 (eligible: £192)
Was: 40 TPs [2x 20 TPs]
(equivalent of 533 nTPs)
Now: 492 nTPs [192 spend + 2x 150 bonus]
(equivalent of 37 TPs)
Result: 8% decrease in the new ClubIt only seems to move the needle for the cheapest economy tickets, making them closer to the original earning – ironically the group of users least likely to be obtaining status based on Tier Points (and not sectors flown) and the group they presumably want to incentivise least in the new Club.
I think that the new 50 Flights in a year to get Silver is amazing. LFG team!
Assuming of course you can make sure your 50 flights are between April and March the following year – I guess for business commuters only in this case. But even then , if you start commuting for say 6 months solid in December you wont hit the requirement by April. And so on.
Still awaiting BA to sort its act out, or Iberia announcement.
50 x £25 IB sectors is only £1250; if they qualified it would be worth doing just for the feeling of satisfaction it would engender. I’m time-rich these days and HFP could do an article! I did 18 sectors over last autumn to get gold so I’m not entirely new to the concept …
Trouble is that’s probably an awful lot of flights, trips and associated hotel & other costs that you wouldn’t otherwise be incurring, so the real cost is a lot more than £1250.
I agree the satisfaction factor would be good, but you should also consider the route of adding that sort of money to your existing BA spend.
You can’t mix sectors plus spend to get status, so it’s 50 flights OR £7500+ spend for Silver.
I could just fly MAN-MAD-VGO return over and over and stay with family but they might get a bit fed up with me! I would actually really enjoy a few weeks visiting lots of beautiful Spanish cities and I could even combine it with re-gaining my IHG diamond sparkle.
Spain and/or IB play a blinder every few years – remember the 90k avios for 9 flights on IB? I didn’t get to do that one and always hoped we’d see something similar. Also post-pandemic, easyJet were allowing people to change tickets to any airport/date in the same country, so a £30 return flight to Bilbao became a £200 one to Tenerife?!
Colm Lacy, the chief commercial, said “This isn’t an effort to reduce the number of members we have in each tier, but to reward our members more fairly, and we want to do more to reassure them that retaining their status is achievable”
It’s quite conspicuous they BA hasn’t retained the existing tier point model and added spend as a way to retain status…
I think many US airlines had/have dual status earning methods by segments/spend etc.
Saw Rob on UK Sky News business being interviewed – Great insight – Sound was a little patchy IMO but message got through that BA are perhaps in trouble but as Rob said in the interview this will be a slow process to see implications of the changes for those that have high status especially – pre April 2026…….Personally my bet is that a lot of people are already enjoying the ‘I am free to look around for best deal’ feeling…..again Rob correctly hinted that this would be the case for many groups of current BAEC members – I believe I am right in saying Rob suggested with taxes etc for Gold a spend of £ 30k was required – I stand to be corrected – Overall though congrats to HfP for making it to prime time on Sky Business in UK…….more to follow I am sure.
Spoke with a member of cabin crew on a flight last week that were also lamenting the changes as they wouldn’t be able to retain silver. Just wonder if the “50 flights” was to placate the cabin crew that commute every week (not sure how it works for them).
I’ve just booked 2 flights ( LHR – Geneva and Geneva – LGW ) , historically I would have paid the extra to go Business in order to scrap up some Tier Points to help towards retaining Status ( currently gold )
But seeing as I’m already Gold the added value of the Club Europe v Exit seat that I can select is minimal – some food and drinks during the flight and no one in the seat next to me.
So for both of these I’ve picked Economy – I’m doing the same on a bunch of LHR – TLS flights I have planned over the spring / summer . The lounge in TLS is so awful you’re better off going to the cafe but I digress.
I’ve got 2 long haul work trips to schedule this year , a trip around the US and an APAC ( SGP / SYD / MUB ) trip – these should help me retain Silver BUT I’m tempted to take the status match with Sky Team – especially as I always end up flying Delta within the USA anyway.
All in all this seems to driving all the wrong customer behaviour from BA . This isn’t an emotional decision , I could have doubled down and started spending like crazy to retain my status . This empirically what I’ve ended up doing.
How are others reacting themselves? Is my logic above sensible ?
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