BA Holidays Double Tier Point runs – any ideas?

[Alan TJ]

My plans to use the BA holidays double Tier points offer to hit Gold have been scuppered by cancelled flights.

Any suggestions for the best value double point runs to hit the 950 target.

Any experts here know if BA hols would let me book a holiday from LHR to Man return flight back to LHR then return to Istanbul (5 nights inc. car hire).

[Autofocus]

950 ?? gold is 1150

[tiriavpo]

Presumably 950 is the remaining balance? Not sure I understand your suggested itinerary though.

[cannonc]

Anybody else struggling to get the bonus TPs credited? I’ve chased using the the email address suggested twice but no joy

[youneedtobeyourself]

Check out the TP thread on flyertalk and see if you can find any starting in the UK:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/2033697-ba-tier-point-runs-2021-edition-119.html

Tel Aviv in first was good (840TP for 2 relative short flights) but I just checked and looks like BA are not selling F on that route at the moment.

[Alan TJ]

Early morning out to Man and back the LHR in time to catch flight to IST
40 + 40 + 80 + 80 x 2 = 480TP

2 trips would hit my target, if BA Hols would accept the itinerary.

[arnold]

The most obvious way to get Gold in one swoop is a connection through Doha to another 140 TP destination, like Zanzibar. But I’d rather not spend a week away from home, so does anyone know if BA Holidays would allow a routing through Doha back to Europe, and then I can come back home in between

So for example: LHR-DOH-CDG, then 5 nights in CDG and back again

?

[Unique]

I have booked a series of holidays to get the maximum benefit from the double tier points offer:

LHR-DXB in Premium Economy (Oct) 2×180 TPs,
LHR-IST in Club Europe (Jan) 2x 160 TPs
LHR-DXB in Club World (Jan) 2 x 280 TPs

My tier point year ends in February so checked with BAEC that they would still allow me to earn Gold status and was told they would. The terms and conditions state that the bonus tier points are added separately up to 30 days after the last flight and I read on HfP that it is a manual process too. After 30 days I noticed the points had not been added so I emailed loyalty.feedback@ba.com and received a reply explaining the delay was due to the recent IT upgrade. However after another week or so the points were credits and I was able to move from Blue to Bronze. SO hope the next stage is as smooth allowing me to get to Silver and finally Gold!

[gundam]

arnold wrote:

The most obvious way to get Gold in one swoop is a connection through Doha to another 140 TP destination, like Zanzibar. But I’d rather not spend a week away from home, so does anyone know if BA Holidays would allow a routing through Doha back to Europe, and then I can come back home in between

So for example: LHR-DOH-CDG, then 5 nights in CDG and back again

?

Generally, airlines don’t like it when you build itineraries that double back on yourself.

[Always_in_the_air]

Best option is to nest two booking, for example.

Booking 1: Dep. LHR (1/1/2022) – Arr. DOH (2/1/2022)- Arr. LHR (15/1/2022)

Booking 2: Dep. DOH (2/1/2022) – Arr. CDG (2/1/2022) – Arr. DOH (15/1/2022)

So your itinerary would look like:

Dep. LHR (1/1/2022) – Arr. DOH (2/1/2022) – Dep. DOH (2/1/2022) – Arr. CDG (2/1/2022) – Arr. DOH (15/1/2022) – Arr. LHR (15/1/2022)

Hope that makes sense?

[Paasan69]

Always_in_the_air wrote:

Best option is to nest two booking, for example.

Booking 1: Dep. LHR (1/1/2022) – Arr. DOH (2/1/2022)- Arr. LHR (15/1/2022)

Booking 2: Dep. DOH (2/1/2022) – Arr. CDG (2/1/2022) – Arr. DOH (15/1/2022)

So your itinerary would look like:

Dep. LHR (1/1/2022) – Arr. DOH (2/1/2022) – Dep. DOH (2/1/2022) – Arr. CDG (2/1/2022) – Arr. DOH (15/1/2022) – Arr. LHR (15/1/2022)

Hope that makes sense?

Good suggestion but wouldn’t qualify for the double TP promo as needs to be ex-UK. You could get double TP’s for the LHR-DOH booking though if you added a car or hotel for the fortnight but otherwise no double TP’s.

[Always_in_the_air]

Hmmmm, good point!

Could you maybe create a multi-leg holiday?

Also remember when booking a holiday, you only need to book a car or hotel for 2 days even if the “holiday” is 14 days, it has been know to book a super cheap hire car for 2 days then simply not use it

[FFoxSake]

Always_in_the_air wrote:

…you only need to book a car or hotel for 2 days even if the “holiday” is 14 days, it has been know to book a super cheap hire car for 2 days then simply not use it

For the double tier points offer the car and/or hotel need to be booked for the entire trip and the trip needs to be ex-UK for at least 5 nights.

[tspd]

Can’t help but wonder….as per the controversial article from yesterday, whether anyone here is interested in getting OneWorld Emerald from the comfort of home? No Covid tests, no flights to catch.

Sure its Finnair Platinum (oneworld emerald), but really, what difference in the real world does that make? Not much.

For £2.2k I got: oneworld emerald until 01/24 oneworld sapphire until 01/25, enough points to fly 2 people anywhere long haul from LHR via Helsinki – all biz A350 with taxes <£100, giftable oneworld sapphire for 2 years. Its a steal.

[SpitfireCharlie]

tspd wrote:

Can’t help but wonder….as per the controversial article from yesterday, whether anyone here is interested in getting OneWorld Emerald from the comfort of home? No Covid tests, no flights to catch.

Sure its Finnair Platinum (oneworld emerald), but really, what difference in the real world does that make? Not much.

For £2.2k I got: oneworld emerald until 01/24 oneworld sapphire until 01/25, enough points to fly 2 people anywhere long haul from LHR via Helsinki – all biz A350 with taxes <£100, giftable oneworld sapphire for 2 years. Its a steal.

I’m seriously thinking of doing the same. I also love the idea of the 2 free business intercontinental upgrade vouchers and 4 free business upgrades on European flights. This seems mega generous.

[McMilesCollector]

Would value advice around booking to gain the Double TP. I am planning trip EDI to LHR to LIS – stay 5 nights then LHR JER LHR EDI (last as a pure points run) Would all flights in this get double tier points given the 5 night stay as part of this? (My maths suggests 480 points if doubled)

If this is correct then any advice on how to book this through the holidays website would be very much approeciated – thanks in advance. If there are better / cheaper options – I am of course open to any suggestions 🙂 Thanks

Andrew

[NorthernLass]

This “should” get double TPs, though it depends how BA interprets the current Ts and Cs. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any way of checking before you actually take the trip! Check how many segments count now though, it might have changed.

Theoretically you can book up to 8 segments via the custom trip facility on BA.com, however the system can be a bit temperamental, the most I’ve ever managed to get on one booking is 7. They can do it on the phone though.

[JDB]

McMilesCollector wrote:

Would value advice around booking to gain the Double TP. I am planning trip EDI to LHR to LIS – stay 5 nights then LHR JER LHR EDI (last as a pure points run) Would all flights in this get double tier points given the 5 night stay as part of this? (My maths suggests 480 points if doubled)

If this is correct then any advice on how to book this through the holidays website would be very much approeciated – thanks in advance. If there are better / cheaper options – I am of course open to any suggestions 🙂 Thanks

Andrew

It’s quite difficult for anyone (including BAH) to give you a definitive answer to this. The proposed itinerary is quite clearly not within the spirit or intent of the published terms, and a strict or purposive reading of the terms would suggest it also doesn’t comply with the letter of the rules either.

The amendments to the terms since the promotion started suggest BA is a bit wise to gaming of the system, but you might well be lucky and get the full TP but if you don’t, there is essentially no recourse and indeed no basis for complaint.

[Richie]

McMilesCollector wrote:

Would value advice around booking to gain the Double TP. I am planning trip EDI to LHR to LIS – stay 5 nights then LHR JER LHR EDI (last as a pure points run) Would all flights in this get double tier points given the 5 night stay as part of this?

No. Too many domestic flight sectors.

[Richie]

Iberia flights between Madrid and Lisbon have BA flight numbers so doing EDI-LHR-MAD-LIS may add in more TPs.

[NorthernLass]

@Richie, where in the Ts and Cs does it mention domestic sectors?

[Richie]

NorthernLass wrote:

@Richie, where in the Ts and Cs does it mention domestic sectors?

re https://www.britishairways.com/content/executive-club/offers/holidays-double-tier-points#TnC

sections 1 b) and g) seem to apply in this example.

I would prefer more explicit Ts & Cs.

[NorthernLass]

b) The booking must be made by a UK resident and must originate and end in the UK.
g) Bookings can only contain one flight departing the UK, multiple journeys from the UK within one booking will not qualify.

I can’t see that either of these preclude multiple domestic flights from being eligible for double TPs. “Departing the UK” appears to be mostly interpreted as “leaving the UK” rather than “leaving FROM the UK”, though it’s definitely not 100% clear!

They are a complete dog’s dinner as far as Ts and Cs go, and it’s not even clear whether BA’s IT has been amended to comply with whatever interpretation they decide on.

I’ll post updates through the autumn about what does and doesn’t post!

[Richie]

NorthernLass wrote:

b) The booking must be made by a UK resident and must originate and end in the UK.

The 5 nights booking/holiday could be interpreted as ending non-uk as there is no flight returning to the UK.

Generally I think this kind of proposal is just too risky for me.

[JDB]

The issue is that it is abundantly clear that, at best, these proposed itineraries with multiple domestic sectors breach the obvious intent of the rules and are simply asking for trouble as well as inviting BA simply to give no double tier points at all or clarify the rules, if they weren’t obvious enough already. It’s rather like artificial tax schemes that fail because their only purpose is wrongly trying to gain an advantage.

The effective attempt to circumvent the five nights/five days requirement for some of the domestic ‘sub trips’ is so blatantly wrong as to be rather difficult to justify on any objective basis. That alone ought to give anyone pause for thought.

Of course, also the more people who are encouraged to play this ‘game’ the more likely it will be stamped out.