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What’s your thoughts ?
Is it a good way to get more tier points to reach your preferred status under the new na tier points scheme starting April 1stIt’s certainly a way to get tier points. Whether it’s good is down to personal opinion. You’re effectively making a donation to a commercial company.
I suppose if you needed a relatively small number of TPs to get status and don’t have time or didn’t want to fly then it might be worth it depending on the costs and how many TPs you’d get.
From a TP perspective it’s completely irrelevant at this point in time. If, by March 2026, you are within reach of a status threshold and as BA Flyer says don’t have the opportunity to get over the line by flying then it could be worth considering. You would at least know that by donating £xxx you would get yyy status, and can judge whether you think it’s worth it.
If you want to help save the planet I’m sure there are far better ways of doing that.
I would have to be very time-poor before handing over £1K for Tier Points became more attractive than spending a bit more on some flights to get the Tier Points required.
I would have to be very time-poor before handing over £1K for Tier Points became more attractive than spending a bit more on some flights to get the Tier Points required.
If you’re the sort of person who pays for tree planting to carbon capture all your flights it might trade off in your favour versus flying instead.
Personally I’m baffled at the lengths people go to (not here mainly, on flyer talk) to gain/retain status. If you don’t fly much, you don’t need status! And if you do fly frequently, who the hell wants to fly more???
The idea of topping up for cash rather than needless flights might be attractive to some. Won’t ever work for me as I’ll not be crediting another revenue flight to BA under the new regime.
At least with the SAF purchase £1,000 really does = 1,000 TPs
But with flights you’re talking about adding a few hundred quid in proper taxes and airpoer fees ontop of that as well plus hotels if your making it a trip plus food and drink and transport and so on and so forth
Has it been clarified how much SAF the £1000 buys,
and whether you get an accredited certificate of your emission offsets?Or is it BA who get to own the SAF offset credits?
How does the SAF price compare to other avenues for buying them?
Without knowing this it is hard to know if it is a good deal (thereby being good for TPs) or just smoke and mirrors.
Do they count as a charitable donation for tax return purposes.
Do they count as a charitable donation for tax return purposes.
BA isn’t a charity, so not a chance. BA can use them to make themselves look better though
Has it been clarified how much SAF the £1000 buys,
and whether you get an accredited certificate of your emission offsets?Or is it BA who get to own the SAF offset credits?
How does the SAF price compare to other avenues for buying them?
Without knowing this it is hard to know if it is a good deal (thereby being good for TPs) or just smoke and mirrors.
You would be making a donation to BA. You would not be buying anything specific. They might send you a thank you email if you’re lucky. You will get the TPs (BA IT permitting) but nothing else.
I would have to be very time-poor before handing over £1K for Tier Points became more attractive than spending a bit more on some flights to get the Tier Points required.
If you’re the sort of person who pays for tree planting to carbon capture all your flights it might trade off in your favour versus flying instead.
Personally I’m baffled at the lengths people go to (not here mainly, on flyer talk) to gain/retain status. If you don’t fly much, you don’t need status! And if you do fly frequently, who the hell wants to fly more???
The idea of topping up for cash rather than needless flights might be attractive to some. Won’t ever work for me as I’ll not be crediting another revenue flight to BA under the new regime.
Flying places is fun. Flying at the front of the plane is more fun! Handing over cash to BA is not fun. That said, I agree that if you carbon offset your flights and you can convince yourself that this scheme is as good as planting trees or whatever then yes it would be attractive.
This is just funding BA to comply with their regulatory requirements. For all flights departing from the UK and the EU, they now have to use at least 2% SAF, so they would be buying the SAF nonetheless.
Doubt they’ll buy more than the minimum.“Your contribution to Sustainable Aviation Fuels (‘SAF’) supports the purchase of quantities of SAF, which count towards our voluntary SAF commitments and enables SAF usage beyond the UK government’s SAF mandate” (from BA website).
So you can “buy” 1K TP by SAF spend, but the idea you are helping the planet is for the birds. You are helping BA. Ironically you not only get 1 TP per £1, but also 10 Avios – helping you to fly more…. If they are happy to sell TPs (as seems to be as you can get 1K SAF and 2.5K AMEX), it would be better for the planet if you could just BUY them and not take the TP run 😉
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