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Hi there – has anyone seen any news about whether Amex and BA may offer the ability to get BA Tier Points based on spend on the Amex?
They offered it from late November 2023 to May 2024 as a trial but haven’t seen anything from BA or Amex about it becoming a regular feature or another promotion.
I spoke to an agent in the Amex contact centre earlier in 2024 about it and they seemed to think that it would be offered again.
It is very likely to become permanent if BA status moves to a pure ‘money spent’ basis, which we suspect may be next year.
A potential model would be £10k of BA spend for Silver and £20k for Gold, offset at 10:1 from BA Amex spend, so £50,000 of card spend would reduce the Silver target to £5k of BA spend and Gold to £15k of BA spend, excluding taxes.
If true, those are some pretty low spend targets (a 2-4-1 and Gold for £15k spend?). I reckon 15:1 on BA spend would be strike a better balance for them.
It is very likely to become permanent if BA status moves to a pure ‘money spent’ basis, which we suspect may be next year.
A potential model would be £10k for Silver, £20k Gold and 10:1 from BA Amex spend, so £50,000 of card spend would reduce the Silver target to £5k and Gold to £15k.
Jesus F*cking Christ, 20k for Gold!! These days you can get it for a quarter of that thanks to the BA Holidays promotion.
I guess the upside is that I can stop looking for OneWorld fares to keep earning TP’s and take advantage of my status. From now on, cheapest deal and sod loyalty!
@executiveclubber I’m reading Rob’s suggestion is that you spend 50k on the BAPP and an additional 15k on BA flights etc, which doesn’t seem especially generous to me. Gold can be readily achieved for sub £5k spend currently before any BAPP spend.
If true, those are some pretty low spend targets (a 2-4-1 and Gold for £15k spend?). I reckon 15:1 on BA spend would be strike a better balance for them.
No, he means that £50k spend on the card reduces your required BA direct spend for Gold to £15k instead of £20k.
If true, those are some pretty low spend targets (a 2-4-1 and Gold for £15k spend?). I reckon 15:1 on BA spend would be strike a better balance for them.
No, he means that £50k spend on the card reduces your required BA direct spend for Gold to £15k instead of £20k.
Ah, understood. Yes that’s a far more IAG number…
It is very likely to become permanent if BA status moves to a pure ‘money spent’ basis, which we suspect may be next year.
A potential model would be £10k for Silver, £20k Gold and 10:1 from BA Amex spend, so £50,000 of card spend would reduce the Silver target to £5k and Gold to £15k.
Thanks for this. Just to confirm, would this mean:
If you spend £50k on your Amex card then you would need to spend £5k on BA flights to get Silver?
It is very likely to become permanent if BA status moves to a pure ‘money spent’ basis, which we suspect may be next year.
A potential model would be £10k for Silver, £20k Gold and 10:1 from BA Amex spend, so £50,000 of card spend would reduce the Silver target to £5k and Gold to £15k.
Thanks for this. Just to confirm, would this mean:
If you spend £50k on your Amex card then you would need to spend £5k on BA flights to get Silver?
I assume / hope these are figurative numbers that Rob is using to illustrate the concept.
But booking two BA holidays to an 80TP destination for two people is on achievable now for c.£2.4k to get silver.
A £50k card spend plus £5k BA spend looks like a pretty grim deal.
Am I missing something?
Should solve the lounge overcrowding issues at least!
But booking two BA holidays to an 80TP destination for two people is on achievable now for c.£2.4k to get silver.
A £50k card spend plus £5k BA spend looks like a pretty grim deal.
Am I missing something?
Yes, when the system changes tier points will be awarded based on the cost of your ticket as Avios now are. A cheap BAH won’t get much.
If BA does this, this is a big F U to all the self funded travellers. The question is, are there any other non-North American oneworld programs where I can attain Emerald in a similar way to Ba Gold currently?
If BA does this, this is a big F U to all the self funded travellers. The question is, are there any other non-North American oneworld programs where I can attain Emerald in a similar way to Ba Gold currently?
Unfortunately it’s not if but when. Will surely be announced and possibly implemented within the next twelve months. Anecdotally, there does seem to be some improvement in business traffic and of course not all personally funded travellers care about TP.
There is some ridiculous distortion caused by higher TP routes and TP runs, but that could have been addressed differently. I wonder what will happen to the low cost/high TP routes once all this changes. Probably doesn’t bode well. I’m sad that Belgrade was so dissed as a result of people seemingly choosing surrounding destinations for TP reasons that it was dropped so soon after it started.
Gosh, this is horrendous. I rarely travel for work, how ma I going to spend that much to retain silver? Are we sure this is the way forward?
If BA does this, this is a big F U to all the self funded travellers. The question is, are there any other non-North American oneworld programs where I can attain Emerald in a similar way to Ba Gold currently?
It will also be a good way to lose a lot of domestic UK business travellers if the number of TP drops significantly in Club Europe. I get gold fairly easily travelling from GLA or EDI to London weekly, usually in business (to get the 40 TP in CU). I value gold travelling so often, but I could fly with Easyjet to Gatwick or Stansted, usually for a quarter of the cost. A lot less choice of flights but I’d still be saving the business a fortune, even factoring in the cost of the train from / to LGW and pre-booking lounge access via PP, DP or Platinum.
I hope they don’t end my loyalty to them by making gold unachievable on a weekly commute.
Gosh, this is horrendous. I rarely travel for work, how ma I going to spend that much to retain silver? Are we sure this is the way forward?
We’re not certain, no, but it’s what American Airlines did and the direction of travel (eg Avios earned based on £ spent) is very clear.
Like bald men fighting over a comb, the airlines are desperate to get their hands on the very few full fare business travellers still out there, and if that means giving them all a Gold card, so be it.
If they were to do this at the suggested BA spend levels, I think I’ll be flying more with Skyteam, since VS became a proper member the VS Gold from Amex is much more useful.
I’m miles-rich with BA and VS, collecting more isn’t a factor. I’m only flying J or F, so for me it’s really all about the LHR T5 lounges.
With Gold, T5 GF is ok, and most of the time I’m earning the TP to stay Gold ‘naturally’, but flying J and being consigned to GC? That makes BA J unattractive.
If I’m in F I get CCR anyway, so BA is still ok there and it’d probably keep me Silver, but as I wouldn’t be trying to keep BA status, it’s also less likely I’d fly F either.
Great just as I book flights into next year to come across and go Gold with BA after 15 on EY and three on QR both of whose customer service e is awful
Agree with the last post that BA is only worth its lounges at T5 else unremarkable
Airline loyalty has become worthless outside of the US and only hotel loyalty is worth, at the moment, hasing
My timing is as ever 💩Great just as I book flights into next year to come across and go Gold with BA after 15 on EY and three on QR both of whose customer service e is awful
Agree with the last post that BA is only worth its lounges at T5 else unremarkable
Airline loyalty has become worthless outside of the US and only hotel loyalty is worth, at the moment, hasing
My timing is as ever 💩Agree with not bothering to trying to retain loyalty in the future when it moves to revenue based with the high thresholds. Sadly I’m sure JDB/ROB is right re moving to rev based is going to happen, writing is on the wall I suspect. I guess some good things must come to an end. I think when it happens I’ll just get the best value for money J fares across whatever airline/alliance rather than trying to focus flights on oneworld. Plenty of avios for myself to redeem going forwards, and with AF looking good recently in reviews may try burning the Virgin points that way.
If (and I agree, more likely when) it comes in then it will undoubtedly have some loopholes in – don’t AA and LH, for example still credit on distance for some partner airlines?
I would be sad to lose status for seat selection and lounge access, but the upside would be freedom to pick any airline, rather than sticking mostly to Oneworld.
If (and I agree, more likely when) it comes in then it will undoubtedly have some loopholes in – don’t AA and LH, for example still credit on distance for some partner airlines?
I would be sad to lose status for seat selection and lounge access, but the upside would be freedom to pick any airline, rather than sticking mostly to Oneworld.
Yes, there will be loopholes and good bits and bad bits when the change comes. Nobody likes change and when anything is announced, there will be a lot of sound and fury and dozens of pages of comments saying that it’s the end of BA, curtains for Avios, the sky is going to fall in, they’ll never fly BA again etc. but then people have been saying that for 30+ years during which time collecting, spending and status earning opportunities have changed considerably but the net net isn’t very different to the way things were in the early 80s.
BA forgetting recent history ( ie that it was, overwhelmingly self funding leisure travellers) that helped keep them afloat/existing. Just as they did remarkably quickly post 9/11. Seeing a system adopted by a market ( US) that operates very differently across multiple metrics both commercially and customer wise that has them seeing $£€ and focusing in on that with little to no market impact assessments or ( known, FF & sustained higher revenue) customer base loss.
Yup that’ll be BA and for sure they’re chomping at the bit I imagine.
Acknowledging @JDB words. It would definitely require an in-depth assessment as to cost-benefit in a revenue based system. if I can, ignoring current BAH double dipping, obtain Silver for X without a ‘required’ card spend and that then becomes XX & card spend OR XXX without then I doubt I’d be able to make the case to myself as someone who self funds all our travel. Xx with the carrot they’ll undoubtedly dangle around the earning shift . Yeah probably but BA currently gets business that would be much less expensive were I not committed to keeping our status.
For the blue chips or company accounts ( which of course I acknowledge is, and always has been the airlines #1 target) I’m sure there won’t be much of a noticeable impact & very few losing status as they’re not footing the bills and of course that’s not a slant on those people. I just hope someone has a memory recall, runs some numbers & suggests at least some consideration about achievement levels & some, external, research on Med-High & High rev leisure travellers within the programme
The current scheme is aimed at those who travel business class for work and economy for leisure, allowing them to use business class facilities (lounges, fast track, baggage allowance) on economy flights. If you have a business class ticket, status has very little value.
It’s all very out of date. I always fly business class for leisure travel, but, in 2024, it sets a bad tone if I submit expenses claims for expensive flights when I travel for work. So my work flights are in economy or, at best, premium economy, regardless of our more generous expenses policy.
A quick glance around any business class cabin suggests I’m not alone: most premium travellers are on leisure trips these days. The same is true for first class on trains.
The whole system needs revising to reflect the rise in premium leisure travel.
@C2K77 – I’m quite sure BA won’t be carrying any in-depth assessment of what suits hard core HfP readers! They know that moving to revenue based Avios and TP earning will have little or no negative effect for them and other airlines will follow.
I know so many family members and friends who travel in premium long haul and economy or club short haul or LCC with zero interest in Avios – all too complicated, inflexible and when anyone mentions the idea of tier point runs, calls at midnight to book (although totally unnecessary in my view) lounge safaris etc they just laugh or shake their heads. Just another sign of the world having gone mad.
I help someone run their small business which sells quite high value items to sophisticated buyers. More than half of customers pay with a debit card.
IHG hoteliers will complain just how few of the supposed 100m loyalty members book directly or via IHG central reservations. Less than half.
One can get the impression that the whole world is at this game, but in reality it’s a minority sport.
If it’s difficult, I won’t bother getting silver. Am I bovvered? No. I’m not so far from lifetime gold but no interest in chasing it. Am I going to stop collecting Avios or flying BA/OW? No.
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