BAEC Silver Avios collection rate on flights

[Londonsteve]

I’ve been looking at the different rates of Avios earned while flying to destinations I frequent and came across some interesting discoveries. I was under the impression that Silver gives you a 50% uplift in the Avios you’d earn as a Blue member but no more. Flying to Sofia on the cheapest Economy ticket as a Blue member you get 317 Avios but this increases to 950 as a Silver member. This is actually 300% more than a Blue member and is 75% of what a full fare Economy ticket otherwise earns for a Blue member, i.e. 75% of the actual miles flown. The full fare Economy ticket however only nets a Silver member 1899 Avios, i.e. 50% more than for a Blue member, which is in line with expectations.

To Madrid a Blue member will collect a measly 197 Avios on the cheapest Economy fare, but a Silver member earns a whopping 590 Avios for the same ticket, as long as you’re flying BA, because if you’re on IB you’ll earn only 295 Avios even as a silver member, i.e. 50% more than the minimum.

Does anyone know what’s going on? Might the calculator actually be incorrect and real earning rate is rather different to that promised when you actually receive the Avios post flight? I’ve done some dummy bookings on BA.com and the rate of Avios promised is the same as the calculator, except for IB where the promised Avios is the same as if flying on BA metal and therefore double what the calculator suggests you should be getting when flying IB. All tickets are in the cheapest fare buckets before you ask.

It would appear that 50% more is the minimum a Silver member collects but on some flights as in the example to Sofia above, it can be considerably more than this. I’m aware that BAEC halved and quartered the earnings rate for cheaper fare buckets a few years ago, also reducing the amount of TPs you earn in the process. If this is all correct then I’m surprised BAEC don’t trumpet these much higher earnings rates on cheap Economy fares as a major benefit of the higher membership tiers, although I appreciate it’s a bit too late for that now as BAEC are moving towards spend related Avios earning. I do yearn for the times when one of the best ways of collecting miles was, well, actually flying….

[Stu_N]

There’s two things – base credit which is independent of status, and tier bonus to which the multiplier applies.

Say EDI-LHR (or any route less than 500 miles, where credit is based around notional 500 Avios):

Base earning for cheapest economy is 125 (25% of notional)
Bronze gets 25% bonus but this is based on full 500 = 125 so 250 total
Silver gets 50% of tier bonus = 250 so 375 total
Gold gets 100% of tier bonus – 500 so 635 total.

For full fare Y base earning is 500; blue earns 500, Bronze 625, Silver 750, Gold 1000.

Using your Sofia/ cheapest economy example, Blue is 317 so notional distance must be 1268. Silver earns 317 + (1268*50%) = 951 which is basically the 950 you quote.

[Londonsteve]

Thanks for going into all the detail, Stu. That’s very interesting, I had no idea that’s how the bonuses are calculated. This isn’t immediately apparent from the description of BAEC benefits and comes as a pleasant surprise. I guess I best take advantage of these comparatively generous rates while I can, before revenue based rates come to BA!