Can you use Silver if you’ve just got your boarding pass for ‘qualifying’?

[bombduck]

Hello,

I am hopefully about to become silver (finally!) I am 25 points away from 600, and 2 flights away according to my BA app.

Here are my queries:
– Do I need to get to 600 points? My next flights might only get me an additional 20 points, so i’ll be 5 short. Flight is a week today.
– My return flight should be my ‘qualifying flight’ for Silver – can you use the lounge on that flight, or will I have to wait until next time?

Cheers,
BD

[NorthernLass]

You should only need 450 TPs by December 31st under the current offer, plus the usual 4 x BA flights. I was in a similar position recently, had over 500 TPs but needed 2 more flights to get to Silver. I don’t think you’ll get into the lounge until your account gets upgraded to Silver, which was 2/3 days after flying for me.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

You’ve exceeded the reduced TP threshold but what is holding your silver status back is the need for two more qualifying flights.

Without those you aren’t silver and won’t be until you’ve flown and they have posted a couple of days later to Exec Club and then your status updated a couple of days after that.

So you’ll have to wait.

[bombduck]

Thanks for the quick answers everyone, i’ll wait until the next trip in that case!

I’ve been so close to silver so many times now, this should be the one…

[RyanB]

Just to follow on from this one. I have also already got 600 tier points this year but need to complete the remaining 2 flights. Without searching all of BA’s destinations does anyone know which places they generally have the cheapest flights to for a day trip? Only needs to be economy as I don’t need the tier points.

[davefl]

RyanB wrote:

Just to follow on from this one. I have also already got 600 tier points this year but need to complete the remaining 2 flights. Without searching all of BA’s destinations does anyone know which places they generally have the cheapest flights to for a day trip? Only needs to be economy as I don’t need the tier points.

Best bet is to search here https://speedbird.online/fares.php

[RyanB]

Thanks, I’ll take a look at that

[RyanB]

davefl wrote:

RyanB wrote:

Just to follow on from this one. I have also already got 600 tier points this year but need to complete the remaining 2 flights. Without searching all of BA’s destinations does anyone know which places they generally have the cheapest flights to for a day trip? Only needs to be economy as I don’t need the tier points.

Best bet is to search here https://speedbird.online/fares.php

Thanks, I’ll take a look at this.

[cats_are_best]

RyanB wrote:

Thanks, I’ll take a look at that

Once you narrow down options, Google Flights can be useful, you can easily put in different destinations and see which has the best pricing on a given day (select BA only and use the date grid).

https://www.google.com/travel/flights

If you’re looking at a weekday back to back out of LHR then places like JER can be good, no risk of a remote stand/bus. You may need to book via a TA as ba.com won’t let you book a B2B under the minimum connection time.

[NorthernLass]

The “low fare finder” tool on ba.com is the best way to find the cheapest flights. Due to schedules being slashed, domestic routes are currently more expensive than some international ones! I did MAN-LHR return last month for £200ish to get my 4 segments but I booked it a while ago. Had 4 hours between the flights so no issues at either end.

[marks7389]

RyanB wrote:

Just to follow on from this one. I have also already got 600 tier points this year but need to complete the remaining 2 flights. Without searching all of BA’s destinations does anyone know which places they generally have the cheapest flights to for a day trip? Only needs to be economy as I don’t need the tier points.

I was in the same position as you. Looking at the possibility of doing a there and straight back ‘sector’ run from Heathrow, Dublin looked like a good bet.

In the end my wife and I decided to do a weekend in Copenhagen with BA Holidays. She already had her Silver status (we got sufficient tier points from one BA Holidays booking earlier in the year) as the way her collection year runs she already had the other two sectors from a previous trip. Going somewhere for a weekend together meant not only that we got something directly worthwhile out of it, but her status got us all the benefits on that trip, as mine will for some time after hers expires.

Between us we got Silver status for over two years out of one long haul CW booking and a short economy European break. I doubt that will happen again in a hurry.

[yonasl]

RyanB wrote:

Just to follow on from this one. I have also already got 600 tier points this year but need to complete the remaining 2 flights. Without searching all of BA’s destinations does anyone know which places they generally have the cheapest flights to for a day trip? Only needs to be economy as I don’t need the tier points.

Google Flights allows you to search by airline. Put Iberia and BA and try to see what is cheapest (you can leave destination and even date empty and find cheapest routes and dates)