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Now until 30 June 2025, includong existing bookings. Great news.
It’s obviously working for BA. Let’s hope it becomes permanent.
Wow! Great news. Unless BA changes the goalposts when it comes to gaining status, it makes more sense for a lot of us to delay our TP earning until after the change in membership year in 2025 in order to benefit from a full two years of status.
They’ve just changed the goalposts on status! I’m going to wait and see if there are any “enhancements” to soft landings before I commit any more money to them.
In what way have the goalposts moved, other than everyone’s membership year being aligned? Do you need more TPs to qualify or have some of the benefits been ‘enhanced away’?
Now until 30 June 2025, includong existing bookings. Great news.
It’s obviously working for BA. Let’s hope it becomes permanent.
That is a surprise! I can’t see it being permanent, but I can see a lot of bookings being made for the period from April to June 2025!
In what way have the goalposts moved, other than everyone’s membership year being aligned? Do you need more TPs to qualify or have some of the benefits been ‘enhanced away’?
You may now lose several months of status, depending on your current membership date. So if you were due to be Gold/Silver/Bronze until, e.g. September 2026, you’ll now drop to the next level down in April ’26, losing 5 months of the higher status. Rob’s article worked it out for everyone.
Unless I’m misreading Ron’s article, status earned will always last for 12m following the end of a collection period, so you won’t lose 5 months of status. One of your collection periods overlaps with an earlier period, of course, but that gives you the chance to earn status more quickly within the collection period and to double-count flights. That’s hardly unfair, and you’ve received plenty of warning to plan accordingly.
The only potential unfairness is people whose soft landing periods from status earned before the change will be shortened.
How do you explain this then? My current year end is April and I am due to qualify for gold in October. Previously this status would have lasted until 31/8/26 (all of the remaining membership year plus the following year. Under the new system, if I don’t requalify, I’ll drop to Silver on 1/5/26 instead of 1/9/26. By my reckoning that’s 4 months earlier than it would have been under the current system?
If your year end is April, you would have Gold till end May, so you’d only lose 1 month under new system?
How would you gain status until 31 August with an April tier point year end?
Apologies, don’t know where that came from! My TP year end is July.
But in that scenario, your tier point collection year starts several months earlier, too, giving you the opportunity to use additional, earlier flights to qualify as Gold sooner than October so you end up with the same benefit. Of course, that may not work if you have carefully planned your flights to maximise the value of Gold whilst minimising the cost of it, but I am willing to bet a substantial sum that very, very few people plan their holidays around their tier point year so I doubt you are front of mind for BA’s planners. On average people will be no worse off, I believe.
Overall, BA seems to be making it easier to achieve status, not harder, with the super-extended holidays deal and the Amex tier point deal. I guess that’s because they’re targeting the rapidly growing premium leisure sector to replace the declining number of business travellers.
Unfortunately I’m one of those who do plan my flights to maximise value over a multi-year cycle, and with a Jan year end & no cash travel this year I’d lose 10 months of soft-land status with the new regime. If I don’t throw in some unplanned cash tickets after April I’ll get a double-bump in March & May next year. BA business sale anyone?!
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