Getting from Blue to Silver by 31 Dec?

[johnny]

My membership year reset a few weeks ago and I’m now Blue (literally and figuratively). What is my most affordable play to get Silver or Gold by the end of this year? My BAEC account says a 25% reduction in membership thresholds applies until then. Can I avail of double TP on BA holidays if flying solo?

[Froggee]

Probably your best bet is looking at 80 tier point routes and as you suggesting doing a holiday (fine for solo traveller). You may find flights + car works out better than flight + hotel for you depending on where you go.

If you do one of the below routes as a holiday before October that will be 320 points. Then you’d need 160 more. You could either try and do a second holiday before the end of October closer by or, after October, a trip to anywhere in the below list or E.g. longer haul WT+ to the US.

The above won’t be cheap though so focus on going somewhere you’d like to go to do something you’d like to do.

https://www.headforpoints.com/2022/06/13/which-british-airways-club-europe-routes-earn-160-tier-points-2/

[yonasl]

You need 450 TPs by the end of the year to be silver. The double tier points offer for BA holidays runs until end of October (your first flight has to be before October ends, you can come back anytime afterwards).

Remember the rules of the BA holidays offer:
– BA or BA codeshare flight (please somebody confirm to me codeshares are ok and not only BA metal)
– at least 5 nights
– needs to have a car or hotel booked for all those nights

So you may want to use Google flights to check Oneworld flights during dates that work for you and try a North or South American route (140x2x2 TPs on business or 90x2x2 in premium)

Another interesting option can be an Iberia business class flight because you get 40 TPs to Madrid and then 140 to the next long haul stop.

Or if you are brave, why not try some crazy TP run just for fun there are a few options from Sofia or Budapest to LHR then JFK then LAX and back.

[mynameisjonny]

Or if you are brave, why not try some crazy TP run just for fun there are a few options from Sofia or Budapest to LHR then JFK then LAX and back.

Hi, could you post an example fare? Trying to do something like this for a trip late Nov but struggling to get anything under £4k. Thanks!

[APPL]

Have a look on flyertalk in premium mileage run deals section. BUD-HNL fare is discussed there in detail. Best prices are if booked 180 days in advance, but I can see simplest routings available on google flights for £2.5k in November. You might be able to add HEL and East Coast stop. In fact, if you could add East Coast and HEL, and include positioning CE flights to/from BUD, I think that one trip would get you to Gold if done before the end of the year.

[yonasl]

mynameisjonny wrote:

Or if you are brave, why not try some crazy TP run just for fun there are a few options from Sofia or Budapest to LHR then JFK then LAX and back.

Hi, could you post an example fare? Trying to do something like this for a trip late Nov but struggling to get anything under £4k. Thanks!

There is a TP run thread on Flyertalk. That’s the best place for inspiration. I know that a LHR LAX business flight is 5-8k in business but from Budapest is 2.5k and from Madrid 3.3k. Some people manage to get it at 1.5k but booking well in advance.

[tiriavpo]

mynameisjonny wrote:

Hi, could you post an example fare? Trying to do something like this for a trip late Nov but struggling to get anything under £4k. Thanks!

The cheapest deals usually require 180 days advance purchase so you probably won’t get in the region of £1400 until middle of Feb 23. This is an example for the end of Nov netting 920 TPs, plus positioning:

[tiriavpo]

johnny wrote:

My membership year reset a few weeks ago and I’m now Blue (literally and figuratively). What is my most affordable play to get Silver or Gold by the end of this year? My BAEC account says a 25% reduction in membership thresholds applies until then. Can I avail of double TP on BA holidays if flying solo?

You don’t say where you are or where you can fly from, but a domestic sector followed by a long short haul (80 TPs) leg, as double TP holiday would do it. See this article: https://www.headforpoints.com/2021/08/28/british-airways-holidays-double-tier-points/

And Ts&Cs: https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/executive-club/offers/holidays-double-tier-points

[NorthernLass]

With dreadful planning I booked my long haul CW trip to straddle my membership dates this year then found out about the 450 TPs for Silver! We have numerous trips booked for 2023 where we can use the benefits so I’m doing MAN-LHR-EDI and MAN-LHR-NCL return over 2 weekends in CE to get 320 more TPs, cost was about £750 (actually couldn’t count so will end up with 50 more than I actually need!) I visit both areas 2/3 times per year anyway and being all in the UK will hopefully minimize the forward planning required.

[tiriavpo]

Ha! In the same vein, I booked a perfect TP run, with upgrade availability available on all legs, including AA, only realise I had booked it over the easter w/e – doh!

I’m not sure the double TP thing is that great solely as a ‘TP tun’ unless you plan to have a 5-day holiday anyway. I have seen someone book a double TP holiday and nest in a return home, leaving the hotel unused for 3 nights, but that may be a bit extreme. Equally a couple of nested SOF back-to-backs would get the OP most of the way there – but that might also be a bit of a niche sport.

[yonasl]

The thing is, you could do a TP run before the end of the year to get those 450 points. But do you really need to be silver? You could also plan a 600 TP run next year for less and then have silver for a longer period.

Unless you are doing a lot of travelling first half of 2023. Better to do a TP run later on (if a TP run is what you are after. If you want or can afford an actual holiday now then go for that)

For instance I can see some BUD to LA crazy stuff for around £2,500 in Oct 2022. But that can be a lot cheaper in 6 months (as shown on a post above)

[Rob]

Three weekend breaks on 160 tier point routes would do the job if a 5-day BA Holidays package is too long.

[NorthernLass]

@yonasl – I don’t strictly “need” to be Silver, of course, but I have multiple BA/OW trips starting in December this year where Silver would give us lounge access and free checked baggage which we wouldn’t otherwise get. For future bookings I’d probably also be happy enough in WTP or even WT if I knew I could use a lounge beforehand (unless it was a really long flight). So I plan to get a lot of “mileage” out of it, and spend less in terms of both cash and avios on future trips.

[Michael C]

Rob Burgess wrote:

Three weekend breaks on 160 tier point routes would do the job if a 5-day BA Holidays package is too long.

For this plan, will the cheapest flights necessarily have to include a Sat.night?
And is Sofia the only possible 160 back-to-back?!