New BA Club – Will TP be awarded on total spend for five co-passengers?
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Hi, sorry for this probably very naive query. If a BA Silver member books for himself and 5 others after 1/4/25 with total spend of £4,800 for flights to be taken in Jan 2026 does the silver member get 4,800 TP awarded after the flights are taken by the group? Or does he get just 800 TP? Does the silver member have to book in the same cabin class as the other 5? Thanks in anticipation.
For BA Holidays the TP are split equally between everyone on the booking, so 800 each.
In principle one person could do a BAH booking including hotel rooms for all and claim all the TP, but then it would only be their own flight plus the hotel cost.
Plus the other people on a different booking wouldn’t benefit from free seat selection etc unless one of them also had status.
Everyone on a booking must be in the same cabin. If it’s flight only then same situation without the hotel factor.
Same as the current system, you only get TP under the new system for your own flight element so 800 by your calcs (assuming you have taken into account the taxes and fees element in your £4,800 total spend).
Thanks everyone for the helpful replies.
This might not be applicable to your personal circumstances, but apparently for holidays booked via Iberia, the principal booker will get the TPs (well, the IB equivalent).
And there’s the dilemma/paradox for BA. They want to reward “spend”, but then award TP across a party rather than the “spending party”.
Compare with e.g. A supermarket shop, or a BIG purchase, or credit card spend – there the rewards go to the person paying the bill. Absolutely furious I paid for flights a few years ago in F to SFO. My wife and my 15yo son made silver, and I didn’t as it spanned my year.
Hence why I’m no longer chasing status – as a mostly leisure traveller it won’t take me £15k (real spend) for Silver it will cost me 3x that. Not even going to try
Seems like the call centre is telling people that a 25k BAH family booking will take them straight to Gold, which is rather naughty of them.
Seems like the call centre is telling people that a 25k BAH family booking will take them straight to Gold, which is rather naughty of them.
I’m daydreaming that the call centre knows something we don’t.
Seems like the call centre is telling people that a 25k BAH family booking will take them straight to Gold, which is rather naughty of them.
That is true for a family of 1. And don’t forget the bonus 75TP (or whatever the actual figure is) each way for flying in Club. /s
Same as the current system, you only get TP under the new system for your own flight element so 800 by your calcs (assuming you have taken into account the taxes and fees element in your £4,800 total spend).
For BA Holiday bookings it’s the total amount, including taxes and fees (plus hotels, cars etc)
It doesn’t make sense. Logically flights should go to each person . But hotel element go to the one who pays bill.
Only way is Robs trick . Book hotel for one , then flights for others separately
Only way is Robs trick . Book hotel for one , then flights for others separately
Not so easy to book a hotel for 6 people with one PAX. But also, the rest don’t get any benefits from status the OP might have. Nightmare if anything goes wrong (insurance). We used to jump through hoops to get status, but not like this!
As I said, if you want to reward “spend” rather than “loyalty”, reward the person doing the spend. As I am (now) mostly a leisure traveller – with my wife and son – I’ll never reach £40-45k spend to make Silver. Hence why we’re flying SAS to ARN
I think the earliest indication will be the drop-off from BA credit cards/AMEX, Barclays, etc. Time will tell if they have killed the golden goose!
@lhar – isn’t the TP/status saga rather separate from Avios/Amex/Barclays until they change all that too?? Quite surprised when one read of people cancelling BAPP as a response to TP changes.
It doesn’t make sense. Logically flights should go to each person . But hotel element go to the one who pays bill.
Only way is Robs trick . Book hotel for one , then flights for others separately
It’s actually my trick, been doing this for years when travelling as a family of 3 with 2 using a 241. Also last year when I was going for gold on multiple BAH’s and my OH and/or son were along for the ride on avios or HBO tickets. It’s very straightforward and I’ve posted about it at length in the past.
Amend the hotel element so your room accommodates the number of travellers, or book more rooms separately up to the number you need. Then contact the hotel and let them know who’s in your group. Worst case scenario is that you might have to pay an extra breakfast supplement.
Not sure what insurance issues you’d have as long as you’re all covered on the same policy?
We’ve not had any issues with this except one year when our domestic leg was cancelled, but BA ground staff re-routed us all together.
It might not suit families with very young children, but otherwise it’s a great way of using cash and reward bookings on the same trip.
@lhar – isn’t the TP/status saga rather separate from Avios/Amex/Barclays until they change all that too?? Quite surprised when one read of people cancelling BAPP as a response to TP changes.
People make decisions based on emotional responses – that’s basically what marketing is.
So, if you’re not getting Silver – well the whole thing falls apart. Why collect when you could get 1% cashback elsewhere?
I guess BA have £5-10bn in Avios sitting in their bank – an outflux of this is going to hit them hard, specifically on their short-term borrowing. Given they don’t have immediate borrowing needs, they are unlikely to devalue Avios.
Personally, as a business person, BA have done a knee-jerk reaction to a quirk from the pandemic. The idea that anyone is chasing Gold for £30k is for the birds. The only ones are those biz travellers where BA is mandated – well they already get all the benefits.
Or to put it more simply – I can’t get Silver/Gold without flying Business – and then I already get the benefits.
Cancelling one’s BAPP isn’t the most logical response. Even if you’ve fallen out with BA forever, you can still use the 241 for a J trip on IB or EI, and like you say, you don’t need status for most of the perks associated with those.
But the best revenge, surely is using it for a very, very expensive F or J redemption, on BA metal? CW returns to the Caribbean next winter are nudging £3.5k pp; the last time I checked the cash price of our F seats to MEX last December (okay, ultimately meaningless, but oh so satisfying!), they were retailing at £7k each.
If you’re happy to pay £7.5k for BA Silver, you can just book one BAH for yourself. A week in the Caribbean or Maldives with a J return flight, with a 5-star hotel can easily reach that price. At least then you shouldn’t feel short-changed as BA isn’t (for now) deducting taxes from your qualifying spend.
Or fly 40 sectors on IB!
@lhar – why does the Avios world fall apart (as you suggest) if you’re not getting BA silver? While many are choosing to switch to another programme to gain status, they are going to struggle to earn a meaningful number of miles/points in those programmes through flying alone, and even Amex MR might not help them earn enough for good redemptions. As a UK resident, Avios are easy to earn without flying and OW still offers a wonderful redemption universe and will likely remain so even if changes are afoot.
@lhar – why does the Avios world fall apart (as you suggest) if you’re not getting BA silver?
I can only speak for myself, and I do value Silver. But I can’t commit to £10k spend at the start of the year, which is really £30k spend including my DW and son. Currently looking at Silver status match offers, meaning I’ll be using different airlines – not to get status past 25/26, but because I only used to look for BA flights.
I have 1.5m Avios, so I’ll enjoy spending those in F/J. Can’t see me worrying collecting after that. Too much trouble for too little benefit. Quite a few times recently the Avios cost in CE was more than the cash price.
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