Tier point ideas

[pbcold]

A friend of mine, who is currently Silver, has her tier point year ending on 8th October and has only accumulated 110 TPs this year. She is very keen to retain her silver status but doesn`t have huge amounts of cash. She only works Wed, Thurs, Fri, however, which gives her some flexibility and she is keen to go to New York in September.

Any tricks of the trade that I could pass on to her would be hugely appreciated. Thank you.

[dougzz99]

So she needs 340. Fares at present are really top end. The basic transatlantic part is going to be 140 each way, meaning she needs to add in another 60, which is easy with two short haul hops. I’d suggest she looks at starting in an easy to get to city, Dublin, Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels, etc. the hop back to London would be one of the two short hauls, she could fly to say Philadelphia and then on to NYC for the other, returning direct to London. This assumes business, will be very expensive.

[pbcold]

Thank you very much dougzz99, I discussed that sort of option with her but I think it is going to be too pricey. Do you think she might be able to do the NYC trip in economy and maybe a couple of 160 point Europe trip as well if any of them are reasonably priced at the moment? I am searching but cannot find much value so far.

[ChrisC]

I would get her to assess what benefits she is going to gain by having silver versus the amount it will cost to achieve it – especially if she is not doing a lot of traveling to use those benefits.

If she wants to spend money on getting silver then she should ait do it betweeen 9th October and 31st December whilst the reduced thresholds (450 for silver) are in place. Doing it then would get her silver until 30 November 2024 compared to 2023 if she does it in her current year.

But if she is insistent on being Silver and willing to spend then there is still the BA double points offer but that requires 5 nights hotel or car hire. A trip to NYC in Club using that offer would generate 560 TPs or 360 in PE.

That would also work of she took it between 9th and 31st October for her new year.

[pbcold]

Yes, of course! That is an excellent approach – thank you very much ChrisC.

[NorthernLass]

I’ll have 140 TPs after the return leg of our GCM trip (which was really badly planned and straddles my anniversary date!) and have decided to go for Silver as we’re travelling a lot next year where it will come in useful.
I’m doing 2 weekends away in the autumn; MAN-LHR-EDI return, then MAN-LHR-NCL return for a total of 320 TPs. I looked for the cheapest weekends to travel and do have people to visit, I just don’t normally take such circuitous routes!
Total cost for the flights was £750. Yes it’s a fairly chunky outlay but it means we can do some journeys in economy or PE next year and still get lounge access, free checked bags (for US domestic) and free seat selection so there should be good savings over paying for CE and CW over the next couple of years.

*Use BA low fare finder for the lowest prices as there can be a huge difference, even in different departure times on the same day.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[Tom2]

I am in Catania on a 2 day trip for a TP run. Flights cost £230 for 160 TP. 5 days in the BA holiday deal would be pretty cheap.

[NorthernLass]

How much are you spending on hotels/transfers/food? All need factoring in to the total cost.

[pbcold]

All of these comments are incredibly helpful, thank you all so much.

[HarryHolden68]

Book some Avios flights. Like Raffles daughter, Mrs Harry has retained Silver this year by erroneously earning TP’s on Avios bookings without a single cash booking. Long live BA IT.

[NorthernLass]

OH is on track to retain Bronze as well if his 241 booking next week comes through. No way would he agree to a TP run for Silver though so I’ll just have to take it on the chin.

[ChrisC]

HarryHolden68 wrote:

Book some Avios flights. Like Raffles daughter, Mrs Harry has retained Silver this year by erroneously earning TP’s on Avios bookings without a single cash booking. Long live BA IT.

You cannot rely on this happening!

[PGW]

ChrisC wrote:

I would get her to assess what benefits she is going to gain by having silver versus the amount it will cost to achieve it – especially if she is not doing a lot of traveling to use those benefits.

And that point is particularly valid in this instance as she will, presumably,.still have Bronze status so we’re talking spending money she may not have just to retain the difference between the 2 levels.

For me, a better strategy would be drop to Bronze and seek to qualify for Silver in her new collection year when money may be more available.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[Tom2]

NorthernLass wrote:

How much are you spending on hotels/transfers/food? All need factoring in to the total cost.

I tend not to include hotels and food into my equation because I will only do TP runs to places that I would be happy to explore regardless of the quest for status. However, my costs were modest anyway, €4 each way for the bus (compared to €30 for a taxi for the 5 minute drive), hotel was £60 a night (Habitat hotel – clean, relatively modern and a great breakfast) and food and drink here is cheap – dinner last night was 2 pizzas, 500ml of acceptable wine, 2 beers and cost €22.

[NorthernLass]

@Tom2, that is incredibly reasonable! I’ve been to Sardinia a couple of times and found it really expensive so assumed Sicily would be the same.

[Tom2]

NorthernLass wrote:

@Tom2, that is incredibly reasonable! I’ve been to Sardinia a couple of times and found it really expensive so assumed Sicily would be the same.

I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be so cheap either – my last purchase was 2 cappuccinos for €1.50 each and they were incredible (as expected in Italy). I would say that any longer than 2 days you would want to venture outside of Catania though – Taormina is an hours train away and appears to be much more suited for longer stays (may be more expensive there i am not sure).

[NorthernLass]

It’s definitely on my to do list as an ancient-stuff geek! I’m also a bit of a volcano nerd so it ticks a lot of boxes lol.

*I will bear it in mind, especially if I need more TPs next year. Though the plan is once there’s only 2 of us travelling again outside the school holidays we’ll probably be able to afford to fly to places directly from MAN on VS and QR!

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[iEimis]

Do a double TP run via BA holidays to Sofia, I have seen fares as low as £470 in Club Europe for 5 night stay which will net 320 TP. Then do a small hop to Europe/domestic to get the rest of 20 needed TPs.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[pbcold]

That is extremely interesting, thank you iElmis

[Londonsteve]

The problem with a BA Holidays 5 nights to Sofia is: 1. 5 nights is too long in Sofia and it’s not so practical to go on day excursions from there; 2. The cheapest BAH trip is to Borovets, quite a nice ski resort in winter although a bit tawdry, but there is nothing (like, zero) to do there outside of the ski reason, beyond hiking; 3. Third option is 5 nights in Bansko which is a half day distraction, after that you’re in the same situation as Borovets. It’s also a 3 hour transfer from Sofia airport. If it were me and I was determined to go to Bulgaria on a cheap BAH package, I would either stay 5 nights in Sofia, do a day or one night trip to Plovdiv by train, and accept that you’re going to get to know Sofia really well, or stump up the necessary cash to stay 5 nights at the Kempinski in Bansko and enjoy the amazing breakfasts and spa facilities, in conjunction with a healthy dose of walking/mountain biking. 5 nights car hire is also a possibility but the price per day via BA and Avis is way more than it’s possible to hire from loads of other good companies.

[NorthernLass]

I might be wrong, of course, but I always assumed that Bulgaria being such an ancient country, Sofia would have oodles of museums, galleries and churches?!

[yonasl]

It has been said before but you need to check what’s the point of paying for silver if you are flying business anyway (unless you knew next year you are doing plenty of economy flights).

Best plan seems to be to try to take advantage of the 450 lower tier requirement and get the points in Oct-Nov-Dec 2022.

The main thing to understand is that you are not getting anywhere with economy flights. If your friend doesn’t want to spend much I would recommend:

– a Premium Economy long haul in October trying to take advantage of the double tier points BA holidays offer (departure before Nov 2022, 5 nights minimum and either hotel every night or car booking done with BA). You can get 90TP for one way so that can be 90x2x2 already! PE flights can be £1,000 and you can add a car for £400 (and not even pick it up)

– Business class flights to Europe can be £250 return or less and depending on the distance get you 40 or 80TP for each leg. You can do this in Nov-Dec

– there is always the crazy MAN/EDI-LHR-Somehwere combo + BA holiday offer that gives you the 450 TPs on a single go (if the flight is (80 TPS + 40 TPS)x 2 x 2 = 480)

[kevind]

My year point end is also 8th October so I’ve spent the past week researching my first Tier Point Run, which I booked last night. I’m still a newbee to this game but what I’ve learned this week may be helpful to your friend.

A trip from Dublin reduces most prices significantly. (Can get to DUB with Ryanair for buttons!).
American Airlines has some reasonable deals in Business Class (I fares) but you have to spend the time on ITA Matrix
American Airlines ex-LHR can be useful too.
Try to find cheaper business class tickets rather than economy as there are significantly more Tier Points awarded
Add in a Saturday night somewhere.
Try to add in extra leg to the trip, eg. If doing LHR-JFK, consider is it worthwhile or even cheaper to do LHR-JFK-MIA-LHR or something similar.

If she needs 340 tier Points, best bet is probably to cross the Atlantic on BA/AA metal in Business (140 points each way) and do a connection via 1 city in the US on the outbound and inbound legs with AA domestic business class (40 points each).

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[roger]

I too have 110 TPs and looking to see if it is worth going on TP run to renew my Silver at 450 points.
TP ends next April. Wish I had booked LHR-HEL-LHR business class on AY.
Keeping an eye on all potential opportunities, particularly at weekends!

[NorthernLass]

@roger, a bit faffy, granted, but consider a couple of UK mini breaks using BA’s low fare finder tool. E.g., MAN-LHR-NCL-LHR-MAN is 160 TPs in CE. It’s not the most glamorous of routes, of course, but it fits easily into a weekend and you’re not having to deal with immigration, foreign currency, not being familiar with public transport etc! It’ll mean a bit of sitting around in BA lounges, but you can’t have everything 😂
It works out at 80 TPs for 90 minutes flying time really, which you’d struggle to find on a European route.

MAN/NCL/EDI/GLA etc, all great cities to visit as well.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .