BREAKING: British Airways major change to Tier Point years – prepare to have your brain scrambled

40 comments

1. My TP year end 8th Sept 2024, I have 600 (so retained Silver), I will have the other 900 required for Gold by mid August 2024. Will I have Gold until 31st Oct 2025? – Assuming i make no further journeys, my soft landing to Silver would only be until April 2026? – Does that sound right, given my reading of this?

   1. My year end is similar and I’m really interested to understand. Or does it mean that the status drop would now be in April 2025?

   2. Correct Fraser. You will be Gold from mid August 24 (when you hit 1,500), through to your renewal in Sep (when you renew as Gold). However you will only definitely be Gold until end of March 25 at which point a new year starts (Apr 25 to Mar 26). When calculating whether you will be Gold for that year BA will look at everything you earned from April this year up to Sep 8th this year + Sep 8th to March 31st. (so your 900 will count). Whether you retain Gold from Apr 1st 25 will depend on whether you earn another 600 between Apr 24 and Mar 25. If not your soft landing to Silver would be to Mar/Apr 26.

2. BA appear to be in competition with the UK government on how to confuse people with pointless dysfunction to achieve no real benefit.

3. The easiest way to think about this is that you must earn 1500 points between Apr 24 and Mar 25 to retain gold from Apr 25 to Mar 26.

4. We are September year end members and I haven’t a clue what all this means. My wife and I are both Gold and we shall both obtain 1500 tier points between Sept 23 and Aug 24 and would therefore be Gold again from Sept 25 to Aug 25. However it seems that that we will only by Gold until March 25 and will have to get 1500 tier points in 6 months to retain Gold again.
   Where does the boost thing come into it???

   1. Hi Nigel, when you renew Gold in Aug 24 it will only be till March 25. However all points you earned from April 24 will count when they total your points in March 25. If you had not planned much travel between Apr 24 and Aug 24 then it’s not great for you.

5. I have booked a holiday in March this year to play the BA Executive Club tier points game. However, as they have now moved the goalposts, my careful holiday date selections has resulted in me being disadvantaged. Hopefully, there will be uproar and a longer transition period will be implemented.

   1. Didn’t see your comment before posting but we are exactly the same and are making use of the DTPs via a holiday earning 320 2nd week of March. In Sept we will have a week in Turkey earning the same and qualifying nice and early ( we are currently reset in December). The other trip is to Thailand/ Cambodia & Loas ( flying LHR-SIN-BKK-SIN-LHR using PG to get to BKK & back) but that will be on an Amex 241 so non earning.

      As of now we would requalify with 40 TP’s to spare on the next assessment but if they are only counting from 01.04 for 12 months then we’d fail OR would have to pay out for a min of 2 160 TP runs prior to March 31st 25 which is forcing us to pay out extra in both time & money that we’d have no need to in which to qualify as per current system.

      Tbh I appreciate they have to draw a line somewhere however in the interim, imho, they HAVE to view and count ALL earnings as per the individuals current earning period and I won’t be accepting a downgrade in status if they refuse to count something that was all paid for in advance of their change of system. All It would require is for them to count back as far as Dec 23 as that’s the last anniversary that would be affected.

      At least I will have company in the fight as you’re in the same situation ( although obviously there’s likely a lot more of us out there also fuming)

6. So my understanding on this;
   My current collection end date is 8th October 2024 when I should have 2240 tier points to retain Gold until 30 April 2025.
   I will have collected 1680 tier points between 1st April and 8th October 2024 which would then be added to the 80 tier points I will collect between 8th October 2024 and 31st March 2025, this will result in having 1760 tier points allowing me to retain Gold until 30th April 2026.

7. The BA site mentions the 4 required BA flights, but fails to say when they must occur. Is the “adjustment” period absolved from this requirement? I assume so, otherwise those with a very short adjustment of, say, three months and have planned on earning tier pts via AA will be screwed.

8. We have a BAH booked earning 320 TPs for the beginning of march which is super annoying as this will now not be counted and if they don’t extend the double TPs then we’d have spend out double the amount to requalify between Jan and march 25.

   I fully intend to challenge that one if it turns out to be the case, as their current wording indicates. Although with the “extended till 26” part the 2 seem to contradict each other. But it’s BA so I’m not shocked on that one

9. Hello Michelle. Again pleasure to read your lovely blog. So my year ends November 8 2024. How does this affect me? I feel stupid as I do not understand anything. Atm I silver and I would have to earn another 600 before 8th Nov 2024. Will those tier points continue until 31st March 2025? What happens to my year after November 8th 2024 , I have only until March 31st 2025 to make another 600 tier points to renew Silver? Such a chaos…..

10. I love how they phrased it as “an improvement” a bit like going to revenue based system is supposedly an improvement. Lol. I bet this is just to align to accounting / tax year and simplify things their end and has nothing to do with the customer at all. I’ve not flown BA since pre COVID. I’ll top up my Avios once in a while from CC spending and redeem on non-BA metal (usually getting much better value from AA domestic or OAL long haul).

11. I don’t understand the need for this change but I can’t help feeling it’s going to screw me over somehow

    1. Yes I reckon it will. It’s a time when you then start to reconsider whether you should look at alternative alliance loyalty system. They need to honour the whole year and not cut short if people make the grade. Or push the charges further out so nobody is affected part year. I’ve already done a number of premium trips and it looks now they won’t count properly. Disgrace.

12. Hi Michelle, l’m currently on holiday trying to rack up tier points, my card expires in Dec 2024. I said to my husband yesterday, let’s wait to see if you make any sense of this madness. We are totally confused, we have recently spent money on 2 business class holidays to obtain double tier points so we can maintain our silver status for next year. Are BA saying these points won’t be taken into account as they were obtained before the 1st April?

13. It would be great if you could try and find out how they will treat GUF awards. For example, if you don’t accrue 2,500 / 3,500 from actual flying in the year to 31 March 2025, but your total as at 31 March 2025 is over 3,500 by virtue of the tier point adjustment, will you still get awarded the GUFs?

    1. Hopefully they will clarify this shortly.

14. It beggars belief that with the utterly shocking IT (who hasn’t had the wheel of despair when checking in or searching for flights), the phones lines (cut off three times last week while they deal with customers requiring urgent attention – I was one – made no difference) and the consistently inconsistent and indifferent cabin crew, THIS is where they decide to focus their attention? Let’s take our most valuable customers and p*ss them off even more. Their management decisions surely need questioning! Reaches for abacus..

    1. You sum up my feelings exactly Its hard to love BA and now they make it even harder I have planned meticulously which flights i book on companion voucher and which i book through BA Holidays for double tier points now this seems to make a mockery of my planning and my Loyalty to BA

    2. spot on …

15. If I understand correctly I’ll lose out. Tier point collection year ends in August and I’m leaving today for LCA on a points run which will secure Gold. Instead of Gold status until my current September 2025 expiration date under the change it will expire in March 2025. There really should be compensation/points longevity for losers. If I understand the new scheme correctly!

    1. Some clarification seems to have been obtained by Head For Points regarding status expiry:

       “BA has now updated the FAQ following our queries to add:

       Any existing status valid beyond 31 March 2025 will continue for the full duration.

       This means, for example, that if you have already earned Gold status in your current membership year, which ends 8th October 2024, your status will remain valid until 30th November 2025. It will not be shortened to end on 30th April 2025.”

       So that’s a good thing for those worried about that

16. You sum up my feelings exactly Its hard to love BA and now they make it even harder I have planned meticulously which flights i book on companion voucher and which i book through BA Holidays for double tier points now this seems to make a mockery of my planning and my Loyalty to BA

17. Shocking move by BA … It’s like the conservatives making income tax higher for the next six months as we run into the General Election .. real vote winner that!

    To be honest it really makes you wonder why any of us actually bother to stay with BA … well actually we don’t as Emirates, Qatar etc are amazingly ahead.

18. I’m the same as Fraser with a TP year end on 8th Sept. I’m currently silver but will be gold again by the end of April. My reading of this is that I will lose 6 months of that hard earned gold status (Apr 2025 to Oct 2025…which is when my card would expire). If that is the case, I’m pretty furious!!!!!!

    1. I have the same expiry date as you – I went all out in Sept and Oct to renew my silver through Sept 2025 and now if I’m reading this correctly I will lose 6 months of status from April 2025. I don’t understand what has to be done to renew as it makes no sense. I’m furious with them badging it as an improvement.

19. ps – I think I will just complain as and when they implement all this. I think we all should. Might even be worth a mass email to the CEO … the system works, we all understand it.

    As we all know these things happen to benefit the company.

    And lastly five years ish ago one of my closest friends had an evening meal with the CEO of BA, who is friends with, he asked me “have you anything you wish me to ask him” .. I gave a list of things. When he reported back, he just laughed and said “the company is only interested in how they can upsell, not improve customer benefits and feeling” … I was perplexed .. then covid hit and we all know people still eat out on that in every company, including the British Govt.

20. BA have given almost a year’s notice of a change that happens next year. Yet from the general consensus of how this will impact people it would seem they should have given notice last January that any TPs earned 1 Jan 24 – 31 Mar 24 will be worthless within the new regime.

    BA need to clarify exactly how this will work and not be afraid to identify who the losers will be.

21. The way I read it is:

    Tier points earned between April 1st 2024 and when an individual’s current collection year ends e.g. September 2024 will be credited twice.

    Once for their current collection year e.g. September 2023 – September 2024 – to gain or maintain current status within the existing collection year, and again for the new collection year of 1st April 2024 – 31st March 2025.

22. Unless we squeeze another holiday in somewhere it looks like we’re going to lose our gold status. I plan our holidays a year in advance and spread them to ensure we qualify. Once again BA seem to be going out of their way to annoy its loyal customers. I hope there’s some form of appeal process if they cock it up!

23. I haven’t got a clue how this will work. They couldn’t have made it more complicated if they tried. I’m currently on a BA holiday in Singapore with another one coming up in Cyprus and have a nasty feeling my points will be worthless.

24. ttps://www.britishairways.com/content/executive-club/faqs/tier-point-collection-changes

    Its all pretty simple on the BA site, scroll down look for your expiry month – do the maths and sorted, having done several variations for the family who all have different months of expiry which has been a nightmare over the years, we will all retain Gold no problem and some people will actually score a few extra months going forward. It will actually benefit me as currently my year end in June, probably the worst ever resetting in summer.

25. I am currently Gold with a TP collection year end of Nov this year when I expect to soft land to Silver. Without any more flying would I be silver until Dec 25 or soft land again to bronze in Apr 25? I thought I was reasonably intelligent and clued up in this area but I am baffled by my own personal circumstances.

26. This is incredibly confusing.

    Our tier qualifying year just reset on 8 Jan. We booked a trip to Australia (before this announcement) which will qualify us for Silver status, however outbound is this March and return in April. So will I only keep Silver status until April 2025? It should be until Feb 2026 under the old rules.

    The FAQs totally contradict themselves. Preparing myself for a call to BA to clarify and have to summon my inner Karen.

    Feels like being punished for loyalty and playing the game by their rules.

27. Like others I am 8 Nov 24. I am currently silver but by then will be gold assisted by several planned points-related BA Holidays trips incl an 840 in September, was So I will regain gold until Nov/dec 25 and was expecting to be silver until Nov/Dec 26.

    However between 1 April and 8 Nov I will only have around 1300 points, which means, it seems!, that my next silver period will end on March/April 26 ie 7 months earlier than now UNLESS, as Clayton and others have said, I plan more trips at more cost between Nov 24 and April 25. If delayed until Jan-March 25 this would mean 2 trips at least as the BA Holidays double point offer has to be taken by 31/12/24 I believe. Comments/corrections welcome! If I achieve that I get gold to spring 26 and silver to spring 27.
    This ‘improvement’ is only achieved by replanning and spending more money with BA. Perhaps this is their cunning and disreputable plan?

    Michelle, I realise you cannot answer every single query but any comment on this general u derlying issue would be hugely welcome.

    1. Yes this is a major flaw with the planned transition at the moment. A lot of people are understandably not happy at all. However, it is early days yet and I honestly think that BA did not think through the implications of how it planned the changes and just assumed that everyone travels the same every month. Apparently they may be releasing some more information next week. You would hope in these sort of situations they would apply some discretion as they do already.

28. Sounds like a rip-off by BA. I am silver until end January 2025. My tier points ends 8th December. I already have 300 points earned so far in this tier year and I expect to earn 320 points between this May and December. So normally I would expect to have 600 points by 8th December and therefore retain silver for another year to end January 2026. Apart from the 320 points earning between May and December this year, I don’t expect to earn any points between December and April 2025. Will I therefore lose silver at end April 2025 as I’ll only have 320 points. If so, how can I complain? Thank you

    1. I’m hoping they show some leniency as they do often extend status for various reasons. Always worth trying the silver line near the time.

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