Well, it’s been a long wait but BA has just announced some great news for Executive Club Members.
British Airways is further protecting the Tier status of Executive Club Members. From Monday 20 September, any Executive Club Members with a Tier Point collection end date between January – March 2022 will receive another year of their current status. Note: This is the date your collection finishes. So that is not the date on the card but it will be the 8th January, February or March 2022 as shown on your account. It would have been good if it was for a few more months as I still think someone with April or May could still struggle if more long haul destinations such as the US don’t open soon. But if that is the case they may still extend more members at a later date.
It means that no British Airways Executive Club Member renewing over this period, including Bronze, Silver, and Gold cardholders will lose their Tier status, regardless of how many Tier Points they have earned. This benefit comes in addition to a 25% threshold reduction in Tier Status which applies until June 2022.
The tier points now needed to renew until June 2022 will be:
- Bronze: 225 Tier Points or 18 eligible flights
- Silver: 450 Tier Points or 37 eligible flights
- Gold: 1125 Tier Points
From today, British Airways is also launching benefits for some of its most loyal Executive Club Members with an upcoming flight. All Silver and Gold Members, regardless of their cabin of travel can enjoy pre-flight dining, which is available at selected North American lounges, including New York JFK, Boston, Chicago, and Washington. Meanwhile, the exclusive Concorde Room which is situated in Heathrow Terminal 5 and New York JFK only, will now be accessible to all Gold Guest List Members, regardless of how many Tier Points they earned in their previous Tier Point collection year.
Niall Rooney, British Airways’ Loyalty Manager, said: “We want to thank our customers for their continued loyalty. Many of our Executive Club Members haven’t had the chance to use their benefits as normal, by further extending their Tier Status, none of them will miss out on the amazing benefits they have earned.
For our Members that have a flight booked, we are proud to be launching more benefits. From today, our Silver and Gold Members can enjoy more from our award-winning lounges.”
On top of this Tier extension, in February, British Airways announced a six-month extension to all Executive Club vouchers, due to expire before 31 December 2021. This was the third extension that was applied, following similar extensions in March 2020 and October 2020 and included Gold Upgrade Vouchers and American Express Companion Vouchers. As I previously wrote about, it has now been confirmed that British Airways is also adding an additional six-months validity to all new Companion Voucher or Travel Together tickets earned between June 2020 and the end of December 2021.
There is no mention of Gold Upgrade vouchers, yet my voucher and many others were extended for 6 months. I will try to find the official answer and update later.
25 comments
Not far enough I’m afraid.
I’ve decided to leave BA and fly with one of the other carriers. I wonder how many will do the same?
What were you hoping for Les? If you have April to June tier point year this doesn’t mean you won’t get an extension. Given the rapidly changing travel scene, I’d expect them to hold off making a decision for a few more months.
Is the xhand which appears to remove the requirement to attain 5000TPs pre Covid (3750 at the moment) a permanent change or just until June 22?
As far as I know it’s permanent.
So my Companion Voucher earned at the height of the first lockdown in April 2020 and which has only had a six month extension applied misses out. Here we are, eighteen months later, still with limited choice of destinations and a voucher now only valid for only a year. BA really are pushing people’s loyalty to the limit!
The way round it is to book something cheap on Avios with the person you intend to travel with eventually. Then cancel it and take a voucher refund. That will keep it alive until the future travel voucher expires.
Why are Companion vouchers issued in 2019 not being further extended? I have been forced to make a booking just to preserve my voucher which would otherwise have expired in January 2022.
I’m guessing to encourage people to use them. I can sort of see the point in that they don’t want a deluge of bookings next summer.
My year end is December 2021 and I have only received one 12 month extension throughout this covid period. Will some member benefit more greatly than others, thorough out. You report they are extending Jan Feb. and March 2022, have I missed something or do I get an automatic extension once my year end comes up i.e. on the 9th December??
If you are December you will have been given an extension to 2022. It should show in the app. If you click on my account and then click on the card it should show your expiry as January 2023.
Not sure it’s that great….I’m pretty sure though that something else will appear soon from them. They aren’t going to lose all their gold customers to other airplanes who will be waiting in the wings to offer status matches.
Personally I feel they should be extending all until at least the end of 2023 with reduced tier points.
It’s way too soon to predict how easy it will be to get status during 2022. At the end of the day, they are making huge losses. It makes commercial sense to not give anything free unless they really have to. If they extend everyone now there is no incentive to fly BA. People can book EasyJet content that it won’t effect their status.
This is so frustrating my renewal is 8th April so I miss it by 9 days. Totally gutted. I have two bookings to make for feb half term and a June and I’m not sure if to hold off or just book with virgin instead. How likely do you think it is they will look to extend further?
100% likely but given the US has just announced it’s reopening it’s less likely than before that they will give a full extension. I’d expect the 25% reduction may be continued.
Hi, I’m a little confused about all this. My tier points collection year currently ends on 8 Dec 2021, does this mean I’ve missed out? I read one of the answers you gave about to someone else whose date is also Is 8 Dec 21, I’ve checked the App and even logged in and out, still says Dec 8, thanks.
You will need to get in touch as it should be valid until Jan 23 with the previous extension
8 Dec 2021 is the membership year end, ie tier point collection year. The card expiry date will say 31 January 2022. That’s when status ends.
He should have had an extension to Jan 23
Correct. My typo s/be January 2023. Point is to check card expiry date, not membership year end date, for status.
Aah hadn’t spotted that he had quoted the year end.
8 April collection end and lost gold at start of Covid as didn’t have enough tier points to convince BA so feeling the April/May and June ones pretty unlucky
Hopefully they will extend more months although I think less likely with the US opening.
My wife and I have our points collection period end July 22, currently both silver. I haven’t seen any comments above with a collection year that far ahead as yet. We do have a trip planned to Costa Rica (via Miami) for March with AA from CDG (great price). Now that we can fly to the US I’m hoping CR comes off the red list in time and maybe we can get a little towards keeping silver and the benefits it gives, not sure BA will extend for us though…..
I think it’s unlikely that years past around June would get a blanket upgrade unless things get worse again. April to June there’s a chance I think.
Shame if that happens. My guess is it’s not just me and my better half that have a sunset date of July for points collection so BA might (if they do this) alienate a large number of people. I have been a BA member since 1995, those heady days when BA flew to tons of places from BHX…… Looks like spending my hard earned cash with Qatar Airways instead of BA to keep my status. I really would like to spend my dough with a UK company but, lets face it, Qatar airways (especially Qsuite) offer a much better product than BA’s business class product.
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