BREAKING: Brace Yourself – British Airways Move to a Spend Based Tier Point System

In the announcement most members of BA’s Executive Club had been dreading, British Airways has today announced a raft of changes. The Executive Club will simply change to being called The British Airways Club and will introduce wide sweeping changes on 1 April 2025. After already reducing Avios earnings recently (which BA claim has resulted in the majority of people earning more Avios, I doubt this is the case for most premium leisure travellers) and the unpopular brunch/supper services, it seems BA is going for the hat trick.

We thought that some changes were possibly coming which I spoke about in (this article) but I didn’t think it would be such a dramatic change. 

Timeline of Changes

There are three change points from 1st April 2025 (no, this is not an April Fools), Members can expect:  

• Spend based Tier Point system. The good news is that it will include ancillary spend including seat selection and excess baggage. However, the amount you earn is pretty low. Members will earn 1 Tier Point for every £1 of eligible spend. The eligible spend does at least include the base fare and the Carrier Imposed Charges (YQ and YR), but not the non-airline taxes and fees. This is positive as they could have just gone for the base fare. If you use a voucher or discount code, the TPs will be based on the base cost after the discount.

The price breakdown can be found on the “Flight Summary” page before confirming a booking or on the booking confirmation email. You will have to calculate your predicted TPs using that information – it won’t be shown in the same way as before. There is an example on the BA announcement page linked below. 

From 1 April 2025, there will also no longer be a need to take a certain number of flights in addition to the Tier Points needed to move between Tier levels. You will also not be able to earn status by taking a set amount of flights. The only way to do this is in the new scheme is through the money spent. For Tier Point collection periods up to 31 March 2025, you still need to take a minimum number of eligible flights on top of the Tier Points needed to move between Tiers.

Examples for flights booked before 30 December 2024 for travel after 1 April 2025

London Heathrow to New York booked in Economy (O class):

• Today you earn 20 Tier Points each way
• From 1 April 2025, we’ll convert this to 267 Tier Points each way

London Heathrow to Madrid in Club Europe (I class) 

• • Today you earn 40 Tier Points each way
  • From 1 April 2025, BA convert this to 534 Tier Points each way

On partner airlines (not Iberia or AA, which will be solely revenue-based), in some cases, where the fare paid is unavailable to BA or hasn’t been disclosed, you’ll earn Tier Points based on a percentage of miles flown. The cabin and booking class will also be considered, as shown in the table below.

For example, if you fly 1,000 miles in Business Lowest you’ll earn 250 Tier Points which is 25% of the miles flown.

Additionally, for flights booked before 30 December 2024 for travel from 1 April 2025, that are marketed by British Airways, American Airlines or Iberia, Tier Points will be awarded based on a conversion of the existing method. This means any bookings you’ve already made will earn proportionally the same number of Tier Points, or more, as today.

These are the rates BA will use:

• Tier Points on a contribution to Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF): Members will also earn Tier Points and collect Avios by purchasing a contribution to SAF, earning up to 1,000 Tier Points per year. This sounds like a lot until you see the new Tier Point requirements. Customers will also be able to use their Avios as a form of payment for these green payments. You will be able to do this by visiting a dedicated landing page which will be live on April 1, 2025.  

• New Tier Point Structure on British Airways Holidays: The British Airways Holidays’ current double Tier Points promotion is due to end on 30 June 2025. Instead, the airline has created a permanent tier point earning rate on holiday packages. Members will earn Tier Points based on the price of the entire package, with no limit in place. This includes any extras such as seat bookings.

For holidays with a travel date from 1 April 2025, you’ll earn 1 Tier Point per pound (£) spent on the total price of your holiday package. Tier Points will be evenly split between the number of people on the booking. All passengers who have added a British Airways Club number will receive their Tier Points after the trip is complete. Infants under two can’t earn Tier Points on a British Airways Holidays package. The good news is that they are removing the minimum stay requirement which makes things much simpler.

I asked BA about double tier point promotion bookings and got the following statement: ” In the same way as flight-only bookings, there’ll be a conversion to ensure that customers are earning proportionally the same or more Tier Points as they would do under the new model.” Basically, only eligible holidays booked before 30 December 2024 for travel completed by 30 June 25 will receive a double Tier Points bonus award.

Tier Points earned from a British Airways Holidays package will take 14 days, after you’ve completed your trip, to credit. Flights will stay the same.

Later in 2025, Members can also expect: 

• Tier Points on credit card spending: This is probably good news for most members, although it does not really reward loyalty by actually flying with BA. BA American Express Premium Plus Cardmembers will be able to earn up to 2,500 Tier Points by spending on their card. More details of this offer will be announced closer to the launch date. From late November 2023 to May 2024, BA offered 200 Tier Points in return for spending £25,000. These were earned in increments with 100 TPs for £15,000 spend as the initial level. Let’s hope the new earning rate will be more generous. 

• New milestone benefits between Tiers: The idea is to give more rewards between tiers. These will start with gifts of 2,500, 4,000 and 5,000 Bonus Avios at milestones within Bronze and Silver. More benefits will be announced in the coming months. 
   

Colm Lacy, British Airways’ Chief Commercial Officer, said: “The changes we have announced today underline our continued investment in our loyalty programme and in our customers. Based on our Members’ feedback, we’ve built on the changes we’ve already made – including how customers collect Avios and their membership year – in a way that we believe better rewards their loyalty and reflects their changing travel needs.

“While we have announced a number of positive changes today, I particularly wanted to highlight better rewarding our customers who book through British Airways Holidays and making this a permanent part of our proposition, removing the limit on earning. We know that many of our customers make their holiday plans during our annual January sale period, so it’s great to be able to announce this today.” 

Existing Bookings

If you already hold bookings for travel after 1 April 2025 British Airways, American Airlines or Iberia you will be awarded Tier Points based on a conversion of the existing method, this also applies to BA Holiday bookings. Any existing bookings will earn proportionally the same number of Tier Points, or more, as they would today. I would assume this means in proportion to the new raised levels required for the tiers. 

All bookings from 1pm today, 30 December will be under the new system of tier points if the booking is for travel after 1 April 2025. 

The New Tier Point Thresholds

I suggest sitting down with a stiff drink before reading this if you are a leisure traveller. There does not appear to be any minimum flight requirements except for GGL. All cabins will earn the same rates after the initial special offer. 

New Tier Thresholds: 

• Gold Guest List: 65,000 to qualify (with at least 52,000 earned through British Airways-marketed flights, qualifying add-ons and British Airways Holidays packages), and 40,000 to retain (with at least 32,000 earned through British Airways-marketed flights, qualifying add-ons and British Airways Holiday packages). 
• GGL renewal: 40,000 points (with at least 32,000 earned through British Airways-marketed flights British Airways Holidays)

The threshold for Gold for Life will be 550,000 Tier Points, and Gold Guest Life for Life will be 1,500,000. Members’ proportional progress towards Lifetime thresholds will be preserved and be based on the % of their current progress. As an example, if you are at 30,000 TPs, so nearly there, you would be 85% of the requirement. This means that you would need an eye-watering extra £80,000 of spend to get Gold for Life.

Let’s have a look at how the status levels would all add up versus the current system:

Current levels

• Gold Guest List: 5,000 initially, then 3,000 for renewal

Let’s take Silver as an example. Currently, you could spend around £1500 on a business class Qatar ex EU and get some positioning flights in Club for £300 and wind up with silver for about £1800. Or if you did it flying BA Club Europe at an average of £300 per round trip it would cost around £2,250. Now you will need to spend £7,500 per person. This would be the equivalent of 3 long haul flights from the UK at £2500 or 25 return Club Europe trips at £300. BA Holidays could be a way to lessen the blow if you spend a lot of hotels and/or car hire. Plus, you could earn 2,500 Tier Points on the Amex card if you are a high spender. 

We asked BA if they would indicate how many Tier Points you will earn at the time of booking, but they said the customers will be able to calculate this themselves, and there will be a thorough explanation available on the website.

Upgrade vouchers will also change:

From 1 April 2025, the way Members earn Tier Points is changing and the number of Tier Points needed to unlock certain rewards will be updated to reflect this.

• Gold Upgrade Voucher for Two: 35,000 Tier Points
• 2 x Gold Upgrade Voucher for One: 50,000 Tier Points

Tier Point Special Offer

“To celebrate these changes”, British Airways is offering limited time bonus Tier Points when booking before 14 February 2025 for travel from 1 April 2025. Bonus Tier Points will be awarded based on cabin, from Euro Traveller to First. It does not specify but I’d assume these to be per leg. 

Bonus Tier Points will be awarded as follows: 

• World Traveller Plus: 140 

Conclusion

Very little of this seems to be positive, although the rate of earnings on BA Holidays does slightly soften the blow. Although this change has happened elsewhere, the UK is a different market with a lot of BA loyalty, which is likely to be negatively affected by the change.

Amongst the TLFL team, I am Gold and Michele is Gold Guest List. Both of us are in agreement that we will no longer be pursuing status with BA. Michele plans to just use BA where it is convenient/well priced or she can use Avios and/or vouchers. 

Our first thought and possible workaround would be to obtain status with another Oneworld airline, such as American Airlines or Qatar. Their thresholds are unaffected and would mean you would have all the benefits of BA Gold but without the high spend. We will be covering how to obtain status with other airlines in the coming weeks.

British Airways has a special page for FAQs and more information.  www.ba.com/theclub. 

Let us know what you think of the changes below. Will you contine flying with BA even if you can’t make status? Does this affect how you feel about the airline?