British Airways has not been getting great PR at the moment. From the way they are proposing to change staff contracts and the current onboard meagre offerings, it has not gone down well with customers.
However, I am pleased to say that we seem to be turning a corner and I think they have actually gone beyond what many airlines are offering. Putting aside everything else, as a customer with status I am extremely happy with this. It means I can put aside any worries about making status for a while and not feel I need to travel for the sake of it. It also means I can use up some Avios if BA don’t offer some decent prices to Europe soon (they are currently very high for September to most places).
You should receive an email shortly. But here is what they are offering:
- British Airways is extending the Tier status of its Executive Club Members by a full year
- A Member’s Tier status will be renewed for 12 months beyond its current end date
- All members will benefit starting with the Tier Point collection year month of July 2020, through to June 2021.
- British Airways is also reducing the number of Tier Points needed to reach each Tier (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Gold Guest List & Concorde Room Card) by 25% for the year after the 12-month extension making it easier for Members to renew or upgrade a Tier.
This will now make the thresholds:
| Tier | Normal threshold | Adjusted threshold (75%) |
| Bronze | 300 or 25 eligible flights | 225 or 18 eligible flights |
| Silver | 600 or 50 eligible flights | 450 or 37 eligible flights |
| Gold | 1,500 | 1,125 |
| Gold Guest List | 5,000 to upgrade 3,000 to renew | 3,750 to upgrade2,250 to renew |
| Concorde Room Card | 5,000 | 3,750 |
- British Airways will also apply a 6-month extension to all newly issued Companion Vouchers earned in July, August and September. This is in addition to those that have already received an extra 6 months up to now.
- There is no change to the validity of jokers (GGL redemption vouchers)
- Gold upgrade vouchers have already been extended by six months
There are more details at the bottom of the page on ba.com here
Understandably, people have a lot of questions. I am working through them and adding to an FAQ article rather than reply to each scenario due to the volume of comments.
See more good news on British Airways here.
What do you think about what BA are offering? Are you more inclined to carry on flying with them now? Let us know in the comments below or on social media.
52 comments
I didn’t think they’d leave things as they were – they perhaps played things a little close to their chest and there will be many that will feel it’s too late, considering the current restructuring plans.
Any idea how far back the 12 month extension will be going? I lose silver this month…
Good news indeed Michelle, but – as you say – about time.
One point isn’t entirely clear to me, but may be to you: do we now effectively have a 2-year period in which to earn the reduced number of Tier Points? Or are points already earned lost at the original renewal date, starting with a clean sheet for the second 12 month period?
As far as I can tell that expect it to operate as now. All TPs reset at renewal date.
But is the “renewal date” as it is now, or 12 months hence? i.e. will any TPs earned in the current period carry over into the extended 12 months?
On whether the four eligibility flights will still be required, you say “yes”. But the BA site says
“You don’t need to have met the minimum eligible flights requirement to benefit from the 12-month extension, which is being applied to those memberships with Tier Point collection end dates of July 2020 – June 2021.
The eligible flights requirement will apply for members to qualify for the 25% Tier threshold reduction in order to upgrade, or subsequently renew their membership for the following year.”
Great news about the extension! Once we get clarification on TP collection, I’ll make some decisions about flying. My renewal date for Gold is January, and I currently have a TP run to Hawaii (1000 TP) booked for October. If those will be lost in January, I might change the dates until early 2021 so that the TP count towards renewal in the 2021 collection year. But if we do indeed have a 2 year period to qualify for status (all of 2020 and 2021), I’ll leave the October trip as is and probably try for a higher achievement such as GGL or upgrades before the January 2022 renewal date.
I’m delighted by this, and have been holding out for some announcement – so feel happily vindicated. Although it was driving many customers nuts not hearing much, I had expected this might happen, and think BA probably acted more wisely waiting to make a move on this once there was greater certainty about when things might get moving again. Those airlines who extended once may have had to back peddle from their original positions or extend again, so as much as the uncertainty wasn’t great, I have a feeling it was probably a more sensible approach and will be remembered for longer and more favourably given they’ve acted so clearly now. Perhaps not by those who were in the last quarter of renewal.
Will your tier points still be reset to zero at your year end? Or will what you have carry over to the next year?
My year resets in Oct. If I qualify for Gold by earning 1125 TPs, will that now last until 2022 or only until 2021?
Not surprised they announced today – we are just past the June TP date and there was no previous info as to what they would do with this whose TP year end was 8 July onwards.
It’s great news Michele. Why on Earth can’t they lead instead of following though? I lost my status last month so I guess it doesn’t count for me- am I right? Thanks. DOC.
No email as yet, due to lose TP in September although I’m already above the revised figures for moving up a grade. Still waiting on curtailment of holiday refund after 3 months. Regrettably I’ve nothing to say positive about BA at the moment. To consistently disappoint is not a complement.
Great news Michele – as you say – we can relax a bit now, and the 25 % reduction for next year is a real unexpected bonus – hope we can get back to Turning Left soon.
I’m worried how the staff will be if BA gets it’s way – a staff suddenly being paid around half what it was being paid isn’t going to be as enthusiastic to say the least. If only BA had gone down the route of working WITH the staff, rather than AGAINST them, they’d have had the staff on their side. A sad time.
I just ended my Silver year this week. June 8 a few points short. Will they extend ? if not I’ll be moving over to another carrier.
They took their time but this is very welcome. Keeping loyal BA fliers (especially GGL as high spenders) will speed up a return to normal operation. I imagine having PAX on board that aren’t grumpy about losing status will help relations with crew and in turn help them through the troubles they are having with the other “stuff” …
Hi Michele- I just received the email. It seems if you lost status last month from Silver to Bronze, they have extended Bronze for a year so for me, disappointing but if your Silver or Gold etc is about to expire and they extend it, that would be good news. My only feedback would be, how was I supposed to retain status when I was stuck in Australia for 10 weeks extra and they cancelled my flight four times. As I say, great news for some but for those of us heading for gold and just downgraded from silver, not great.
Shame they didn’t do it earlier when I was still Silver.
I had a May 2020 collection end date, and scraped to GGL thanks to the 30% reduction in earning requirements. Can I check that I can also benefit from the extension i.e. now keep GGL until June 2022 given my collection year end is May 2021?
If so, that’s made me a very happy man!
Great news!
Question just to clarify for my own situation-
I am currently BA Silver with 1055 TP at the moment. My year end is 8th October 2020. Does this mean I now only have to get an extra 70 TP to achieve Gold by 8th October 2020?
Also if this is correct would my newly achieved gold now last until 2022 instead of 2021?
My issue is lifelong status. you need over 35k Tier Points for a Gold Card. Not attainable for most. Why haven’t they introduced a lifelong silver card?
Just opened the email from BA. Have to say I’m surprised that they have been so generous at this stage.
Hiya.
I’ve just started joined the exec club and was hoping to get to silver. Does this now mean it will only take me 450 tier points to get there?
Looks like it, but remember you must have 4 qualifying flights for silver.
Do those standards include the 4 BA/IB flights?
not quite clear how this applies. My Silver was due to end in June. but have been unable to fly since March. so, are they saying renewals in JULY will be extended? doesn’t seem fair really. no-one has been able to fly for 3 months. should be April onwards.
I wonder how this will work out for those of us who have just gone from Silver – Bronze or Gold to Silver. My silver membership ended 8th May (although the silver is retained until 30th June). I wonder if they will demote me to Bronze or let my silver membership continue until 2021??
I received an email saying my bronze was extended for 2 year, but I’m only 30 tier points off silver (year end is Sept) so I’m hoping that means I get bumped up to silver with the reduced tier points. It will be annoying if I actually only get bronze for 2 years rather than silver. The app hasn’t caught up yet so I guess I’ll have to wait and see!
Hi Michelle, unless I have misinterpreted your post I think I may have fallen through a crack. Currently sitting on 1495 TPs (don’t ask how I failed to get the extra 5) with renewal on 8th July. I have already had 3 flight cancelled by BA which would have pushed me well over 1500. It looks from what you have written that I will I now stay Silver and loose all my TPs in July, or will I now be moved up to Gold due to the lower requirement?
As I understand it you should be moved up but not get the extra extension on top of that. So you would be gold until July 2021. But at the moment we are all still trying to work out some of the quirks of it!
Hi Michele,
Yep my wife just called me to say she’s received the email, and I’ve found my one too.
Here’s the upshot of the BA news for everyone, as I understand it.
It’s an all round win, providing you haven’t just lost a status tier in the last month or so. But then again, the 12 month extension means if your BAEC year has just restarted it’s now a full 24 month period to earn TPs instead of 12 for those immediately affected.
The small print says at the start of July everyone’s year will auto extend by 12 months. You’ll be able to see the changes in your BA App and on your Exec Account.
And your Tier Status will also auto change at the start of July, if you now have enough TPs to qualify for the next Tier at the reduced rate.
For Example: say you had 240 TPs in your account, and hadn’t made it Bronze and your year is still active. Well from the start of July you will now be Bronze as the threshold is now 225 not 300 and you’ll keep it until your collection year expires (which will now be 12 months longer than normal).
Likewise Silver will be auto credited at 450, Gold at 1125 etc. Giving everyone loads of time to potentially go further up the Tiers than before.
My wife and I have 500TPs EA as it stands, and our BAEC expires on Dec. So we’ll jump to Silver and have 18 months left to get 625pts to get to Gold.
Now we just have to wait for routes to open up so we can get out there, see how the world’s changed and get those extra TPs. ?✈️
Just got my email….woohoo. due to expire August so timing perfect!
Funnily enough, I had only just completed a BA survey on business use in which I commented that this was very important with regard to my future plans. Hey presto! Most welcome (and a good scoop BTW).
No email here. My year ended on the 8th and TPs have been zeroed already.
Hi Michelle
I’m having a blond moment and maybe you can help – come to that if anyone can help…here goes..
My Gold year started on 09 April 2020 and due to expire 08 April 2021 obviously I haven’t been able to fly, From what I can understand I will now be Gold until April 2022..is this right?..If so when will they amend the expiry date on my account?
In the light of things it’s trivial but it would help me plan my flights.
Please help!!!
Aldo
Yes – in the next two weeks it should be updated
Well done to BA for this (let’s give credit where due) HOWEVER, another major PR blunder by not doing this first time round. BA just can’t seem to stop shooting themselves in the foot.
Amex Companion Vouchers should be extended for 12 months. I have a 4 week trip to Chile booked for Nov / Dec this year when it is their Summer but currently not planning to go now until 2021. But my Voucher, even with the Extension, expires in June 21 and if I go at this time it will be winter! So can you pls lobbey for 12 month Ext please. Thanks, Fred
When BA cancelled my flight last week and returned my 2 companion vouchers, the lady said that if we couldn’t use the vouchers by their expiry date (summer 2021), to give BA a call and they’d extend the vouchers for us. Whether it’s as easy as that in reality, we’ll see but worth asking as I presume it’s a company policy.
Hello, Indeed good news!!! Just received the email. My collecting year ends 8th October and already with 2 oneworld trips cancelled 840TP’s to renew Gold are gone, as a leisure traveller is not easy!! So finally some goods from BA (TK already gave me 6 months extra for my *Alliance Gold that I got from a status match, and is useful when I fly with TAP), as I was already thinking about moving to another airline (Finnair), since I don’t live in UK. Let’s hope BA’s next step is improving the Ts&Cs of new the contracts of flight/cabin crew and all other employees. Thanks, and enjoy Portugal (Lisbon) when you manage to arrive. Susana
Hi all,
My collection year ends 8th July 2020. I currently have 1200 tier points. Does the 25% reduction apply to your current collection year i.e. will I move to Gold on 9th of July? If I understand correctly this was the case for those with renewal in April/May/June who needed 30% fewer points. Thanks
Yes.It should appear in the next two weeks
Hi Michele. I have 600 tier points form a run with Qatar and was booked club world to hk last month. I was also due to fly to PMI club Europe this week. My tier point collection ends in October does this mean they will extend my date by 9 months ?
Kind regards
Mark Francis
What status level are you now?
Some interesting interpretations here?
As I read it from the info here, on HfP and BA.com, in my situation it is thus:
My Tier Point Year ends in October. I am Silver.
I currently have 500 TPs, so with the reduced re-qualifying level I will retain Silver for Oct 20 to Oct 21.
I will be granted an extension of Silver until Oct 22.
In theory, I have no need to earn any TPs between Oct 20 and Oct 21, unless I want to upgrade to Gold and then I only need to earn 1125 in that TP year.
However, in TP year Oct 21 to Oct 22, I will have to earn the full usual 600 (or 1500) TPs to retain my status for TP year Oct 22 to Oct 23, as my TP year ends after July 22….unless things change again?
Hi Michelle.
I would be interested in your opinion of my interpretation of the extension offer that BA has made. My Tier Point year runs from June to June, so I have just ended one year as a Gold member. I have renewed Gold for June 2020 to July 2021 having got 2100 tier points between June 2019 and June 2020.
The requirement quoted to qualify for a 12 month extension of status is ”The 12-month status extension will be applied automatically to those memberships with Tier Point collection end dates of July 2020 – June 2021.’
Since my next Tier Point collection end date is June 2021, I am assuming that I will be granted a 12 month extension of my Gold status as from June 2021.
Do you agree with my interpretation of the rules?
Cliff.
Hi, little disappointed actually as our tier point year ends July 9th and we have had 560 points each since December 2019, but have obviously not been able to attain silver during the last few months. Had they done what those ending in April, May and June have had i.e. upgraded with far fewer points, then I would have been happier. Hey ho things could be much worse…
Hi Laura
Head For Points just received an official answer from BA re this….
If you already have more than the (reduced) level of tier points to be promoted, you will be promoted IMMEDIATELY. E.g if you have 250 tier points you will become Bronze immediately.
You just need to wait a week or so for BA to run the changes through the system
Thanks Gary. I am doing some FAQ as we speak to reflect the information coming through now.
Think this is a very good move from BA and was wise of them to wait and assess the situation while hardly any travel was being done.
It’s great news … my only worry now is how the staff will be after the way they have been treated during an uncertain time , that’s been shocking to say the least , from a flag carrier that has amazing deadicated crew
Hi Michele
Just still a tad confused. My current Gold membership expires in December 2020. Appears this is automatically extended to December 2021.
What is not clear is during what period I must accrue sufficient tier points to renew at Gold in December 2021
Hi,
I was blue instead silver, all of my flights were canx. Just like everyone.
My date is 8 July. If I go to San Fran am I better going June (school holidays), or waiting to after 8th July. Or does it not matter? I meant for the extra year to get points.
Thank you
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