If you’re a BA Club member (previously known as the British Airways Club) there are actually two games at play.
First, you’re trying to bank enough Avios to earn BA reward flights or at least decent discounts off your trips. Secondly, you should be looking at how you can advance your tier status in the Club and put yourself in line for priority boarding, lounge access, cabin upgrades and other tempting treats.
The great news is that BA has recently announced significant changes to its Club loyalty programme. Starting from the 18th of October 2023, the airline is streamlining how you earn Avios on cash flights and, for the first time ever, allowing people to earn points on select ancillary purchases. So, it’s the perfect time to see if you can make a move.
Here’s our handy guide to climbing the tiers.
What are BA Tier points?
When you join the free BA Club to start earning Avios you automatically become a Blue Tier member, entitled to some special offers. There are four BA Club tiers and the more Tier Points you collect when flying, the greater benefits you'll receive, as you move up each level.
Where do you earn BA Tier points?
You can earn Avios through certain bank accounts and credit cards, by converting Nectar points, by spending at hundreds of brand-name retailers as well as by booking with BA. By contrast, Tier Points are only earned by flying. You can bag them every time you fly with BA or its subsidiaries or with one of its Oneworld airline partners, including Iberia, Qatar, American Airlines and Qantas.
The number of Tier Points you receive will depend on your ticket and destination. You may earn five points upwards for a short-haul economy flight but 140 or more for a long-haul leg in business. The long-haul earning bracket shifts at 2,000 miles. It’s also worth noting that two connecting flights will give you more points than one direct flight. Also, you won’t lose any Tier Points by bagging a cheaper fare in a sale.
The BA website has a handy flight calculator you can use to work out the Tier Points and Avios you’ll collect before booking. If you’ve already booked, you can work it out in the Passenger Information section under Manage My Booking. You must add your BA Club membership number to each booking (including those made with its Oneworld partners) to log your points. BA’s Tier Points are usually credited soon after you fly but those earned through its partners may take up to a month.
You can still claim your Tier Points (or missing Avios) up to six months after your flights, so long as you save your ticket numbers. And if you’re new to the BA Club you can claim points for British Airways flights taken up to three months before you joined.
What are the different Tiers?
The four BA Club tiers are Blue, Bronze, Silver and Gold.
Bronze Tier status in BA Club
Bronze is the most achievable upper tier, as it requires as few as two eligible flights (with BA or Iberia), plus usually 300 tier points. In addition to the ability to save your meal and seating preferences and access members-only offers that you get with Blue, Bronze gives you:
- Priority check-in and boarding (except at London City Airport) on BA and its Oneworld partners. You can use the business class lane and board the plane before the rush, even when you’re flying economy.
- Free seat selection seven days before departure (instead of 24 hours) for you and your travelling companions, so long as it’s not a group booking. This excludes the exit rows.
- 7 Avios per £1 spent.
- 25% bonus Avios on flights with BA, Iberia, American Airlines or Japan Airlines.
- Oneworld Ruby status. This is the Bronze equivalent of BA’s alliance partners so you’ll get similar perks when you fly with them.
- Priority at Baggage Arrival Services if your luggage is lost.
- A temporary freeze on your BA Club tier status if you take maternity, paternity or adoption leave. Also, 1,000 welcome Avios if you enrol your child on your household Avios account.
- The option to share Avios with up to six household members, by linking your memberships, and with others via friends and family lists.
Higher tiers
If you move up to Silver, you’ll earn the coveted access to business lounges (even if you’re flying economy) and extra baggage allowance, while your Avios bonus rises to 50% and you can choose your seats at the time of booking. The heady heights of Gold will additionally give you First Class check-in and lounge access. Your Avios bonus will be 100% (so effectively double). You’ll also have a chance to earn seat upgrades past a certain number of Tier Points. Gold also gives you access to additional availability for Avios reward flights (hunt reward seats down through the BA website or, for greater flexibility, by using our own Reward Flight Finder (RFF)).
How can you move up the Tiers?
Here are the points needed to hit each level and the earning alternatives:
Blue: Automatic entry-level tier.
Bronze: Fly with BA or Iberia at least twice plus earn 300 Tier Points, or take 25 eligible flights with BA or its Oneworld partners.
Silver: Fly with BA or Iberia at least four times plus earn 600 Tier Points, or take 50 eligible flights.
Gold: Fly with BA or Iberia at least four times plus earn 1,500 Tier Points.
When you hit the points required for each new tier, you’ll automatically be moved up. Note that Avios reward flights will not earn you any Tier Points. You only accrue these on flights you pay for (or the proportion of the flight you pay for if you’re part-paying with Avios).
Want to see how many Tier Points you’ll earn on your next trip? Use our British Airways Tier Points Calculator below to quickly check your route and start planning your next status upgrade.
So, before you dive into the Reward Flight Finder (RFF) in search of reward seats it’s worth checking if you’re near your next Tier level. If you are, you might want to pay cash instead to bag the Tier Points. If you’re a member of Virgin’s loyalty scheme that, unlike BA reward flights, those taken on Virgin Atlantic do count towards your tier status. Be aware too that your BA Tier Points reset to zero at the end of each membership year, on the anniversary of when you joined the BA Club. However, you’ll remain at the same tier status for the next membership year.
You can check your points’ expiry date on the Manage My Account page of the Club website.
Lifetime Tier Points
It’s some consolation that those expired Tier Points don’t entirely disappear, they’re added to your Lifetime Tier Points total. If this reaches 35,000 Tier Points, you’ll be given Gold Tier status for life. That really is the end game!
