@MattsPlanet You did very well by booking your TP run for 2025 when you did, as you'll lock in your status through to 2027 with that, and so these changes won't affect you till then. I'm not so lucky with Silver expiring in 2026, after which I have no real chance of renewing it with this new system.
@@obamtl I tend not to do any kneejerk reactions - I like to leave it until things settle a little and I can actually add something to the debate.... Which may take a couple of days.... Although I do have quite a lot I want to say!!!
After a period of no flying during the pandemic it opened my eyes to just pay business/first with whichever logical airline at the time. You get all the benefits without having to chase some silly number. Less stressful too
Absolutely. All my intra-Europe travel is in Business, anything international is in First and, where possible, I avoid BA because the product is very sub-par and more often than not the standard of crew is very inconsistent too.
I’m a leisure traveller. I’m now back to purely picking holidays based on price. No incentive to stick with BA Holidays. I hope this turns out to be an utter disaster and they lose customers and money to Virgin or Jet2.
They will as I am another. Unless you live in the London area, there are better foreign carriers that will link you locally through their European hubs.
@@mikefuller2019You make a good point. British Airways really should be called London Airways, because unless you can get to a London airport, mostly LHR, they don’t really care. I live in Scotland, and fly regularly on business from either Glasgow or Edinburgh, and when going international, that would normally mean that I would have to fly to LHR first, and then connect to a long haul flight to my destination. Now I’m more inclined to fly Lufthansa to Frankfurt, and connect using a Star Alliance airline, or (if it’s out East) use Emirates from GLA to Dubai, and continue on with Emirates. I can’t honestly see any reason for using British Airways from the regional airports in the UK anymore. It’s going to be easier to take Lufthansa to Frankfurt, or KLM to AMS, and change there I reckon. I mean if you have to take a two hop journey to get to where you’re going in any case, there are better options than LHR. Just avoid CDG; it’s awful 😣
I have spent a lot of time in the BA First Lounge at LHR. Overcrowded, difficult to find seats and queues for toilets. Hardly a premium experience. This change will release the golden handcuffs of BA and encourage many travellers to try other options.
I travel for work monthly and I’ve often chosen the less-than-ideal route in order to stay with BA for the benefits I get on OneWorld even in Economy. I will no longer be doing that. They’ve essentially told me “you don’t spend enough to matter”. Disappointed especially as I achieved Silver until 2026 but that’s gone now.
Apart from the total cheek of BA dropping this change at New Year... it means after 9 years of gold status, I'll be choosing other airlines from now on. Simply not worth it. I suppose I should thank them for saving me money. Well done for getting this quick response on RUclips.
It says a lot when their “improvements” to the loyalty scheme are causing customers who have been loyal and frequent flyers for almost a decade to move away from them.
@charlesontravels Yes, it's a terrible move from them and they should have also been upfront about it when making the big announcement about the tier points year being set to start in April. Strangely, it might end up being a good thing. Freedom from a 'loyalty' system might just be the biggest benefit? 😏
Good onya for being the first channel to post about these changes. Being Australia-based the TP runs were the best for me as a BA member. I actually joined after the Air Berlin collapse, but I am now looking at the Qatar or Malaysia Airlines programs.
Flying Blue is pretty good for UK based travellers. You don’t have the fly through fortress Heathrow, the AF/KL network and products are pretty good, reward availability is excellent, earning is pretty simple, you get access to La Première reward seats… the downside - Skyteam 🤷🏻♂️
British Airways just saved me over 8k no need to plan that tier points run to Phuket on club world now. Thankfully I didn’t tell my wife yet about that holiday. This move will certainly knock some sense into me. The perk were never worth the effort
I was One World Emerald for several years, now dropped to Ruby. I've basically given up with Lounges round the world. Overcrowded, queues, often poor food. Nowadays I just go to a restaurant in the airport and get something far nicer that I actually want and always find a quiet seat somewhere that's quieter than the Lounge! The only benefit worth having is the ability to use Business Check In when flying economy and I get this with Ruby (I always choose economy if it's less than 10 hours, save a few thousand to spend elsewhere!).
The changes are absolute bonkers...they will lose so many travellers who do an extra one or two trips with BA per year to chase status in addition to normal travel. Whereas now their will be no incentive to fly BA and you will be better off paying low cost and then paying for food at the airport. I dont get why they didnt just increase the current threshold and scheme e.g. 2,000 points not 1500
@charlesontravels My plan would have been as mentioned if the goal was increase money...stretch the goalposts what was needed for gold and silver...1100 for silver for example....for those who would have collected 750 anyway for current silver...would entice them to take another flight ...just to have status again as they enjoy the perks and feel it would have a negative impact if they didn't have it. Stretch GOLD to 2,000 and then evaluate in 6 months if it led to more flights and more £ as it tempted just that extra one or two flights. Will now focus on Avios earning to fly qatar and Aer lingus to America and Asia etc
That would be too sensible - there's is a bunch of folk at BA who need to make it look like they have important complicated jobs overseeing the Exec Programme.
Definitely agree that this kills the hobby of tier point runs in theory. Commercially that therefore seems like they’re closing the door on a particular market that would regularly be buying flights purely for the hobby, and paying more for premium cabins too. I can’t immediately see where they are recouping cost savings or tapping into another market to replace the lost revenue from this. I’m sure they will watch bookings closely in the coming weeks and months as people turn their backs on BA in favour of low cost carriers (comparable service and product) or alternative premium carriers that offer a genuinely premium service.
These changes are only gonna allow for the wealthy or frequent business travellers to earn Gold. Thankfully though, Silver has been a sweetspot with the BA Executive club, however even obtaining that is going to prove difficult. I wonder if now might be a good time to do a status match with the other alliances, if one has a good status with BA. I travel somewhat regularly for business, maybe 12 to 15 times per year, of which there are roughly 4 or 5 long haul trips, but even with that I will lilely not achieve Gold using this new method.
this sounds absurd. I also travel for work around 12 times a year, with around 4 long haul destinations but I'll definitely make the cut. Business class or premium economy should be enough, especially given there will also be incentives for BA holidays and the premium avios amex...
@AyoSosanya Like tier points and status...I can imagine made people book a holiday with BA but now easyjet and JET 2 will likely pose a better option and cheaper as without status people are just going to get similar experiences
@@AyoSosanya but which customers? The heavy spenders will stay put: a surprisingly large number of them aren’t familiar with the airline programs. They’re going to lose low spenders who legitimately try and extract as much value as possible. Those easy avenues to elite status are now closed, so low revenue/margin customers, if they leave, will move to other airlines, likely Ryanair and Easyjet.
@@hughofIreland even the heavy spenders will struggle honestly 20k a year solo for gold not including tax or any bonuses is hefty. Anyone spending that much is already getting the benefits anyway from their cabin class but leisure travellers who might spend a few thousand a year in economy or prem eco will lose their status. I think the long haul will be fine but this will have a large impact on their short haul tickets imo like why pay £3-400 for club Europe when you can fly eco or even with some other budget airline since there’s no gains from it anymore
@ it all depends on how a heavy spenders is defined. I wouldn’t consider even £20k plus tax as a lot. United Airlines, for example, awards its premium status to those who spend over $50k or prepay $75k. I predict it will mirror what happened in the US when the big three carriers moved from people who fly a lot to people who spend a lot. There will be a lot of complaining, but frankly BA will do just fine by focusing on its higher spend passengers. I don’t think BA is going to suffer.
I read this news on my flight back to Bahrain and realized keeping gold status now will no longer be possible after April 2026. Next year will be my last.
BA were once ‘The World’s favorite Airline’. Today, they are no more than a slight uptick from a budget airline. A shame but I guess it might be called “progress”,
I have only used BA for US travel and partner airlines for other long distance for tier points. Often the cabins are outdated and the lounges are poor as a comp to other more modern carriers. Commercially this seems like a very odd move when trying to maintain loyalty for the airline. The upside is, it will make travel choices far more competitive when status is unattainable for most.
You can fully see why they’re doing it. A lot of people have managed to figure out the optimal path to Gold and the lounges (for example) are getting very busy as a result. How do you dial back up the exclusivity? Raise the bar. 🤷♂️
You did well getting this out so soon. I've only been as high as silver but anytime I've been in a BA lounge, it's always been packed. I've never been comfortable with the idea of the tier point run, as it's travel which isn't really necessary. Having said all that, I reckon this will come back to bite BA. For the last few years I've been using Qatar from Dublin to Australia rather than BA from Belfast. The service is better and less connections means a more comfortable journey.
Even if not doing a tier point run, there are plenty of times I’ve booked business over economy on short haul simply because the tier points were worth the added cost, but there’s no advantage to that any more!
Good summary. I see YT videos showing people flying shorthaul, or positioning flights, in BA business class. 45mins in a busy lounge, extra luggage you probably dont need, 'free' seat selection, and a marginally better experience on board. That's not worth the premium. I think leisure travels will benefit by looking at great economy fares from other airlines, and then pay for add-ons which they really need. I recently flew SAS for the first time, and paid EUR 15 to add a large cabin bag, and a checked bag. They are my new go-to airline for flying to London with baggage.
Completely agree. It was sometimes worth paying a little extra for those short haul business class to get the tier points, but definitely not worth it anymore.
Honestly this is a slap in the face even for true frequent fliers like myself that fly at least once a month shorthaul with the odd longhaul flight in between. One would probably have to spend around 8.5- 9k gbp worth of flight tickets because of tax etc. to reach silver which is insane... I understand that some lounges especially at T5 are overcrowded and one might therefore have to raise the threshold, but this literally is way out of proportion.
As Glasgow is my local airport until I gained silver a couple of years ago if flying long distance east I would fly either Emirates, KLM or Lufthansa changing in connecting in Dubai, Amsterdam and Frankfurt respectively. Flying west I used Virgin or KLM connecting In London or Amsterdam. On gaining Silver I stopped using these airlines and used BA even though it’s in flight experience was worse than all the others and Heathrow wasn’t great. Now that I won’t be flying BA it will be liberating to again fly with these other more interesting airlines. Every cloud has a silver lining - just without silver status. A a great quick update. Well done.
l’m fed up either way BA cancelling my flights due to weather when other airlines are flying. In every case the flights were underbooked so go figure. Good excuse to use another airline.
United airlines did this about 8 years ago. I will never chase status with them. They now require $24,000 usd dollar spend on just tickets to achieve the status (it was 10,000 years ago. ). That’s spending over $2000 a month on tickets with them. No way. Now I fly anyone I want, and get the best service and flights. Sure….i may spend an extra $50 on luggage, but sometimes save thousands on an international ticket
I was a BA exec club member for nearly 10 years. Never saw much benefit for giving all my business to them. In 2024 I found cheaper & better business class flights elsewhere so ended up not flying BA at all...
I have been silver for 25 years and a few years Gold - last 3 years have switched my business class long haul to Swiss a far superior product at a better price as well.
Another thought, it feels like I am better off having a platinum Amex card now even though it costs a whopping £650/year this gives lounge access year-round and points that can be exchanged into multiple airline mileage schemes…
It makes perfect business sense to align your benefits with spend……… those who spend most “earn” most. However, as a traveller about to lose his Silver status, with no hope of retaining it any longer under this new regime, my loyalty over the years to BA has just vanished. Oh well.
Must have been a hectic day of recording and editing lol, even the very frequent flyers and insiders on FT were caught out by this one, BA kept this very close to their chest. But this just seems so poorly thought out. Spend based TPs kill any hope of high status for most leisure travellers, yet BA have been courting them hugely with the double TP offer, and that made sense in the wake of the pandemic as leisure travel recovered so much faster. They're rewarding business travellers who have little to no say in which airline they fly, while punishing leisure travellers who have total discretion on where they spend their money, it's madness. It was clear that this would happen eventually, but I'm staggered it happened so soon, I expected that at the earliest they'd announce this in April 2025, for an April 2026 start. At least to let the TP year alignment sort itself out before this, and to give a year of notice, 3 months is somewhat insulting. But oh well. I have Silver until April 2026, but will give up any hope of retaining it after that. I just don't spend enough. I might be able to maintain Bronze with BAH counting the whole of my share of the trip cost, plus credit card bonuses (though they've not said how that'll work yet unless I've missed it), but unless they drastically improve the Bronze benefits I really see no reason to remain loyal to BA in order to do that. Silver benefits and getting the TPs to earn and retain it kept me flying oneworld, mostly BA, even when more expensive than eg easyJet. But without that I'll just take the cheapest option going forward, and if/when I do fly BA I certainly won't consider upgrading to CE, as really the only reason I ever did was for the TPs.
Totally agree with all of this. Silver will be too much of a push and Bronze isn’t worth it. There will be a riot over this and once everyone’s status expires in April 2026 and no one has to be loyal to BA any more, I think they’ll find loyalty works both ways.
Very well put. I just can't fathom why any leisure traveller (the vast majority these days) would pay for Club Europe if there aren't a good amount of TPs to be had!!!!!!!
Good to see you were out of the blocks to explain the changes. Yes, loyalty to BA has just gone out the window. However, they have yet to explain how the current status will move forward from 1st April, given the changes they made there. Just acquired Gold to Jan 2026, but will this change? Great vlog.
You should still keep Gold to Jan 2026. What’s not clear is what happens at that point. Previously you’d get a soft landing to silver for a year, but there seem to be a few suggestions that this won’t be the case. Will have to wait and see.
I used BA before having to commute to and from Germany, but decided to stay with them because it would be easy to retain status. I can now do 4 return flights through Star Alliance a year for a lot less money and gain silver status with them instead. Like this is a route I have to do, so not even for leisure. Under BA’s new system, I might not even get Bronze
Thank you for highlighting how BA has entirely removed the fun element of gaining status for a great many of us. Videos such as yours are always a wonderful source of information, education & entertainment for those of us within this seemingly now disbanded community. Qatar Privilege potentially seems the most viable option moving forward so your thoughts on that would be appreciated. I’m going to rinse my 0.5M Avios ASAP before they’re devalued even further as well!
Totally agree with your point about the fun element of Tier point runs but this change will mean I look to other airlines for certain flights when my status expires in April 2026. I am a fan of BA overall but their product is quite dated, especially in Club Europe and Club World, so I will definitely be flying on Emirates to try out their Premium Economy and look forward to trying some European carriers on longhaul rather than staying loyal to OneWorld. If I do ever qualify for Gold after the changes (highly unlikely), I'll certain guest you in! Hope you keep producing content, including on what other airline frequent flyer options might be better value for those of us in the UK. Otherwise I need to get a new piggy bank to save the £7K for Silver!
@ALFOONUS the food and drink offering often looks unappetising and completely unappealing. I have flown many times in Club Europe and BA could do so much with how it presents the food and the style of its Club service, whatever the duration of flight. The airline will benefit from some serious innovation and style. And innovation and style needs more than a thumb sized slice of cheddar cheese and could simply include high quality coffee or a choice of coffees on certain sectors or just a team that knows how to present food. I often refer to Club Europe as Euro Traveller Plus.
Great video - have completely missed this update and found the video really informative. Sadly the nail in the coffin for me and BA - no point in trying to maintain gold status when Lufthansa and other airlines are a lot more innovative in the way they collaborate with people like Amex for access to their lounges.
Absolute car crash. I'm furious it's been retrospectively applied to existing holiday bookings as well. I can't get out of those. And it's shared between passengers now too, so needs to be £20k plus taxes and fees per person!!! All my spending with BA will cease. Why would i bother going out of my way when i can fly direct in a lot of cases from Manchester
Bookings made before December 30th will be honoured with a multiplier of 13.35 so you won't be worse off in the sense that you'll get the same percentage of the way to the different status level. The only problem is that if you've not booked all the trips to get you to your desired status, those further trips will cost you a lot more.
@obamtl that's exactly what's happened unfortunately. And the spend is spread across number of people on the booking too. I simply won't bother anymore after those. I may even default on the second one if I can
Oh one other thing which you didn't mention is that according to some sources soft landings are going away, so from Gold you'll drop straight to blue if you don't earn enough TPs for Silver/Bronze
I had seen about that. I hope it doesn’t end up being true. If there’s enough backlash to the changes maybe they’ll at least hold off on that point, but we’ll see…
@charlesontravels When I first saw the news on the TP changes I did initially think of going for Gold before April, Currently Silver with 900 TPs so a 600TP run to the US could get me to gold, and therefore also an extra year of Silver too so I'd have lounge access until April 2027. But with the loss of Soft landings it's not worth it to go for gold now, since either way I'll be dropping to Bronze or blue in April 2026, and imo the benefits of gold over silver for one year aren't really worth it
@@zaphod4245 BA will really need to clarify this soon. Everything we've heard on soft landings right now is 2nd hand from literally one post on FlyerTalk, from a person that wasn't confident it was true. Keeping my fingers crossed for you and countless others that soft landings still exist.
I do lots of short hops, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Vienna and qualified for bronze last year. This is likely to make me change airlines as I won't qualify this year based on spend so it's no longer a consideration for me.
My year end was December (before the changes already announced) and I decided to pay to get over the mark for Gold for the first time ever despite being quite happy with silver benefits for my work and leisure travel. This was with the intention of ‘soft landing’ to silver in Jan ‘26 and locking in benefits for another year. I guess that was money down the drain…
You are right. Stripping away the fun is something that will probably hurt BA more than their business analysts realise. I have GGL and lifetime gold, so probably will consider whether to retain ggl or try skyteam a bit more this year
I was about to start building status for the first time. Unlikely to bother now and fly with other airlines either cheaper or better service/quality. Your vid was very helpful. I didn't realise there was overcrowding in some of the lounges and I imagine passengers paying for bus classs or more could get fairly miffed if the lounge experience was becoming a lot less exclusive and special. Other than that, this seems like a miserly move on behalf of BA.
Oh it's got just like everything else these days - ways too complicated and all smoke and mirrors. TBH BA can shove their status. We rack up Avios like crazy as we run a business and push as much expense through Amex as possible - so we always get CW or First tickets ( when you can find them these days ), thus status is irrelevant. If it wasn't for the Amex Avios scheme we would NEVER fly BA , for certain we would NEVER pay hard cash to travel with them, far better carriers out there nowadays.
Loyalty is not just about money-spent. Even if one travels on a regular basis for work, we don't get to fly flexible premium cabin fares. I've flown with BA for almost a decade as a Silver Member (and occasionally as a Gold Member) and I have developed a sense of attachment to the airline with several fond memories which I personally believe is also a form of loyalty and what shapes the brand image.
Good video, thanks. Madness given that leisure travellers are an increasing group and business travellers are a decreasing group. Big mistake, I fear. Sad for all.
I'm not too upset about it if I'm honest... As a family of 4 I've earnt a measly 135 tier points this year despite spending £15,000 on package holidays with BA, all paid for on the BA Amex card. I'm currently nowhere near the Bronze tier on the current model, but would be a minimum of Bronze under the new model. It's not just about the flights...
really sad news. My wife and i currently hold gold spending around £15k per annum between us. Thats enough to get you gold. If i understand your video correctly if we spend circa £15k pa with BA including holidays they would split that spending by allocating 7500 tier points to each of us. I appreciate there may be other ways to gain tier points ie spend on AMEX but really for us both to get gold moving forward we'd have to spend in the region of £40,000 jointly with BA? not for us I'm afraid. Be interesting to chat sometime as for a leisure traveller 40k pa is crazy.
My family and I spend even more every year and I was Gold. I've now realised that having lounge access , and worrying about which airline to book with, is pointless. So now I don't care about the lounges, pay for security fast track if possible and we just enjoy a meal in an airport restaurant rather than an overcrowded sub-par lounge! And we've saved a fortune in flights by not caring which airline it is!
I see many downsides particularly one’s loyalty to BA In order to keep moving up in status, also what’s happening at the end of each year in terms of soft or hard landings? With a 70% increase in share price this year maybe BA are feeling they don’t need us loyal TP nuts anymore.
Currently not clear what’s happening with the soft landings. I’ll be very frustrated if they go as that was part of my reasoning for pushing for Gold this year
As a silver membership owner based in Taiwan, it’s pretty shocked especially when I already planned to fly to reach gold this year within £3000. I am now not sure if should I change to Qatar, Qantas, or say hi to the flying blue program. The thing I am concerned about is whether Flying Blue also change its rules to spend-based status just like Lufthansa or BA or not, hoping that you can give some advice. BTW, thanks for the clear video and happy new year, Charles.
I’m not too knowledgeable on those other schemes currently so I don’t want to offer you potentially bad advice. Definitely something I’ll be researching though (and potentially a topic for a future video!). Happy new year!
@charlesontravels FlyingBlue closed their matching offer for BA days ago (it was available in November but when I checked 2 days ago, it had closed for BA). I can see them reopening this for BA very soon.
Finnair did the same thing last spring. The milestones are 1: 3k Avios points 2: 2 lounge pass 3: 2 upgrade benefits 4: 4 upgrade benefits Guessing it’s probably going to be the same with BA.
Oh well, it looks like I will be taking my business and loyalty elsewhere. I've been a BA Gold member for 10+ years, and this is the final nail in the coffin. I've been sadly watching a once great British brand slowly decline, only to be kept afloat by the fantastic ground and cabin staff. I feel for them the most, and I can only see significant redundancies happening over the next 2 years. Such a terrible shame.
Thank you for the update. It's a real shame as I am well on the way to lifetime status which was my objective to complete over the next 10 years. It feels like a dream taken away. 😢
I wonder how long the backlash will last! The big three US carriers moved to a revenue model a few years ago. It’s really a good way to get the cheaper customers (like myself) to move to discount carriers.
Thankfully they have ditched the 4 x eligible flights requirement, but for me I think the biggest problem will be how they deal with Partner Airline flights. I've been an Executive Club loyalist despite living in Australia / a business traveller around Asia for the past decade+. So spend a lot of time flying Qantas / Cathay / JAL. I'm >70% of the way to Lifetime Gold. It was always straightforward - a single regional flight in Business would garner 140 TPs, or 9% of your yearly requirement. I suspect this percentage will now drop based on this new model?
I understand why BA have moved to a spend based system (much as I hate the change as I enjoyed doing double TP holidays to places like Tirana, Bucharest, Sofia) but what I find especially annoying/disappointing are the very high thresholds BA will set. It's ironic they'll remove the "Executive" from the name as that is exactly what it will become. Just glad I got to Gold last year and should be able to retain it this year. Hoping there will still be a soft landing to Silver April 2026. April 2027 I'll move to another airline scheme - or perhaps just not bother.
I agree- completely understand why they’ve made the change, but I do think they’ve pushed the goal posts a bit too far out. If the threshold doesn’t even seem remotely attainable for most people, then most won’t bother staying loyal. Will be interesting to see how it pans out.
Virgin Atlantic do a tier match. Would this be a way to retain your gold status and move airline and not lose the benefits? Seeing the amount of views your excellent video has had already, I would hope that British Airways are watching from afar, and somebody realises what a mistake they may have made. I hope it becomes easier, or I think myself and a lot of others may be looking for another airline . Keep up the good work, as I’ve just found you I’m now subscribed 😊
Yes you could do a status match with Virgin although that would only last one year, so would still need to attain status beyond that to get the benefits. Thanks for subscribing!
Hopefully BA will review the responses and tweak the levels in our favour like they reacted to brunchgate! It would be interesting to see how status can be achieved elsewhere, whether OneWorld or others.
I’m hoping that the bits that haven’t been announced yet (e.g. spend required for the bonus points on Amex) are because they’re trying to gauge the level of negative response before deciding. I’ll definitely be looking into other options for status.
@ thanks for being first to bring it to my attention. I’ve been enjoying silver status this year and hopefully next but now my plans, like everyone else are up in the air ( no pun intended)
Reached silver last year and it says I have enough to be Silver after March but I’m wondering whether this will count or not… Very unimpressed and will nowbe considering an airline change for work travel next year in search of better service
Just achieved Gold until 2026, but there’s no way I’ll get close going forwards from there. Even Silver may be a stretch! At least I’ll be free to spend elsewhere once released from the need to keep the status.
Thanks BA. Happy new year to you too! Charles, I appreciate there are still some unknowns, but it would be interesting to know what your own strategy will be going forward. Will you still be looking to achieve BA status? Or will you look elsewhere for status with other airlines / alliances? Or will you look at how else to achieve some of the benefits of status? (E.g it can sometimes be cheaper to buy the ticket / buy lounge access / buy fast-track security, etc).
@charlesontravels How about this for a project (and @MattsPlanet too!): An analysis of the most effective way to get One World Sapphire / Emerald status with other One World airlines (equiv to BA Silver / Gold)? Similar to what someone did a while ago (might have been Matt) with Star Alliance.
SQ Krisflyer miles and tier status have been based on spend not distance for a decade. Far fairer and easier to understand than the distance-based model.
On the BAH - looks like a triple dip? 1) TP from the booking (split between travellers equally) 2) flights and 3) 1x bonus for the lead booker… A 5k holiday booking gets you silver as the lead booker from 1 and 3 alone?
I believe you only get TP for the overall booking cost. You don’t get additional TP for the flights, and the bonus for the flight lead booker is just an avios bonus, not TP
I see why they’re doing it. They want to make it more difficult so it’s more exclusive. It’s not ideal but It makes sense. People who spend the most should earn the most. The club lounges have become overcrowded anyway.
Not as bad as it seems. Two holidays staying in a nice Hotel and flying business class will give you and your travel partner Silver status. Are there many real benefits of having Gold over Silver ?
As a leisure only traveller I wont be looking to continue with Guest List beyond 4/26 but thankfully I also have GfL to fall back on 😅 Amazing to see all the comments on HfP of people saying they are relieved of no longer having to do TP runs and are now free to pick the best airline at the best price. Got to think what have we all been doing these years… madness
I’ve been booked on two flights with BA this month. The first one was cancelled dumping 300 odd passengers in the terminal in Barbados, with no help whatsoever. The second one was awful. Terrible service and dirty aircraft. Disappointed. Luckily I don’t pay out of my own pocket.
And they said it is the first time they change the program rules. Not true! Back in 2002 there was an executive club relaunch with new rules for burning earning avios.
BA just lost a very loyal flyer. I have already made my Gold status for next year - but will try to get Flying Blue instad. I have 45-50 flights a year, 15-20 of them beeing Long Haul nd most of them in Club World or Business on partner airlines. On top of that my family flyes 10-15 times pr. year at least in Economy Plus - we will be taking our business elsewhere. It is a shame, as I do like the BA product - and also the partner products, but making it so hard to obtain gold is not something im gonna take part in,
Im currently silver with ba due to expire Sept 25. I have a couple of trips planned between now and March that would give me enough tier points to renew silver. I'm not sure where i stand with this now. It might be cheaper cancelling my ba holiday and using a much cheaper carrier. I'll no longer be loyal to ba as Glasgow is my local airport, so it's just as easy connecting in Amsterdam or Frankfurt for my trips. Pretty disappointed with this, like others.
I suspect a lot of people will lose their status and wonder why they ever bothered with it. Ive been Silver for a year, and will be silver for another year from April. Can't really think of any major benefits tbh apart from the early seat booking. But surely its cheaper to buy the seats you want when booking rather than spending thousands to hit the membership level to gain that benefit. I spend approx £20k annually on the BA PP Amex card so wonder what that will get me for tier points.
I tend to fly on CE and CW redemptions, and always perceived that status was unnecessary as most benefits are baked into those travel classes. I obtained a RJ status match to BA Silver-equivalent to avoid seat selection fees, and that paid for itself after just two trips. So, ironically, as a BA Blue who only flies J redemptions, I may benefit from the less crowded lounges? If CW Club Suite ever becomes more reliably available, then status-enabled seat selection would also become irrelevant (for me).
Moving over to Finnair which has a system, just like AA, where you get more Tier Points once you have reached One World Emerald status. Finnair also allows you to top up missing Tier Points by purchasing Avios and exchanging them for Tier Points. Bye bye BA - so sad to leave you, but this new system, a simple and poor copy of AA and Finnair, is just terribly awful for loyal customers… (Had BA Gold / OW Emerald for 10+ years!)
The startling increase of the threshold to achieve Gold status seems mean minded. I am lifetime Gold; my wife and son are also Gold but no way will they maintain this under the new system. So why do it? It will over time reduce the pressure on Gold card only lounges, but assuming that a business class ticket will still get you into a lounge, I don’t see much reduction in overcrowding. Customer benefits from the changes : zero
I have been working so hard to get silver status and now it's completely pointless. Living in Northern Ireland, we only have KLM other than BA so it's time to say good bye and move on ...
Dont understand the outcry.. I fly twiceish a year Club to SYD and narrowly miss Gold on several occasions. With the inclusion of BA Amex, BA Holidays and the fuel credits it seems I can even get Gold with just one Club to SYD and my regular flights. My biggest disappointment is that Qantas and Cathay mileage is HALF that of AA or Qatar. Still MUCH prefer getting points from holiday and Amex spend.
I’m an expat in the states - BA have a Chase Visa card here. They didn’t mention it on their FAQs page at all. Just the UK Amex. I’d easily get Silver with my AA J transcontinental flights here with work and a couple of flights back home. No idea if I’ll get close to Bronze with this. At least I’ll be Silver until April 2026 and Bronze to April 2027. I’ll have to check out Star Alliance.
So in theory if I make out right……find the cheapest ticket, pre book your seat and add 2 or 3 bags to actually bump up the points. If the fare is only £15 on the cheapest ticket you earn 15 tier points and 2 bags and a seat reservation (£160+£40) would give you 215 tier points? Just add the bags and don’t use them.
But the points are just based on total spend whether that’s on the flight fare or on extras so you’re no better off doing it that way, and definitely not worth paying for bags just to get the points
Proportionally and to guarantee points, extras makes them profit and gives you more points. The whole philosophy of finding high tier points for low £ has gone. Probably this idea is for someone “short” of points for the next tier or “points run” but then again further down the line we will know more.
Good for BA, now I can feel more relaxing at T5. The lounge has been like zoo for years. There is no tranquility vibes in there. Surely, BA will lost some of the folks but it will pick up more premium travellers.
Oh dear you had to share the lounge with all those other people who forked out to fly in business or built up status , presumably you fly business paid for by a company snobbish attitude
@@mikeloveday7941 Qatar has separate lounge with business/first class ticket and frequent flyer lounge in Doha. That is how T5 should be, to reduce the crowd in the lounge. Have you been to Gallery lounge in T5? You can’t even find a seat in there in peak time. The lounge is packed with economy passenger with status+1. I am not fortunate enough to use the Concord room. This new policy is surely there to sort out the mess. By the way I fly mostly with avios,CV and UV. I fund myself oneway or another 😌
I can afford the new system and probably will retain status; but I’d not want to share the lounge with snobbish people like you. That’s the downside… more people like you in there.
I guess the next episode could be the considerations of schemes for Star Alliance and / or SkyTeam. Seeing most are considering changez it would be very timely. Perhaps also a aection on ststus match would be awesome, as it would be a shame to lose our current investment. Keep it up, matey, we are all in this together!
Not great news but most reactions about never flying BA again are overblown, can’t see how the changes are terrible other than for those who game the current system to chase gold status. Those who were silver would probably usually go business anyway which gives you the lounge access. Great if you’re an IAG shareholder and they’ve probably thought about the environmental perspective in having a system which encourages people to fly just for points
Controversial opinion: I think this is potentially a good change. People will hate it initially but I'm sure there will be good ways to make this work for you, like BA holidays and BA+ Amex.
I think a lot could depend on exactly how the Amex spend will work. If it’s easy to achieve, then a £5k spend on BA hols for silver isn’t entirely unachievable. Gold will still feel far out of reach for me though.
Will the grace period still exist for those playing the system this year? in April 2025, I will have 1480 tier points; my return flight is on April 3rd, will take me over 1500. since the new system begins on April 1st, will I still get gold?
BA have totally missed the point. It is the programme that drives people to The Airline, not the other way around. I like many others will jump ship to more convenient (cheaper) local operators in The North. So sad.
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
In a way, we've all been liberated from an average airline with inconsistent service
Well done for being the first to react! Thought you were reaching a little with the list of "pros" to this change!!!!
I've been waiting for you two to drop your reactions. Matt, how much longer have we got to wait?
Thanks Matt! Yes, not too much to be positive about, but thought I’d try!
@charlesontravels Agree, it’s clearly not positive overall but appreciate the effort at least at considering the positives of the sad remnants.
@MattsPlanet You did very well by booking your TP run for 2025 when you did, as you'll lock in your status through to 2027 with that, and so these changes won't affect you till then. I'm not so lucky with Silver expiring in 2026, after which I have no real chance of renewing it with this new system.
@@obamtl I tend not to do any kneejerk reactions - I like to leave it until things settle a little and I can actually add something to the debate.... Which may take a couple of days.... Although I do have quite a lot I want to say!!!
After a period of no flying during the pandemic it opened my eyes to just pay business/first with whichever logical airline at the time. You get all the benefits without having to chase some silly number. Less stressful too
Absolutely. All my intra-Europe travel is in Business, anything international is in First and, where possible, I avoid BA because the product is very sub-par and more often than not the standard of crew is very inconsistent too.
I’m a leisure traveller. I’m now back to purely picking holidays based on price. No incentive to stick with BA Holidays. I hope this turns out to be an utter disaster and they lose customers and money to Virgin or Jet2.
Me too have a Business Class trip to Madrid in early March but for tourism and this will be the last time I fly BA.
They will as I am another. Unless you live in the London area, there are better foreign carriers that will link you locally through their European hubs.
@@mikefuller2019You make a good point. British Airways really should be called London Airways, because unless you can get to a London airport, mostly LHR, they don’t really care. I live in Scotland, and fly regularly on business from either Glasgow or Edinburgh, and when going international, that would normally mean that I would have to fly to LHR first, and then connect to a long haul flight to my destination. Now I’m more inclined to fly Lufthansa to Frankfurt, and connect using a Star Alliance airline, or (if it’s out East) use Emirates from GLA to Dubai, and continue on with Emirates. I can’t honestly see any reason for using British Airways from the regional airports in the UK anymore. It’s going to be easier to take Lufthansa to Frankfurt, or KLM to AMS, and change there I reckon. I mean if you have to take a two hop journey to get to where you’re going in any case, there are better options than LHR. Just avoid CDG; it’s awful 😣
I have spent a lot of time in the BA First Lounge at LHR. Overcrowded, difficult to find seats and queues for toilets. Hardly a premium experience. This change will release the golden handcuffs of BA and encourage many travellers to try other options.
I travel for work monthly and I’ve often chosen the less-than-ideal route in order to stay with BA for the benefits I get on OneWorld even in Economy. I will no longer be doing that. They’ve essentially told me “you don’t spend enough to matter”. Disappointed especially as I achieved Silver until 2026 but that’s gone now.
Apart from the total cheek of BA dropping this change at New Year... it means after 9 years of gold status, I'll be choosing other airlines from now on. Simply not worth it. I suppose I should thank them for saving me money. Well done for getting this quick response on RUclips.
It says a lot when their “improvements” to the loyalty scheme are causing customers who have been loyal and frequent flyers for almost a decade to move away from them.
@charlesontravels Yes, it's a terrible move from them and they should have also been upfront about it when making the big announcement about the tier points year being set to start in April. Strangely, it might end up being a good thing. Freedom from a 'loyalty' system might just be the biggest benefit? 😏
Well done for getting in first. Far easier than trying to interpret the FAQ from BA.
Thanks!
Good onya for being the first channel to post about these changes.
Being Australia-based the TP runs were the best for me as a BA member. I actually joined after the Air Berlin collapse, but I am now looking at the Qatar or Malaysia Airlines programs.
@charlesontravels I'm awaiting the "which frequent flyer programme to move to following new BA changes" video lol
Watch this space!
Qatar airways privilege is pretty good work around if you travel east
Flying Blue is pretty good for UK based travellers. You don’t have the fly through fortress Heathrow, the AF/KL network and products are pretty good, reward availability is excellent, earning is pretty simple, you get access to La Première reward seats… the downside - Skyteam 🤷🏻♂️
British Airways just saved me over 8k no need to plan that tier points run to Phuket on club world now. Thankfully I didn’t tell my wife yet about that holiday. This move will certainly knock some sense into me. The perk were never worth the effort
I was One World Emerald for several years, now dropped to Ruby. I've basically given up with Lounges round the world. Overcrowded, queues, often poor food. Nowadays I just go to a restaurant in the airport and get something far nicer that I actually want and always find a quiet seat somewhere that's quieter than the Lounge! The only benefit worth having is the ability to use Business Check In when flying economy and I get this with Ruby (I always choose economy if it's less than 10 hours, save a few thousand to spend elsewhere!).
The changes are absolute bonkers...they will lose so many travellers who do an extra one or two trips with BA per year to chase status in addition to normal travel. Whereas now their will be no incentive to fly BA and you will be better off paying low cost and then paying for food at the airport.
I dont get why they didnt just increase the current threshold and scheme e.g. 2,000 points not 1500
Completely agree. I’ve already decided I’ll not be flying a cash club Europe flight ever again.
@charlesontravels My plan would have been as mentioned if the goal was increase money...stretch the goalposts what was needed for gold and silver...1100 for silver for example....for those who would have collected 750 anyway for current silver...would entice them to take another flight ...just to have status again as they enjoy the perks and feel it would have a negative impact if they didn't have it. Stretch GOLD to 2,000 and then evaluate in 6 months if it led to more flights and more £ as it tempted just that extra one or two flights. Will now focus on Avios earning to fly qatar and Aer lingus to America and Asia etc
That would be too sensible - there's is a bunch of folk at BA who need to make it look like they have important complicated jobs overseeing the Exec Programme.
Definitely agree that this kills the hobby of tier point runs in theory. Commercially that therefore seems like they’re closing the door on a particular market that would regularly be buying flights purely for the hobby, and paying more for premium cabins too. I can’t immediately see where they are recouping cost savings or tapping into another market to replace the lost revenue from this. I’m sure they will watch bookings closely in the coming weeks and months as people turn their backs on BA in favour of low cost carriers (comparable service and product) or alternative premium carriers that offer a genuinely premium service.
Any Avios i have remaining will be used on Iberia or Finnair.....then 2025 im stuffing all my points to other middle eastern airlines
These changes are only gonna allow for the wealthy or frequent business travellers to earn Gold. Thankfully though, Silver has been a sweetspot with the BA Executive club, however even obtaining that is going to prove difficult.
I wonder if now might be a good time to do a status match with the other alliances, if one has a good status with BA.
I travel somewhat regularly for business, maybe 12 to 15 times per year, of which there are roughly 4 or 5 long haul trips, but even with that I will lilely not achieve Gold using this new method.
this sounds absurd. I also travel for work around 12 times a year, with around 4 long haul destinations but I'll definitely make the cut. Business class or premium economy should be enough, especially given there will also be incentives for BA holidays and the premium avios amex...
BA are gonna lose a lot of customers with this move..
@AyoSosanya Like tier points and status...I can imagine made people book a holiday with BA but now easyjet and JET 2 will likely pose a better option and cheaper as without status people are just going to get similar experiences
I’m one! I stayed with them to keep status for the benefits even in Economy but makes very little sense now.
@@AyoSosanya but which customers? The heavy spenders will stay put: a surprisingly large number of them aren’t familiar with the airline programs. They’re going to lose low spenders who legitimately try and extract as much value as possible. Those easy avenues to elite status are now closed, so low revenue/margin customers, if they leave, will move to other airlines, likely Ryanair and Easyjet.
@@hughofIreland even the heavy spenders will struggle honestly 20k a year solo for gold not including tax or any bonuses is hefty.
Anyone spending that much is already getting the benefits anyway from their cabin class but leisure travellers who might spend a few thousand a year in economy or prem eco will lose their status.
I think the long haul will be fine but this will have a large impact on their short haul tickets imo like why pay £3-400 for club Europe when you can fly eco or even with some other budget airline since there’s no gains from it anymore
@ it all depends on how a heavy spenders is defined. I wouldn’t consider even £20k plus tax as a lot. United Airlines, for example, awards its premium status to those who spend over $50k or prepay $75k.
I predict it will mirror what happened in the US when the big three carriers moved from people who fly a lot to people who spend a lot. There will be a lot of complaining, but frankly BA will do just fine by focusing on its higher spend passengers. I don’t think BA is going to suffer.
I read this news on my flight back to Bahrain and realized keeping gold status now will no longer be possible after April 2026. Next year will be my last.
BA were once ‘The World’s favorite Airline’. Today, they are no more than a slight uptick from a budget airline. A shame but I guess it might be called “progress”,
I have only used BA for US travel and partner airlines for other long distance for tier points. Often the cabins are outdated and the lounges are poor as a comp to other more modern carriers. Commercially this seems like a very odd move when trying to maintain loyalty for the airline. The upside is, it will make travel choices far more competitive when status is unattainable for most.
You can fully see why they’re doing it. A lot of people have managed to figure out the optimal path to Gold and the lounges (for example) are getting very busy as a result. How do you dial back up the exclusivity? Raise the bar. 🤷♂️
You did well getting this out so soon. I've only been as high as silver but anytime I've been in a BA lounge, it's always been packed. I've never been comfortable with the idea of the tier point run, as it's travel which isn't really necessary. Having said all that, I reckon this will come back to bite BA. For the last few years I've been using Qatar from Dublin to Australia rather than BA from Belfast. The service is better and less connections means a more comfortable journey.
Even if not doing a tier point run, there are plenty of times I’ve booked business over economy on short haul simply because the tier points were worth the added cost, but there’s no advantage to that any more!
@charlesontravels interesting times ahead for BA. I suspect next on their list, will be a devaluation of Avios.
Good summary. I see YT videos showing people flying shorthaul, or positioning flights, in BA business class. 45mins in a busy lounge, extra luggage you probably dont need, 'free' seat selection, and a marginally better experience on board. That's not worth the premium. I think leisure travels will benefit by looking at great economy fares from other airlines, and then pay for add-ons which they really need. I recently flew SAS for the first time, and paid EUR 15 to add a large cabin bag, and a checked bag. They are my new go-to airline for flying to London with baggage.
Completely agree. It was sometimes worth paying a little extra for those short haul business class to get the tier points, but definitely not worth it anymore.
For someone who has forever been on blue tier I look forward to finding more access to the lounges when flying business class.
Thank you BA for forcing me to go to a better airline
Thank you for the detailed rundown!
Honestly this is a slap in the face even for true frequent fliers like myself that fly at least once a month shorthaul with the odd longhaul flight in between. One would probably have to spend around 8.5- 9k gbp worth of flight tickets because of tax etc. to reach silver which is insane... I understand that some lounges especially at T5 are overcrowded and one might therefore have to raise the threshold, but this literally is way out of proportion.
As Glasgow is my local airport until I gained silver a couple of years ago if flying long distance east I would fly either Emirates, KLM or Lufthansa changing in connecting in Dubai, Amsterdam and Frankfurt respectively. Flying west I used Virgin or KLM connecting In London or Amsterdam. On gaining Silver I stopped using these airlines and used BA even though it’s in flight experience was worse than all the others and Heathrow wasn’t great. Now that I won’t be flying BA it will be liberating to again fly with these other more interesting airlines. Every cloud has a silver lining - just without silver status.
A a great quick update. Well done.
I’m in a similar position in Newcastle. Flights with Emirates, KLM and Lufthansa all starting to look a little more appealing than before!
l’m fed up either way BA cancelling my flights due to weather when other airlines are flying. In every case the flights were underbooked so go figure. Good excuse to use another airline.
United airlines did this about 8 years ago. I will never chase status with them. They now require $24,000 usd dollar spend on just tickets to achieve the status (it was 10,000 years ago. ). That’s spending over $2000 a month on tickets with them. No way. Now I fly anyone I want, and get the best service and flights. Sure….i may spend an extra $50 on luggage, but sometimes save thousands on an international ticket
I was a BA exec club member for nearly 10 years. Never saw much benefit for giving all my business to them. In 2024 I found cheaper & better business class flights elsewhere so ended up not flying BA at all...
I have been silver for 25 years and a few years Gold - last 3 years have switched my business class long haul to Swiss a far superior product at a better price as well.
Another thought, it feels like I am better off having a platinum Amex card now even though it costs a whopping £650/year this gives lounge access year-round and points that can be exchanged into multiple airline mileage schemes…
It makes perfect business sense to align your benefits with spend……… those who spend most “earn” most. However, as a traveller about to lose his Silver status, with no hope of retaining it any longer under this new regime, my loyalty over the years to BA has just vanished. Oh well.
Must have been a hectic day of recording and editing lol, even the very frequent flyers and insiders on FT were caught out by this one, BA kept this very close to their chest.
But this just seems so poorly thought out. Spend based TPs kill any hope of high status for most leisure travellers, yet BA have been courting them hugely with the double TP offer, and that made sense in the wake of the pandemic as leisure travel recovered so much faster. They're rewarding business travellers who have little to no say in which airline they fly, while punishing leisure travellers who have total discretion on where they spend their money, it's madness.
It was clear that this would happen eventually, but I'm staggered it happened so soon, I expected that at the earliest they'd announce this in April 2025, for an April 2026 start. At least to let the TP year alignment sort itself out before this, and to give a year of notice, 3 months is somewhat insulting.
But oh well. I have Silver until April 2026, but will give up any hope of retaining it after that. I just don't spend enough. I might be able to maintain Bronze with BAH counting the whole of my share of the trip cost, plus credit card bonuses (though they've not said how that'll work yet unless I've missed it), but unless they drastically improve the Bronze benefits I really see no reason to remain loyal to BA in order to do that.
Silver benefits and getting the TPs to earn and retain it kept me flying oneworld, mostly BA, even when more expensive than eg easyJet. But without that I'll just take the cheapest option going forward, and if/when I do fly BA I certainly won't consider upgrading to CE, as really the only reason I ever did was for the TPs.
Spot on.
I completely agree on all points!
Totally agree with all of this. Silver will be too much of a push and Bronze isn’t worth it. There will be a riot over this and once everyone’s status expires in April 2026 and no one has to be loyal to BA any more, I think they’ll find loyalty works both ways.
Very well put. I just can't fathom why any leisure traveller (the vast majority these days) would pay for Club Europe if there aren't a good amount of TPs to be had!!!!!!!
Absolutely spot on- I think BA have underestimated the genuinely loyal customers who choose to fly with them.
Good to see you were out of the blocks to explain the changes. Yes, loyalty to BA has just gone out the window. However, they have yet to explain how the current status will move forward from 1st April, given the changes they made there. Just acquired Gold to Jan 2026, but will this change? Great vlog.
You should still keep Gold to Jan 2026. What’s not clear is what happens at that point. Previously you’d get a soft landing to silver for a year, but there seem to be a few suggestions that this won’t be the case. Will have to wait and see.
I used BA before having to commute to and from Germany, but decided to stay with them because it would be easy to retain status. I can now do 4 return flights through Star Alliance a year for a lot less money and gain silver status with them instead. Like this is a route I have to do, so not even for leisure. Under BA’s new system, I might not even get Bronze
Well, there it is. I have no more reasons to fly with BA anymore. It's back to the cheapest premium option now
Fly Norse. They’re a million times better.
Thank you for highlighting how BA has entirely removed the fun element of gaining status for a great many of us. Videos such as yours are always a wonderful source of information, education & entertainment for those of us within this seemingly now disbanded community. Qatar Privilege potentially seems the most viable option moving forward so your thoughts on that would be appreciated. I’m going to rinse my 0.5M Avios ASAP before they’re devalued even further as well!
Thank you! I’ll definitely be reviewing the Qatar Privilege Club along with the other Oneworld airline loyalty schemes
@charlesontravelscould you also do, what other alliance you can join if you based in uk/london please
Totally agree with your point about the fun element of Tier point runs but this change will mean I look to other airlines for certain flights when my status expires in April 2026.
I am a fan of BA overall but their product is quite dated, especially in Club Europe and Club World, so I will definitely be flying on Emirates to try out their Premium Economy and look forward to trying some European carriers on longhaul rather than staying loyal to OneWorld. If I do ever qualify for Gold after the changes (highly unlikely), I'll certain guest you in! Hope you keep producing content, including on what other airline frequent flyer options might be better value for those of us in the UK. Otherwise I need to get a new piggy bank to save the £7K for Silver!
Club Europe is identical to any other intra European carrier, in what way is it dated?
@ALFOONUS the food and drink offering often looks unappetising and completely unappealing. I have flown many times in Club Europe and BA could do so much with how it presents the food and the style of its Club service, whatever the duration of flight. The airline will benefit from some serious innovation and style. And innovation and style needs more than a thumb sized slice of cheddar cheese and could simply include high quality coffee or a choice of coffees on certain sectors or just a team that knows how to present food. I often refer to Club Europe as Euro Traveller Plus.
Great video - have completely missed this update and found the video really informative. Sadly the nail in the coffin for me and BA - no point in trying to maintain gold status when Lufthansa and other airlines are a lot more innovative in the way they collaborate with people like Amex for access to their lounges.
Thanks!
Absolute car crash. I'm furious it's been retrospectively applied to existing holiday bookings as well. I can't get out of those. And it's shared between passengers now too, so needs to be £20k plus taxes and fees per person!!!
All my spending with BA will cease. Why would i bother going out of my way when i can fly direct in a lot of cases from Manchester
Bookings made before December 30th will be honoured with a multiplier of 13.35 so you won't be worse off in the sense that you'll get the same percentage of the way to the different status level. The only problem is that if you've not booked all the trips to get you to your desired status, those further trips will cost you a lot more.
@obamtl that's exactly what's happened unfortunately. And the spend is spread across number of people on the booking too. I simply won't bother anymore after those. I may even default on the second one if I can
Oh one other thing which you didn't mention is that according to some sources soft landings are going away, so from Gold you'll drop straight to blue if you don't earn enough TPs for Silver/Bronze
I had seen about that. I hope it doesn’t end up being true. If there’s enough backlash to the changes maybe they’ll at least hold off on that point, but we’ll see…
@charlesontravels When I first saw the news on the TP changes I did initially think of going for Gold before April, Currently Silver with 900 TPs so a 600TP run to the US could get me to gold, and therefore also an extra year of Silver too so I'd have lounge access until April 2027. But with the loss of Soft landings it's not worth it to go for gold now, since either way I'll be dropping to Bronze or blue in April 2026, and imo the benefits of gold over silver for one year aren't really worth it
@@zaphod4245 BA will really need to clarify this soon. Everything we've heard on soft landings right now is 2nd hand from literally one post on FlyerTalk, from a person that wasn't confident it was true. Keeping my fingers crossed for you and countless others that soft landings still exist.
I do lots of short hops, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Vienna and qualified for bronze last year. This is likely to make me change airlines as I won't qualify this year based on spend so it's no longer a consideration for me.
My year end was December (before the changes already announced) and I decided to pay to get over the mark for Gold for the first time ever despite being quite happy with silver benefits for my work and leisure travel. This was with the intention of ‘soft landing’ to silver in Jan ‘26 and locking in benefits for another year. I guess that was money down the drain…
I was hoping for the same thing when I pushed for Gold this year. Nothing official announced about the soft landing though. Yet…
I abandoned BA 6 years ago. Much better choice out there now.
You are right. Stripping away the fun is something that will probably hurt BA more than their business analysts realise. I have GGL and lifetime gold, so probably will consider whether to retain ggl or try skyteam a bit more this year
I was about to start building status for the first time. Unlikely to bother now and fly with other airlines either cheaper or better service/quality. Your vid was very helpful. I didn't realise there was overcrowding in some of the lounges and I imagine passengers paying for bus classs or more could get fairly miffed if the lounge experience was becoming a lot less exclusive and special. Other than that, this seems like a miserly move on behalf of BA.
Oh it's got just like everything else these days - ways too complicated and all smoke and mirrors. TBH BA can shove their status. We rack up Avios like crazy as we run a business and push as much expense through Amex as possible - so we always get CW or First tickets ( when you can find them these days ), thus status is irrelevant. If it wasn't for the Amex Avios scheme we would NEVER fly BA , for certain we would NEVER pay hard cash to travel with them, far better carriers out there nowadays.
I’ve been in the executive club for 21 years and it’s all down hill
Over crowed lounges and I’m possible tier years
Think the overcrowded lounges have factored into BA’s decision on this. Strangely, they were the ones giving out double TP’s on holidays 😅
Loyalty is not just about money-spent. Even if one travels on a regular basis for work, we don't get to fly flexible premium cabin fares. I've flown with BA for almost a decade as a Silver Member (and occasionally as a Gold Member) and I have developed a sense of attachment to the airline with several fond memories which I personally believe is also a form of loyalty and what shapes the brand image.
Well, looks like I’ll be on Blue Status for the foreseeable 😂 Very helpful video, thank you. The official BA announcement video was hopeless.
Good video, thanks. Madness given that leisure travellers are an increasing group and business travellers are a decreasing group. Big mistake, I fear. Sad for all.
It definitely feels like quite a backwards way of thinking to not target the premium leisure market
I'm not too upset about it if I'm honest... As a family of 4 I've earnt a measly 135 tier points this year despite spending £15,000 on package holidays with BA, all paid for on the BA Amex card. I'm currently nowhere near the Bronze tier on the current model, but would be a minimum of Bronze under the new model. It's not just about the flights...
really sad news. My wife and i currently hold gold spending around £15k per annum between us. Thats enough to get you gold. If i understand your video correctly if we spend circa £15k pa with BA including holidays they would split that spending by allocating 7500 tier points to each of us. I appreciate there may be other ways to gain tier points ie spend on AMEX but really for us both to get gold moving forward we'd have to spend in the region of £40,000 jointly with BA? not for us I'm afraid. Be interesting to chat sometime as for a leisure traveller 40k pa is crazy.
It would be plural "travellers" needing £40K spend, not a single traveller.
My family and I spend even more every year and I was Gold. I've now realised that having lounge access , and worrying about which airline to book with, is pointless. So now I don't care about the lounges, pay for security fast track if possible and we just enjoy a meal in an airport restaurant rather than an overcrowded sub-par lounge! And we've saved a fortune in flights by not caring which airline it is!
I see many downsides particularly one’s loyalty to BA In order to keep moving up in status, also what’s happening at the end of each year in terms of soft or hard landings? With a 70% increase in share price this year maybe BA are feeling they don’t need us loyal TP nuts anymore.
Currently not clear what’s happening with the soft landings. I’ll be very frustrated if they go as that was part of my reasoning for pushing for Gold this year
As a silver membership owner based in Taiwan, it’s pretty shocked especially when I already planned to fly to reach gold this year within £3000.
I am now not sure if should I change to Qatar, Qantas, or say hi to the flying blue program. The thing I am concerned about is whether Flying Blue also change its rules to spend-based status just like Lufthansa or BA or not, hoping that you can give some advice.
BTW, thanks for the clear video and happy new year, Charles.
I’m not too knowledgeable on those other schemes currently so I don’t want to offer you potentially bad advice. Definitely something I’ll be researching though (and potentially a topic for a future video!). Happy new year!
I'd be amazed if a few rival airlines don't come in and offer status matching in an attempt to poach Oneworld / BA clients.
I’d jump at that chance if they do!
@charlesontravels FlyingBlue closed their matching offer for BA days ago (it was available in November but when I checked 2 days ago, it had closed for BA). I can see them reopening this for BA very soon.
Give a couple of weeks and this will probably happen
Finnair did the same thing last spring. The milestones are
1: 3k Avios points
2: 2 lounge pass
3: 2 upgrade benefits
4: 4 upgrade benefits
Guessing it’s probably going to be the same with BA.
Oh well, it looks like I will be taking my business and loyalty elsewhere. I've been a BA Gold member for 10+ years, and this is the final nail in the coffin. I've been sadly watching a once great British brand slowly decline, only to be kept afloat by the fantastic ground and cabin staff. I feel for them the most, and I can only see significant redundancies happening over the next 2 years. Such a terrible shame.
Is there any 2025 tier point runs possible before this change comes about - maybe we could organise the final BA run!
Thank you for the update. It's a real shame as I am well on the way to lifetime status which was my objective to complete over the next 10 years. It feels like a dream taken away. 😢
I fear BA haven’t realised that loyalty is a two-way thing. From everything I’ve read today my first reaction to BA is 👋🏻.
Thanks for the summary Charles, I’m also disappointed with no real sight of any net benefits.
I wonder how long the backlash will last!
The big three US carriers moved to a revenue model a few years ago. It’s really a good way to get the cheaper customers (like myself) to move to discount carriers.
Thankfully they have ditched the 4 x eligible flights requirement, but for me I think the biggest problem will be how they deal with Partner Airline flights. I've been an Executive Club loyalist despite living in Australia / a business traveller around Asia for the past decade+. So spend a lot of time flying Qantas / Cathay / JAL. I'm >70% of the way to Lifetime Gold. It was always straightforward - a single regional flight in Business would garner 140 TPs, or 9% of your yearly requirement. I suspect this percentage will now drop based on this new model?
I understand why BA have moved to a spend based system (much as I hate the change as I enjoyed doing double TP holidays to places like Tirana, Bucharest, Sofia) but what I find especially annoying/disappointing are the very high thresholds BA will set. It's ironic they'll remove the "Executive" from the name as that is exactly what it will become. Just glad I got to Gold last year and should be able to retain it this year. Hoping there will still be a soft landing to Silver April 2026. April 2027 I'll move to another airline scheme - or perhaps just not bother.
I agree- completely understand why they’ve made the change, but I do think they’ve pushed the goal posts a bit too far out. If the threshold doesn’t even seem remotely attainable for most people, then most won’t bother staying loyal. Will be interesting to see how it pans out.
Great vid as always
Thanks!
Virgin Atlantic do a tier match. Would this be a way to retain your gold status and move airline and not lose the benefits?
Seeing the amount of views your excellent video has had already, I would hope that British Airways are watching from afar, and somebody realises what a mistake they may have made. I hope it becomes easier, or I think myself and a lot of others may be looking for another airline .
Keep up the good work, as I’ve just found you I’m now subscribed 😊
Yes you could do a status match with Virgin although that would only last one year, so would still need to attain status beyond that to get the benefits. Thanks for subscribing!
Hopefully BA will review the responses and tweak the levels in our favour like they reacted to brunchgate!
It would be interesting to see how status can be achieved elsewhere, whether OneWorld or others.
I’m hoping that the bits that haven’t been announced yet (e.g. spend required for the bonus points on Amex) are because they’re trying to gauge the level of negative response before deciding. I’ll definitely be looking into other options for status.
@ thanks for being first to bring it to my attention. I’ve been enjoying silver status this year and hopefully next but now my plans, like everyone else are up in the air ( no pun intended)
Is there a better Oneworld program we can collect instead to gain status? Would love to know your thoughts. Thabks
That’s something I’m currently looking into and will likely be an upcoming video once I’ve done all the research!
Reached silver last year and it says I have enough to be Silver after March but I’m wondering whether this will count or not… Very unimpressed and will nowbe considering an airline change for work travel next year in search of better service
If you’ve earned enough for silver before the end of March you should retain that status until the end of March 2026
Just achieved Gold until 2026, but there’s no way I’ll get close going forwards from there. Even Silver may be a stretch!
At least I’ll be free to spend elsewhere once released from the need to keep the status.
Thanks BA. Happy new year to you too! Charles, I appreciate there are still some unknowns, but it would be interesting to know what your own strategy will be going forward. Will you still be looking to achieve BA status? Or will you look elsewhere for status with other airlines / alliances? Or will you look at how else to achieve some of the benefits of status? (E.g it can sometimes be cheaper to buy the ticket / buy lounge access / buy fast-track security, etc).
All points that I’m looking into now and will very likely be the focus of an upcoming video once I’ve settled on a strategy!
@charlesontravels How about this for a project (and @MattsPlanet too!): An analysis of the most effective way to get One World Sapphire / Emerald status with other One World airlines (equiv to BA Silver / Gold)? Similar to what someone did a while ago (might have been Matt) with Star Alliance.
SQ Krisflyer miles and tier status have been based on spend not distance for a decade. Far fairer and easier to understand than the distance-based model.
On the BAH - looks like a triple dip? 1) TP from the booking (split between travellers equally) 2) flights and 3) 1x bonus for the lead booker… A 5k holiday booking gets you silver as the lead booker from 1 and 3 alone?
I believe you only get TP for the overall booking cost. You don’t get additional TP for the flights, and the bonus for the flight lead booker is just an avios bonus, not TP
@ nice one, they'd confused me with talking about avios in the middle of a TP related FAQ! Back to the drawing board :/
I see why they’re doing it. They want to make it more difficult so it’s more exclusive. It’s not ideal but It makes sense. People who spend the most should earn the most. The club lounges have become overcrowded anyway.
So if I'm gold this year, march is when my tier points end. Will I still be gold for 2025 april onwards for a year?
Not as bad as it seems. Two holidays staying in a nice Hotel and flying business class will give you and your travel partner Silver status.
Are there many real benefits of having Gold over Silver ?
As a leisure only traveller I wont be looking to continue with Guest List beyond 4/26 but thankfully I also have GfL to fall back on 😅
Amazing to see all the comments on HfP of people saying they are relieved of no longer having to do TP runs and are now free to pick the best airline at the best price. Got to think what have we all been doing these years… madness
I’ve been booked on two flights with BA this month. The first one was cancelled dumping 300 odd passengers in the terminal in Barbados, with no help whatsoever. The second one was awful. Terrible service and dirty aircraft. Disappointed. Luckily I don’t pay out of my own pocket.
And they said it is the first time they change the program rules. Not true! Back in 2002 there was an executive club relaunch with new rules for burning earning avios.
BA just lost a very loyal flyer. I have already made my Gold status for next year - but will try to get Flying Blue instad. I have 45-50 flights a year, 15-20 of them beeing Long Haul nd most of them in Club World or Business on partner airlines. On top of that my family flyes 10-15 times pr. year at least in Economy Plus - we will be taking our business elsewhere. It is a shame, as I do like the BA product - and also the partner products, but making it so hard to obtain gold is not something im gonna take part in,
Im currently silver with ba due to expire Sept 25. I have a couple of trips planned between now and March that would give me enough tier points to renew silver. I'm not sure where i stand with this now. It might be cheaper cancelling my ba holiday and using a much cheaper carrier. I'll no longer be loyal to ba as Glasgow is my local airport, so it's just as easy connecting in Amsterdam or Frankfurt for my trips. Pretty disappointed with this, like others.
Thanks for a good update.
Thanks!
I suspect a lot of people will lose their status and wonder why they ever bothered with it. Ive been Silver for a year, and will be silver for another year from April. Can't really think of any major benefits tbh apart from the early seat booking. But surely its cheaper to buy the seats you want when booking rather than spending thousands to hit the membership level to gain that benefit. I spend approx £20k annually on the BA PP Amex card so wonder what that will get me for tier points.
I tend to fly on CE and CW redemptions, and always perceived that status was unnecessary as most benefits are baked into those travel classes. I obtained a RJ status match to BA Silver-equivalent to avoid seat selection fees, and that paid for itself after just two trips. So, ironically, as a BA Blue who only flies J redemptions, I may benefit from the less crowded lounges? If CW Club Suite ever becomes more reliably available, then status-enabled seat selection would also become irrelevant (for me).
Moving over to Finnair which has a system, just like AA, where you get more Tier Points once you have reached One World Emerald status. Finnair also allows you to top up missing Tier Points by purchasing Avios and exchanging them for Tier Points. Bye bye BA - so sad to leave you, but this new system, a simple and poor copy of AA and Finnair, is just terribly awful for loyal customers… (Had BA Gold / OW Emerald for 10+ years!)
The startling increase of the threshold to achieve Gold status seems mean minded. I am lifetime Gold; my wife and son are also Gold but no way will they maintain this under the new system. So why do it? It will over time reduce the pressure on Gold card only lounges, but assuming that a business class ticket will still get you into a lounge, I don’t see much reduction in overcrowding. Customer benefits from the changes : zero
I have been working so hard to get silver status and now it's completely pointless. Living in Northern Ireland, we only have KLM other than BA so it's time to say good bye and move on ...
Dont understand the outcry.. I fly twiceish a year Club to SYD and narrowly miss Gold on several occasions. With the inclusion of BA Amex, BA Holidays and the fuel credits it seems I can even get Gold with just one Club to SYD and my regular flights.
My biggest disappointment is that Qantas and Cathay mileage is HALF that of AA or Qatar.
Still MUCH prefer getting points from holiday and Amex spend.
I’m an expat in the states - BA have a Chase Visa card here. They didn’t mention it on their FAQs page at all. Just the UK Amex. I’d easily get Silver with my AA J transcontinental flights here with work and a couple of flights back home. No idea if I’ll get close to Bronze with this. At least I’ll be Silver until April 2026 and Bronze to April 2027. I’ll have to check out Star Alliance.
So in theory if I make out right……find the cheapest ticket, pre book your seat and add 2 or 3 bags to actually bump up the points. If the fare is only £15 on the cheapest ticket you earn 15 tier points and 2 bags and a seat reservation (£160+£40) would give you 215 tier points? Just add the bags and don’t use them.
But the points are just based on total spend whether that’s on the flight fare or on extras so you’re no better off doing it that way, and definitely not worth paying for bags just to get the points
Proportionally and to guarantee points, extras makes them profit and gives you more points. The whole philosophy of finding high tier points for low £ has gone. Probably this idea is for someone “short” of points for the next tier or “points run” but then again further down the line we will know more.
Good for BA, now I can feel more relaxing at T5. The lounge has been like zoo for years. There is no tranquility vibes in there. Surely, BA will lost some of the folks but it will pick up more premium travellers.
Not until it gets its in-flight product right. The "brunch" service in Club World is a joke (and I understand they may be rowing back on that).
@@TarrelScot you’re quite correct, ‘brunch’ was only temporarily suspended. It’ll ‘delight’ the Club passengers in the new year.
Oh dear you had to share the lounge with all those other people who forked out to fly in business or built up status , presumably you fly business paid for by a company snobbish attitude
@@mikeloveday7941 Qatar has separate lounge with business/first class ticket and frequent flyer lounge in Doha. That is how T5 should be, to reduce the crowd in the lounge. Have you been to Gallery lounge in T5? You can’t even find a seat in there in peak time. The lounge is packed with economy passenger with status+1. I am not fortunate enough to use the Concord room. This new policy is surely there to sort out the mess. By the way I fly mostly with avios,CV and UV. I fund myself oneway or another 😌
I can afford the new system and probably will retain status; but I’d not want to share the lounge with snobbish people like you. That’s the downside… more people like you in there.
Surely this will come back to haunt them, first lounge at LHR will be empty. People will use other airlines like I intend to.
I guess the next episode could be the considerations of schemes for Star Alliance and / or SkyTeam. Seeing most are considering changez it would be very timely.
Perhaps also a aection on ststus match would be awesome, as it would be a shame to lose our current investment.
Keep it up, matey, we are all in this together!
I’m definitely reviewing other options so watch this space!
Not great news but most reactions about never flying BA again are overblown, can’t see how the changes are terrible other than for those who game the current system to chase gold status.
Those who were silver would probably usually go business anyway which gives you the lounge access. Great if you’re an IAG shareholder and they’ve probably thought about the environmental perspective in having a system which encourages people to fly just for points
Controversial opinion: I think this is potentially a good change. People will hate it initially but I'm sure there will be good ways to make this work for you, like BA holidays and BA+ Amex.
I think a lot could depend on exactly how the Amex spend will work. If it’s easy to achieve, then a £5k spend on BA hols for silver isn’t entirely unachievable. Gold will still feel far out of reach for me though.
Will the grace period still exist for those playing the system this year? in April 2025, I will have 1480 tier points; my return flight is on April 3rd, will take me over 1500. since the new system begins on April 1st, will I still get gold?
I doubt it, unfortunately… you’d have to check with them.
BA have totally missed the point. It is the programme that drives people to The Airline, not the other way around. I like many others will jump ship to more convenient (cheaper) local operators in The North. So sad.
Unfortunately BA have a massive spread of destinations when you live in the uk
Any thoughts re what might happen to accumulated air miles with this change ?
No impact on avios