Travel patterns are changing all around the world, but a desire for a better flying experience certainly isn’t. Having perks when you fly is never a bad thing, and frankly, it can make all the difference.
British Airways Executive Club has been a dependable way to enjoy things from priority boarding to lounges and upgrades, but historically it’s all about your flying, and flying alone. Now, in a significant change, you can earn towards your elite status perk count just from everyday spending.
British Airways And Amex Tier Point Earning
British Airways and American Express have introduced a new tool for UK cardholders to earn towards elite status in the British Airways Executive Club loyalty program.
Tier Points are the metric for earning perks and can be earned but not spent, and work entirely separately to Avios, which can be earned and spent on rewards. Here’s a great refresher on tier points. British Airways Tier Points simply measure what level of perks and rewards you’re entitled to.
Earn Up To 200 Tier Points
British Airways Bronze status requires 300 tier points, and you can earn 2/3 of the way to that status by spending alone.
Effective immediately, and for sure running through May 21st, 2024, you can earn up to 200 tier points via spend on the British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card. Note — the “blue”, no fee version does not get this offer. Here’s how the offer works…
- 100 Tier Points if the Cardmember spends £15,000
- 50 additional Tier Points for a further £5,000 spend, totaling £20,000
- 50 more Tier Points awarded for spending another £5,000 totaling £25,000
You must enroll to take advantage, so don’t slip! You can enroll by logging into your British Airways Premium Amex account.
This is a great way to get closer to a higher level of status, like a person who typically earns Bronze, but can use this to get from the 300 level of tier points to 600 for Silver, where the rich ‘day of travel’ benefits really kick off. For Gold’s whose travel patterns have changed, this is a nice lifeline to retain status too.
I’d love to see it expand on a more permanent basis.
More Customer Friendly Changes
Earlier in the year, British Airways Executive Club added more available seats using points and significantly reduced reward surcharges.
British Airways charges just £350 in round trip cash surcharges for a business class ticket to New York, leaving competitors looking a bit nuts still asking for £1000 round trip for a reward ticket, in addition to all the points.
Earning tier points on spending is a nice way to help engaged members hit higher thresholds of rewards or retain what they like, particularly in a fairly weird year of travel during an inflationary period.
If IAG Loyalty would offer some level of tier points on British Airways reward tickets, I might be able to retire happy, but for now this is a great bridge and an offer I’ll 100% enroll in. BA Executive Club status is one I feel strongly about retaining each year.
They didn’t reduce fuel surcharges earlier this year. They simply introduced an option to use more Avios to pay for them. The standard redemption rates + surcharges didn’t (and haven’t) changed.
That’s factually incorrect. The standard, default rate is the lower surcharge option, but there’s an option to pay the old rates if people wish.