Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

British Airways extends Executive Club elite status – for Gold members only

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

British Airways is about to announce another 12 months extension of elite status for some Executive Club members.

The screw continues to tighten, however. This latest extension will only benefit Gold and Gold Guest Lists members, although there is a carrot for Silver members.

There will be no further extensions to American Express 2-4-1 companion vouchers or any other vouchers. This shouldn’t be a surprise as BA started to expire 2-4-1 vouchers on 1st October last year.

British Airways Executive Club status cards

Who gets an extension?

Gold Guest List members

If you are a Gold Guest List member (you can learn how to earn the elite Gold Guest List status here), and your tier point year ends between July 2022 and December 2022, you will receive a full 12 month extension.

Gold members

The extension announced today covers Gold members of British Airways Executive Club who have a tier point collection end date between 1st July 2022 and 30th September 2022.

If your tier point year ends during this three month period, your existing status level will be rolled over automatically for another 12 months.

Silver members

A different policy has been announced for Silver members whose tier point year ends between 1st July 2022 and 30th September 2022.

There is NO extension.

However, the number of tier points you need to retain your status is being halved, from 600 to 300 tier points.

Given that you can earn 160 tier points from a single Club Europe return flight to ‘far’ Europe (here are some ideas), I consider this reasonable.

The reduced threshold will not show for you on ba.com but your status will be extended automatically if you reach the 300 point threshold.

Everyone else

By everyone else, I mean:

  • Gold members with a tier point year ending after 30th September 2022
  • Silver members with a tier point year ending after 30th September 2022
  • All Bronze members
  • All Blue / basic members

…. you continue to benefit from the reduced tier point requirement.

British Airways status extension

The following tier point rules apply until 31st December 2022:

  • Bronze status will require 225 tier points (was 300 tier points)
  • Silver status will require 450 tier points (was 600 tier points)
  • Gold status will require 1,125 tier points (was 1,500 tier points)

You can confirm this on ba.com here.

Let me clarify how this works, because it has caused confusion in the past.

Let’s assume you are currently Silver and your tier point year ends on 8th February 2023. To requalify you must EITHER:

  • earn 450 tier points by 31st December 2022, or
  • earn the full 600 tier points by 8th February 2023

What about American Express 2-4-1 companion vouchers?

There are NO extensions to companion vouchers or Gold Upgrade vouchers.

Vouchers began to expire on 1st October so it would be very unfair to those members who have already lost a voucher to extend those which remain.

Conclusion

It is clear that not everyone will be happy with the changes which will be announced today.

However, realistically, BA and the rest of the airline industry needs to make a call. The good customers of 2019 will not be the good customers of 2023. People change companies or get promoted into roles which need less travel. Many companies will be permanently cutting back on business travel.

The industry has to decide when it should cut people loose. Businesses need to start rebuilding their elite tiers from those who are travelling now, not those who were travelling four years ago. BA has taken the first steps today to doing that.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (190)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • SNB says:
    21 Apr21 April 07:58

    After 15 years at Gold and more recently Silver level, I’m finally resolved to waving goodbye to BAEC. In order to get 300 tier points by 8 August I would have to take 4 long flights that I don’t need costing many hundreds of pounds in the next 3 months. Notwithstanding the cost to the environment (and my general well-being given the current state of operations of many airports) of taking unnecessary flights just to get a Silver card, it’s clear to me that the main benefits that I value – choosing a seat for free and lounge access – I could pay for directly and probably come out ahead financially (not BA lounge access, obviously unless travelling in Club, but they’re no great shakes and often crowded anyway). So I won’t be chasing the tier points. These past two years I’ve had multiple BA flights cancelled; wasted hours of my life trying to contact BA by phone to rebook holidays using FTVs; the two BA flights my kids took recently were nearly 3 hours late both ways and the bags were not unloaded on the return sector. There are many recent reports of woeful, unreliable BA service. I feel my well of loyalty to BA has run dry, which comes as something of a relief. Thanks to this website I did a status match with ITA recently which gives me SkyTeam Elite Plus until January 2024, so I’ll be giving those airlines a try. This isn’t a moan about BA not extending my Silver status for free – I can see that this is a reasonable commercial position for BA to take – more a realisation that I’m personally relieved to be free of the “need” to chase or retain BA status. Moving on…

    • Rob says:
      21 Apr21 April 09:08

      Er, no.

      To get 300 TP by 8th August you book a 5 night BA Holidays ‘flight and car/hotel’ package under the double tier points offer on a 160 TP route, such as Malta.

      You don’t even need to stay 5 days. Nest a flight back and don’t pick up the car. Job done for a few hundred pounds, although it makes more sense to have 5 nights away.

      • Babyg says:
        21 Apr21 April 10:27

        or 1 long haul flight (return) to TLV… for 280points (you need 4 x ba flights) so that could be something short…

      • Patrick says:
        21 Apr21 April 18:29

        Forgive my ignorance…what does it mean to nest a flight back – you mean travel back early on a separate booking? But you would need to actually travel on the return flight in order to get the TP? Thanks!

        • Rob says:
          21 Apr21 April 21:01

          Yes. Fly out on Sat AM with a return booked for following Sat PM. Book a separate flight home Sat PM and back following Sat AM. You’ve basically faked a holiday with no need for time off work.

    • Boscott says:
      21 Apr21 April 09:31

      Good points – well made.

  • Mirp says:
    21 Apr21 April 08:29

    No email from BA but my gold card now expires 08/23 so I am happy. Thanks for the heads up Head for Points.

    • MJB says:
      21 Apr21 April 12:11

      Same as Mirp, GGL through to 30/9/23 although no email from BA. Thanks TeamH4P for keeping us up to date.

  • Judy says:
    21 Apr21 April 08:34

    I don’t know why I find this so confusing. I’m Silver with a TP year end of 8 May 2022. I don’t fit into any of the categories mentioned above ie TP ending between July and September or after September 2022.

    So do I qualify for the reduced 300 by 8 May 2022 or not? Sorry!!

    • Rob says:
      21 Apr21 April 09:05

      No. You are a huge winner. You are, literally (as an 8 May year end) the last Silver cardholder to get another full year extension, hence the 2023 year end showing on your account. Every Silver member with a year end from 8 June onewards has been screwed, but not you because you scraped in.

      If you do 450 TP by 31/12 then you requalify until end June 2024.

      • Patrick says:
        21 Apr21 April 18:33

        8 June year end also got an extension. My TP year ends 8 June and silver card was extended to 31 July 2023 over winter.

  • G1712 says:
    21 Apr21 April 09:15

    Should the reduced 450TP by end 2022 for Silver be showing in the app? My collection year ends March 2023 and its still saying I need 600?

    • Rob says:
      21 Apr21 April 11:49

      No. BA has chosen not to put this in the app because it is too confusing.

  • SP says:
    21 Apr21 April 09:31

    Sept year end here, I was only 105 tier points short of requalifying, but it’s good to know I don’t need to bother getting those. The Oct 2023 expiry date is showing for me in the app already.

  • NorthernLass says:
    21 Apr21 April 10:00

    I’m terrible at working this out!
    My year end is July 8th. I have 2 BA legs which will get me 180 TPs after that. Does this mean that if I can get another 2 BA legs plus 270 TPs by the end of this year, I will be Silver?

  • George K says:
    21 Apr21 April 10:36

    OT: I recently qualified for Gold for the first time and was looking forward to the welcome pack with the usual card/tags. (Rather than a DYKWIA obsession, I am more into this stuff because of a collecting bug).

    Have they stopped doing those? Do I have to go through the replacement card option?

  • Anna says:
    21 Apr21 April 11:19

    Is this right?
    MAN-LHR-EDI return in CE gets 160 TPs
    MAN-LHR-EDI CE out and ET back gets 90 TPs
    This would give me the 270 TPs I need, plus the 180 I will already have = 450 for Silver.
    It would be great if someone could confirm as I’ve got the flights ready to book!

    • Rob says:
      21 Apr21 April 11:47

      Correct.

      • NorthernLass says:
        21 Apr21 April 12:16

        Thanks, Rob, that seems ridiculously easy – 2 UK weekends away!

        • Polly says:
          21 Apr21 April 14:07

          Anna,
          You are 10 TPs short, double check the figures before you book, or plan another Y trip for 5 TPs each way…good plan tho.

          We are doing a BA holiday 5 d, somewhere, for double points, plus another short trip in CE. Decided to stick with the 450 plan as opposed to the 300. Worth it for almost 2 years at silver…we are AUG 8th yr end. So, finally a bit of luck on our side…

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? GET THE ONLY FREE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!