Some major changes are coming to British Airways’ frequent flyer loyalty program. The airline is not only rebranding it but flipping on its head the way miles are collected along with how tier status is achieved. There is a lot to go through so let’s get at it and see what British Airways is changing.
The Club No Longer Executive – British Airways Rebrands its Frequent Flyer Program
Let’s start things off from the simplest of all, the name change. For quite some time BA’s frequent flyer program has been known by the name Executive Club. A name which in itself makes the program sound a little hard to access for common travelers, but that is just my personal take.
From April 1st 2025 the name will change, dropping the Executive. The new loyalty program name will be the British Airways Club. BA Club Tiers will be:
- Blue
- Bronze
- Silver
- Gold
More on the access thresholds later in this post. What won’t change is the conversion into oneworld equivalent tiers:
- Bronze = oneworld Ruby
- Silver = oneworld Sapphire
- Gold = oneworld Emerald
A Total Spend Based Scheme – The New BA Club Miles Accrual System
As is the case with every airline frequent flyer program nowadays, British Airways too has its own basing miles and tier points accrual based on spend. This is all the more evident with this restyling of the entire program.
Tier and Avios miles moving forward from April 1st 2025 will be awarded on every single dollar, euro or pound you spend with the airline. What I mean is that, in not a totally negative shift, the airline will be awarding points and miles even for ancillary expenses. In essence almost anything you spend with the airline, excluding non airline imposed taxes, will award miles and tier points.
For instance, you will be awarded points (Avios and Tier) for purchasing excess baggage allowance, seat selection, and even SAF fuel contributions (up to 1,000 Tier points per year).
Holiday packages purchased on BA Holidays will also enable travelers to build up Tier points and Avios. There is no limit on how many tier points can be earned booking stays on the portal. A clear push by the airline to incentivize its loyal customers to use its own services rather than rely on external OTAs.
All the above will be effective April 1st, with some other changes ready to come online at some later stage in 2025. Such as:
- Allowing to earn up to 2,500 Tier points per year with credit card spend on any daily purchase. The tier points accrual with AMEX Premium Plus co-branded credit cards is not new to the airline, as it introduced it in late 2023. Back then though the number of tier points you could build up per year was quite low. Now it’s much higher but the tier thresholds have also changed (more on that in a little bit).
- Bonus Avios points will be granted to frequent flyers within their status level before reaching the next level. Bonuses such as: 2,500, 4,000 and 5,000 Avios at milestones within Bronze and Silver.
Now, this all remains to be proven but the airline states that the change will see passengers earn same or more miles in 70% of cases. That, however, means that a large chunk of 30% will be earning less. Airlines are businesses and therefore will try to maximize profits, there will never be a change which solely benefits the traveler and hinder the business bottom line.
Special Event British Airways Club Tier Point Bonus – Here’s How It Works
So, to celebrate the restyling of its British Airways Club frequent flyer program, the airline is putting up for grabs some bonus tier points. I’ll be honest with you they are not super exciting, but there might be a way of making it worth while in some very specific cases.
For any booking made prior to February 14th 2025, for travels after April 1st 2025, travelers will be benefited with bonus tier points according to their travel class as follows:
- Euro Traveller (European Economy Class): 50
- Club Europe (European Business Class): 100
- World Traveller (World Economy Class): 70
- World Traveller Plus (World Premium Economy Class): 140
- Club World (World Business Class): 210
- First (World First Class): 330
Now, except for Club World and First, the bonuses don’t get me feeling really warm and fuzzy. However, it isn’t stated anywhere that they are assigned one time only. I can’t vouch for this but it might be that if you book multiple trips by February 14th and travel after April 1s, you might sum the bonus tier miles. That’s when this special event really gets interesting.
Speaking of Tiers – British Airways Club Frequent Flyer Tier Thresholds
Let’s wrap things up with the Tier thresholds. After all that is what most frequent travelers look at to get their hands on more interesting benefits such as lounge access, extra baggage allowance among other things. The new revisited frequent flyer program British Airways Club tier thresholds are:
- Bronze: 3,500 points
- Silver: 7,500 points
- Gold: 20,000 points
- Gold Guest List: 65,000 points
Finally, I promise this is the last paragraph, soon all BA loyalty program member will be on the same timeline as the airline is transitioning to a unified points expiry date. Everyone participating in British Airways Club will have to maintain or up their tier status by March 31st every year. Points accrual period is now April 1s to March 31st.