With a fresh loyalty rebrand to the ‘British Airways Club’, British Airways is turning a new page on loyalty and perks as it ditches the stuffy “Executive Club” feel. A lot is changing.
From how you progress through the tiers towards British Airways Bronze, Silver, Gold and Gold Guest List to new “milestone” treats and Avios points in between, there’s a lot to unpack. One thing is for certain, it’s very clear that British Airways is serious about its ‘Holidays’ business, because it’s woven in to just about everything in these changes.
Here’s everything you need to know, to navigate the new British Airways Club which launches April 1st, 2025.
Earning ‘Elite Status’ With British Airways Club
The first thing to understand with British Airways is that there are two types of earning you can engage in: Avios and Tier Points.
Avios is the points currency which you can earn from just about everything you do in life and also the thing you can redeem for flights, among many other things. Tier Points you earn from flying (and now some non-flying behavior too) and tier points cannot be spent. The Tier Points simply guide your progress through the “elite status” tiers of the British Airways Club.
Starting April 1st, 2025, as suspected, British Airways will award tier points based on 1 tier point for £1 spent, and new ways to earn tier points, including from credit card spend, holidays spend and charity donations will emerge to guide you up through the elite ranks. The new British Airways Club status thresholds will break down as follows…
- Bronze: 3,500
- Silver: 7,500
- Gold: 20,000
- Gold Guest List: 65,000 (with at least 52,000 earned through British Airways-marketed flights, qualifying add-ons and British Airways Holidays packages), and 40,000 to retain (with at least 32,000 earned through British Airways-marketed flights, qualifying add-ons and British Airways Holiday packages).
Yep, this is basically a “how much you spend throughout the year will determine your level of perks” change. It’s rewarding overall spend with the brand, rather than incentivizing people to take lots of connections to artificially hit status. Lots of people that couldn’t earn status with British Airways before, can now.
People will have feelings about this money based system, understandably, but I think there are new tier point earning features which make these thresholds attainable in ways which weren’t previously, even if the thresholds are lofty. And lets not forget that now that this is uniform, it’s easy for British Airways to pull levers like “double tier points” to help push people through the tiers when it makes commercial sense.
The standout thing to me is the British Airways Holidays component.
Under the new system, you earn tier points based on money you spend on flights and any extras like bag fees, but also now on the entire holiday package including hotel spend you take with British Airways.
When you can earn unlimited tier points based on the cost of an entire holiday package, this is a no brainer way to hit status faster, and for lots of people who were totally overlooked by the previous system, too. Someone who spent a lot on one trip previously had virtually no chance of earning any elite status or airline perks – now they do.
The same goes for people who travel for work, but the company policy is economy only. They’d have had no chance to reach a high tier before, when tier points only incentivized cabins up front, but easily can now since the spend is recognized instead of the cabin type or number of connections.
Hotels are an expensive part of every trip, and by showing increased loyalty to BA, by booking the entire holiday through British Airways Holidays, a singular trip could get someone well on their way to elite status. For a 10 day trip to California, I might spend $5,000 on hotel, and to have this count towards status would be a huge positive change for me, personally.
That hotel spend alone – not counting flights – could get me circa a quarter of the way to Gold. For Silver, I’d nearly be there, and Bronze, it’d be an instant status trip.
New Milestone Rewards
More details would be nice, but one definitive positive with the rebranded program is the introduction of milestone rewards. Currently, people have very little incentive to keep moving along once they hit a status, particularly if they know they’ll never reach the next threshold.
Now, milestone rewards will provide things like points or other perks in between the main Bronze, Silver, Gold thresholds. Here’s how British Airways previews the changes…
Tier Points on credit card spending: BA American Express Premium Plus Cardmembers will be able to earn up to 2,500 Tier Points by spending on their card. More details of this offer will be announced closer to the launch date.
New milestone benefits between Tiers: By introducing more milestone moments between Tiers, Members will be able to unlock rewarding benefits before reaching their next level. This will start with gifts of 2,500, 4,000 and 5,000 Bonus Avios at milestones within Bronze and Silver. More benefits will be announced in the coming months.
Historically, tier points were earned based solely on the cabin you were flying in, per flight, and did not factor in how much you spent on a ticket. People were incentivized to take lots of connections and someone paying a fortune was not recognized.
Discounts On Wine For Different Tiers
As summarized by the great Brian Sumers, IAG Loyalty’s ‘The Wine Flyer’ business is booming. It’s become one of the largest wine merchants in the UK and you can both earn and spend Avios on purchases.
As part of these changes, British Airways Club members will receive discounts based on their tier, starting at 5% off for Bronze, 10% for Silver, 15% for Gold and 20% off for Gold Guest-list. That’s a pretty nice “always on” discount.
GSTP Take: Incentives Aligned
Money is not the perfect proxy for how much a customer should be valued by an airline. A customer who travels twice a year and stays loyal to an airline is incredibly valuable and should feel the love. That’s why on balance, this is a better system than the old one which pretty much incentivized people to build in crazy connections to artificially inflate their worth and gave people who spent a lot but didn’t fly a ton, no chance to meaningfully earn.
Frankly, and this will be unpopular among readers, I think many people who never should have been top tier flyers with British Airways became top tier flyers and started to believe that they were entitled to it — and worse — that they in fact deserved it. “Status” as a reflection of self worth, and all that jazz. In reality, most of these people were always destined to be mid tier. There’s nothing wrong with mid-tier, and they just need to come to terms with what they’re really worth to an airline.
I loved the old days of tier point runs but as someone who can take a fair look in the mirror, I certainly never drank enough Kool-Aide to believe I was really particularly valuable to British Airways, or truly deserved the extra Gold perks I received as a result.
In reality, I was probably really a Silver member who was able to masquerade as Gold for a while because of gaming savvy, not loyalty. That’s obviously not the way it should be, even if it was fun while it lasted. People have an odd way of letting their airline elite status become a part of their personal identity and sense of worth, so some people are sore today.
With the ability to earn tier points on Holidays and credit card spend now, I see a pathway forward to hit Gold again with mostly leisure travel and I value the Gold benefits enough to pursue it. I find the “First Wing” at Heathrow to be one of the most valuable status perks in the world. It’s really hard to miss out on.
What needs to happen is British Airways needs to back up these changes with more meaningful, tangible benefits at each threshold. Now that the economics and incentives are better aligned for their business, the richness of the perks needs to reach full maturity too. Milestone rewards should help, but I’d love to see new, stronger benefits announced which showcase why loyalty is a two way street.
The FAQ’s for all the changes can be found directly from British Airways.
