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MSE News: British Airways announces major shake-up to its frequent flyer loyalty scheme

British Airways (BA) has announced sweeping and controversial changes to its 'Executive Club' loyalty scheme for frequent flyers. The shake-up means you'll likely need to spend a lot more with BA from 1 April 2025 if you want to earn any perks.

Read the full story:
'British Airways announces major shake-up to its frequent flyer loyalty scheme – here's what's happening'

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Comments

  • heatherw_01
    heatherw_01 Posts: 6,656 Ambassador
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Shame so many loyalty rewards keep cutting the value of points.
    I’m a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the Quick Grabbit, Freebies, Overseas Holidays & Travel Planning and the UK Holidays, Days Out & Entertainments boards.
    If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com.
    All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
  • Gooner_AJ
    Gooner_AJ Posts: 16 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 10 Posts Combo Breaker
    As the dust begins to settle, and looking at social media comments across the net, there still seem to be a few questions that, depending on the answers, might soften the blow. However, I can't see a way to put questions into BA so that maybe they could update their FAQ. Does MSE have a contact?

    - If I use Avios and an Amex Companion Voucher (or Barclaycard upgrade) to book a flight(s), should I then add a hotel booking, car hire or ground transport, will I get Tier Points against those (this is not the case at the moment)?

    - If travelling on a BA Holiday with children who are not eligible (by virtue of age) to collect Tier Points, do those Tier Points get apportioned across the other eligible passengers?

    - Is it fair to assume that the benefits of the Club statuses remain unchanged (lounge access, ability to book seats in advance, Avios multipliers)?

    - If members do not achieve enough Tier Points to retain their current status in the next year, do they drop to Blue, or is the 'Soft Landing' (ie drop one level) still the case?

    There will be more that other might want asking.
  • KelzeJ
    KelzeJ Posts: 5 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary Name Dropper First Post Combo Breaker
    Good Questions @Gooner_AJ

    I have another question, but I cant seem to find the answer as yet.
    I booked a holiday with BA in Nov 24 that will commence in the summer of 25. The holiday cost is thousands. I'm a Blue club member at the moment and under the old scheme I wouldn't have acquired enough Tier Point's to obtain Bronze status, but under the new scheme due to the amount that is being paid for the holiday,  I would (even taking into account the 4 way split).  I have read that BA will be converting Tier Points for flights/holidays booked prior to the cut off in April, however, from what I have read I wont acquire very many Tier Points in the conversion, and might be better of re-booking the holiday after the 1st April. Does anyone know whether it's worth rebooking after 1st April?
  • Frank33
    Frank33 Posts: 4 Newbie
    First Post
    No way could Gold be obtained for 3,000 as suggested by the MSE as article. You need 4 ba sectors on top of Qatar flights suggested.

    I am currently Gold and whilst change is never good, I have no issues with the new proposals.
  • silvercar
    silvercar Posts: 48,631 Ambassador
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Academoney Grad Name Dropper
    edited 7 January at 8:28PM
    Putting questions to MSE and expecting answers seems to be trying to reinvent the wheel. Other sites with contacts and/or experienced users can be found on flyer talk and head for points among other places. Some links:

    https://www.headforpoints.com/2024/12/30/british-airways-club-revenue-based-status/ Comments as well as the article are worth reading.

    https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/2181724-ba-announcement-ba-move-spend-based-tier-point-system-1st-april-2025-a.html (wiki in the first post)
    I'm a Forum Ambassador on the housing, mortgages, student & coronavirus Boards, money saving boards. I volunteer to help get your forum questions answered and keep the forum running smoothly. Forum Ambassadors are not moderators and don't read every post. If you spot an illegal or inappropriate post then please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com (it's not part of my role to deal with this). Any views are mine and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.com.
  • moochershopper
    moochershopper Posts: 21 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 7 January at 9:01PM
    How to alienate customers ! There is absolutely no incentive  now for me to stick with BA I will most definitely look at alternative airlines. They really don’t  want the average customer do they! Our money is obviously not good enough for them and only First class passengers welcome. They deserve to go to the wall the way they treat customers it’s not as if the service etc is world class, it isn’t ! There are far superior airlines which shall
    now use 
  • jimi_man
    jimi_man Posts: 1,287 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Gooner_AJ said:
    As the dust begins to settle, and looking at social media comments across the net, there still seem to be a few questions that, depending on the answers, might soften the blow. However, I can't see a way to put questions into BA so that maybe they could update their FAQ. Does MSE have a contact?

    - If I use Avios and an Amex Companion Voucher (or Barclaycard upgrade) to book a flight(s), should I then add a hotel booking, car hire or ground transport, will I get Tier Points against those (this is not the case at the moment)?

    - If travelling on a BA Holiday with children who are not eligible (by virtue of age) to collect Tier Points, do those Tier Points get apportioned across the other eligible passengers?

    - Is it fair to assume that the benefits of the Club statuses remain unchanged (lounge access, ability to book seats in advance, Avios multipliers)?

    - If members do not achieve enough Tier Points to retain their current status in the next year, do they drop to Blue, or is the 'Soft Landing' (ie drop one level) still the case?

    There will be more that other might want asking.
    In answer to your questions. 
    1. No. (Avios question)
    2. No. They go to waste. 
    3. At the moment, yes. 
    4. BA have said they will still go Soft Landings but for how long? Who knows? 

  • silvercar
    silvercar Posts: 48,631 Ambassador
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Academoney Grad Name Dropper
    jimi_man said:
    Gooner_AJ said:
    As the dust begins to settle, and looking at social media comments across the net, there still seem to be a few questions that, depending on the answers, might soften the blow. However, I can't see a way to put questions into BA so that maybe they could update their FAQ. Does MSE have a contact?

    - If I use Avios and an Amex Companion Voucher (or Barclaycard upgrade) to book a flight(s), should I then add a hotel booking, car hire or ground transport, will I get Tier Points against those (this is not the case at the moment)?

    - If travelling on a BA Holiday with children who are not eligible (by virtue of age) to collect Tier Points, do those Tier Points get apportioned across the other eligible passengers?

    - Is it fair to assume that the benefits of the Club statuses remain unchanged (lounge access, ability to book seats in advance, Avios multipliers)?

    - If members do not achieve enough Tier Points to retain their current status in the next year, do they drop to Blue, or is the 'Soft Landing' (ie drop one level) still the case?

    There will be more that other might want asking.
    In answer to your questions. 
    1. No. (Avios question)
    2. No. They go to waste. 
    3. At the moment, yes. 
    4. BA have said they will still go Soft Landings but for how long? Who knows? 

    on 2. If you put kids in a household account they can open their own account and earn Avios and tier points from birth.
    I'm a Forum Ambassador on the housing, mortgages, student & coronavirus Boards, money saving boards. I volunteer to help get your forum questions answered and keep the forum running smoothly. Forum Ambassadors are not moderators and don't read every post. If you spot an illegal or inappropriate post then please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com (it's not part of my role to deal with this). Any views are mine and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.com.
  • Ballard
    Ballard Posts: 2,940 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    edited 13 January at 9:38AM
    I can see why this has upset a lot of people. For my part, I don’t think that I’ll be much affected. I normally earn my Avois outside of flights so the tier points don’t come into it.

    The only BA long haul business class I’ve paid for was to Santiago de Chile which got me as far as Bronze tier for a short while. with these changes, that might well end up being my only foray outside of blue. 

    Edit: this might make me look a little smug (I’m not), but the point of my post is that I don’t think that I’ll affect most Avios collectors. If they go on to devalue Avios, that’d be a massive disincentive for a lot of people, though.  
  • Doshwaster
    Doshwaster Posts: 6,254 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    It's goodbye to BA for me.

    Over the last few years I have been able to maintain Silver fairly easily through purely leisure travel but under the new rules I will have no chance.

    At least I still have Silver until April 26. Until then my aim will just be to burn as many Avios as possible as another round of devaluation is inevitable. After that, it will give me the opportunity to try different airlines.


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