Some big news from British Airways, as they announce changes to Tier Point collection and how the status year works.
Where’s the official statement?
It’s on the British Airways site at https://www.britishairways.com/content/executive-club/faqs/tier-point-collection-changes. Keep it bookmarked. You’ll be referring to it as the changes come in.
The airline argues this move is for simplicity – so all its members have one earning period, as opposed to 12.
What’s the current state of play?
Currently, your Tier Point collection year is based on the anniversary of when you joined the British Airways Executive Club, with your Tieir points resetting on the 8th day of your anniversary month
Examples:
- If you joined in the pre-BMI Diamond Club rush, if you joined in January you would membership year would reset on the 8th of February.
- If you joined in June, your collection year would reset on the 8th of February.
At this time you have a seven-week grace period between statuses, when it lapses at the end of the month after.
What going to happen
Everyone will be aligned to a 1st April to 31st March collection year (which will make more than one accountant happy). At this point, everyone’s years reset and you’re back to the beginning again.
This will also lead to a four-week grace period between statuses, with status lapsing on the 1st May of the year.
When is this going to happen?
There’s going to be a long trail into this, with the new system in effect from the 1st of April 2025 when everyone.
Status earning in 2024
For those chasing BA Bronze, Silver or Gold, the first set of changes will go in. According to the airline
For Tier Point collection periods ending on or before March 2024
There will be no change to how you earn Tier status and any status earned within this period will be valid for at least 12 months.
For Tier Point collection periods starting from April 2024
There will be some changes to transition all Executive Club Members onto the new Tier Point Collection Year, while giving them the opportunity to renew or upgrade their status during this period:
- The Tier Point Collection Year will be shortened to end on 31 March 2025; and
- A Tier Point Adjustment will be added to your Executive Club account during your new Tier Point Collection Year.
If you earn enough Tier Points during your Tier Point Collection Year to upgrade or renew your Tier status, this will be valid until 30 April 2026 (new Membership Card Expiry date).
What about my status at the moment?
According to the airline, there are no changes planned to
- Your current Tier status
- The benefits you receive according to your Tier status
- The way you can renew or upgrade your status during your Tier Point collection period ending on or before 8 March 2025
Any Tier status earned in your next Tier Point collection period ending on 31 March 2025 will be valid until 30 April 2026.
Where can I check what happens?
On the page https://www.britishairways.com/content/executive-club/faqs/tier-point-collection-changes, there’s a month-by-month transition guide, depending on when your membership year currently starts and ends.
I’d strongly recommend looking at this to understand the impact of what happens because each month has a very different outcome.
This is going to get a lot more complex before it gets a lot more simpler.
In theory, this is wonderful – everyone will move away from individual years (and if you’re a family, having everyone on the same date range will make managing a family account a lot easier.
In practice – there’s a lot to digest with the changes, especially in terms of how the rollovers will work.
I’m going to work through a few more examples than the ones listed – but this has all shades of complexity on it, that will require more than a simple post.
The only saving grace is that we all have a year and two months’ notice for all of this to shake out.
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DavidB says
One aspect not made clear as all references are made to Tier Points. However, BA also requires a minimum number of BA/IB flights for status. What’s not clear is whether my BA flights taken between April and June will also credit as Tier Points earned during that period to my 25/26 requalification.