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BA’s changes to Executive Club are significant and deep. Tier Points are the amongst some of the most complex issues.

Tier Points, for the uninitiated are how BA works out which elite status should be given to you. Tier Points can be earned when flying with BA or their OneWorld partner airlines. The number you earn varies by length of flight and class of service. For example a Club Europe flight to most European destinations earns 40 Tier points, where a First Class flight on American Airlines from New York to Seattle will earn 210 Tier Points.

Gold status comes at 1500 Tier Points, Silver at 600 and Bronze at 300. You also need 4 flights with British Airways to earn your card.

The changes that BA are making to earning Tier Points are two fold:

LONDON CITY TO NEW YORK JFK

Originally introduced as a bonus this all-business class flight currently earns 210 Tier Points (the same as a First Class flight from Heathrow to JFK). This will be reduced on tickets issued after 28 April to the standard 140. This makes the flight less attractive for Tier Point Runs, but most business customers will hardly notice.

LOW FARES EARN REDUCED POINTS

If you book a World Traveller or Euro Traveller ticket in K, L, M, N, S or V class then you earn 50% of the Tier Points earned from a flexible ticket. For a short hop to Europe this is 10 Tier Points. Until 27 April, tickets booked in Q, O or G class will earn the same number. However, for tickets purchased on or after 28 April, this will be reduced to 5 Tier Points.

50 Flights on BA earns Silver Status, even though you would earn only 250 Tier Points on the lowest fares after 28 April.

SO HOW DO I KNOW WHETHER THIS IMPACTS ME?

During the booking process, if you click on the Flight Number – example above – you can see the Selling Class. In this example the Economy fare is O and so would be impacted by the changes described above.

IN CLOSING – THE REAL CONCERN

The BA website contains this ominous sentence which suggests that there may well be more changes to earnings although BA is keeping quiet about these at present.

We will be making some changes to the Avios and Tier points awarded with our airline partners and we will update ba.com once these are finalised.

Make of it what you will – my guess – we’re going to see some alignment of earning where partners share the same routes.