ABMcC

Hi all,

I’m an avid reader of the forums and have been waiting for the opportunity to seek your collective wisdom and very excited for it to have arrived!

I currently have 700 tier points but only two qualifying flights on my BA exec account. My year ends at the beginning of September and I’m very keen to trigger the upgrade to silver ahead of this.

Does anyone have any tips on the cheapest and most time efficient way to achieve this? Slightly hamstrung by 1. Living in the midlands 2. Having a small child and a full time job and 3. Convincing my husband this isn’t a terrible idea…

I’ve been considering driving to Manchester and getting a return flight to LHR in a day, but was wondering if anyone had any more creative ideas.

I’m only 15 mins from EMA and 45 from BHX, but can’t see that they’re any use is this scenario.

thanks in advance!

PJT123

Perhaps a same day return BHX to/from DUB on Aer Lingus (Emerald Airline) booked on BA.com may work.

scottishpoet

Man to lhr and back would appear best.

Aer lingus not being ow, while giving tps i am not sure you would get qualifying flights.

AJA_

Firstly welcome to the BA board on FlyerTalk. I agree with you that your options are limited from EMA and BHX. I think your idea of driving to MAN and doing a day return trip to LHR is a good option. Search Google Flights for options. A quick search reveals that you can do a day trip on Saturday 18 May on BA for £94 for the flight. You only need the cheapest TP earning fare in each direction and could use Avios to reduce the cost even further.

The other option is to do a weekend trip somewhere with the family.

Robert279

Others may know better, but I thought codeshares (with a BA flight number) counted as a qualifying flight. If so, Brum to Belfast operated for Aer Lingus by Emerald is £110 each way on BA 88xx - netting 5 tier points ew for the lowest fare bundle.

scottishpoet

thought it had to be a ba codeshare and one world operated to count. Could be wrong

jerry a. laska

Nope. Any BA codeshare is an eligible flight.
From ba.com:
Also see:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/32916271-post4.html

Edited to add:
The Oneworld proviso is in relation to earning tier points and avios for codeshares not marketed or operated by BA. A Oneworld member airline marketed codeshare must be operated by a Oneworld member airline in most cases to be able to earn tier points and avios (exceptions apply).

ABMcC

Thanks all for the help, looks like I’ll be taking a short hop to Belfast from BHX in the near future!

Ldnn1

Correct. And more generally, any flight booked as a BA codeshare earns avios, TPs and eligible flights as if it were a BA flight. Status benefits like lounge access vary wildly, but for earning purposes BA codeshares are consistent.

bisonrav

Are there any direct BA bookable codeshares on that route? I couldn't find one, and usually BA codeshares on Aer Lingus, where they exist, are pretty expensive.

The easiest thing to do is going to be a day trip to Heathrow from Manchester, it's often very inexpensive.

craigthemif

Like most FTers, my first thought was "of course it's worth it".

But then... Silver status is most valuable for short-haul flying in Y. 700 TPs ex-BHX with only 2 BA flights looks an awful lot like long haul J from time to time (QR?) In which case Silver status is more a "nice to have" than something that will provide meaningful benefits.

ABMcC

Somewhat of an atypical year (actually four - pandemic/child/less work travel), mostly fly from LON and usually would have enough BA flights for status but have been burning through a stockpile of avios in the last 18 months and only one cash flight on BA in the last 12 months.

The BHX thought was mainly for the shorter drive, but having looked at the flight options it would also mean several hours knocking around BHD - an airport I often frequent, and there’s only so many packets of Tayto crisps I can consume in the lounge.

I think MAN-LHR and back in a day might be the one, I’ll just have to ignore the eye rolls from my husband.

Ldnn1

If you don't mind driving to LHR rather than MAN, then LHR<>JER can often be very cheap and is also a very short flight. Many other SH options too of course e.g. LUX.