Originally Posted by
xenole
Surely trying something like SFO-LAX-MIA-MGA etc which yields around 540TP for £688ish 3x would be far cheaper? Or even 2 of them and a WT+ positioning flight for 540+540+150=1230TP.
You're forgetting cardinal rule #1
BA will not let you pass through status levels without having flown at least 4 of their own sectors for each "elevated" level (same for renewals).
So starting at Blue, and flying SFO-LAX-MIA-MGA might yield 540TP, but will not get a eurocheat up to silver, let alone gold (even if you did it again, with a WT+ positioning flight).
As far as BA is concerned, after doing all of that, you're still be a Blue member, albeit with 1230 TPs (but only 2 BA flights). If you would fly another 2 BA flights, you'd only get bumped up to silver, and have all the TPs reset zero...
So the short answer is that you MUST figure out the most economical solution for passing two hurdles:
1. Fly 4 BA flights, and get at least 400TPs (from those 4 flights or any additional OW flights as needed)
only once that is successfully accomplished, then:
2. Fly 4 more BA flights, and get at least 800TPs more (even flying in paid-F for 4 BA TATL flights would get you only 720TPs so you'd need a few more OW flights to get the required TPs)