Originally Posted by
craigthemif
If you need flights instead of Tier Points, you can simply add 2 cheap domestic IB flights at your leisure after arriving to MAD, then take a direct flight home using miles or something the next morning...
IB flights count the same as BA flights for the 4-flight minimum for Silver or Gold.
The pricing for these two sets of flights were less than the cost for a return flight today. Getting from the US to EU for mileage runs is not cheap right now, so I grabbed these without much thought. I'm going to chance it. Turns out most of the return flights are on BA albeit a separate ticket. I'm currently Gold with BA, so I'm hopeful it will all work out. Thank you for your suggestions, and advice. Next year I'll not wait until the end of my earning year to make sure I have my requisite BA flights.