Prospero

There are four primary membership tiers in the BAEC

Blue entry level
Bronze equivalent to oneworld Ruby
Silver equivalent to oneworld Sapphire
Gold equivalent to oneworld Emerald

In addition to these, there is a upper Gold level called Gold Guest List (Gold GL or GGL) and Premier. The latter is an invitation only level.


01 Moving between tiers

The promotion process is not as simple as it could be at first glance. First off, in addition to accruing the Tier Points required to qualify for promotion to the next tier or retain at the current tier, you also need to fly either two (for Bronze) or four (for Silver or Gold) qualifying flights during your membership year.


02 What is a qualifying flight?

Examples of criteria used to determine a qualifying flight:

BA operated + BA flight prefix
BA operated + other flight prefix
Other carrier operated + BA flight prefix
IB operated + IB flight prefix

Note, reward bookings and agency or industry discounted bookings are not qualifying flights. BA/IB subsidiaries and franchise operated flights are though.

Your tier status will change as soon as you cross the next threshold, although there may be a few days lag for the system to reflect it. You will continue to accumulate Tier Points until your membership year end date. So for example, if your membership year ends on 8 January, a flight taken on 8 January will count towards your old year. Your Tier Point balance will be zeroed out on 9 January reflecting the beginning of a new membership year. If you fail to accrue the number of Tier Points (or meet the requisite number of qualifying flights) needed to retain your current level, you will drop to the level immediately below. This is often referred to as the soft landing.

There are often questions raised in FlyerTalk as to whether BAEC will assist those who narrowly miss the tier point thresholds at the end of the membership year. There is evidence of flexibility in terms of extending the membership year by a week or two, so if you are in need of some flexibility call your local service centre after the relevant flights have posted.

For comparison, the promotion and retention requirements and benefits of each tier are outlined below:


03 Blue



Blue is the basic level and is what you start on, for example if you register now via ba.com. Once you accrue the required number of Tier Points, you will be promoted to Bronze.


04 Bronze



Entry and retention requirements:
300 Tier Points (plus 2 qualifying flights) or 25 qualifying flights
Note, a reduced threshold for 2021/22 has been set at 225 Tier Points (plus 2 qualifying flights) or 18 qualifying flights

Bronze members enjoy a number of benefits in addition to those experienced by Blue members.

• 25% bonus Avios on BA, IB, AA, and JL coded flights.
• Allocate seats for yourself and other members in your party free of charge, up to seven days before departure (excluding exit row seats and all seats booked as Hand Baggage Only fares).
• You may use a Club World, Club Europe and equivalent oneworld business class check-in desks, irrespective of what class of ticket you have.
• Priority boarding

05 Silver



Entry and retention requirements:
600 Tier Points (plus 4 qualifying flights) or 50 qualifying flights
Note, a reduced threshold for 2021/22 has been set at 450 Tier Points (plus 4 qualifying flights) or 37 qualifying flights

Silver members enjoy a number of benefits in addition to those experienced by Bronze members.

• 50% bonus Avios on BA, IB, AA, and JL coded flights.
• Allocate seats for yourself and other members in your party free of charge, at the time of booking (excluding exit row seats in World Traveller and World Traveller Plus and all seats booked as Hand Baggage Only fares).
• You may use a Club World, Club Europe and equivalent oneworld business class check-in desks, irrespective of what class of ticket you have.
• Access to pre-flight dining, available at selected North American lounges including New York JFK, Boston, Chicago and Washington DC
• Check in 2 bags each weighing up to 32kg in all cabins, on all routes, unless the cabin allowance is greater. This applies to all passengers travelling on the same booking.
• You and one guest may relax in a BA Galleries Club/Terraces/Executive Club and oneworld business class departure lounge. The guest must be travelling on BA or a flight operated by and prefixed with a oneworld carrier.
• Reservation Assurance on full fare economy tickets, ensuring a seat even where the flight is full.
• Priority boarding.

06 Gold



Entry and retention requirements:
1,500 Tier Points plus 4 qualifying flights
Note, a reduced threshold for 2021/22 has been set at 1,125 Tier Points plus 4 qualifying flights

Gold members enjoy a number of benefits in addition to those experienced by Silver members.

• 100% bonus Avios on BA, IB, AA, and JL coded flights.
• Allocate seats for yourself and other members in your party free of charge, at the time of booking, including exit row seats (this benefit is prohibited when travelling on a HBO ticket)
• Allocate seat for a companion travelling on your flight, on their own booking. This cannot be done online. A "To Complete Party" request must made to your BAEC service centre.
• You may use a First, Club World, Club Europe and equivalent oneworld first or business class check-in desks, irrespective of what class of ticket you have.
• You and one guest may relax in a BA Galleries First and Club/Terraces/Executive Club or oneworld first and business class departure lounge.
• Access to pre-flight dining, available at selected North American lounges including New York JFK, Boston, Chicago and Washington DC
• You may use a BA Arrivals lounge after travelling on a long haul flight, irrespective of class of travel.
• Reservation Assurance on full fare economy tickets, ensuring a seat even where the flight is full.
• Priority over Blue, Bronze and Silver Members on waitlists.
• Additional reward availability in economy (V class)
• Gold Priority Reward. This allows a redemption for double Avios points if revenue seats are on sale but no redemptions are otherwise available. Gold Priority Rewards can only be booked offline and 30 days notice is required.
• No booking fee for reward flights using Avios. Fees apply when changing or cancelling redemption bookings (fees waived on Gold Priority Rewards)
• At 2,500 Tier Points, you will be awarded with one Gold Upgrade For Two (GUF2) voucher that you and a companion can use towards an upgrade to the next cabin on a flight of your choice, subject to availability. This voucher is valid for one year. Voucher validity can be extended by 6 months upon request.
• At 3,500 Tier Points, you will be awarded two Gold Upgrade for One vouchers, valid for one year
• At 5,000 Tier Points, you will receive a Concorde Room Card and invitation to the Gold Guest List. The Concorde Room Card allows you to use the LHR and JFK Concorde Room lounges when you are not travelling First.

07 Gold GL



While strictly speaking Gold Guest List (GGL) is not a tier in its own right, it is in essence an upper subset of Gold. GGL offers the usual benefits that come with oneworld Emerald plus several exclusive, value added baubles when flying on British Airways.

Entry threshold: 5,000 Tier Points
Note, a reduced threshold for 2021/22 has been set at 3,750 Tier Points

Retention threshold: 3,000 Tier Points plus 4 qualifying flights
Note, a reduced threshold for 2021/22 has been set at 2,250 Tier Points plus 4 qualifying flights

To remain part of the list you need to continue to earn 3,000 Tier Points in each membership year going forward. There are several exclusive perks over and above the standard Gold membership benefits:

• No booking, change or cancellation fees on reward flights
• A twice per membership year redemption for up to 5 people (i.e. member and up to 4 others) booked into revenue classes (A, D, T, B) rather than award classes. Such GGL redemptions are known in some quarters as Jokers.
• A dedicated priority service phone number with dedicated 24-7 support desk.
• Gold GL members may invite up to five guests when travelling together on the same BA flight (or two when travelling on different BA or oneworld flights) into a BA operated Business or First departure lounge and may invite one guest into a BA Arrivals lounge.
• At the beginning of your membership year, you can share your membership benefits by giving someone else an Executive Club Gold Partner Card plus two Silver Partner Cards to other persons of your choosing. Hard landing applies to Partner Cards
• Complimentary Hilton HHonors Diamond status
• At 5,000 Tier Points, you will receive a Concorde Room card
• At 6,000 Tier Points, you will receive an additional Gold GL redemption "joker"

GGL benefits don't stop there. When you cross the 7,000, 8,000, and 9,000 Tier Point thresholds during your membership year, you will be invited to choose one of the following benefits:

• An additional GGL Redemption Award, or
• An additional two Gold Upgrade for One vouchers, or
• 50,000 Avios

To obtain further information about the Gold Guest List, please visit the Gold Guest List beginner's guide thread.


08 Premier



Premier is an invitation only level. You can’t get to it by just flying a lot. The card is generally given to people that BA consider as being of commercial importance, and each new Premier has to be approved by the board.


09 Overview of tier benefits

The following graphic provides a summary of each tier and the additional benefits that can be untapped as you earn more Tier Points during your membership year. As reduced thresholds are currently in place, the applicable lower tier point targets are indicated in blue below the standard scale.





10 Two illustrative examples of how a member moves between tiers

The graphs below provide illustrative examples of how a member may move up (and also down) the elite tier ladder as his/her membership year rolls forward. It may appear scary at first glance but don't worry, the important steps are explained beneath. Note, the graphs show the normal tier threshold levels



Who travels religiously in BA Club World once every 36.5 days? Anyone you know? It really doesn’t matter - this graph provides an abstract example of how one might progress from Blue to Silver throughout the course of a single membership year. Assume all flights count for status and each accrues 140 Tier Points.

Flight 2 takes the Tier Point balance just 20 points shy of Bronze. With two eligible flights already in the bag, it is the third flight that triggers promotion, which will last for the remainder of the current membership year plus the entire year that follows.

But there is no stopping this guy. The fifth flight edges over the Silver threshold, the four eligible flights requirement is passed. As with the Bronze promotion that preceded the move to Silver, the new tier status will last for the remainder of the current membership year plus the entire year that follows.

At the beginning of the new membership year, Silver status is carried forward and all tier points accrued during the last year are reset to zero. The task ahead is to retain Silver for the next membership year, which as we can see is accomplished within the first six months. Well done you, Sir!



Lifestyles do change and often without warning. The graph above shows a flying pattern that flatlines four months into the membership year. As the member fails to accrue enough Tier Points to retain Gold status, or even enough to meet the Silver threshold, he drops to Silver at the beginning of the new membership year. With some airline FFPs the member will meet the ground with an unceremonious thump. Fortunately, with the Executive Club you’ll never be demoted more than one tier at the end of a membership year. This is commonly referred to as a soft landing. The Gold benefits are also retained for 7-8 weeks until the Gold card expires and the new Silver card lands on the doorstep.

With no flight activity at all during the second membership year, this member drops to Bronze at the beginning of the subsequent year, again landing softly. Silver benefits are retained until the card expires.

For more information and discussion, see A brief guide to moving between Tiers in the BAEC


11 Lifetime status

Lifetime Tier Points
Following the lifetime elite status concept adopted by other airlines, the Executive Club introduced Lifetime Tier Points in 2013. Lifetime Tier Points are simply the accumulation of the total number of Tier Points you’ve accrued since joining the Executive Club or for veteran members the calculation goes back to the date Tier Points were introduced to the Executive Club. All members irrespective of tier status (including Premiers) accrue Lifetime Tier Points whenever they fly and earn Tier Points for that flight. There are no conversions or transfers to worry about - one Lifetime Tier Point is added to your lifetime balance for every Tier Point you earn.

You can view your current lifetime balance by logging into your account on ba.com or on the BA mobile app.

What is the purpose of Lifetime Tier Points?
Simple. Once you amass 35,000 Lifetime Tier Points you will automatically earn a Gold membership for life. This entitles you to the usual Gold benefits without having to accrue 1,500 Tier Points each year to earn them. You will still need to accrue Tier Points to unlock the additional Gold benefits, such as Gold Upgrade for Two vouchers, partner cards, and also Gold Guest List benefits.

Once you reach 100,000 Lifetime Tier Points, you will automatically earn Gold Guest List membership for life. This comes with a Concorde Room Card and two annual GGL redemptions. Like the Gold membership for life, you still need to accrue Tier Points annually to unlock those additional GGL jokers etc.

Even as a Gold or Gold Guest List member for life, if you have not earned, redeemed, purchased or transferred Avios for 36 consecutive months, all Avios Points you have accrued to that date will expire.


12 Executive Club 2021/22 tier extensions

In response to the Covid-19 global pandemic and the related downturn in air travel, on 11 June 2020 the Executive Club announced a series of extensions and relaxations aimed at helping members retain their current status tier. Here the number of Tier Points required to cross each threshold or retain status tiers was reduced by 25%. As at the beginning of January 2022, the 25% reduction is set to continue to the end of this year. So members with a Tier Point collection end date in 2023 can still benefit from the reduced thresholds, provided they accrue the required number of Tier Points by 31 December 2022. From 1 January 2023 the reduced Tier thresholds will no longer apply.


For more information and related discussion on this topic, please visit the https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...21-update.html thread.


Introduction and overview of the Executive Club | Avios and Tier Points explained | Membership Tiers | Earning Tier Points | Earning Avios on flights | Earning Avios on hotel stays | Credit card partners | Earning through everyday spending | Exchanging other points for Avios