Jan 1, 2018, 5:20 am
Last edit by: OWBA
Welcome to the thread. This is a continuation of the highly popular 2017 Tier Point thread. We keep track of other prices, as well as useful reference information for those planning tier point runs.
Please read the first few posts in this thread first as it contains lots of information which may answer your question.
This is a community-maintained wiki post. Please add important information to it or correct outdated information by clicking the "Edit" button below.
Current Promotions of Interest
Sale Fares
Advanced Promotion Fares
See here in post #9 for a 2018 archive of exEU sale fare, and see this post in the 2017 thread for last years’ archive of exEU sale fares.
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This thread lists attractive tier point (TP) runs under £3 per TP grouped within different (departure) geographies
Please note that current availability is not guaranteed and all prices include taxes. Please use the following convention when adding tier point runs to this wiki post:
Date fare checked Price per Tier Point Total Price Total Tier Points Route Booking Classes Booking Channel Credit Notes (if applicable) Airlines
Please remember to:
Please see the links at the bottom of the wiki for archives of runs from previous years.
From Europe
From North, Central and South America
23Sep £1.48/TP £650 (US$853) 440 TPs JFK-CLT/BOS-LAX-LAS and return all I class aa.com
6Sep £1.50/TP US$457 240TPs RIC-CLT-DCA-BOS, BOS-LGA/PHL-CLT-RIC all I class aa.com
Jan/Feb wide open £1.94/TP £700(US$883) 360 TPs SEA-CLT-MCO-PHX-SEA all I class aa.com
From Middle East, Asia and Australasia
18Jan £1.58/TP £883 560 CMB-xHKG-CGK return I cathaypacific.com ermen CX
28Feb £1.44/TP £575 400 MCT-DOH-BKK-DOH-MCT A/R/R/A travel.americanexpress.co.uk QR
21Feb £1.53/TP £860 560 HKG-CMB-MEL return I Expedia.com.hk Firemin UL
16Mar £1.22/TP £687 560 CGK-CMB-DXB return I srilankan.com Firemin UL
01Apr £0.87/TP £314 360 PEN-KUL-KTM return Malaysian.com cgtechuk MH
01Apr £1.19/TP £335 280 KUL-PER return Malaysian.com cgtechuk MH
01Apr £1.28/TP £335 360 PEN-KUL-PER return Malaysian.com cgtechuk MH
05Apr £2.00/TP £320 160 CAN-HKG-TPE return CathayPacific.com littlevoices CX/KA (flexible fare, bookable up to 24 hours in advance, allows stopovers, book with CX directly)
From Africa
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Need a year-end TP run (ex-LON) to make / retain status?
Some tips for searching for the year-end TP run for newcomers, the below is indicative only, but hopefully provides a bit of guidance for relatively straightforward runs ex-LON. Some information on how to use ITA matrix is in post #4 of this thread (or just click here) along with these ideas, might come in handy. Feel free to share results, problems or general questions in the thread as these may not always work and there might be better deals out there...
For overnight trips remember to check BA and Iberia for their flights and hotel option as well, can get hotel for almost no extra cost at times
Need 80 TPs or fewer
Club Europe return somewhere close by is best - DUB, AMS and JER usually cheapest along with UK domestic returns. Additionally you may find that trips in to mainland Europe require a one night stay whereas the cheapest domestic CE returns do not have any minimum stay so can be booked as a same day return. If doing a back to back AMS and JER can be easier than DUB for an immediate turnaround - more information can be found in the back to back thread listed in the forum dashboard. The BA.com low fare finder can be very useful.
If you need as few as 45 TPs you might consider booking economy flights and hoping for a proactive online upgrade offer - but they're not guaranteed to materialise (so not one if you have no more time left in your TP collection year). Alternatively, booking a return to one of the 40 tier point destinations with one way in CE and the return in ET (or vice versa if cheaper). UK domestic route, Bilbao, Jersey and Amsterdam seem the most cost effective for this.
Need 85-120 TPs
Iberia flights via MAD to regional Spanish airports will get you 120 TPs as the domestic Spanish flights are 20 TPs in business. Under £300 including hotel can be available. Check BIO, GRX, VLC, BCN, SVQ etc. Example here
Need 125-160 TPs
Take a look at the shorthaul plus routes earning 80 TPs each way in business listed in the first post of this thread, MLA, IST, HEL and RAK are usually available. If time sensitive take a look at BA flight and hotel option to HEL, where you can usually get the last BA flight out on a Saturday, airport hotel and first return Sunday for well under £500.
Alternative options include positioning to JER and flying JER-LGW-XXX (AMS usually works well and avoids switching airports).
Need more than 160 TPs
You'll most likely be heading north then - OSL or VNO via HEL will get you 240 TPs, as will JER-LGW/LHR-HEL e.g. LHR-HEL-OSL for £520.
DUB-LHR-HEL return (or return to LHR) is currently a very efficient way of hitting 200-240 TPs
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Historic information
2017 Archive
2016 Archive
2015 Archive (6 months Jul to Dec)
2015 Archive (6 months Jan to Jun)
2014 Archive
Please read the first few posts in this thread first as it contains lots of information which may answer your question.
This is a community-maintained wiki post. Please add important information to it or correct outdated information by clicking the "Edit" button below.
Current Promotions of Interest
Sale Fares
- from JER to PDX IKN8T1S6 reported in this post, e.g. PDX £1,082, needs to be booked by 8 May, see linked post for details
Advanced Promotion Fares
- from OTP to PHX ILN8C8S4 reported here, e.g. PHX - £1,296, see linked post for details
- from AMS to BKK INCEU60 reported here, e.g. BKK - £1,340, see linked post for details
See here in post #9 for a 2018 archive of exEU sale fare, and see this post in the 2017 thread for last years’ archive of exEU sale fares.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This thread lists attractive tier point (TP) runs under £3 per TP grouped within different (departure) geographies
Please note that current availability is not guaranteed and all prices include taxes. Please use the following convention when adding tier point runs to this wiki post:
Date fare checked Price per Tier Point Total Price Total Tier Points Route Booking Classes Booking Channel Credit Notes (if applicable) Airlines
Please remember to:
- Convert currencies to GBP, rounding to the nearest pound.
- Post full routes and full booking classes.
- Note any restrictions on booking in the Notes section.
- List in order of price per tier point within the relevant departure area.
Please see the links at the bottom of the wiki for archives of runs from previous years.
From Europe
Code:
3Feb 200TPs DUB-LHR-HEL/HEL-LHR all I class ba.com
23Sep £1.48/TP £650 (US$853) 440 TPs JFK-CLT/BOS-LAX-LAS and return all I class aa.com
6Sep £1.50/TP US$457 240TPs RIC-CLT-DCA-BOS, BOS-LGA/PHL-CLT-RIC all I class aa.com
Jan/Feb wide open £1.94/TP £700(US$883) 360 TPs SEA-CLT-MCO-PHX-SEA all I class aa.com
From Middle East, Asia and Australasia
18Jan £1.58/TP £883 560 CMB-xHKG-CGK return I cathaypacific.com ermen CX
28Feb £1.44/TP £575 400 MCT-DOH-BKK-DOH-MCT A/R/R/A travel.americanexpress.co.uk QR
21Feb £1.53/TP £860 560 HKG-CMB-MEL return I Expedia.com.hk Firemin UL
16Mar £1.22/TP £687 560 CGK-CMB-DXB return I srilankan.com Firemin UL
01Apr £0.87/TP £314 360 PEN-KUL-KTM return Malaysian.com cgtechuk MH
01Apr £1.19/TP £335 280 KUL-PER return Malaysian.com cgtechuk MH
01Apr £1.28/TP £335 360 PEN-KUL-PER return Malaysian.com cgtechuk MH
05Apr £2.00/TP £320 160 CAN-HKG-TPE return CathayPacific.com littlevoices CX/KA (flexible fare, bookable up to 24 hours in advance, allows stopovers, book with CX directly)
From Africa
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Need a year-end TP run (ex-LON) to make / retain status?
Some tips for searching for the year-end TP run for newcomers, the below is indicative only, but hopefully provides a bit of guidance for relatively straightforward runs ex-LON. Some information on how to use ITA matrix is in post #4 of this thread (or just click here) along with these ideas, might come in handy. Feel free to share results, problems or general questions in the thread as these may not always work and there might be better deals out there...
For overnight trips remember to check BA and Iberia for their flights and hotel option as well, can get hotel for almost no extra cost at times
Need 80 TPs or fewer
Club Europe return somewhere close by is best - DUB, AMS and JER usually cheapest along with UK domestic returns. Additionally you may find that trips in to mainland Europe require a one night stay whereas the cheapest domestic CE returns do not have any minimum stay so can be booked as a same day return. If doing a back to back AMS and JER can be easier than DUB for an immediate turnaround - more information can be found in the back to back thread listed in the forum dashboard. The BA.com low fare finder can be very useful.
If you need as few as 45 TPs you might consider booking economy flights and hoping for a proactive online upgrade offer - but they're not guaranteed to materialise (so not one if you have no more time left in your TP collection year). Alternatively, booking a return to one of the 40 tier point destinations with one way in CE and the return in ET (or vice versa if cheaper). UK domestic route, Bilbao, Jersey and Amsterdam seem the most cost effective for this.
Need 85-120 TPs
Iberia flights via MAD to regional Spanish airports will get you 120 TPs as the domestic Spanish flights are 20 TPs in business. Under £300 including hotel can be available. Check BIO, GRX, VLC, BCN, SVQ etc. Example here
Need 125-160 TPs
Take a look at the shorthaul plus routes earning 80 TPs each way in business listed in the first post of this thread, MLA, IST, HEL and RAK are usually available. If time sensitive take a look at BA flight and hotel option to HEL, where you can usually get the last BA flight out on a Saturday, airport hotel and first return Sunday for well under £500.
Alternative options include positioning to JER and flying JER-LGW-XXX (AMS usually works well and avoids switching airports).
Need more than 160 TPs
You'll most likely be heading north then - OSL or VNO via HEL will get you 240 TPs, as will JER-LGW/LHR-HEL e.g. LHR-HEL-OSL for £520.
DUB-LHR-HEL return (or return to LHR) is currently a very efficient way of hitting 200-240 TPs
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Historic information
2017 Archive
2016 Archive
2015 Archive (6 months Jul to Dec)
2015 Archive (6 months Jan to Jun)
2014 Archive
BA Tier Point Runs | 2018 master thread
Nov 25, 2018, 2:52 pm
#4771
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: LON
Programs: Mucci, BAEC, Eurostar
Posts: 3,293
Or... Travel light, shop around some of the outlet centres around SFO (the one in Gilroy had great bargains last April, a bit far but I was headed that way).Found a Samsonite shop with luggage at roughly 60% discount compared to the UK. Come back a new man :-)
Nov 25, 2018, 3:23 pm
#4772
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 3,061
Bag drop cut-off is 45 mins, provided you are already in possession of a boarding pass. Check-in now closes 60 mins for longhaul to allow them to commence the close-out procedure, but there’s a grace period for bag acceptance.
Nov 25, 2018, 3:26 pm
#4773
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: London
Programs: BA Silver, Marriott Platinum, Hilton Gold
Posts: 302
This community is full of amazing knowledge
Nov 25, 2018, 5:56 pm
#4774
Join Date: Nov 2015
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 133
A potential error I made the last time I tried this was to nominate the bags I wanted to check when I checked in online (ie saying 2 bags to check in). That, for whatever reason, seemed to screw it up when I tried to check bags for the long haul flight only. Grateful for all the comments that it’s still possible to check tor the long haul only of the ex-eu, I’d suggest given by previous experience, saying ’I don’t know’ on the bag section of online checkin, but as of yet I haven’t tried that and been successful.
Nov 25, 2018, 9:39 pm
#4775
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: BHX
Programs: BA GGL CCR GfL, SQ Gold, Hyatt Glob, HH Diamond, Marriott Plat, Cafe Nero Loyalty Card (7 Stamps)
Posts: 7,330
Both times I've checked a bag for the long haul prior to doing a B2B, the bag hasn't made it. Last time in SYD it took 4 days to get to me.
Whilst I rarely travel with checked bags these days, if I had to do it now I'd use left luggage and check it on my return to LHR.
Whilst I rarely travel with checked bags these days, if I had to do it now I'd use left luggage and check it on my return to LHR.
Nov 26, 2018, 8:47 am
#4776
Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold / OW Emerald
Posts: 753
The Y fare for LHR-IAD went substantially up rather than down over Black Friday sales, so I figure if they aren't going to come back down anytime soon (it's had an adventurous price history on Google Flights), I figure I might as well see if I can make a run out of it.
Does anyone reckon there's any serious improvements either TP or price wise to what I have here? This wouldn't get me to Gold (would be short 300 including positioning in ET), but sets me up well to get it in the Easter/Summer time. I'm positioning from LHR and also would heavily prefer to be in DC by dinner time on the 26th. Return date I could maybe extend another day or two, but preferably keep it to being able to get back to LHR the Monday evening (assuming all goes well and there is a lack of IRROPS).
It's not gloriously efficient coming in at over £3/TP and I suspect I'd be much wiser just going with UA or VS in Y instead, but figured I'd entertain the idea.
Does anyone reckon there's any serious improvements either TP or price wise to what I have here? This wouldn't get me to Gold (would be short 300 including positioning in ET), but sets me up well to get it in the Easter/Summer time. I'm positioning from LHR and also would heavily prefer to be in DC by dinner time on the 26th. Return date I could maybe extend another day or two, but preferably keep it to being able to get back to LHR the Monday evening (assuming all goes well and there is a lack of IRROPS).
It's not gloriously efficient coming in at over £3/TP and I suspect I'd be much wiser just going with UA or VS in Y instead, but figured I'd entertain the idea.
You can do two things, as far as I know.... You can probably add two US domestic segments, probably going something like JFK-BOS-IAG I would think? You can just put X in ITA and it will tell you what is available. You can also do ARN-LHR-HEL-JFK-X-IAD if you want to back-to-back LHR-ARN-LHR for additional safety on the outbound.
Nov 26, 2018, 10:01 am
#4777
Join Date: May 2014
Location: BRU
Programs: BA GGL, TK E (*G), ITA exec
Posts: 4,108
I really need to decide the best definitive routing for my end of the year ARN-MIA run.
I asked on the AA forum but I got two opposite answers... so I ask now to the experts here: would you choose a 1h49m connection INT-DOM at CLT, arriving on AA around 14:45 on a Saturday?
HBO, EU passport on ESTA, no GE or anything like it.
If I miss the flight to MIA the rest of the itinerary could end screwed up since it's a bit tight... but on the other side it is one of the best routing - IMO - to avoid JFK at all and the night in MIA.
At the moment my preferred routing is ARN-HEL/HEL-LHR-CLT-MIA-CLT/CLT-DFW-FRA-LHR/LHR-ARN with all TATL on AA
The alternative to avoid MIA overnight, with good connecting times, is ARN-HEL/HEL-LHR-JFK-MIA-RDU/RDU-CLT-FRA-LHR/LHR-ARN but the JFK flight is on BA and that means double terminal change, T3 to T5 at LHR and then T7 to T8. I'm not really looking forward to it, honestly.
Any help to decide is highly appreciated
I asked on the AA forum but I got two opposite answers... so I ask now to the experts here: would you choose a 1h49m connection INT-DOM at CLT, arriving on AA around 14:45 on a Saturday?
HBO, EU passport on ESTA, no GE or anything like it.
If I miss the flight to MIA the rest of the itinerary could end screwed up since it's a bit tight... but on the other side it is one of the best routing - IMO - to avoid JFK at all and the night in MIA.
At the moment my preferred routing is ARN-HEL/HEL-LHR-CLT-MIA-CLT/CLT-DFW-FRA-LHR/LHR-ARN with all TATL on AA
The alternative to avoid MIA overnight, with good connecting times, is ARN-HEL/HEL-LHR-JFK-MIA-RDU/RDU-CLT-FRA-LHR/LHR-ARN but the JFK flight is on BA and that means double terminal change, T3 to T5 at LHR and then T7 to T8. I'm not really looking forward to it, honestly.
Any help to decide is highly appreciated
Nov 26, 2018, 10:37 am
#4778
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: London, England
Programs: BA:Gold; IHG: Platinum;
Posts: 69
deleted
Nov 26, 2018, 10:41 am
#4780
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Sheffield, UK
Programs: BAEC Silver, Virgin Red, HH Silver, SPG Gold, Priority Pass,
Posts: 127
Nov 27, 2018, 2:38 am
#4781
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: London
Programs: BA Silver, Marriott Platinum, Hilton Gold
Posts: 302
Since the dreadful change to ITA (making multiple city searches) I find it hard to now find Tier Point runs.
I am needing one for when I go to Las Vegas for a conference. Anyone know any for the below dates;
Need to arrive in Vegas on Monday 6th May 2019, Depart Saturday 11th May 2019?
Thanks
I am needing one for when I go to Las Vegas for a conference. Anyone know any for the below dates;
Need to arrive in Vegas on Monday 6th May 2019, Depart Saturday 11th May 2019?
Thanks
Nov 27, 2018, 2:49 am
#4782
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2014
Location: UK
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 12,262
Since the dreadful change to ITA (making multiple city searches) I find it hard to now find Tier Point runs.
I am needing one for when I go to Las Vegas for a conference. Anyone know any for the below dates;
Need to arrive in Vegas on Monday 6th May 2019, Depart Saturday 11th May 2019?
Thanks
I am needing one for when I go to Las Vegas for a conference. Anyone know any for the below dates;
Need to arrive in Vegas on Monday 6th May 2019, Depart Saturday 11th May 2019?
Thanks
https://www.google.com/flights/#flt=...34*.GBP.133434
Go on 4th for an excellent price of £1300 exGVA and can get a tonne of tier points if you tweak the itinerary
Nov 27, 2018, 2:53 am
#4783
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: London
Programs: BA Silver, Marriott Platinum, Hilton Gold
Posts: 302
Without a Saturday stay your price point will be high. Can you stay Saturday either side ?
https://www.google.com/flights/#flt=...34*.GBP.133434
Go on 4th for an excellent price of £1300 exGVA and can get a tonne of tier points if you tweak the itinerary
https://www.google.com/flights/#flt=...34*.GBP.133434
Go on 4th for an excellent price of £1300 exGVA and can get a tonne of tier points if you tweak the itinerary
Nov 27, 2018, 2:55 am
#4784
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2014
Location: UK
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 12,262
Obvious would be GVA-LHR-JFK-LAX-LAS
= 720 TPs
Probably most comfortable too
= 720 TPs
Probably most comfortable too
Nov 27, 2018, 3:04 am
#4785
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: London
Programs: BA Silver, Marriott Platinum, Hilton Gold
Posts: 302
