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Old Jan 1, 2018, 5:20 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
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 Please add important information to it or correct outdated information by clicking the "Edit" button below.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
  • 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.

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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:
  • 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
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
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BA Tier Point Runs | 2018 master thread

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Old Feb 6, 2018, 10:10 am
  #1021  
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: London
Programs: Many. Too many. I came here to cut them down. I failed.
Posts: 2,999
Everything seems to be Westward - anything East that will take in Jakarta, via anywhere except a Chinese airport? It needs to have no PEX /min stay restrictions as might mean flying later this week. Have checked the usual suspects (DUB/BCN/PAR/AMS) with no joy, am I missing anything? The alternative apparently is QR in Y, so i'm open minded about starting point - or even WT+ - whilst taking in some TP's..
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Old Feb 6, 2018, 10:27 am
  #1022  
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Originally Posted by Sam Bee
Everything seems to be Westward - anything East that will take in Jakarta, via anywhere except a Chinese airport? It needs to have no PEX /min stay restrictions as might mean flying later this week. Have checked the usual suspects (DUB/BCN/PAR/AMS) with no joy, am I missing anything? The alternative apparently is QR in Y, so i'm open minded about starting point - or even WT+ - whilst taking in some TP's..
QR in Business class fares available starting at 1400 GBP for next week to CGK ... HEL, OSL, CPH

Try this in Matrix ... ABZ,AMS,ARN,BFS,BIO,BRU,BSL,CDG,CGN,CPH,DUB,DUS,ED I,FKB,FRA,GLA,GVA,HEL,INV,JER,LCY,LGW,LHR,LIS,LPA, LUX,MAD,MAN,NCL,OPO,ORK,ORY,OSL,PRG,RTM,SJJ,SNN,ST R,TXL,VCE,VIE,ZAG,ZRH
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Old Feb 6, 2018, 12:03 pm
  #1023  
 
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: LON
Programs: BAEC gold
Posts: 96
Thanks... I guess I missed it by the matter of...seconds...
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Old Feb 6, 2018, 2:04 pm
  #1024  
 
Join Date: Jul 2016
Programs: Executive Club
Posts: 78
Apologies if this has been mentioned before but I've just seen HEL - DOH - BKK rtn on QR for ~£1,059. I make that 560TP or £1.89/TP: https://goo.gl/flights/xvuso
Not too bad flight times, either.
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Old Feb 6, 2018, 2:20 pm
  #1025  
 
Join Date: Jul 2016
Programs: Executive Club
Posts: 78
Nesting the above within the DUB-LHR-HEL-LHR mentioned a few days ago could be quite a nice little TP earner. I'm quite tempted myself...
furryman and TPRun like this.
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Old Feb 6, 2018, 2:21 pm
  #1026  
 
Join Date: Feb 2018
Programs: BA Bronze
Posts: 6
Originally Posted by madfish
Welcome to FT. Perfectly suitable place to ask your question.

If heading to Florida area and staying around there you may want to look at something from the main ex-EU cities, e.g. Dublin, Copenhagen etc. YOu would then route via LHR and perhaps JFK and then down to MCO or perhaps one of the smaller FL airports via PHL or CLT or even MIA. The following would earn you 520TPs return in J. DUB/LHR/JFK/CLT/MCO. A lot of the fares allow 2 connections in US of less than 24 hours. You can play around with dates but likely to get best prices over the Easter and Summer holidays.

Alternative you could look to do something like: DUB/:HR/JFK/MCO/LAX (depending on routes being available). This would earn you 720TPs return in J as long as one of the US flights was over 2000 miles. 40+140+40+140+140+40+140+40

The pitfall with AA flights is if you have a connecting flight that book onto the same AA code. Even if you physically change aircraft this only counts at 1 flight for TPs.

There's lots of really useful information in the posts at the start of this thread.

If you have any specific questions, just ask.
Hey Madfish,

I'm struggling to add in the LAX element as Miss Jimmy has agreed that a random few days flying around the USA would be fun! So far I have been using the round trip function with routing codes to get the DUB to MCO element but can't get LAX to fall in. Do I need to use the multi-city tool?
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Old Feb 6, 2018, 2:43 pm
  #1027  
 
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: Berkshire / London
Programs: BAEC Gold, Nandos
Posts: 1,011
Originally Posted by bras0978
Nesting the above within the DUB-LHR-HEL-LHR mentioned a few days ago could be quite a nice little TP earner. I'm quite tempted myself...
this sounds like a great TP generator. Thanks for the tip.
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Old Feb 6, 2018, 3:33 pm
  #1028  
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: BCN
Programs: BA GGL, IB, LH, IHG Gold
Posts: 582
Be Sri Lankan my friend

Originally Posted by Sam Bee
Everything seems to be Westward - anything East that will take in Jakarta, via anywhere except a Chinese airport? It needs to have no PEX /min stay restrictions as might mean flying later this week. Have checked the usual suspects (DUB/BCN/PAR/AMS) with no joy, am I missing anything? The alternative apparently is QR in Y, so i'm open minded about starting point - or even WT+ - whilst taking in some TP's..
There's an excellent way to earn a shedload of TPs to CGK with Sri Lankan, Fares from 1215 EUR - 1700 EUR approx

Choose from several starting points available (in order of ascending price): LCA/DME/MUC/FRA - DOH - CMB - CGK

First leg on QR, then the other two on UL.
Earns 640 TPs from LCA and 840 TPs from DME/FRA/MUC.

Lie Flat A350/777 on QR from FRA/MUC.
However, LCA and DME get A320/321 with recliner and some lie-flat.

Lie-flat UL A330 DOH-CMB-CGK
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Old Feb 6, 2018, 3:42 pm
  #1029  
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Join Date: Sep 2014
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Posts: 4,510
Originally Posted by ubiest
There's an excellent way to earn a shedload of TPs to CGK with Sri Lankan, Fares from 1215 EUR - 1700 EUR approx

Choose from several starting points available (in order of ascending price): LCA/DME/MUC/FRA - DOH - CMB - CGK

First leg on QR, then the other two on UL.
Earns 640 TPs from LCA and 840 TPs from DME/FRA/MUC.

Lie Flat A350/777 on QR from FRA/MUC.
However, LCA and DME get A320/321 with recliner and some lie-flat.

Lie-flat UL A330 DOH-CMB-CGK
But don’t try to do a B2B at CGK.
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Old Feb 6, 2018, 4:28 pm
  #1030  
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: BCN
Programs: BA GGL, IB, LH, IHG Gold
Posts: 582
Originally Posted by Jimmy C
Hey Madfish,

I'm struggling to add in the LAX element as Miss Jimmy has agreed that a random few days flying around the USA would be fun! So far I have been using the round trip function with routing codes to get the DUB to MCO element but can't get LAX to fall in. Do I need to use the multi-city tool?
As a matter of principle, you can approach it in two ways
a) DUB - LAX, with a stopover in MCO, finding a fare which allows stopovers;
b) DUB - MCO, routing through LAX, an extravagant routing (example below)
or even
c) DUB - eg MIA/TPA/NYC, and a separate ticket to MCO

Whilst I am not too familiar with ex-EU to the USA, save for the OTP-PHX and the HNL TP runs, there is an interesting INNN3C IB fare starting in Algiers ALG which allows some pretty creative routings. Can be had as low as 1240 EUR.

PUBLISHED RTG ALG-NYC/IB7123/TAR-TARG EF-02JUN17 DIS-INDEF

/VIA THE ATLANTIC/
MAP CONSTRUCTED LEFT TO RIGHT AND RIGHT TO LEFT
1. ALG-BCN/MAD-BCN/MAD-BA/IB-LON-BOS/CHI/DFW/LAX/MIA/NYC/SJU/
WAS-AA/IB-NYC
2. ALG-BCN/MAD-BCN/MAD-BA/IB-LON-BOS/NYC-B6-NYC
3. ALG-BCN/MAD-BCN/MAD-BA/IB-LON-NYC
You could construct an itinerary such as ALG-MAD-(LHR)-MIA (stopover -> MCO) MIA-JFK-LAX-LHR-MAD-ALG. Earning 40+(40)+140+40+140+140+40+40 for 580 (620) TPs. You could earn up to 720 by taking the itinerary to LAX on both sides, then flying to MCO from JFK.
Take advantage of the stopovers and you can do ALG-MAD-LHR ie all the positioning flights in advance.

For ALG best positioning flights are from AF from CDG or VY from BCN, both of which you can arrive in the morning well in advance of the BA/IB flights, which depart at 1215/1230 respectively.

Hope you find this useful

Fare Rules
IB coded on TATL
THE FARE COMPONENT MUST INCLUDE TRAVEL VIA EACH
TRANSATLANTIC SECTOR ON
ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING
ANY IB FLIGHT.
MINIMUM STAY TRAVEL FROM LAST STOPOVER MUST COMMENCE NO EARLIER
THAN 3 DAYS AFTER DEPARTURE FROM FARE ORIGIN.

MAXIMUM STAY TRAVEL FROM LAST STOPOVER MUST COMMENCE NO LATER THAN
12 MONTHS AFTER DEPARTURE FROM FARE ORIGIN.

STOPOVERS 2 FREE STOPOVERS PERMITTED ON THE PRICING UNIT - 1 IN
EACH DIRECTION.
AND - 2 STOPOVERS PERMITTED ON THE PRICING UNIT - 1 IN
EACH DIRECTION AT EUR 75.00/USD 105.00 EACH.TRANSFERS FARE BREAK SURFACE SECTORS NOT PERMITTED AND EMBEDDED
SURFACE SECTORS PERMITTED ON THE FARE COMPONENT.

NOTE - TEXT BELOW NOT VALIDATED FOR AUTOPRICING.
TRANSFERS LIMITTED TO THE ROUTING MAP INDICATED IN
THE FARE RECORD.
CANCELLATIONS

ANY TIME
CHARGE USD 125.00/EUR 100.00.

CHANGES

ANY TIME
CHARGE USD 250.00/EUR 200.00 FOR REISSUE.

Last edited by ubiest; Feb 7, 2018 at 2:30 am Reason: added the price
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Old Feb 7, 2018, 1:59 am
  #1031  
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Programs: BA GGL, Hilton Diamond, Accor Platinum, Marriott Platinum, IHG Spire
Posts: 160
Looking for some guidance on getting 900-1000TPs in the next few of months. I am in Hong Kong for a week at the start of March, does anyone know of something I could do from there for a TP run?

Outside of that I already have a PHX run booked so not keen on doing another.
annihilation is offline  
Old Feb 7, 2018, 2:28 am
  #1032  
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Programs: VA WP, NZ *A SG
Posts: 529
Originally Posted by annihilation
Looking for some guidance on getting 900-1000TPs in the next few of months. I am in Hong Kong for a week at the start of March, does anyone know of something I could do from there for a TP run?

Outside of that I already have a PHX run booked so not keen on doing another.
If you can get down to South East Asia there';s usually some excellent MH J status run options
smit0847 is offline  
Old Feb 7, 2018, 2:55 am
  #1033  
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Programs: VA WP, NZ *A SG
Posts: 529
I’m in an interesting conundrum with my BA status this year. I’ve made Silver and have been toying with the idea of doing a status run to go for Gold as OWE has always been a bucket-list thing for me. The conundrum is that I work as a contractor and I am paid a generous day rate for each day I work. I could take a few days off to do a status run but for each day I don’t work, the status run gets significantly more expensive. I would happily do an ex-EU QR J run to BKK (say from HEL) with a same day turn around at BKK but all of their cheapest fares seem to require at least a 2 night stay there meaning I would have to take the Friday and the Monday off (and maybe a Tuesday as well). If I could do a run with 0 or just 1 day off work it would be very cost effective, if I need to take several days off it becomes very expensive due to lost income.



Anyone in a similar situation?
smit0847 is offline  
Old Feb 7, 2018, 3:00 am
  #1034  
 
Join Date: Feb 2018
Programs: BA, VS
Posts: 5
Recent lurker, just wanted to say thank you to all who have given tips on the best ways to use ITA Matrix. It has been great learning what to do, and I plan to keep playing around until I'm able to contribute positively to the discussion. Made Gold for the third year, but hoping it will now start to get more interesting route and price-wise.
girlwhotravels9 is offline  
Old Feb 7, 2018, 3:53 am
  #1035  
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA GGL/CCR
Posts: 169
Seem to be some cheap fares again from Germany.

https://www.google.com/flights/?curr...=ONEWORLD;eo=e

Interesting that a Saturday night stay does not appear to be necessary.
sirkay is offline  


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