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 Please add important information to it or correct outdated information by clicking the "Edit" button below.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
Feb 24, 2018, 4:55 pm
#1216
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: UK
Programs: BAEC Gold, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 222
—Sorry to interrupt the thread—
So once you've got ITA to price it, how do you actually book these TP runs? Goodle flights/BA multicity won't let me introduce so many sectors
So once you've got ITA to price it, how do you actually book these TP runs? Goodle flights/BA multicity won't let me introduce so many sectors
Feb 24, 2018, 4:57 pm
#1217
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 7,464
Read post 4 of this thread, and use ITA Powertools. The easiest way to make the bookings, via AA.com.
Feb 24, 2018, 5:48 pm
#1218
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: UK
Programs: BAEC Gold, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 222
Trying to book that in aa.com leads me to an error
Feb 24, 2018, 6:47 pm
#1219
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: Glasgow, UK
Programs: Seigneur des Tarifs Utils First Class Mucci with Honours :) - BA GGL / CCR
Posts: 1,551
Feb 24, 2018, 9:33 pm
#1220
Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: London
Posts: 9
Hello All,
I need 560TP to reach gold. My TP reset date is 8th Dec. I'll be in Houston from 19th August and need to get to Atlanta and back by 25th August. I'd appreciate your help to price a TP from Houston to Atlanta and back if at all possible. Anything up until £700, ideally spending 2 days in Atlanta between 19th 25th August.
Many thanks in advance for your kind assistance.
I need 560TP to reach gold. My TP reset date is 8th Dec. I'll be in Houston from 19th August and need to get to Atlanta and back by 25th August. I'd appreciate your help to price a TP from Houston to Atlanta and back if at all possible. Anything up until £700, ideally spending 2 days in Atlanta between 19th 25th August.
Many thanks in advance for your kind assistance.
Feb 25, 2018, 3:35 am
#1221
Join Date: Jan 2016
Programs: BAEC Silver, Avis Preferred, Hilton Gold
Posts: 521
Don't know if this is appropriate for this thread but I'm trying to see if I can get from LON-TYO with a good balance of price and TP efficiency. I currently have 100TP and am looking to achieve silver. I ideally don't want to spend more than £1000 in cash.
I have 75k AMEX MR and 17k Avios to burn. I also have the "£200 off £600 with AMEX travel" offer saved to my AMEX Plat. I want to be in TYO for at least 5 days some time between 10th and 21st April.
I don't mind some of the segments in Y/Y+, so long as I don't have any long overnights without a flat bed.
This is what I've come up with so far:
LHR-MCT-LHR in WTP, £544. Planning to use 25.5k Avios to reduce this to £379 (transfer some MR to make up the difference). Example:
https://www.google.co.uk/flights/#se...c=p;a=ONEWORLD
MCT-DOH-BKK-DOH-MCT, Qatar A/J, £590. Planning to add 1 night hotel to bump to £600 then use the AMEX travel offer to reduce to £400.
Example with A380 on both longhauls:
https://www.google.com/flights/#sear...=ONEWORLD;so=p
BKK-NRT-??? where the ??? is somewhere else in SE Asia served by JAL. Transfer 40k MR->20k SPG->25k Alaska miles. Book a 'one way with stopover in TYO' award in JAL J. TFC on this redemption is about $50.
???-BKK in Y on whatever carrier is cheapest.
All in, this should come in somewhere around £850 and yield 90+60+140+140+60+90 = 580TP. Points cost would be 65500 MR/Avios.
Does this sound reasonable? Is there any better way?
The only other thing I can think of is Qatar J, HEL-DOH-NRT-DOH-HEL @ £1348, use the AMEX offer to reduce to £1148 and position using RFS. That would save a lot of miles and earn 560TP but there's no A380 on this route and it's ~£200-300 more expensive...
I have 75k AMEX MR and 17k Avios to burn. I also have the "£200 off £600 with AMEX travel" offer saved to my AMEX Plat. I want to be in TYO for at least 5 days some time between 10th and 21st April.
I don't mind some of the segments in Y/Y+, so long as I don't have any long overnights without a flat bed.
This is what I've come up with so far:
LHR-MCT-LHR in WTP, £544. Planning to use 25.5k Avios to reduce this to £379 (transfer some MR to make up the difference). Example:
https://www.google.co.uk/flights/#se...c=p;a=ONEWORLD
MCT-DOH-BKK-DOH-MCT, Qatar A/J, £590. Planning to add 1 night hotel to bump to £600 then use the AMEX travel offer to reduce to £400.
Example with A380 on both longhauls:
https://www.google.com/flights/#sear...=ONEWORLD;so=p
BKK-NRT-??? where the ??? is somewhere else in SE Asia served by JAL. Transfer 40k MR->20k SPG->25k Alaska miles. Book a 'one way with stopover in TYO' award in JAL J. TFC on this redemption is about $50.
???-BKK in Y on whatever carrier is cheapest.
All in, this should come in somewhere around £850 and yield 90+60+140+140+60+90 = 580TP. Points cost would be 65500 MR/Avios.
Does this sound reasonable? Is there any better way?
The only other thing I can think of is Qatar J, HEL-DOH-NRT-DOH-HEL @ £1348, use the AMEX offer to reduce to £1148 and position using RFS. That would save a lot of miles and earn 560TP but there's no A380 on this route and it's ~£200-300 more expensive...
Last edited by mickeyjaw; Feb 25, 2018 at 3:40 am
Feb 25, 2018, 3:50 am
#1222
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: Glasgow, UK
Programs: Seigneur des Tarifs Utils First Class Mucci with Honours :) - BA GGL / CCR
Posts: 1,551
On. Mobile at moment. But if It doesn't need to be BA then hel-doh-tyo for 1390 with qr for ba try starting in ams going to bkk and do tyo as a side trip if that makes sense. Similar to the ams - lhr - bkk - hkg - lhr - ams options in the wiki
Feb 25, 2018, 3:58 am
#1223
Join Date: Jan 2016
Programs: BAEC Silver, Avis Preferred, Hilton Gold
Posts: 521
Yeah I did think of the BA AMS-BKK fare but it has a 60 day advance purchase requirement which rules out travel in mid-April.
Feb 25, 2018, 5:37 am
#1224
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 128
Try flights to a midpoint, such as to CMB and then CMB to HKG. I'm trying to put together OTP, BUD or FRA to Japan just before Christmas, and that's going to be my strategy. MightyTravels is invaluable for finding cheap inter-Asia OneWorld deals.
Feb 25, 2018, 5:54 am
#1225
Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: LHR
Programs: BA GGL, HH Diamond, IHG Diamond Amb
Posts: 375
Found out i need to be in CBR at the end of April coming back end of the first week in May. Was initially looking at doing the BA11 out to SIN and changing on to the BA15 to maximise TPs with the short hop on a QF codeshare to CBR however this is pricing up as over £6k which isn’t ideal. Had a look at QR LHR-DOH-CBR but the lack of qsuites on the DOH-CBR leg isn’t ideal. Are there any TP friendly routes that I haven’t thought of?
All travel will be in J unless F is ridiculously cheaper.
All travel will be in J unless F is ridiculously cheaper.
Feb 25, 2018, 6:11 am
#1226
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA GGL, HHonors Diamond
Posts: 910
Found out i need to be in CBR at the end of April coming back end of the first week in May. Was initially looking at doing the BA11 out to SIN and changing on to the BA15 to maximise TPs with the short hop on a QF codeshare to CBR however this is pricing up as over £6k which isn’t ideal. Had a look at QR LHR-DOH-CBR but the lack of qsuites on the DOH-CBR leg isn’t ideal. Are there any TP friendly routes that I haven’t thought of?
All travel will be in J unless F is ridiculously cheaper.
All travel will be in J unless F is ridiculously cheaper.
Think Qsuites are only from London?
Feb 25, 2018, 8:10 am
#1227
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: BCN
Programs: BA GGL, IB, LH, IHG Gold
Posts: 582
Found out i need to be in CBR at the end of April coming back end of the first week in May. Was initially looking at doing the BA11 out to SIN and changing on to the BA15 to maximise TPs with the short hop on a QF codeshare to CBR however this is pricing up as over £6k which isn’t ideal.
Had a look at QR LHR-DOH-CBR but the lack of qsuites on the DOH-CBR leg isn’t ideal.
Last edited by ubiest; Feb 25, 2018 at 8:56 am
Feb 25, 2018, 8:31 am
#1228
Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: LHR
Programs: BA GGL, HH Diamond, IHG Diamond Amb
Posts: 375
Cheers guys! I hadn’t considered OSL as a starting point for BA will give that a go especially if i can arrange an overnight connection at LHR! Haha indeed BA is lacking on the qsuites department but a window club world seat offers a-bit more privacy than the 2-2-2 layout of QRs older 777...plus the possibility of an upgrade to F using Avios.
Feb 25, 2018, 9:59 am
#1229
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: UK
Programs: BAEC Gold, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 222
Book with matrix shows me a 3K fare.
How did you get it working with BA? I get this error:
Feb 25, 2018, 10:13 am
#1230
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2014
Location: UK
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 12,262
