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 Please add important information to it or correct outdated information by clicking the "Edit" button below.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
Mar 12, 2018, 6:52 am
#1426
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: ±38,000 feet
Programs: LH HON, BA GGL, AF Plat, EK Plat
Posts: 6,428
Mar 12, 2018, 7:42 am
#1427
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 732
There is an interesting CAI-WLG (Wellington, NZ) fare over on the premium fare deals board. It can all be booked on QF codes, which I understand earn tier points even if its on EK metal.
So far, I can get:
CAI - DXB - SIN - SYD - WLG and back for 720 tier points for around £1600. Not amazing by tp standards, but I need to be in Dubai + New Zealand over Xmas and this is the best option I've seen so far. It can be done for a bit cheaper, but I needed to place a couple of stopovers in. First, if anyone has a better routing, would love to hear it.
Second, what risks are there with this fare? My understanding is that QF are moving from using DXB to SIN as a transit point for their Kangaroo routes. If I book this fare, is there any chance that it gets reclassified as an EK fare?
And last, is EK F lounge access for BA Golds only for QF metal flights, or QF marketed/EK metal flights count too?
So far, I can get:
CAI - DXB - SIN - SYD - WLG and back for 720 tier points for around £1600. Not amazing by tp standards, but I need to be in Dubai + New Zealand over Xmas and this is the best option I've seen so far. It can be done for a bit cheaper, but I needed to place a couple of stopovers in. First, if anyone has a better routing, would love to hear it.
Second, what risks are there with this fare? My understanding is that QF are moving from using DXB to SIN as a transit point for their Kangaroo routes. If I book this fare, is there any chance that it gets reclassified as an EK fare?
And last, is EK F lounge access for BA Golds only for QF metal flights, or QF marketed/EK metal flights count too?
Mar 12, 2018, 9:19 pm
#1428
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: PHL
Posts: 71
I'm currently BA silver, 400ish TP away from gold, with 8 months to go. I'm based out of PHL and looking for good TP run ideas - this was super helpful. Still learning my way around Matrix, and figuring out the segments.. but I'll get there (hopefully).
Mar 12, 2018, 10:46 pm
#1429
Join Date: Feb 2018
Programs: BA Silver, SPG Platinum
Posts: 24
Thank you so much for posting this, as well as the rest of the contributors to this thread.
I'm currently BA silver, 400ish TP away from gold, with 8 months to go. I'm based out of PHL and looking for good TP run ideas - this was super helpful. Still learning my way around Matrix, and figuring out the segments.. but I'll get there (hopefully).
I'm currently BA silver, 400ish TP away from gold, with 8 months to go. I'm based out of PHL and looking for good TP run ideas - this was super helpful. Still learning my way around Matrix, and figuring out the segments.. but I'll get there (hopefully).
Mar 12, 2018, 11:33 pm
#1430
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: Bradford, England
Programs: BA GGL/CCR , HH Diamond
Posts: 274
Thank you so much for posting this, as well as the rest of the contributors to this thread.
I'm currently BA silver, 400ish TP away from gold, with 8 months to go. I'm based out of PHL and looking for good TP run ideas - this was super helpful. Still learning my way around Matrix, and figuring out the segments.. but I'll get there (hopefully).
I'm currently BA silver, 400ish TP away from gold, with 8 months to go. I'm based out of PHL and looking for good TP run ideas - this was super helpful. Still learning my way around Matrix, and figuring out the segments.. but I'll get there (hopefully).
Mar 13, 2018, 2:02 am
#1431
Join Date: Oct 2013
Programs: GGL/CCR
Posts: 1,899
There is an interesting CAI-WLG (Wellington, NZ) fare over on the premium fare deals board. It can all be booked on QF codes, which I understand earn tier points even if its on EK metal.
So far, I can get:
CAI - DXB - SIN - SYD - WLG and back for 720 tier points for around £1600. Not amazing by tp standards, but I need to be in Dubai + New Zealand over Xmas and this is the best option I've seen so far. It can be done for a bit cheaper, but I needed to place a couple of stopovers in. First, if anyone has a better routing, would love to hear it.
Second, what risks are there with this fare? My understanding is that QF are moving from using DXB to SIN as a transit point for their Kangaroo routes. If I book this fare, is there any chance that it gets reclassified as an EK fare?
And last, is EK F lounge access for BA Golds only for QF metal flights, or QF marketed/EK metal flights count too?
So far, I can get:
CAI - DXB - SIN - SYD - WLG and back for 720 tier points for around £1600. Not amazing by tp standards, but I need to be in Dubai + New Zealand over Xmas and this is the best option I've seen so far. It can be done for a bit cheaper, but I needed to place a couple of stopovers in. First, if anyone has a better routing, would love to hear it.
Second, what risks are there with this fare? My understanding is that QF are moving from using DXB to SIN as a transit point for their Kangaroo routes. If I book this fare, is there any chance that it gets reclassified as an EK fare?
And last, is EK F lounge access for BA Golds only for QF metal flights, or QF marketed/EK metal flights count too?
Sydney to Perth is another 140TP if the fare allows.
Mar 13, 2018, 8:23 am
#1432
Join Date: Mar 2018
Posts: 12
Hello just joined the thread and this is great. Thanks everyone who has put there knowledge up here. So helpful.
I am looking to hit gold as quick as possible so was thinking of organising a LAX - PTY run plus something else for variety. Just seen the Qatar flights to Auckland so was thinking maybe doing that as well. Can anyone suggest a better way rather than just the LAX - PTY route? Had a look at the Cairo to LAX route to get me into position but couldn't find any great deals.
I am looking to hit gold as quick as possible so was thinking of organising a LAX - PTY run plus something else for variety. Just seen the Qatar flights to Auckland so was thinking maybe doing that as well. Can anyone suggest a better way rather than just the LAX - PTY route? Had a look at the Cairo to LAX route to get me into position but couldn't find any great deals.
Mar 13, 2018, 8:46 am
#1433
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: Glasgow, UK
Programs: Seigneur des Tarifs Utils First Class Mucci with Honours :) - BA GGL / CCR
Posts: 1,551
Hello just joined the thread and this is great. Thanks everyone who has put there knowledge up here. So helpful.
I am looking to hit gold as quick as possible so was thinking of organising a LAX - PTY run plus something else for variety. Just seen the Qatar flights to Auckland so was thinking maybe doing that as well. Can anyone suggest a better way rather than just the LAX - PTY route? Had a look at the Cairo to LAX route to get me into position but couldn't find any great deals.
I am looking to hit gold as quick as possible so was thinking of organising a LAX - PTY run plus something else for variety. Just seen the Qatar flights to Auckland so was thinking maybe doing that as well. Can anyone suggest a better way rather than just the LAX - PTY route? Had a look at the Cairo to LAX route to get me into position but couldn't find any great deals.
If you want somehing a bit different without a lot of short haul CAI - LHR - HEL - JFK - LAX - HNL r/t in Business for £1400 , Position out and back to CAI for ~232 on a LCC
Mar 13, 2018, 9:08 am
#1434
Join Date: Mar 2018
Posts: 12
Thats a good suggestion. Just trying to find dates that work. What dates did you see that coming up for?
Mar 13, 2018, 9:34 am
#1435
Join Date: Mar 2018
Posts: 12
Tried routing that but cant get the HEL to LAX to feature. Will play around and see what i can get up.
Mar 13, 2018, 9:41 am
#1436
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: Glasgow, UK
Programs: Seigneur des Tarifs Utils First Class Mucci with Honours :) - BA GGL / CCR
Posts: 1,551
I picked some random dates in Google , for flights for cai to hnl then added the connections into ITA, price is showing as £1500 today due to currency fluctuations. then used ITA Powertools to bring this up. priced at $2100 ~
Mar 13, 2018, 9:41 am
#1437
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Cumbria
Programs: BAEC GGL/CCR, Hilton Diamond, Starbucks Gold
Posts: 4,510
Mar 13, 2018, 9:43 am
#1438
Join Date: May 2009
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold, IHG Platinum, HH Diamond, Hertz PC,
Posts: 1,986
Mar 13, 2018, 9:53 am
#1439
Join Date: Mar 2018
Posts: 12
Sorry if this is a stupid question, but would i put the HEL/JFK/LAX into the advanced controls?
Mar 13, 2018, 10:23 am
#1440
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: PHL
Posts: 71
These are my search parameters.. a subset of the ones you searched. I popped in your details and saw the $1280ish price.. I'm getting $1699.
(can't post pictures as I'm a newb)
Departing From: PHL
Routing codes: RDU CLT JAX MIA (also tried your AA flight codes)
Destination: PTY
Routing codes: MIA TPA CLT (also tried your AA flight codes)
I don't need all of the TP that you are getting, otherwise, I'd just fly to LAX and do the same thing
Also tried same exact itinerary as you, just stopping in PHL on the way home.. that was ~$1800.
I've been flying BA since 2012 - 4 years of Gold, the rest Silver, so far. I mostly use my Avios to fly domestically on AA - since AA bought USAir, oneworld out of PHL has been good to me