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 Please add important information to it or correct outdated information by clicking the "Edit" button below.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
May 2, 2018, 2:24 pm
#2191
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: UK
Programs: BAEC GGL, HH DIAMOND, AVIS Presidents Club, Karahi Express
Posts: 1,229
Matrix has enhanced away ability to search for departures from multiple airports across countries. Cannot search departing FRA, BSL to LHR. However it still works LHR to BSL, FRA.
Follow here ....This is Bad News for TP Runners and Premium Fare deals. Also for regular commuters like me who have option of multiple airports in different countries for my UK / EU commute. How will we find those ex-EU deals?
Follow here ....This is Bad News for TP Runners and Premium Fare deals. Also for regular commuters like me who have option of multiple airports in different countries for my UK / EU commute. How will we find those ex-EU deals?
May 2, 2018, 3:06 pm
#2192
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: UK
Programs: BAEC GGL, HH DIAMOND, AVIS Presidents Club, Karahi Express
Posts: 1,229
Possible glitch in the matrix...literally?
searching for multiple origins seems to be broken " Multiple JOCs found in slice 0, constrain origins to a single country. SPLIT-TICKET-MODE in effect was NIL. Itinerary index 3"
or is it just me?
tried in two different browsers on 2 different OS's.....mmmm?
searching for multiple origins seems to be broken " Multiple JOCs found in slice 0, constrain origins to a single country. SPLIT-TICKET-MODE in effect was NIL. Itinerary index 3"
or is it just me?
tried in two different browsers on 2 different OS's.....mmmm?
Last edited by deboyzoned; May 2, 2018 at 3:11 pm
May 2, 2018, 3:31 pm
#2193
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Bristol
Programs: BA GGL, UA Plat, DL Plat, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 2,380
Arrgh 
Will have to group my origin strings by country rather than alphabetically now...
Will have to group my origin strings by country rather than alphabetically now...
May 2, 2018, 3:45 pm
#2194
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: UK
Programs: BAEC GGL, HH DIAMOND, AVIS Presidents Club, Karahi Express
Posts: 1,229
This is is a real bummer. 😒
May 2, 2018, 10:37 pm
#2195
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 4,707
Google Flights is still working OK for me using multi-countries?
May 2, 2018, 11:23 pm
#2197
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: BCN
Programs: BA GGL, IB, LH, IHG Gold
Posts: 582
Unfortunately, no.
When creating a query such as return
BSL, FRA
LHR
ITA is building all 4 possible itineraries in one go
BSL LHR BSL
BSL LHR FRA
FRA LHR BSL
FRA LHR FRA
and presenting the results in one place.
With multi-city you would require at a minimum two queries for the same effect, so it’s double the work, plus the inconvenience of two results screens.
When creating a query such as return
BSL, FRA
LHR
ITA is building all 4 possible itineraries in one go
BSL LHR BSL
BSL LHR FRA
FRA LHR BSL
FRA LHR FRA
and presenting the results in one place.
With multi-city you would require at a minimum two queries for the same effect, so it’s double the work, plus the inconvenience of two results screens.
May 3, 2018, 12:02 am
#2198
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: UK
Programs: BAEC GGL, HH DIAMOND, AVIS Presidents Club, Karahi Express
Posts: 1,229
RIP ex-EU Fare Search in Matrix
Unfortunately, no.
When creating a query such as return
BSL, FRA
LHR
ITA is building all 4 possible itineraries in one go
BSL LHR BSL
BSL LHR FRA
FRA LHR BSL
FRA LHR FRA
and presenting the results in one place.
With multi-city you would require at a minimum two queries for the same effect, so it’s double the work, plus the inconvenience of two results screens.
May 3, 2018, 3:33 am
#2199
Join Date: May 2015
Programs: BAEC back to silver, Flying Blue Silver
Posts: 406
At least there’s Google Flights that still works with up to 5 different departure points
May 3, 2018, 4:11 am
#2200
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: UK
Programs: BAEC GGL, HH DIAMOND, AVIS Presidents Club, Karahi Express
Posts: 1,229
May 3, 2018, 4:19 am
#2201
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Gloucestershire
Programs: BA Gold (ex-GGL, maybe future Silver), Hilton Diamond
Posts: 6,197
Multi-city does kind of work.
So, for instance, if you want to fly F to JFK you can put in INV, LHR as your origins, JFK as your destination for the first multi-city leg, then in the multi-city depart from JFK and have the destination as a long string of places in different countries.
This is probably an OK workaround for finding the cheapest possible origin, e.g., if you start by searching simply for ARN-BKK in the outbound with a long string of return destinations, the cheapest BA result returns to AMS and then it would make logical sense to start in AMS... and that gives you a cheaper result.
I don't know what the benefits will be in terms of cost/server time but it's obviously awful for people who might sensibly consider starting in AMS, BRU, LUX or DUS, or DUB/BFS etc. even apart from those who actively want to do ex-EU and utterly gives devastates the competitive advantage of ITA (such as it is!) I'd even be willing to pay a subscription à la ExpertFlyer to get it back!
So, for instance, if you want to fly F to JFK you can put in INV, LHR as your origins, JFK as your destination for the first multi-city leg, then in the multi-city depart from JFK and have the destination as a long string of places in different countries.
This is probably an OK workaround for finding the cheapest possible origin, e.g., if you start by searching simply for ARN-BKK in the outbound with a long string of return destinations, the cheapest BA result returns to AMS and then it would make logical sense to start in AMS... and that gives you a cheaper result.
I don't know what the benefits will be in terms of cost/server time but it's obviously awful for people who might sensibly consider starting in AMS, BRU, LUX or DUS, or DUB/BFS etc. even apart from those who actively want to do ex-EU and utterly gives devastates the competitive advantage of ITA (such as it is!) I'd even be willing to pay a subscription à la ExpertFlyer to get it back!
May 3, 2018, 7:28 am
#2202
Join Date: May 2016
Location: UK
Programs: British Airways Executive Club Gold, Global Entry
Posts: 363
Quick Q - who should I book through?
GOT-LHR-LAX / JFK-LHR-GOT using AA metal for the TATL. Trip is part work, part TP run for gold (don't have scope to make a more productive run, but these TPs get me there).
Will be crediting BA for the TPs but flying on AA. I am GE also, if that becomes a factor for TSA Pre - does that favour an AA booking?
Pricing up the same for both, so a straight choice.
GOT-LHR-LAX / JFK-LHR-GOT using AA metal for the TATL. Trip is part work, part TP run for gold (don't have scope to make a more productive run, but these TPs get me there).
Will be crediting BA for the TPs but flying on AA. I am GE also, if that becomes a factor for TSA Pre - does that favour an AA booking?
Pricing up the same for both, so a straight choice.
May 3, 2018, 7:40 am
#2203
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Gloucestershire
Programs: BA Gold (ex-GGL, maybe future Silver), Hilton Diamond
Posts: 6,197
Quick Q - who should I book through?
GOT-LHR-LAX / JFK-LHR-GOT using AA metal for the TATL. Trip is part work, part TP run for gold (don't have scope to make a more productive run, but these TPs get me there).
Will be crediting BA for the TPs but flying on AA. I am GE also, if that becomes a factor for TSA Pre - does that favour an AA booking?
Pricing up the same for both, so a straight choice.
GOT-LHR-LAX / JFK-LHR-GOT using AA metal for the TATL. Trip is part work, part TP run for gold (don't have scope to make a more productive run, but these TPs get me there).
Will be crediting BA for the TPs but flying on AA. I am GE also, if that becomes a factor for TSA Pre - does that favour an AA booking?
Pricing up the same for both, so a straight choice.
If on AA metal, you can add the GE/TSA pre number to the AA record locator even if marketed by BA.
May 3, 2018, 8:42 am
#2204
Join Date: Nov 2016
Location: Gateshead
Programs: BA Gold, ELAL Top Platinum
Posts: 851
I just found on Matrix £2186 LGW-HKG-CGK-HKG-LHR in J with CX. How can I find these fares online as I can't find them anywhere but matrix?
May 3, 2018, 8:57 am
#2205
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: BCN
Programs: BA GGL, IB, LH, IHG Gold
Posts: 582