DanATC

Hi all,

Currently sitting on 445 Tier Points and my collection year ends on October 8th. I'd like to reach Silver if possible.

I have DXB - LHR booked in WTP for 13th Oct which will get me another 90 points, taking me to 535 in total. Assuming BA will give me the two week grace period on my collection year, that gives me until Oct 21st to collect an additional 65 points to make Silver.

I have the option of upgrading my DXB-LHR to CW for £480, which would net me an extra 50 TP taking me to 585 total.

So I'm looking at cheap, easy, quick options from LON to net me either 65 (if I don't take the CW upgrade) or 15TP. For 65+ points, best option I can find is 80TP for a back-to-back from LGW-GLA/EDI in Club for about £240, I don't think there's anything better but please let me know if there is?

What would the best option be if I only need 15 TP? Is there an easy way to find a cheap economy fare which will get me 10TP in at least one direction (as I believe discounted economy only gets 5)? I'd rather not stay overnight, and I definitely can't do a weekend trip.

One further question, will BA care if I do a back-to-back just to meet my TP threshold within the grace period? I'm guessing not but worth checking!

Many thanks,
Dan

T8191

Is LGW-JER an easy option? As the ‘season’ runs down, prices may ease a bit if you avoid the early (business) flights.

I doubt BAEC ever understand the concept of a B2B, let alone not give you the relevant TPs.

mikebg

I am not too sure whether the 2 week extension can be requested to QUALIFY for a higher tier. I understood that it can help only if required to RETAIN a tier. But maybe others can give a more authoritative answer.

DanATC

Ohhh I didn't know there was a distinction... that's got me worried now. Found an overnight LGW-AMS flight earning 15 TP for £90, so I'd be tempted to take that and upgrade my DXB return to hit the £600. But only if the grace period applies for qualifying and not only retaining. Any advice greatly appreciated!

RobDBA

There are some LGW-EDI options next week for £83 with the return leg being V class which I believe is the 10 tier point class (but do check that before booking!)

The combination I found was on Wednesday but is out early morning, back in the evening but you might be able to find better combinations playing around with dates.

Personally unless you would get value out of the CW upgrade (it is a pretty good price) I would just go with the CE trip and spend quite a bit less....

bisonrav

I'm fairly sure the grace period is for retention only. If you get a move on, you can do Malta Friday to Sunday in CE for about £380 for 160 TP, or may be possible to do AMS or JER b2b on a Saturday and a Sunday. Good luck.

The upgrade to J is an expensive way of doing it anyway. I'd be looking to get the TPs this side of the close and then you get a start for next year.

PETER01

That is correct I believe and here is the answer from the BAEC:

Changing your membership year

Dear all

I am receiving a considerable increase in requests to change membership years and I thought it might be helpful to post some general info on this.

The 3 most commons requests are as follows:

1) Members wishing to change membership years for individual members in Household Accounts i.e so that the membership years are aligned for the household

2) Members wishing to extend their membership year to give them longer to attain the next tier or renew their current tier

3) Members who wish to end their membership year early so that Tier Points can be carried forward to a new membership year to stay longer at tier for longer

Unfortunately we cannot extend membership years or change the date when your membership year ends. This is not technically possible and requests cannot be granted whether you contact your local service centre or via pm here. The only exception is where a flight will be taken within 2 weeks of your membership ending and in this scenario we will review this on a case by case basis and can offer a 2 week "grace" period.

For points 2 and 3, while I can understand why members want to make the most of their time at tier or have as much time as possible to attain the next tier, we do need to be fair to all of our Executive Club members and apply the membership year rules consistently and fairly.

Point 1 is interesting and I understand particularly why members travelling together as a household would want to align their membership years for expiry tracking/earning status at the same time etc. We have no current plans to change this but I am interested in understanding the size of this issue and what your thoughts are on developing the ability to do this.

As always, thank you in advance for taking the time to read this and the trouble to feed back your thoughts on this subject

Warm regards

Nicci

DanATC

Thanks all. I'm currently in Dubai for work so don't have the option of taking any flights before my DXB-LON on Oct 13th. Any additional flight will have to be between Oct 13th and Oct 21st.

That's *if* the two week grace period applies to qualifying status as well as retaining. Nothing I can see in the BAEC guidance posted above suggests it doesn't apply to qualifying, and a search of FT shows a few cases of people saying they were given the grace period to allow them to move from Bronze to Silver... in a quandry on what to do now!

windowontheAside

I first made gold on a 2 week extension.

wilsnunn

DanATC

This is why I love this forum, would never have thought of that...

I wish I'd asked earlier, as the only real opportunity I'll have would be this weekend and the fare for Friday out / Saturday back is £377. Alternatively I could do a same-day return on the Saturday for £278 but I'd only have 5.5 hours between my flight landing and my return flight leaving.... need to have a look at how close the airport is to anything you'd want to see!

Thanks for the great idea.

DanATC

Quick question on this... if I did do the day return this Saturday (6th Oct), I'm guessing the tier points might take a while to hit as they're coming from CX? Anyone know how long this takes, will they appear within the two week grace period (i.e. by 21st Oct)? Appreciate they're normally back-dated but would likely cause even more complications if they didn't post until after the grace period.

wilsnunn

bisonrav

Alternatively, take a trip to Colombo on Sri Lankan and qualify before the end of your TP year...

https://www.google.com/flights/#flt=...373*.GBP.49373

If you're working in Dubai on any long term basis, one other thing to consider is skipping silver this year and taking some of the Sri Lankan fares from Dubai to get Silver early in your next TP year. For example

https://www.google.com/flights/#flt=...678*.GBP.64678

Will net 560 TP, and if you roll in the 90 taken on the DXB->LHR plus whatever you use to come back, you'll be silver immediately.The benefit is you'll have silver for the rest of next TP year plus the following one, so it's very cost effective.

jerry a. laska

The two week extension period may be used to retain an existing status or to achieve a higher status. This has been confirmed multiple times and the quotation from Nicci supports this.
Nicci's post does not limit the extension to retention and the extension has been used to allow a person to retain a status or to achieve a new or higher status. The only caveat to this is being that the extension cannot be used to achieve a benefit within a status level, for example,obtaining the additional tier points necessary to receive a GUF.
See these threads among others (and wilsnunn's post above):
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/29081491-post16.html
Flying On Membership Expiry Date
Any chance of membership year extension by 6 weeks :(
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/26571347-post30.html