Jan 4, 2019, 9:09 am

FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides

Last edit by: jfkeze

Welcome to the thread. This is a continuation of the highly popular 2018 Tier Point thread (found here). 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 Please add important information to it or correct outdated information by clicking the "Edit" button below.

A new guideline thread for TP meetups has been created on 31 March 2020. If you would like other members to join your TP, or if you want to organize a TP run with other members. Please visit there. From the first few posts over there you could see the active ( confirmed ) TP meetings and the links to their relevant discussion threads, connect with other members and learn the details about the run. Click here to access that thread.

Current Promotions of Interest
Sale Fares

Advanced Promotion Fares

See here in post 9 for a 2019 archive of exEU sale fare, and see this post in the 2018 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

15 Oct £0.96/TP £154 160 TPs LHR-SOF (2021 dates)
24 Feb £1.90/TP £152 80TP MAD-FRA Z/Z LA (available Feb-Mar 2019, immediate turnarounds possible)
10 Aug £2.06/TP £329 160TP LHR-MAD-RAK RAK-MAD-LHR I/I/I/I IB (available August, Sat night stay) BA.com, note hotels on offer until 26 March
3 Jul £2.99/TP £2,758.45 920TP DUB-LHR-JFK-LAX-HNL-LAX-JFK-LHR-DUB J/I/I/I/I/I/I/J Fare basis INX4C3S4 and INN4C1S4. Booked on AA via ITA Matrix Powertools script
18 Dec £1.90/TP £1370 720TP DUB-LHR-JFK-LAX-LAS-LAX-JFK-LHR-DUB All I class Flights 25 December to 31 March 2020, transatlantic Mon to Thur. Offer to 18 Dec. ITA details booked by TA Propeller
27 Apr £2.29/TP £640TP BEG-DOH-KUL-PEN-KUL-DOH-BEG I / I / I / I / I / I Fare IJR2R1RE Bookable on QR.com

From North, Central and South America
10Jan £1.52/TP £668 440tp JFK-BOS/CLT-LAX-LAS-LAX-BOS/CLT-JFK I / I / I / I / I / I HPN-HRL AA (find with ITA; probably have to book via a TA)
12Apr £0.90/TP £215 240tp DCA-ORD-CLT-RDU-CLT-ORD-DCA I/I/I/I/I/I/I AA Found with ITA, booked on the AA site with BookWithMatrix
23Apr £ 0.76/TP £ 182 240TP DCA-PHL-CLT-RDU-CLT-ORD-DCA I / I / I / I / I / I AA Found with ITA Matrix, Book on AA.com via BookWithMatrix or PowerTools
24Apr £ 1.04/TP £ 459 440TP YVR-LAX-CLT-ATL-CLT-LAX-YVR I / I / I / I / I / I AA Found with ITA Matrix, Book on AA.com via BookWithMatrix or PowerTools
23May £ 0.70/TP £ 169 240TP EWR-ORD-CLT-RDU-CLT-DFW-EWR I / I / I / I / I / I AA Found with ITA Matrix, Book on AA.com via BookWithMatrix or PowerTools
24Jun £ 0.52/TP £ 128 240TP LAX-DFW-PHX-SJC-PHX-DFW-LAX I / I / I / I / I / I AA Found with ITA Matrix, Book on AA.com via BookWithMatrix or PowerTools

From Middle East, Asia and Australasia

04/01 £0.95/TP £479 560tp AUH-CMB-CGK-CMB-AUH I / I / I / I cgtechuk UL
1FEB £1.49/TP £1,673 1,120tp PER-SYD-SIN-TYO-BKK Return (All book in I Class) timcjp BA (Ticket sold by BA, flights are on QF, BA & JL and lie flat seats available for all sectors)
23/04 £2.07/TP £2,112 1020TP CAI-LHR-JFK-LAX-HNL-DFW-ORD-LHR-CAI I/R here (All flights must be BA numbered)

From Africa
04/01 £1.80/TP £721 400tp CPT-JNB-GRU-JNB-DUR-CPT I / Z / Z / I / I ubiest LA

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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 (here), 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 BA flight out on a Saturday, airport hotel and return on 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
2018 Archive
2017 Archive
2016 Archive
2015 Archive (6 months Jul to Dec)
2015 Archive (6 months Jan to Jun)
2014 Archive

BA Tier Point Runs | 2019-20 edition

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Aug 17, 2019, 3:00 pm

#2551

IOBA

Join Date: Aug 2019

Posts: 5

Quote:

Originally Posted by bisonrav

What have you found for yourself so far? Can you do this midweek or do you want a weekend? Do you want to clear the 165 points in one trip?

hi, ideally weekend and 160 will do. I can get 5 TP on a random LHR leg.

Aug 17, 2019, 3:01 pm

#2552

IOBA

Join Date: Aug 2019

Posts: 5

Quote:

Originally Posted by bisonrav

What have you found for yourself so far? Can you do this midweek or do you want a weekend? Do you want to clear the 165 points in one trip?

hi, I have seen Man to Dub for 160 TP for £253

Aug 17, 2019, 3:04 pm

#2553

IOBA

Join Date: Aug 2019

Posts: 5

Quote:

Originally Posted by polochick

If your year ends on 8 November, HEL on 2-3 November is £253 for 160TP. Add in the MAN-LHR as @bisonrav suggests and you'll get to your 165

thanks. 👍

Aug 18, 2019, 1:39 am

#2554

Nephoi

Join Date: Nov 2018

Location: BER

Programs: BA GGL, Hilton Diamond

Posts: 1,843

hey folks,

i posted my itiniary yesterday. i tried for an hour now to rebuild it in the matrix. It isnt possible. Either AY813 switches to the next day, resulting in an 24h45min overlay (and adding 150 EUR for the stopover) in HEL or it switches AY1332 and AY813 to Y...
both flights have plenty of availablity in J and I.

any suggestions what went wrong?
is this a known error?
am i stupid?

Aug 18, 2019, 3:17 am

#2555

alp67

Join Date: Oct 2015

Posts: 478

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nephoi

Try multi-city search, adding maxconnect to that AY flight might solve it

Nephoi likes this.

Aug 18, 2019, 3:23 am

#2556

Nephoi

Join Date: Nov 2018

Location: BER

Programs: BA GGL, Hilton Diamond

Posts: 1,843

Quote:

Originally Posted by alp67

Try multi-city search, adding maxconnect to that AY flight might solve it

this leads to an itiniary in the bookingclasses F (transcon and transatlantic) and J for the AY flights. with a price 3000 EUR+

if i try F bc=i, the matrix gives the exact same price as i got yesterday (2093 EUR) but books me in Economy for AY1332 and AY813

otherwise i got "no flights found"

Aug 18, 2019, 4:43 am

#2557

alp67

Join Date: Oct 2015

Posts: 478

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nephoi

this leads to an itiniary in the bookingclasses F (transcon and transatlantic) and J for the AY flights. with a price 3000 EUR+
if i try F bc=i, the matrix gives the exact same price as i got yesterday (2093 EUR) but books me in Economy for AY1332 and AY813
otherwise i got "no flights found"

Here we go:

schmidtyy likes this.

Aug 18, 2019, 11:01 am

#2558

redmanmark86

Join Date: Feb 2019

Posts: 15

Quote:

Originally Posted by bisonrav

Just call them and explain that you haven't been ticketed and that someone has mentioned this is probably because of the UK currency paypal account. They should be able to bill you either direct in £ or in dollars with an immediate payment to a debit card (breathe in and take the currency hit).

Thanks for the heads up as you were right and it wasn't going to ticket.

Sadly when they cancelled my booking to release the seats so they could do it again, the Iberia flight wouldn't book anymore. However the guy at the AA call centre was super helpful and after an hour we did find a better routing that worked and came in at a mere £910pp

Thanks to the people on this thread who found the route.

TrainDriverSparky, bisonrav, Palty and 1 others like this.

Aug 18, 2019, 12:30 pm

#2559

Amygdala28

Join Date: Jun 2015

Location: Europe

Programs: Costa Coffee

Posts: 112

Quote:

Originally Posted by redmanmark86

You might be right. Been 24 hours and still not ticketed or the money taken from my PayPal.

Problem is, I couldn't price it up on their site in pounds as it wouldn't give the Madrid stop so used bookwithmatrix which gives the US AA site so if you try to use a UK side tells you to do the search all over again.

It's worth mentioning that for UK credit cards section 75 protection does not apply if the payment is made via a third party, i.e. PayPal. For this reason I would always pay purchases over £100 by credit card and if necessary take the hit on currency conversion charge.

Edit: and there are plenty of posts here on how to make the US AA site accept a UK credit card.

Last edited by Amygdala28; Aug 18, 2019 at 2:32 pm

Aug 18, 2019, 5:08 pm

#2560

Ajm1987

Join Date: Nov 2017

Location: Surrey

Programs: BA Gold

Posts: 107

Hi, on an OTP-PHX run. While I've managed to keep ahold of my passport this time, I am looking at a missed connection on the return as my JFK-LHR is delayed. Remainder of the trip is LHR-HEL-LHR-OTP

Anyone know how much flexibility I have now? Ideally I'd use this as an opportunity to move onto the Finnair A350 and/or add a day to the trip. Is that likely possible (subject to availability) or am I just going to get what I'm given? I assume I can at least insist on the initial routing.

Thanks, Drew

Dubliner1 likes this.

Aug 19, 2019, 12:21 am

#2561

gcuk

Join Date: Dec 2009

Location: near Heathrow

Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL (OWE), SA LifePlat (*G), BD Gold to the end, Hilton Diamond

Posts: 2,911

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ajm1987

Presume you’re booked on the 7.30 Finnair or 8.25 BA and coming in on the delayed AA flight? Details would be useful.
Assuming the above, and if not already rebooked on it, the10.20 Finnair A350 would be the logical option.
If you’ve been rerouted and you don’t like the flights, ask to be put on the ones you want. There’s generally a lot of flexibility during IRROPS.

Aug 19, 2019, 1:11 am

#2562

Ajm1987

Join Date: Nov 2017

Location: Surrey

Programs: BA Gold

Posts: 107

Great thanks and yes it was the 7.30 Finnair flight. They've autorebooked me direct to OTP but I'll see if I can pop an A350 return in there, although Expertflyer isn't showing any availability anymore.

Aug 19, 2019, 1:21 am

#2563

Vasco Pridat

Join Date: Nov 2017

Location: Germany

Programs: BA GGL, CCR - TK G

Posts: 809

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ajm1987

Just make sure to opt for orc to get your missing tps. If you accepted this new route. Sometimes this can be a hassle..

Aug 19, 2019, 1:22 am

#2564

teledude

Join Date: Oct 2013

Programs: GGL/CCR

Posts: 1,899

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vasco Pridat

Just make sure to opt for orc to get your missing tps. If you accepted this new route. Sometimes this can be a hassle..

ORC does not apply to changes apart from on the day.

Aug 19, 2019, 1:25 am

#2565

Vasco Pridat

Join Date: Nov 2017

Location: Germany

Programs: BA GGL, CCR - TK G

Posts: 809

Quote:

Originally Posted by teledude

ORC does not apply to changes apart from on the day.

I doubt that. If your routing gets changed due to irrops.? I would def. Insist on my orc.

Personally AA changed my itinerary a year ago months ahead from lhr PHL atl to lhr atl cuz AA changed their flight time.. And I asked twice but got the orc afterwards.