andyj300

Hi All,

New poster, but long time viewer.

This is the first year I have been in a position to get status with BA, and I'm just looking at options with a potential TPR or two. I can only travel economy through work, so will get to Bronze status in a few weeks, and thinking about doing a BA Holidays trip for 5 mights to get the double tier points offer and do a jump to Silver.

With a soft landing, lets say I get to Silver and soft land to Bronze in December (points expiry is November for me). Do you have to earn the full amount of tier points to get back up to Silver, or the difference between Bronze/Silver to go back up?

Lastly, I see people posting that they do a TPR in the month after their points expire. Is this to do exactly what I am asking, or is there something else I am missing?

Thanks all
Andy

bisonrav

You'll have silver until December 2023 if you get the additional tier points now. Assuming you don't requalify for silver before November 2023, you'll soft land back to bronze then.

Were you to be able to get 450 tier points between November 9th and the end of December, you'd have silver until December 2024 (threshold is reduced until the end of the year, thereafter it's 600 tier points). That's not as big a stretch as it seems - there are some options using Sofia for example - but you have to decide whether it's worth it for your travel patterns. Silver is lounge access everywhere BA or OW has it, plus mostly fast track and business class check in, so it's a good sweet spot.

andyj300

Ah ok, thank you. I didn't realise that if I reached Silver now, that would last until end of next year. Though I will still consider "Going for Gold" at the end of the year, as I won't be travelling for work as much next year. This is a one-off project.

bisonrav

Gold is of questionable use if you're not flying much. Silver on the other hand gets you a major step up. Personally I'd be looking at doing something in mid November and getting the extra year. How you do it depends on whether you want a holiday somewhere to use the double TP offer, or whether you just want to do TP runs. For a holiday, may be worth looking at Malta, for runs, Sofia is very easy b2b and fairly inexpensive. But you can get a lot of airport food for the cost of doing it.

drwook

Economy-only business travel is exactly the policy where silver is well worth making sure you get and retain; but as bisonrav says if it's one-off and little travel next year it may not be worthwhile going out of your way to get. If you're only likely to have a handful of flights next year and won't get silver naturally, slumming it in the pay lounges is probably a more sane option.

southlondonphil

I believe the Double Tier Points with BA Holidays promo is only for dates up to the end of October 2022.so that option wouldn't be available to the OP in their 'new' membership year after Nov 8th

bisonrav

Good point - I haven't ever used it.

andyj300

Spotted that. Probably a BA Holiday offer before then and a 'normal' trip / TPR in November/December?

I'll probably never get close to Gold again, so whilst your point is taken it would prolong the status for an additional year, which could be worth it. I will probably be flying short haul 4-5 times per year, and long haul 2-3 times per year.

bisonrav

So something like this

Round trip to London | Google Flights

Nested inside this

Round trip to Sofia | Google Flights

will get you 320 points for about Ł450 in November

Then you need to get 130 more points to get to Silver, which is possible either with another SOF run, or by looking at somewhere you'd actually like to spend some time. You're mentioning gold, which is obviously a bit more of a challenge, as you'll be starting from zero from November 9th. But two years of silver is very easy to achieve. Beware, you're putting yourself on a treadmill, it's not easy to get off.

Jzlerner

Been reading through this thread and have the same question. Anyone know?

Confus

BAEC Quirk 1: point collection cycles end on the 8th of a month, but cards expire at the end of the following month. This provides several weeks where you keep the benefits but aren’t technically at the status level as you’ve gone into a new collection year.

BAEC Quirk 2: if you earn status, you keep it for the remainder of your current collection year, plus the whole of the following year.

Combining (1) and (2) above gives you the answer to your question: maximum length of status, without losing any of the benefits.

Jzlerner

So realistically there's nothing different to doing a TPR 2 months after card expiry/collection year? You get the status for same ount of time minus the original 2 months? I'm struggling to see any real benefit.

scottishpoet

Doing it the month after tp year end you still have the benefits, lounge access etc . After 2 months you will not. So doing your tp run you get these. Now, depending what tickets you are buying you may get some of them anyway

Jzlerner

Say my collection year ended this may. Let's say I get silver status in July. I'll have status this year and next year so until may 2024. So the only difference is three months due to me attaining status 3 months later. Doesn't seem to be any extra time shtick. If you do it early you get it for longer. If not, then not. Not really sure why anyone would make additional effort to attain it a month early if they were anyway attaining it a month down the line
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jerry a. laska

The greatest benefit is for someone that is seemingly going to drop a status level. Let's say you are silver and your collection year ends 8NOV; your silver status continues until 31DEC at which point you are destined to drop to bronze. You can either obtain the necessary tier points (450 at the moment) before 8NOV which continues your silver until 31DEC23 or you can obtain the necessary tier points for silver after 8NOV. If you obtain the 450 tier points between 9NOV and 31DEC you will be earning those tier points in the next collection year and while you are still enjoying the benefits of silver(as your card does not expire until 31DEC); if you earn the TPs during this time you will have prequalified during the collection year that ends 8NOV23 and your silver status will last until 31DEC24. The main benefit is that you are not trying to regain status without holding the status you will lose after not requalifying.
In your example, for a person who had lost status you would have been flying in JUL without the status (for silver or gold that usually means lounge access).