How a British Airways Error Led to Virgin Atlantic Gold Status
- Helena
- 10 hours ago
- 5 min read
Story-time!
A couple of weeks ago, we published a guide explaining what airline status actually is, because despite how often people talk about Bronze, Silver and Gold, it’s all surprisingly fuzzy around the edges.
While writing it, I was reminded of one of my favourite moments from our points journey. A genuine accident and a total fluke. The best part? It was an error that resulted in three years of high-level airline status with both British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, despite that never being the goal.
This is the story of how a points redemption, a road trip through California, and a Valentine’s Day promotion combined to give me BA Silver status and Virgin Atlantic Gold, entirely by mistake.
Let's jump into this rollercoaster of a ride!
The rule everyone knows...
Except, apparently, the BA IT system (shock!).
Under normal circumstances, you do not earn Tier Points on Avios redemption flights with British Airways. If you’re flying on points, you’re enjoying the reward, not progressing towards status. So never expect to get those Tier Points when using Avios to pay.
It’s one of those hard lines in the sand of British Airways and reward flights. Except sometimes… systems misbehave.
Our first proper “this feels ridiculous” redemption
In September 2022, Sam and I booked our first ever points redemption: Club Suites to Los Angeles using Avios.
From LA, we picked up a car and headed north, driving the dramatic curves of Big Sur, before cutting inland towards Yosemite National Park. It was an absolutely epic trip.
Which is exactly why what happened next caught us completely off guard.
We were staying just outside Yosemite, sitting in our hotel room and checking in for our flights home when I opened my British Airways Club account and did a double take.
I’d been credited with the full Tier Points you’d expect from a paid business class flight to Los Angeles. This should not have happened. We laughed, assumed it was a temporary glitch, and fully expected it to disappear before we landed back in the UK. It didn’t.
So, once home on British soil, the return leg posted. Again. At this point, it was clear this wasn’t a visual bug.
British Airways had actually credited me Tier Points on both legs of an Avios redemption. We ran the numbers and it turned out I was just 20 Tier Points short of BA Silver status (this was under the old regime).
Which leads us on too...
The most justified “why not?” trip ever!
This is the point where sensible people might shrug and move on. That is not us, we are not sensible people!
Instead, we booked a return flight to Edinburgh, stayed less than 24 hours with some friends, and flew straight back, purely to get me over the line. We packed in a full days sight seeing, a gorgeous dinner out and about 20,000 steps! And just like that, thanks to a single airline error, I had BA Silver status.
Lounge access, free seat selection, priority security and extra baggage. All unlocked by a mistake.
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How BA Silver turned into Virgin Atlantic Gold
Now, at this stage, BA Silver felt like a brilliant but contained win, and something I would never manage to renew or keep. Then Virgin Atlantic entered the chat.
In February 2024, Virgin ran what can only be described as an unhinged Valentine’s Day promotion. In fact, this is the same offer that they're currently running! They announced they would:
Match any British Airways tier be it Bronze, Silver or Gold
Then upgrade it by one level
The only other catch was that you had to have a Virgin Atlantic flight booked in Premium or Upper Class. As if we'd timed it ourselves, we were in the Maldives at the time having redeemed Virgin Points for a round-trip in Premium, meaning, the return leg of that trip satisfied this requirement.
The result? My BA Silver status was turned into Virgin Atlantic Gold.
To put this in context: I’d only flown with Virgin three times by that point, all in Premium. And all of those flights were points redemption flights. To this day I have never bought a cash ticket on Virgin, which is wild when you think about it!
But suddenly I had Virgin Atlantic Gold status with no loyalty, no deliberate chasing of status, and just extremely fortunate timing. I thank the airline gods every day!
Flying Gold (and being deeply unprepared for it)
As we were in the Maldives when the Virgin status was confirmed, when we boarded our flight home, the Purser (the lead member of the cabin crew) came over to welcome us personally and thank me for my loyalty. This is standard when you hold the highest tier of status. I, however, had absolutely no idea what to do with this information and immediately went shy. Smiling, nodding and internally screaming as any classic Brit does.
Why this still feels wild to us
Sam and I haven’t always travelled like this. Growing up, holidays were more driving to France, hiking in Scotland, self-catering and packed lunches kind of vibe.
Even though we’ve been intentionally collecting points since 2018, premium cabins and airline status still feel faintly absurd. Anytime we've been lucky enough to do a points redemption in a premium cabin we still walk into it with a sense of awe and "how is this our life".
And that feeling? That feeling is what we want you guys to feel when you book your next redemption. We want to help you get there, and get to experience it too.
The real lesson here
This story is not a guide to earning airline status. You should absolutely not expect Tier Points on Avios flights or airlines to accidentally credit status.
But it is a reminder that the points world rewards people who paying attention, understand the rules, and occasionally leaning into opportunities when they appear. Such as a status match. Whilst I cannot guarantee that anyone will be lucky enough to be on the receiving end of what happened to me, if you go into this points journey armed and prepared with all of the information we can teach you, magical things might just happen.
The best wins in life are often the ones we don't plan.
And sometimes, if you are exceptionally lucky, a single mistake can change how you travel for years to come.
Helena
Points Well Made is a passion project of Sam and Helena with a loyal following. If you like what we do, and wish to help us continue to create the content you love, please consider buying us a Kofi, or subscribing monthly. Your help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
