The New British Airways Club Tier Guide

Alrighty! Now that the dust has settled, let's run through this British Airways Club Tier Guide.

The new British Airways Club is here, but how does it work?

This article will work as an introduction to the new club, the new Tier Points system and the Tiers themselves. 

So, whilst the name might sound like a swanky lounge you’d sip champagne in, this relaunch seems to be more than just a branding exercise. The way you earn elite status with British Airways has changed quite drastically — and it’s all about how much you spend, not how many times you fly with them.

The Big Shift: Spend-Based Status is Here To Stay

Starting now, your British Airways Club Tier status for the year beginning 1st April 2026 will depend on how much money you spend between 1st April 2025 and then, not how often you fly.

Gone are the days of racking up status by hopping back and forth to Paris or Madrid. Fun fact, I once achieved Silver Status by booking a return flight to Edinburgh from Heathrow just to get me over the finish line.  Now it’s all about the cash you drop on British Airways-marketed flights which mean yes, only those that are "BA-coded".

So, the bare bones details are as follows.

• £1 = 1 Tier Point.

• Only the base fare and BA-imposed surcharges count.

• Things like taxes, airport fees, and even those eye-watering Avios redemption charges? They do not count. Avios redemptions never counted in the first place, although there have been occasions where a glitch in the system has meant you earned Tier Points on those flights.

• But the money spent on seat selection and baggage fees, they do count. So choose that window seat guilt-free because it might just tip you into the next Tier up.

So, your classic return flight to the Big Apple on Tuesday 16th September, returning on 19th September. You’re flying Economy Standard, and it will cost you £500.42. You’ve spent £63.00 per flight for seat allocations, as you want to be in control of where you sit. Your spend therefore is £626.42, and once you remove all of your tax/fees etc, that do not count towards Tier Points, you end up with £427 of “usable” charges, equating to 427 Tier Points. Are you with me so far? 

New Status Thresholds

Let’s talk Tiers. To climb the elite ladder in the new British Airways Club, here’s what you’ll need:

Taken from the British Airways Club website, these are the new Tier Point Thresholds

There is also: 

Gold Guest List (New): 65,000 Tier Points (52,000 must be on BA flights or BA Holidays)

Gold Guest List (Renewal): 40,000 Tier Points (32,000 BA or BA Holidays)

As you hit certain Tier Point milestones you will also be gifted with Avios. So when you hit 5,500 Tier Points you will get 2,500 Avios. At 11,000 Tier Points you will get 4,000 and at 16,000 Tier Points you will get 5,000.

If we are being completely honest, we have no idea why they went with these Tier Point milestones and not for example, 5,000, 10,000 and 15,000 Tier Points for getting these bonus Avios. But who are we to judge!

On the British Airways Club website they have uploaded this useful example of how you could progress through the Tiers:

This is just one way that you could gain the three main British Airway Club Tiers.

Booking Bonuses

Book a cash flight before 31st December 2025 and you can earn bonus Tier Points on top:

• 75 points: Euro Traveller

• 175 points: Club Europe

• 150 points: World Traveller

• 275 points: World Traveller Plus

• 400 points: Club World

• 550 points: First

  
  

You'll need to opt in to the promo, and don't expect these numbers to carry you to Gold overnight—they’re nice, but not wild.

Qualifying through the number of flights?

Still love collecting status the old-fashioned way? You’re not totally out of luck! You can still gain Bronze and Silver Status by taking a set number of flights with a BA code.

• Bronze: 25 BA-coded sectors

• Silver: 50 BA-coded sectors

Important to note, these flights have to be booked under a BA flight number.

Earning Tier Points in Other Ways

The good news is there are other ways to earn Tier Points which aren’t just booking flights! 

Tier Points with Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)

For every £1 spent on SAF credits, you will be able to earn 1 Tier Point and 10 Avios, up to a maximum of 1,000 Tier Points per year. Interestingly, Avios can be used to purchase SAF credits whilst still earning Tier Points. 

Tier Points via the British Airways American Express Premium Plus

This is quite a key one, as no other UK credit card will be able to help you earn Tier points, just the Premium Plus. Any of our US based followers will still be able to earn Tier Points from multiple other credit cards however, our understanding is that you will not have the number of Tier Points that you can earn each year capped. This may change and as and when we know, dear reader, we will let you know too! 

Regardless of any of the above, there is very little information on how this will work other than the fact you will be able to earn up to 2,500 Tier Points per year by spending on the aforementioned Premium Plus card. This is still yet to be launched or announced but supposedly this will happen at some point in 2025. 

British Airways Holidays

The simple bit? £1 equates to 1 Tier Point. Easy to understand right? There is also no minimum stay required … also totally easy to understand.

The less simple bit? Every person named on the booking will get an equal amount of Tier Points. So if there are two of you on the booking, it will be shared between you both. Family of four, shared between every member of the family over the age of two. 

Sure, you could you book the holiday and then add people afterwards, but BA seem to have thought about that too and their website says “All passengers using the hotel and/or car hire must be named on the booking prior to travel, any subsequent additions to passenger mix made locally could result in the booking being deemed ineligible for Tier points”. So just be careful with this one.

You can also earn Tier Points on Partner Airlines. This is going to be a separate post because this will take some getting your head around … also if I put it all into here this blog post would be longer than Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix … and no one wants that! 

So … Should You Stick with the British Airways Club?

British Airways has made it’s intentions known now. This is a club all about spenders, not flyers, and spenders will be rewarded. There are still ways to get the Tier Points without flying, as noted. If you purchased the maximum number via the Sustainable Aviation Fuel plus managed to get the full 2,500 Tier Points via spending on the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card, you could potentially get the full amount of points needed for Bronze without even needing to book a flight! I have a sneaky suspicion though that BA will notice how many people will end up doing this, and probably throw something in there to say you have to gain some Tier Points via booking a flight, but until that happens, this may be your best bet to getting to Bronze! Whether Bronze status is worth this, is a whole other question entirely! And again, we will be doing another post breaking down what you get for each Tier so that you can make that informed decision.

That was your British Airways Club Tier Guide

Anyways, I don’t think this is the final iteration of the Club. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw some changes over the coming months, especially once BA releases the full details around the Premium Plus American Express.

Until then… happy flying, and may your Tier Points be plentiful.

Helena