Latest news with #tierpoints
The Independent
10 hours ago
- Business
- The Independent
British Airways reveals how you can use your Amex to earn points in new loyalty scheme
British Airways has revealed how passengers can now use their American Express credit card to earn points within its new loyalty scheme. In December, British Airways announced a huge shake-up to its loyalty programme, shifting its reward system from one based on distance flown to one based on the amount spent. Since its launch in April, passengers have been able to earn the new 'tier points' on flights with BA and Oneworld partners, BA Holidays and additional baggage payments, to name a few. The airline has now announced that passengers can also earn tier points with their British Airways American Express (Amex) Premium Plus credit cards. Passengers who hold this card and enrol on the offer before 25 January 2026, will be able to earn tier points when spending with their Amex until 1 February 2026. The new tier points unlock bonus Avios points, as well as different member statuses that will provide passengers with lounge access, additional baggage allowances and exclusive seats in the front rows of the plane. To unlock 750 tier points, £15,000 must be spent on the card. Another 750 tier points will be earned when spending a further £5,000, then an additional 1,000 tier points when spending a further £5,000. The total amount of tier points that can be earned through this offer is 2,500 after spending a total of £25,000. The relevant amount of tier points will be awarded once each spend threshold is met. After this offer expires in February, British Airways said there will be another opportunity to earn tier points using the credit card starting in April, although it has not announced any further details. Those who are enrolling for a BA AMEX Premium Plus card will also be able to collect a 50,000 Avios Welcome Bonus when applying through its website and spending £6,000 in the first three months. The BA Executive Club was renamed The British Airways Club on 1 April 2025, with the announcement drawing criticism from those who say they will not be able to spend the amount needed to reach higher statuses. The old system would allow passengers to earn tier points according to the number of miles flown; under the reimagined British Airways Club, passengers will now earn points based on the amount they spend. The new British Airways Club allows all those who join to achieve an entry-level Blue status, which allows for free wifi onboard and the ability to earn Avios. Higher status will then be achieved based on how much the passenger is spending: Bronze (3,500 tier points): seat selection from a week ahead of travel, preferential check-in and priority boarding Silver (7,500 tier points): Club lounge access, free choice of seats at the time of booking and additional baggage allowance with a weight limit of 32kg per checked bag Gold (20,000 tier points): access to First lounges; exclusive access to seats 1A and 1K when travelling in First, dedicated phone line Tier points are different from Avios, which is a frequent flyer currency used by British Airways and other airlines to earn flights, upgrades, seats and baggage perks. Passengers will be able to use their tier points to exchange them for Avios points, starting at 5,500 tier points, which can be transferred into 2,500 Avios.
Telegraph
14 hours ago
- Business
- Telegraph
British Airways stirs up new frequent-flyer storm
Just when British Airways was beginning to hope that the furore over changes to its loyalty programme was dying down, it has blown up again. The reason? BA executives have – months late – finally told members of the BA Club how much they will have to spend on their BA-branded American Express credit card to earn tier points to attain bronze, silver, and gold status. These are coveted because they offer free seat selection, airport lounge access, priority boarding and cabin upgrade vouchers, according to tier. One frequent flyer, Simon Adams, complained on the Head For Points website that the high spending required to earn the maximum 2,500 tier points – £25,000 – was unreasonable because it only got you one eighth of the way to a gold card. 'This is an utter betrayal. P--- poor from BA again,' he said. But loyalty experts, notably Gilbert Ott, founder of God Save The Points, praised BA for introducing 'sensible and fair' reforms that rewarded high spenders and made the BA Club more exclusive. BA announced in December that tier points would no longer be awarded according to miles flown but rather on the price of your ticket. Executives added that BA Club members would be able to earn 2,500 tier points per year by using their BA American Express Premium Plus card, which comes with a £300 annual fee. But they did not say how much they would have to spend to get those points. BA announced earlier today that members will earn: 750 tier points for spending £15,000 750 additional tier points for spending an extra £5,000 1,000 additional tier points for spending a further £5,000 Going for gold The new Amex rewards will have little impact on attaining gold status. With 20,000 tier points required, even if you spend £25,000 on your Amex, you will still need to spend £17,500, excluding taxes, on flights and BA holidays at the new rate of £1 for each tier point – although, in practice, bonus tier points promotions will likely bring that figure down to around £15,000. But 2,500 tier points are one third of the 7,500 you need to make silver. Silver is the best value BA Club tier because you do not have to spend a combined fortune on flights or on Amex to obtain it and it gives you the right to choose the best seats on board at no charge, use fast-track security at UK and some overseas airports, access lounges in the UK and abroad, and board jets early. A chunky spend on your BA Amex and a few long-haul premium economy return flights a year will get you over the line. The Amex spend makes it relatively easy to grab a bronze card, which gives you free seat selection seven days before departure. You only need 3,500 tier points, so if you max out on your Amex tier points, you will only need to spend an additional £1,000, excluding taxes, on a flight. A premium economy return to the US or Dubai will see you right. Lost earnings Because BA failed to announce the new Amex spending requirement by April 1 – the new date when each BA Club membership year begins, members will only be able to spend and earn tier points for this membership year between today and the end of January 2026. BA won't say why the spending window ends two months early. But analysts speculate executives want time to see how the changes have affected members and, if need be, make some adjustments before this membership year ends and introduce reforms for the next year. To make up for the loss of nearly five months of spending, BA is gifting BA Club members 500 tier points. This has provoked howls of rage from frequent-flying keyboard warriors who have spent heavily on the BA Amex in the past two and a half months. Critics point out that £25,000 is almost the average annual wage in Britain. But based on my recent travels on BA – I take dozens of flights a year – that is missing the point. Top-tier BA Club status is supposed to be the key to an exclusive club for high earners and high spenders. But the old BA Executive Club was far too generous, making it easy for canny leisure travellers to attain a Gold Card for as little as £3,000 by snagging cheap business- and first-class tickets during sales and signing up for special promotions. The result? Lounges have become crowded and there can be big queues of 'high-status' passengers at check-in and at the boarding gates. Ott of God Save The Points agrees and praises the flag carrier's reforms, pointing out that 'for many BA passengers, silver status is the new gold and being able to spend to one third of the way there without setting foot on a plane is very reasonable.' The changes will also enable BA 'to elevate the gold proposition and introduce more tangible, bolted on benefits for those who show increased loyalty.' But he questioned why BA had not followed the lead set by US airlines and offered more generous rewards for spending on Amex. 'If someone is willing to spend £75,000, the financial upside and loyalty message that sends is too much to ignore. Another level to double or triple the current Amex tier points would be a game changer for the UK market.' BA confirmed today that BA Club members with the Premium Plus card will continue to collect 1.5 Avios (BA's air miles) for every £1 spent on their card, and 3 Avios for every £1 spent with British Airways and British Airways Holidays. Members will continue to earn their Companion Voucher when they spend £15,000 during their membership year. This voucher enables a member to buy an Avios flight for a companion for half the normal Avios required, plus taxes, in any cabin class, including first class.
Times
18 hours ago
- Business
- Times
BA has finally revealed the Amex spend for reward scheme tier points
British Airways has finally revealed details of how frequent flyers can earn extra status points via their American Express credit card spend, six months after the airline announced it was changing its loyalty scheme. Flyers who hold the British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card, which comes with a £300 annual fee, can earn up to 2,500 'tier' points — which confer perks such as lounge access and priority boarding — when they spend £25,000 on the card between today and next February. In addition, all cardholders will be given 500 extra tier points this month. If cardholders spend the full amount in the next seven months it will give them a 3,000-tier point bounce meaning that they could almost reach BA bronze status without flying a single mile. However, spend isn't backdated to when the Club relaunched in April — cardholders will need to start from scratch today, June 18. At the end of last year the flag carrier announced it was switching its loyalty scheme, now called the Club. In a move that irritated frequent flyers, BA said that tier points, or status points, would instead be awarded on spend with the carrier, rather than distance flown, which it argued brings it into line with most other airline loyalty schemes. Tier points, or status points, would be given at a rate of one point per £1 of net spend with the airline; as a result BA adjusted the thresholds required to achieve bronze, silver and gold status (3,500, 7,500 and 20,000 tier points respectively), which many argued made them much harder to reach. Broadly, it means that for frequent flyers to achieve silver status — which offers lounge access, a beloved perk for many — members need to buy the equivalent of either an uber-luxury BA Holiday to the Caribbean for one or, for example, more than eight return flights to Cape Town. Flyers must spend each year to retain their status, the collection for which runs from April to end-March. The new Club came into effect from April 1; some frequent flyers even held a mock funeral for the old scheme. At the end of December, BA also announced various other ways to earn tier points, including spending on extras like seat selection and baggage, Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) credits, and holiday packages including hotels and car hire. In a nod to its longstanding partnership with Amex, BA said it would announce details of how many tier points would be earned via Amex spend 'closer to the launch date' — which was not, as most assumed, the launch of the Club in April. More than ten weeks after the official relaunch of the Club, it has finally revealed the details. • British Airways frequent flyer scheme changes: everything you need to know Premium cardholders can earn up to 750 tier points when they spend £15,000 on their card between today and next February; an additional 750 when they hit £20,000 spend; and an extra 1,000 tier points when they reach £25,000 — totalling 2,500 status points. An extra 500 tier points — which BA says is a 'thank you for their loyalty' — means they can get 3,000 additional tier points in all. With bronze set at 3,500 tier points, flyers need to spend only an extra £500 on BA products — which crucially doesn't include taxes and fees on flights — to reach the lowest status tier, which offers perks such as priority boarding and special customer service phone lines until the collection year renews in April. The 3,000 Amex tier points also go more than a third of the way to reaching silver. • Travellers are obsessed with status — and airlines are going into battle for their loyalty Reaction to the Amex spend offer from frequent flyers has been muted, with many concerned about the impact on companion vouchers — a BA perk for Amex cardholders that is a two-for-one flight deal. The companion vouchers expire a year after the moment a cardholder triggers them by spending £15,000 on their credit card, which means many frequent flyers delay using their card until they want to use the voucher. Companion vouchers for Premium Plus Card holders have a two-year expiry. Rob Burgess, founder of the frequent-flyer website Head For Points, says the BA Amex offer caters to a 'niche market', appealing only to travellers who can get bronze by 'topping it up with the card'; although Gilbert Ott from the loyalty website God Save The Points calls it a 'meaningful new addition' for 'anyone not obsessed with gold'. • How to hack the new BA club rules — lounges and priority boarding included Cardholders have to sign up for the offer to be eligible. Note that this is a temporary offer running until next February — although it's expected that BA and Amex will roll out a similar deal from next April, which marks the start of the next point collection year. The airline has promised there will be 'further opportunity to earn tier points using the card starting in April 2026', but wouldn't provide further details. How do you make the most of airline loyalty schemes? Let us know in the comments
