[Ricardo]

My BA Tier Point collection year ends on 20 June. I am currently at Silver but close to Gold.

I have a WT+ flight to Boston, Logan departing 19th June and return on 28th June. The whole booking gets me 180 Tier points (90 each way). The outward flight gets me to 10 Tier points short of promotion to Gold. The return flight is 8 days after collection year ends. Does anyone know if BA cuts any slack on end date, or has experience of similar situation?

I have spoken to several BA agents but they all have different views – some say “no way”, some say “you have 3 weeks grace”, some say “you have 2 weeks grace”, some say “call us after outward flight (when you are 10 Tier points short) and we will allow 2 weeks extra to collect return flight Tier points” and thus advance to Gold. Another agent said that because outward trip is prior to year end, then all Tier points would count.

I have looked at upgrading to ‘Club’ on outward journey only, but it would cost over £1700. I don’t want Gold status THAT much.

Can anyone confirm what actual situation is?

Cheers,
R.

[LetsFlyNow]

If i were you i’d honestly book an intra-Europe flight with even a same day return in the coming weeks to get the remaining 10 Tier points. A return trip to AMS or FRA would get you 40 points in Y or 20 in K and would cost you much less than a upgrade to J. That way you’re on the safer side.

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sparkyflier

[travel4piers]

Highly unlikely (through experience) that BA will give you Gold …. I was 20 points short of retaining Gold after multi year as Gold and was downgraded. Why not take a quick American or American Eagle flight while you are in the US. A cheap there and back – probably on the same plane in a morning if it’s American Eagle and you will be sure of Gold. Good luck.

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sparkyflier

[sparkyflier]

My view is that being Gold or Oneworld Emerald results in way better treatment and customer service than Silver, as well as better lounges etc. In addition you get more rewarding Avios ratios as well.

So as other’s have said above do try and get short BA or AA flights… there can be good prices on LCY flights especially flying back INTO LCY.

And do keep your physical boarding cards as evidence of your flights and do NOT have too much confidence that BA will know what flights you have taken even if you have given them proof. There was another discussion on this forum recently where a poster flew Oneworld partner faults and BA it seems so far have been woeful at responding to him/her.

Good luck!

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LetsFlyNow

[sparkyflier]

Please note error in above post. Last paragraph should read flights not faults.

[stevescoots]

A few years ago I was 4 days short of hitting my Gold renewal with BA which I had been several years, I got no where with them so moved to CX who status matched me. I found BA to be very intransigent in such things

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Jacob, LetsFlyNow, cwoodward

[Casey_99]

In my experience BA won’t budge. Their dates are fixed in stone and if you don’t have the required Tier Points by the given date then it’s tough.
I was in a similar situation in about 2019. I had to trip to the north-west before my tier year ended which I usually did by car or train. It was roughly cost neutral to fly LHR – MAN and pick up a hire car. It got me the required points to retain Gold.

[Swissdiver]

It happened to me. They spared me and maintained the status. Now I have to admit it was a few years ago. But to be on the safe site, I’d indeed try to get those missing points before deadline.

[Jimmy McNabb]

I thought that all BAEC years run currently to the 8th of the month, though this will change as they phase in the new 31 March year-end for all.

[nevereconomy]

Luck of the draw – I got Gold several years running without qualifying but my employer gave me F on all my longhaul, which was most of my travel, so I guess the spend made the difference. It’s all about the money….As someone suggested, do an overnite to Europe – I used to do overnites on RTW tickets to the ME to get miles/tier points !!!

[bobm]

I was in a similar situation a few years ago, just 15 points short of maintaining Gold for multiple years. I did a LHR to AMS return in addition to a LHR to MAD return just to make sure which took me over the line to continue with Gold Status. It did work out less expensive than upgrading to Club on my transatlantic flights.

I used to travel every week on business but since COVID, my company more or less has stopped all international travel unless necessary & downgraded the class of travel too so only VP’s can now travel in Business Class & the people who actually do the work have to travel Economy Class on flights up to 5 hours or Premium Economy on anything above 5 hours. We are now encouraged to use virtual meetings most of the time even if it means having the meeting at 2am due to the time zones.

I think a lot of organizations are changing their travel policies now, I have noticed the changes have impacted the morale of staff through lack of travel & building business relationships too.

[AlanOrton1]

bobm – you raise and interesting point re: business travel at the moment.

It could be why BA, and doubtless other airlines, are very much targeting the premium leisure travel market.

While they are introducing, for example refurbished 773’s, with particularly large CS cabins that I’ve seen on the business heavy JFK route – the double tier point promotion by BA Holidays certainly seems to indicate a targeting of premium leisure travellers.

[Author]

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