BA Gold Status for £3,000 | Still possible for 2025?

[@charlesontravels]

Important point to note on the dates used in my examples that I unfortunately realised I forgot to mention. I’m making a bit of an assumption/gamble that BA will once again extend their ever-extending BA holidays double tier points promotion. However, as it stands this promo currently ends at the end of June. So if you do want to be 100% safe and guarantee that you will qualify for double tier points, make sure to plan your trips before the end of June.

[@jamesboddie2982]

Unfortunately these booking examples won’t earn double tier points, BA has changed the T&C’s (Section 1G) to now exclude holiday bookings where there is more than 1 departure from the U.K. on the ticket, hence all bookings need to start and end in London (give or take a few city-flyer flights from the regions to places in Europe). Only time will tell if this is being applied retrospectively for bookings made before the changes, just home yesterday after a holiday booking so will find out in 14 days, albeit I think I will be eventually okay as I called BA before travel and a note was added to the booking to state it was made prior to the change.

[@charlesontravels]

@@jamesboddie2982​​⁠I think that might just be the confusing terminology used in the change in the terms. I’ve completed a booking like this since that change in wording and still earned double tier points (although knowing BA’s IT I do recognise that could be an error!). My understanding of that wording, I believe it just covers if you had a booking that left the uk, returned to the uk and left again. Otherwise you could string together multiple short trips into one booking to get the double tier points even if you were only away for a couple of days at a time, so long as the total hotel stays added up to more than that. I think that wording is just there to prevent people from doing that.

[@LeighWoodIT]

Great advice, thank you. As a solo traveller on business I usually have hotels supplied by my company, so I book the car hire option for the Holidays to get my double TP. This does have the advantage that I can tour around on the weekends before or after meetings and see a bit of the country I am in or take some photographs. I am going for Gold next year too thanks to some timely work trips and double points on BA Holidays.

[@phil_nicholls]

If you were to buy all trips in the Club sale, you can get from NCL-LHR return for as little as £127. 19 x 127 = £2413 and would give 1520 tier points = Gold. I’ve just got Gold myself, commuting from NCL-LHR for the last year - as I had to get to LHR for work anyway - using cheap Club deals, and the occasional £75 upgrade from economy means I’ve spent more than just doing all the flights down the back, but have Gold for the next 18+ months at least. Also, a much quicker way to Silver than waiting for the 50 sector route that most commuters use…. It’s not for everyone - it’d be a bit tedious to be back and forth on domestic flights for fun! But combining it with flights I was having to take anyway has made it a little more bearable.

[@MattsPlanet]

Interesting - I hadn't clocked that Tbilisi was a 140 TP destination.... Still atrocious flight times, although Amman was similar and it wasn't too bad.....

[@charlesontravels]

Yeah truly atrocious flight times, but I’ll definitely be going into it with low expectations and with no plans for the first day we arrive, so hopefully that’ll get us through it!

[@MattsPlanet]

@@charlesontravels As you say to another comment, whether it stays 140 TPs is the question.... One hack-ette I saw is that the hotels you book don't need to be in the place you fly to.... They just need to be within the dates of the flights.... So if I did this I'd probably book 2/3 nights in Tbilisi and 2/3 in Baku or perhaps Yerevan. Then buy cheapo local flights to move around.... Been a very long time since I spent 5 nights in one place....

[@charlesontravels]

Yeah will have to wait and see if it remains as is at 140. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they’ll keep it generous to help launch the flights, but would not be surprised at all to see it fall to 80 points at some point. That sounds like a good plan to use it as a base to travel around from.

[@MattsPlanet]

@@charlesontravels It will be interesting if people book when it shows 140 and they change it before travel....

[@Locutus]

I would just book an extra night in the hotel for the night I left London. The hotel won't be that much extra. Maybe even contact the hotel and see if you can pay for an early check-in. Once you arrive, clear immigration, pick up your bags, find your hotel, that's an easy 2 hours wasted.

[@C2K777]

That's exactly what we're planning on doing. We'll book with BAH then email the hotel to arrange booking the hotel the night before, making clear it will need to remain the same room, and of our ETA the morning of the night after the booking is made for.

[@ukdavepianoman]

Very interesting video. The Sofia/Tirana/Bucharest (great cities) BA Holiday options are a very good way to rack up TPs - I've done all three. Georgia and Georgians are wonderful - I was in Tbilisi 25 years ago and loved it - I suspect the city, especially infrastructure, has changed a lot (improved) since then. If travelling as a couple, does the double TP (e.g. booking a hotel) apply to both travellers?

[@charlesontravels]

Yes, the BA hols double tier points applies to both travellers, but the bonus avios that you get for the bonus one point per £ only applies to the lead traveller on the booking.

[@callumwaddell2291]

The well known Sri Lankan tier point run is no longer viable as it has now tripled in price!

[@charlesontravels]

That’s a real shame

[@ukdavepianoman]

That's very disappointing...I was hoping to do that :(

[@ianworthington2324]

Not quite doubled. 850 to 1450, iirc, so still just under 2/tp, but the positioning then makes it uneconomical unless you live in Italy.

[@callumwaddell2291]

@ Italy? Which tier point run are you talking about? I was referring to AUH > CMB > CGK return for 560 TPs.

[@ianworthington2324]

@callumwaddell2291 Yes, that. But positioning to auh has always been the issue. Cheapest flights i found are out of Italy. Update: my replies are getting autodeleted, so hope you find this. EY ex FCO for GBP 165 ish. On Google flights not matrix.

[@Crazy_Charo]

When booking a BA holiday, and assuming that everyone on the trip has an executive club membership (+ being on the same household account), would everyone earn the double tier points? This seems like a pretty good way to get, say a family of 4, to all be on Silver Status pretty quickly while having a decent holiday.

[@charlesontravels]

Yes, exactly. Everyone on the booking would get the double tier points.

[@RandomLifeProductions]

I think being realistically about 4 to 5k… it gets a bit boring travel between to London andEdinburgh

[@theshieldhero7062]

Let's say I buy an economy ticket on a long haul flight with BA or One World alliance members, can silver executive member get upgraded to business class upon space availability and Gold status to first ?

[@charlesontravels]

Unfortunately it doesn’t quite work like that. BA don’t tend to proactively offer upgrades unless some cabins are oversold. And when you do get a free upgrade it will usually only be an upgrade by one cabin e.g. economy to premium economy or premium to business

[@TarrelScot]

I agree that Silver is the sweet spot. Gold is 2.5 times the “price”, but I don’t think you get 2.5 times the benefits vs Silver. At £2 per tier point, if you time it right, you’re basically getting Silver for £600 per year, or 50 quid a month.

[@simonfellows5837]

Have you taken into account that if you have Gold, you drop only a tier at the end of the period? - so you get Gold for a Year then Silver for a Year....

[@TarrelScot]

Good point but, even with optimum timing, you’re getting gold for two years then silver for a year, so three years of ‘status time’. 50% more time than just having silver, but at 250% of the cost. And you have to do all the status-gaining activity up front. I think I’d rather invest in gaining silver at much lower cost, then invest again to regain the silver for year three. Depends on how much you value the gold benefits vs silver, I suppose.

[@TheWestAnglian]

So I’m doing a BA holiday for 5 nights to Kuala Lumpur in March however the direct flight was cancelled. I’ve rebooked on a connection via Singapore flying premium economy to Singapore then economy on Malaysian I don’t know whether I would still get the double tier points through the rebooking as it was still for 5 nights, I’m trying to work myself into silver status (currently in blue with 80 tier points)

[@charlesontravels]

If you earn any less tier points than you were originally meant to get you can contact BA and ask for original routing credit for the tier points that you should have earned. If anything though I’d imagine you’ll now be getting more tier points, should still qualify for the double tier points if the hotel stay is the same, and you’ll now also earn some points for the connecting flight on Malaysian.

[@TheWestAnglian]

@@charlesontravels cheers for the advice mate

[@iainmacinnes1657]

Has BA confirmed that the LHR-TBS flight will earn 140 tier points. Its distance from LHR (according to expert flyer) is 2226 miles and LHR-Amman is 2291 and only earns 80 tier points I believe - there are now quite a few BA Club Europe flights over 2000 miles that only earn 80 tier points.

[@charlesontravels]

LHR-TBS is currently down as 140 tier points on BA’s tier point calculator, whereas Amman shows as 80. There’s always time for them to change their mind and reduce this prior to the launch, but as it stands it’s currently planned as a 140 point destination.

[@iainmacinnes1657]

@@charlesontravels I hope BA does not change its mind!. Should have said early - a good informative video as usual!

[@charlesontravels]

Thanks!

[@simonedwards2703]

Think we will all have to wait to see if they extend the double points .. If not next year will be my last in Silver . I can't get to 600 points without the double offer

[@charlesontravels]

They’ve extended it so many times now I’d be amazed if they don’t again, but will have to wait and see. Fingers crossed! Although I know some people will actually be happy if it goes away. It’s made silver a lot more attainable which is having a big impact on how busy the lounges are!

[@simonedwards2703]

@@charlesontravels I'm biaslly hoping they will extend it .. I have read the comments about busy lounges but I've only been Silver since last year so it would be nice to be able keep it for a few more years

[@sirjesteruk]

LHR-TBS is a savage time

[@zaphod4245]

As much as I do think Tblisi would be a great place to go to, BA's flight times are just horrible. A redeye in CE? No thanks lol. Despite being a 'business class' product you're getting a seat which is worse than BA's long haul economy in literally every way.

[@charlesontravels]

Yeah I genuinely think the combination of that flight time and that seat might make it the worst business class flight that BA offers, the future video title practically writes itself…to me it does feel worth it to be able to get there direct from the UK, and for the points, but I might change my mind on that by the time we land!

[@Locutus]

It's not any worse than sitting in WT for 12 hours in a widebody.

[@andyasia]

And gold gets you what exactly ? I never fly economy so I always have lounge and I never fly BA if I can help it because there are better airlines to Asia.

[@charlesontravels]

Main benefits are first class lounge access rather than the business class lounges that you get with silver and can use the first wing at Heathrow, ability to select the front row of seats which is a big advantage if you do a lot of short haul business class flights for the better legroom, better reward flight availability, and better avios earning rate. You also get top tier status benefits with all of the other oneworld airlines. But for me, silver status is probably enough and costs less to obtain.

[@geoffreyschultz8515]

For someone who checks bags, an extra bag on any oneworld carrier is a big deal for me. Also I don’t like LHR unless I can use the First Wing check-in