Does British Airways Executive Club offer lifetime status?

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

Lifetime status is a feature of some frequent flyer programs that allow you to acquire a certain level of elite status for the rest of your life – even if you never fly another qualifying flight again. In this article we’ll look at what it takes to achieve lifetime status with British Airways Executive Club.

Does British Airways lifetime status exist? How many British Airways tier points do you need?

British Airways has been offering lifetime status since 2013, when it matched various other airline programs which had also begun to offer the benefit.

It works in a similar way to how elite status already works with British Airways Executive Club: with tier points. When you log in to your Executive Club account and check your balance, you will find two tier point levels. The first is your tier point balance accrued since your membership renewal date: these expire every year on your membership anniversary and count towards achieving Bronze, Silver or Gold status for next year.

The second is your lifetime tier point balance. This includes all the tier points you have ever accrued, since you began your membership or tier points were introduced (a long time ago!)

To achieve lifetime Gold status with British Airways, you must have 35,000 lifetime tier points or more.

You cannot get Bronze or Silver lifetime status. Since Gold tier requires 1,500 tier points per membership year, it would take just over 23 years of consistent Gold status to achieve Lifetime Gold (though you do not, ever, have to have held Gold to achieve Lifetime Gold). If you average 600 tier points per year (which is what Silver requires), it would take you almost 60 years though …..

Conclusion

Whilst Lifetime Gold status sounds fun, in practice it is only open to those who expect to fly a huge amount consistently for several decades. Unless you’re already maintaining Gold status you will most likely never attain lifetime Gold. Even then, you’ll most likely be thinking of retiring by the time you achieve Lifetime Gold, though I’m sure it would come in handy for those round-the-world retirement trips!

You should also remember that Lifetime Gold means “for the lifetime of BA” and not necessarily “for your lifetime”. When British Airways bought British Midland, it cancelled all of British Midland’s lifetime Gold cards. BA could decide to remove the benefit, either voluntarily or following a takeover, at any point.

(This article is part of our ‘BA Q&A’ series which explains how British Airways Executive Club works. You can see all of our ‘BA Q&A’ articles here. )

(Head for Points is the UK’s biggest frequent flyer website with 1.8 million monthly page views. Want to learn more about earning and spending Avios? Click here to read our latest news stories, click here to join our email list and click here to read our ‘Avios Redemption University’ series.)

How to get 20,000 Avios from Amex Gold or 30,000 Avios from Amex Platinum (December 2021 offer)

The sign-up bonus on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold converts to 20,000 Avios and the card is free for the first year. You can apply here.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

You don’t qualify for the Amex Gold bonus if you have a British Airways American Express card. You DO qualify for the bonus on The Platinum Card, which converts into 30,000 Avios. You can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

If you have your own small business, the best way of earning Avios is via the Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa. It has a sign-up bonus which converts to 10,000 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also look at the British Airways Accelerating Business card, because it currently has a limited time offer of 60,000 Avios when you sign up by 14th November. You can apply here.