Get Silver in one EU trip with double tier points from BA Holidays – solo travellers now included

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Over the Summer, British Airways has been running a very interesting promotion for anyone who is chasing British Airways Executive Club status.

Very simply, if you booked a BA Holidays package, your flights would earn double BA tier points.

Tier point targets have already been reduced by 25% due to coronavirus. Put these two deals together and you can earn status for just 37.5% of the flights that would normally be required.

The deal has now been extended and tweaked so that solo travellers can also participate. You can find out more here.

How does the BA Holidays offer work?

The offer now runs into next Spring, which is good news.

When you travel on a BA Holidays package between 24th August 2021 and 31st March 2022, you will earn double tier points.

This only applies to tier points and not Avios. You only earn standard Avios from your flight.

You can make a booking up to 22nd March 2022 so you have seven months to ponder.

Is there a catch?

Yes, but one fewer than there was.

The rule that at least two people must travel together has been scrapped.

This has interesting repercussions. You may, for example, now be able to book longer business trips via BA Holidays and earn double tier points.

The other rules remain as they were:

you must stay away for at least five nights

you must pay for a car or hotel for the full length of your trip

your trip must start in the UK

Do existing bookings count?

Yes – if they are BA Holidays bookings

No – if you have an existing stand-alone BA flight booking and were planning to ring up to add a hotel or car hire to it

Must I book my hotel through BA Holidays?

No.

‘Flight and Car’ bookings count. You don’t have to book ‘Flight and Hotel’, or ‘Flight and Car and Hotel’.

Some people book a car but forget to collect it. I have seen some stories of the rental company fining people €50 to compensate them for the lost profit from overpriced insurance, but I reckon that is the worst that can happen.

Must I fly on British Airways?

Your flight must be BA operated or be a codeshare which carries a British Airways flight number.

How does the maths work here?

Very nicely.

These are the current tier point thresholds:

Bronze status requires 225 tier points (was 300 points)
Silver status requires 450 tier points (was 600 tier points)
Gold status requires 1,125 tier points (was 1,500 tier points)

The reduced tier point thresholds apply to all membership years which expire up to, and including, 8th July 2022 although BA appears to have quietly extended this deadline without telling anyone.

How many tier points will I earn?

This Head for Points chart lists the tier points you will earn on each British Airways route.

In simple terms, looking only at premium cabins:

Business Class to ‘near Europe’ – usually 80 tier points return, now 160 tier points

Business Class to ‘far Europe’ eg Greece – usually 160 tier points return, now 320 tier points

Club World return – usually 280 tier points return, now 560 tier points

First Class return – usually 420 tier points return, now 840 tier points

Here’s an interesting tip

If you live in London, you may want to consider booking your Business Class trip from Manchester or another domestic starting point instead.

The extra short connecting hop in Club Europe would earn you an extra 160 tier points return.

A booking such as Manchester – Heathrow – Athens, return, in Business Class would earn you 480 tier points (80 + 160 + 160 + 80). This is enough for British Airways Silver status.

Remember that as well as earning enough tier points, you must take four British Airways or Iberia flights during your current membership year to be promoted. One return flight from London to New York would NOT get you Silver status from scratch, because whilst you would have 560 tier points, you would only have taken two flights.

I really want to do this but don’t want a 5+ day holiday

Whilst I don’t recommend this, you could nest your trip so it looks like this:

you book a seven night ‘Flight and Car’ trip, Saturday to Saturday
you fly out on British Airways on Saturday
you forget to collect your car
you fly back immediately on easyJet or another carrier
you have a week at home as usual
the following weekend you fly back on easyJet
you take your scheduled British Airways flight home

I can’t think of any sensible reason to do this, especially given that covid testing would add to the costs and complications, but it should work. Personally I’d have a week long holiday – even if you were working from the hotel and not taking any annual leave – and do it properly.

What are the other benefits of booking with BA Holidays?

Even without this offer, there are many good reasons to book with BA Holidays:

booking a ‘Flight and Hotel’ or ‘Flight and Car’ package can be cheaper than booking a flight on its own, since British Airways will often use BA Holidays as a way of quietly selling seats without cutting its headline flight prices

you earn an additional 1 Avios per £1 for every £1 you spend at BA Holidays

if you have the British Airways Premium Plus American Express card, you get double Avios via American Express if you use it to pay for your holiday

you only need to pay a deposit now – which can be as low as £60 per person – with the balance not due until three weeks before departure

you can change your booking, or cancel for a voucher, up to three weeks before departure – no excuses required

Conclusion

Removing the ‘two person’ restriction means that this offer is now interesting for the dedicated tier point runner as well as anyone simply looking to book a holiday.

Have you spent your life assuming that you would never earn a British Airways Silver card? You can now get one simply by flying Manchester – London – ‘far’ Europe in Business Class for a five night holiday. You can’t argue with that.

With the offer running until 31st March 2022, you could even lock in Gold status with a couple of trips.

Remember that status lasts for:

all of the rest of your current tier point year, plus
all of the following year, plus
a stub period of seven weeks at the end

If your tier point year starts on 8th September 2021 and you booked a 450+ tier point trip after that date, you would earn and retain Silver status until 31st October 2023. This represents the rest of your current year, all of the following year and the stub period at the end.

You also get a soft landing. A Silver would drop to Bronze for the year to 31st October 2024. A Gold would get a year of Silver and a year of Bronze, locking in lounge access until 2024 and free seat selection until 2025 …..

Find out more

You need to do the maths to see if this offer works for you.

If you are not going to travel alone, don’t forget that your partner is likely to have a different Executive Club year-end date to you so a flight plan which fits around you may not work for them.

I strongly recommend you visit this special page of the BA Holidays website to learn more before booking.

The ba.com guide to tier points and how they work is here.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

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

The Platinum Card from American Express

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

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 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 consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

British Airways and Avios

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Richard G says:

28 Aug28 August 10:15

I currently have a holidays (+car) flight in 1st that BA has modified with a cabin change. Does that change entitle me to a full refund rather than a voucher?

If so I might re-book and take advantage of the double tier points.
- sayling says:
  
  28 Aug28 August 10:18
  
  Double points apply to existing bookings, if it helps
  - Richard G says:
    
    28 Aug28 August 10:27
    
    Interesting, thanks. I guess I’ll have to take a printout of the T&C.
    
    Though this makes it even more annoying that they’ve changed my cabin as I’ll earn less. 🙁
- Lady London says:
  
  28 Aug28 August 13:11
  
  *What* cabin change.
  If you have been downgraded then you could be due hundreds or thousands back if you fly it.
  
  Unless someone knows there’s something about holiday bookings that stops involuntary downgrade compensation?
  
  Do *not* under any circumstances do *anything* with /to the booking till someone else here can confirm.
  - Lady London says:
    
    28 Aug28 August 13:16
    
    PS you dont have to rebook to get double tier pts as you already booked it as a holiday. Only those who’d only booked a flight and were looking at adding carvor hotel would have to rebook.
    
    Since you’re safe on that and it looks like you’re being downgraded to Club from First sit tight and fly it as for that the rate is what you paid less £200 or so, then 75%of the rest claimable (and unavoidably receivable) after flying the involuntarily downgraded flight.
    
    Unless anyone here says booking under BAH does not give this.
    - ChrisC says:
      
      28 Aug28 August 15:08
      
      The regulation applies to flights even if part of a package.
      - JDB says:
        
        28 Aug28 August 15:35
        
        I don’t think that is correct unfortunately ChrisC, if for no other reason that you can’t separate out the cost of the flights. Even if the holiday is repriced which gives you a clue, but not a definitive answer I don’t think you get the 261 rights. The legal rights as applied to flights are quite different to those applied to holidays which are oddly, much less consumer friendly.
      - ChrisC says:
        
        28 Aug28 August 16:48
        
        JDB
        
        There is no ‘flights as part of a package’ exclusion for EU261.
        
        And BA have the fare breakdown to calculate it even of they don’t show it as part of the booking process.
        
        Even if you have to force them to show it via CEDR or MCOL.
      - ChrisC says:
        
        28 Aug28 August 16:53
        
        See this from Which?
        
        https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/denied-boarding-eu-regulation-regulation-261-2004-ec-a0gj36Y9oN79
        
        “Package holidays
        
        The Regulation also applies to flights that form part of a package holiday but the obligation under the Regulation will remain with the carrier.
        
        If you’re seeking reimbursement of your flight costs you will not be entitled to receive a full refund of your package holiday costs under the Regulation.
        
        However, where the delay, cancellation or denied boarding constitutes a significant change to the package holiday as a whole, the rules under the Package Travel Regulations will apply.”
      - JDB says:
        
        28 Aug28 August 22:25
        
        I think that unfortunately your comment is a misreading of the Which? article. In this downgrade situation you have to fall back on the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements 2018.
    - JDB says:
      
      28 Aug28 August 15:56
      
      LL – I bow to know greater knowledge on most things travel, however, unfortunately I think that in practice and in law, holidays are different and strangely less favourable. As you and others have helpfully advised, if your flight is cancelled you can (in theory) rebook when you want and if downgraded can claim the 75% compo. However, for a holiday, if your flight is cancelled, BA will offer a full refund or to move it by +/- 14 days when they will swallow the costs. Beyond that they will only reprice or refund. Unfortunately, many of us have booked holidays with special offers, flights then cancelled, but moving it loses the offer, changes hotel season/prices, so you are stuffed! If I am wrong, I would be very pleased to be contradicted.
      - Lady London says:
        
        28 Aug28 August 20:37
        
        JDB you and ChrisC are of course both correct in that downgrade compensation would absolutely only apply to the flight element.
        
        However that flight element will still be a very significant distinguishable financial part of the holiday and also of the specific level of holiday experience that has been purchased. The 75% is on the flight element and worth claiming. Obvs would be more on a standalone flight but even in a holiday containing discounted First should not be sneezed at.
        
        However as we know BA’s problem is they’ve literally got no First aircraft on many routes where they had it previously, and Richard G might still want to keep the specialness of First for his holiday….Richard G would it be worth talking to BA about still travelling First on the holiday but on another airline(s) that has decent First to your destination? I’d jump at JAL or CX if that’s where you’re going, someone said BA has been able to ticket Lufthansa flights for irrops. A favourite First of Rob even ( or especially) with a connection where LH’s First Class Terminal is in Germany now the FCT is open again. Research before calling and talk to them?
      - Richard G says:
        
        28 Aug28 August 22:13
        
        Alas, my only option would be AA as it’s a flight to Austin.
  - Richard G says:
    
    28 Aug28 August 15:28
    
    First to Club. Aircraft change so no First any more.
    
    Sadly it was going to take me back to Gold, but now I’m going to have to work out another flight before my tier point ends.
    - Babyg says:
      
      28 Aug28 August 16:08
      
      contact BA exec club, if your original fare would have got you gold im pretty sure they will look at the details surrounding the lost TPs and give you gold
- JDB says:
  
  28 Aug28 August 15:40
  
  If you have booked a flight, then added the car hire (ie not actually technically a BA holidays booking) your rights in respect of the involuntary downgrade are significantly enhanced. If it is part of an actual BA holiday, I believe you are simply entitled to the price difference without compensation, or rerouting on another airline that might have First.
  - Richard G says:
    
    28 Aug28 August 15:42
    
    Any idea how to calculate the price difference?
    - JDB says:
      
      28 Aug28 August 15:49
      
      You could try a test booking yourself to see the difference in price Club v First, so at least you can gauge it for yourself. Otherwise, I assume that you will get an email from BA Holidays or unfortunately have to try and call them to ascertain what the new price is. Hold off doing this for a little bit in case someone sensible on here contradicts me!
VinZ says:

28 Aug28 August 10:17

I’m not even sure why I should carry on earning silver status with lounges closed all around the world, priority tags scrapped… just for the free seat selection?
- Rich says:
  
  28 Aug28 August 10:32
  
  I get great value every year out of a single ski trip.
  
  The extra baggage allowance alone – for the whole party – is worth quite a bit. Lounge access, fast track and priority boarding have always worked well for me.
  
  Agree though. The loss of outstation lounges leaves a big gap.
  - Andrew says:
    
    28 Aug28 August 11:37
    
    You earn more Avios when you fly BA as silver – makes a huge difference on discounted Economy.
  - kitten says:
    
    28 Aug28 August 13:20
    
    And I get very sick of paying an inflated £65 for 1 bag as a Bronze or Blue whilst a party of 10 going skiing next to me, with one Silver card holder, get tp check in all their extra luggage free. Grrrrr.
J says:

28 Aug28 August 10:47

Can someone help me with the math/timing as I’m quite new to TP collections.

I’m currently Bronze. It says I am bronze until May 2023 however it says my TP year ends on April 8th 22.

If I wanted to take advantage of this trip/multiple trips to reach SIlver for the longest period, when should I aim to complete my trips by?

Or is it that April 9th 21 would’ve been the best time?

Thanks
- Richard G says:
  
  28 Aug28 August 10:49
  
  Yes, April 9th would be the best date to earn Silver on. You’d have it for basically two years from that date then.
- ChrisC says:
  
  28 Aug28 August 11:00
  
  To get the most time it’s best to get your status as early in your collection year (in your case 9th April 22 – 8th April 23) because you then have it for the rest of that year and the next year as well and then to the end of May 2024
  
  But that’s not possible with this offer.
  
  So if you earnd Silver in your current year you;d have it until May 2023
Matthias says:

28 Aug28 August 10:54

I’m thinking of using this for a Gold TP run. Any suggestions on the best routing? From an earlier post DOH connection with BA flight number looks attractive, although sadly that means expensive QR ex-UK prices. Any better options?
- Nick says:
  
  28 Aug28 August 11:02
  
  JER/INV to the US. You’ll have to book by phone but BAH can book the multi-sector hops needed for a ‘true’ TP run.
  - ChrisC says:
    
    28 Aug28 August 11:33
    
    No need to phone.
    
    I’ve booked several TP run trips via BA Hols (one night hotel only) online and never phoned to book (other than when I wanted to use a voucher)
    - AJA says:
      
      28 Aug28 August 12:12
      
      The double TP offer only applies to holidays with 5 or more hotel nights. The hotel must be booked for the duration. Same for car hire. You can’t book only one night or day car hire.
      - ChrisC says:
        
        28 Aug28 August 12:51
        
        Yes I know that but I was respondign to the TP issue and Nick saying you have to call when you can do it on line.
      - Wee paul says:
        
        28 Aug28 August 16:24
        
        Does the five nights have to be in the same hotel?
      - Rob says:
        
        28 Aug28 August 16:45
        
        No
      - soundnomad says:
        
        4 Sep4 September 14:28
        
        Does the hotel being booked for whole duration of trip apply even if your return flight is at 00:30am. Struggling to get reliable answer from BA. The standard holiday return booking online means you pay for a hotel for a night you won’t use. The agent I spoke to said this can;t be avoided and cheking out on the previosu day disqualifies double tp offer. Any thoughts?
- VerdantBacon says:
  
  28 Aug28 August 11:56
  
  Check the TP run threads on the BA forums on FlyerTalk, they’re usually very good
  - Nick says:
    
    28 Aug28 August 15:42
    
    @ChrisC in theory yes you can do it online. But the kind of TP runs I was talking about have no hope. The kind that can’t even be booked on ba.com for flight only.
EdMo says:

28 Aug28 August 11:05

I have a BA Holiday booked in Jan for 14 nights but we have only booked car hire for the first five nights.

I wonder if we extend the car hire for the duration we will get the double tier points?

“Eligible Participants who change their travel arrangements after the date of booking will not be eligible for the promotion unless their revised booking also qualifies under the Terms and Conditions of this promotion.”
- ChrisC says:
  
  28 Aug28 August 11:43
  
  Yes should be ok
  
  Personally what I’d do is reprice the trip online and if happy with the price book that and cancel the original for a voucher and then use that towards the balance.
  
  Might be worth it to save your sanity with long phone line waits.
Nick says:

28 Aug28 August 12:56

For those who say BA never gives anything to those in the regions… I’ve just priced up a holiday from GLA, for only £120 more than departing from LHR. And that £120 earns an extra 240 TPs (I’ll let you work out for yourself how that works 😄) Now just to convince myself to press the button…
- Dave says:
  
  28 Aug28 August 16:24
  
  I like a riddle…
  
  GLA-PMI-GLA would be an extra 160 TPs over the normal LHR-PMI-LHR, so it’s not that…
  
  Presumably you’ve routing GLA-LHR-XXX-BHD-GLA? So getting an extra 3 x 40 TP sectors in, 120 TP in total, 240 with bonus?
  - Dave says:
    
    28 Aug28 August 16:26
    
    *sorry GLA-LHR-XXX-LHR-BHD-GLA
- Dubious says:
  
  28 Aug28 August 17:22
  
  Does it involve GLA-MAN-LHR-xxx using LoganAir with BA numbers for the first segment？(In CE)
Bobby says:

28 Aug28 August 13:54

Is there a link to destinations that earn the same tier points as ATH?
- ChrisC says:
  
  28 Aug28 August 15:02
  
  Yes it’s in the article.
Matthias says:

28 Aug28 August 15:12

Online BA Holidays seem to offer a limited choice of indirect destinations – ie Phuket is in but Jakarta is not.

Is it different if I call ?
- Nick says:
  
  28 Aug28 August 15:44
  
  Generally no, because BA Holidays vet all their hotels before allowing them to be sold and as such the whole portfolio tends to be online. There are a few cities that don’t appear where they have some on their books, but not many. Worth a call but expect to be disappointed.