British Airways to align all Executive Club Tier Point collection years – what does it mean for you?

British Airways Executive Club members have historically all had different anniversary dates based on their joining date in the programme. The airline has just announced everyone will transition to the same date, which should make the programme a little easier to understand.

There is one minor loss for everyone, and another possible loss depending on your perspective, but overall it appears to have been thought through and is being done in the best way possible. Let’s dig in to the details.

New Tier Point Collection Dates

The Tier Point collection year will run from 1 April to 31 March, which aligns with the financial year for the airline. Anyone renewing from April 2024 onwards will have their year finish on 31 March 2025.

That means there are going to be some changes around your current status and how it’s earned during the changeover. However, as the British Airways website states, “Any Tier status you receive during the transition period will expire on 30 April 2026.”

What Do People Lose?

In short, people will lose three weeks of status with these changes. Right now, everyone’s Tier Point year resets on the 8th of each month. Mine ends on 8 June, but my frequent flyer card expiry date is 31 July. This means that I get three weeks of June and all of July as extra status over and above my 12 month period. Essentially people get 13 and three quarter months instead of 12 months at present.

This will change, as the new anniversary date will be 1 April and the card expiry will be 30 April. It essentially means a deduction of three weeks, so instead of 13.75 months, it will reduce to 13 months. For a programme that gives you status through to your anniversary date but has always given more, people are still getting more – just not quite as much as before. A small loss in the great scheme of things.

But Aren’t I Losing Months Of Status?

People are quite concerned about losing months of existing status. For example, if someone is Gold with an 8 September 2024 renewal date, and have already made enough Tier Points to renew it, they will have Gold through to 8 September 2025. With the changes, this ostensibly reduces, as the year will end for everyone on 31 March 2025. For this example, the person looks like they are losing six months of status. BA have you covered though, as the site says, “Any existing status valid beyond 31 March 2025 will continue for the full duration.”

While the website specifically says, “any Tier status you receive during the transition period will expire on 30 April 2026”, this would presumably mean extra for most people as the transition period starts later this year.

The calculation of what tier you should be given on 1 April 2025 will be determined by the flights you take from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, regardless of your current expiry dates. If you go up a tier due to this calculation, your tier will increase on 1 April 2025 and run through to 30 April 2026. This would also apply in reverse for a downgrade situation and be the same if you just maintained your tier.

Therefore, if someone has flown enough to earn the status in the transitional period, it should not be an issue. People would be advised to look at their booking profile though, just to be certain.

Overall Thoughts

All in all, it looks like the British Airways Tier Point collection date changes are as fair as can possibly be. Nobody should really lose out, except perhaps a minority of people who base their flights around status chasing and did not anticipate this change.

It will make the programme a lot simpler than previously as it was very complex, particularly for new members, to get their heads around how the anniversary and card expiry dates worked.

What do you think of this news from British Airways? How do you think it will impact you? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image by Nick Fewings on Unsplash.