Booking a Back-to-Back Tier Point Run | Step by Step Guide (Top Tips) 

Thanks for your comments, they're much appreciated.

Thanks for your comment and your support, I think the date change will definitely make life easier for couples and families and there has been call for a change to the year end for this reason, but I don't think this is what anyone expected. I agree that there is going to be some short term pain over the next year or two. Thanks Phil

Thanks for your comment and sharing your experience. I can imagine Amsterdam being place place where it looks the most suspicious 😊

AMS Lounge has been the end of the Universe for the last couple of years. It's a disgrace. When I was there in Nov 2022, you had to scan a QR code for your place in the queue, and I still remember that I was 153.

@@peterbrown6224 I shouldn't laugh but I think if you didn't laugh at being 153 in the queue then you'd cry into your over priced coffee.

Thanks for your comment, I guess if I had to get up early to get to London City airport from Stafford and then ended the day at home again it would be exhausting. Not for the faint of heart.

Thank you for your question and your support. Birmingham is also my home airport. From a back-to-back point of view we're stuffed aren't we? I haven't tried to get a train to Manchester Airport from Stafford, but I feel I should just to see what it's like, but I've found trains from Stafford to Manchester and Glasgow to be reasonable if you plan ahead. So, tier point options that "work" from Birmingham are limited, you could look at Qatar Airways, they fly to Dubai from Birmingham for around £1,600 which would yield 200 tier points, which isn't great, but it is an option.

Thanks for your comment, from other comments it seems that US carriers are particularly hot on this, the two I looked at were United and Delta and they both had clauses prohibiting the practice of nesting.

Thanks for your comment, "Grey Gap 3 Years", nice. I hope you're having a blast. I have no idea how long I'll last but I'm going to enjoy every minute. The run is an interesting one and very close to my self imposed target of £2 per tier point, but it is a lot of tier points in a very short period of time, thank you for your excellent suggestion. Phil

Looking at this but starting in Dublin!

@@HannahMannah Do please let me know how you get on, how much it costs and so on.

@@mygreygapyearcan’t get it to work ex Dub. Added Ncl for an extra 40 on both legs but still not cost effective

Thank you for your comment, I would love to see British Airways' IT department implement this checking system 😂 (and go live in 3... 2... 1... 0... [ALL BA IT SYSTEMS FAIL!]). I mean I can imagine the SQL Query in my head and I know how I would approach it (depending on their data structures) but I can't see BA prioritising this over the other IT issues they have. Thanks Phil

Thanks for your comment and support, it is an interesting academic exercise even if I never take any trips. My youngest son doesn't really watch my videos, but he found this one and last weeks (planning a tier point run in 2024) really interesting and he has no intention of running for status. Regarding BA changes, my first instinct was another bone headed BA change, but I'm not sure how I feel now. I imagine that flights to certain destinations will increase in March and April. Thanks Phil

Thanks for your kind comment and question. I'm not sure if you're aware of the changes to the membership year by BA, if your not then this answer may seem a little odd. I made a video here about them, ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Uz4DVnHMPqI.html So with the BA changes, Part 1 is your current year. If you earn enough tier points to get Bronze status before the 9th July then you will be bronze for the rest of that membership year and the next membership year and the grace period until 31st August 2025. Part 2: is your shortened collection "period" from 9th July to the 31st March 2025, which you haven't asked about. Part 3: is the new transition period, which runs in parallel to these two other collection periods, from 1st April 2024 and 31st March. This is a live collection year, in that it works just the same as any other collection year and any status you earn in this period will last until 30th April 2026. So your points in May and June will count for both part 1, your current collection year and part 3, the new transition year. And, so, to answer your question directly, (according to a conversation I have had with BA) no your points earned in May and June won't reset at the end of your membership year in July, they will stay in your account until the end of March 2025. Thanks Phil

Thanks for your comment and support Red. I would wear my seatbelt for the whole flight if I was flying Alaskan 😊.

@mygreygapyear Probably nothing to do with alaska but yet another fubar by Boeing. Those 737 max's are a no no to me.

@@mygreygapyear Also, Is BA changing the tier point "collection year" for all members? And more importantly, are you going to do a video on it? Did I just answer my own question? POOOOOOKE!!

Yes, I'm planning to address the BA announcement, I was hoping to get a video out in the week but I think it's going to be Sunday now...

Thanks for your question and your support, I think if you currently have no tier points then you can consider the 1st April 2024 as your new year start date. On this date your new "transition year" will begin. If you earn enough tier points for status after the 1at April 2024 and before the 31st March 2025 then you will earn that status for the rest of this "transition year" and then also for the next "new style" membership year and then for the new grace period, so until 30th April 2026. Unless your earning tier points before the 1st April 2024 then this is no issue at all. Thanks Phil

You're very welcome

@@mygreygapyear 👍 Hope you can create informative videos in the future. Many thanks

The latter. They've spent months managing demand via adjusting prices up or down, they reason that last minute travellers have to go (many will be business who are much less price sensitive anyway) and so no special discounts for them. If they did offer last minute discounts then many customers would wait until the very last minute and their planning and sales would be a shambles. Source? My experience ... used to be a fery requent flyer for business (not business class unfortunately) and it wasnt unusual for idiotic bureaucratic delays in my company to mean that what was (say) a £500 economy trip in 2 months became a £1,000 in a week or even a business class trip at £3k once (to the US ) when no other vacancies. The only way they might sneak a discount in is via a holiday, eg say your manchester flight included an overnight hotel, they can hide a price drop on the flight as a "bargain hotel stay"

Thank you for your comment Richard, it slipped through the net, but I've just spied it and thank you to Joe for answering it. Joe is correct, airlines would rather fly empty than make last minute discounts, prices always increase once you hit the last minute business zone, which is (again, only in my experience) about 30 days out from the flight. Before the pandemic I noted that I would often save £50 to £100 on a flight to Melbourne if I booked around 60 to 90 days out (with some news reports claiming that 56 days was the optimum time) but post pandemic they seem to start high ( 300- 355 days out), dip for a while then just go up and up and up. The Google flight tracker is an interesting tool to use. Interestingly, last minute ticket allocations for concerts can be made once the lighting set up has been agreed, where seats are blocked off for the lights and then released once the lights are in place. Elaborate props can also change the seating arrangements. For cricket matches seats behind the bowlers arm will be blocked "en masse" until they know which pitch on the square is going to be used. Once they know that, some of the seats won't be in the batters eye line and they get released. Thanks Phil

Thanks for the suggestion, I'm making some notes and will possibly release a video tomorrow afternoon,

Thanks for your comment, I'm planning a mid-week video on this, on first glance it looks like the closer you are to December the worse it will be, so you might be in the most effected group.

@@mygreygapyear I know!!!! Would be great if you could use my date please (8th December) currently silver tracking Gold by the end of June 2024. First class flight booked 13th-22nd Dec JFK should get 840 on the holiday deal. Really need to know if I’ll get gold again with the adjustments in the missing months in order to keep gold for the 2025 year past April?

I'll talk about December as the worst case scenario.

Thanks for your question, going East from the UK is full of opportunity, I'm assuming we're talking about business flights if it's tier points you're after. You could try something like London to Abu Dhabi with either BA or Qatar, but if you get start in Amsterdam / Oslo / Helsinki the Qatar flight is cheaper. Then look at Abu Dhabi to Jakarta, and then either Jakarta to Bangkok or to Taipei depending on how many points you're looking for. An issue you're going to face is if you're buying one way fares. It may well be that keeping costs down is more important that points on one way fares. Thanks Phil

You might also find this response helpful from @pauljeffels8356 on a similar topic. Think I have cracked the code on this one... Sri Lankan Airlines business class (Bangkok to Dubai via CMB) - 180 Tier points,. BA premium economy Dubai via London to Manchester (100 Tier Points) - then Qatar Airways (Birmingham to Bangkok) booked with BA flight numbers - business class (280 tier points) - I already have 90 points. 610 points. Total cost is around 2000GBP (Sri Lankan 600GBP then BA 1500GBP/7000AED or so)

Thank you for your comment, very inventive, Jersey to Belfast, I didn't even think about that. I am planning some back-to-backs in economy (I don't need the tier points at the moment) but I haven't done one yet so I can't offer any advice. Do please let me know how it goes. Thanks Phil

BHD is fine - you walk down the stairs as directed then you’re in the lower gate area. Up a different set of stairs without exiting the airport and you’ll be able to find gate 3, conveniently next to the Aspire lounge if you have 10 minutes spare.

Thank you for your comment, much appreciated. Good to know about Belfast airport being back-to-back friendly.

Back to back at BHD is a peach. The terminal is small and security is very short. Last such trip around September last year.

Update: Belfast was a breeze-50 m down the corridor-missed stairs-backtracked so as not to go through arrivals-funny look from those coming off the plane-finally found stairs-up two flights of stairs-automatic doors opened to reveal next BA crew making their way to gate-straight into departures-60 secs to new gate-decided to spend 10 mins in Aspire lounge, which by the way has its only private connecting door to the gate-27 mins spent at BHD and back on same aircraft again-highly recommended as a back to back-all four ba flights from JER to BHD went like a dream-even had enough time at LHR to explore the Whispering Angel lounge at B gates-such a breeze to get to and back to A gates.

Thank you for your comment and your support, good to know about the layout of the airport, thank you. I bet flying to Inverness from Manchester, via Heathrow is still competitive on time for driving.

That depends on how you like the food in the lounge. 😂

My first TP run was an INV-LHR-DUB return nested inside a LHR-INV return over two days (one night in Dublin). Both visits to INV were 'true' B2Bs - arriving and departing on the same aircraft. Very easy at INV. I don't know what prices are like now, but starting in INV meant lower a lower air passenger duty charge.

Thanks for the tip, I hadn't factored in the reduced taxes with an Inverness stop.

​@mygreygapyear I cant say I've found flughts starting in Inverness any cheaper. The tax may be less but I find they load the surcharges.

Glad to see the nightstop INV is back for the summer - one flight a day is a pain

Thank you for your comment Richard, an excellent suggestion, I think we can forgive you for being 10p over budget 😊

Thank you for your comment, I found that United and Delta both have explicit rules against this, do you know if all US carriers have similar rules? I guess I should have checked the two Oneworld carriers, Alaskan and AA.

All airfares in the US are one way So always book one way and you will not have a problem

Thank you for your comment, how interesting. Full service carriers in the UK charge a premium for one-way travel, often a one way ticket costing more than a round trip, but our new budget carriers (Ryanair, Easyjet) charge each leg seperately. Thank you for sharing that, Phil

Why thank you. Who said RU-vid was full of haters.

Thanks for your comment, I do take your point on the environmental impact of such a trip, especially something like Manchester to Glasgow.

Gtfoh Lolol just stop. The flights were happening anyway