Tier Points 2023 - What is New and What Is My Renewal Strategy? 

Thanks to you Matt I’ve reached B.A. gold 🥇☺️😌 🤝🙏

Thanks for the upload, Matt! Always look forward to your videos.

Thanks Matt , very useful.

Thanks for the video Matt. Always enjoy these to support my endeavours!

Matt, you're awesome! So informative, thank you very much! Looking forward to your 2023 suggestions!

Thanks for another great video detailing how to requalify status! Much appreciated and good luck!🍀🍀🍀

Great video Matt , love your passion for helping people out .😎

Great vid thanks

Very useful food for thought. I have historically earned my points through QR and I too have decided to not chase a renewal this year simply based on the astronomical costs to do so. I think I will try one of your suggested TP runs to gain a similar status with BA instead, which gives me more options. I visit South Africa regularly and QR are a very comfortable way to get there.

Hi Matt, As always a great video! I've just finished a run from Sofia to Hawaii, really enjoyed it and stayed at the TWA in JFK. It put me most of the way to getting gold and I just had a trip over to Luxembourg to finish it off last weekend. I will say that your videos over the last few years have helped me massively. long may they continue 🙂

Great info. Just whizzed around the uk to knock up enough tier points to get back to silver again at the reduced rate. Don’t think I’ll bother with Gold as the lounges and booking seats early are good enough for me. All your videos are great, Matt’s Oceans is a favorite as well, I’m also a big cruiser. Thanks again

Great video! Thanks to your advice I took a trip to Sofia in September and achieved Gold status on 7th Oct just before my 8th Oct renewal. I guess I missed out on 364 days but at least I am gold for the first time. Fingers crossed they extend the double tier point holiday deal beyond Sept 2023 so I can use it after my renewal date next year :) Thanks so much.

Ever informative Matt! My year is the same 8th August/30th September and I have the same quandary. I’m looking at possibly either HNL or ANC via ex EU or via HEL for year.

Another great vlog Matt. ... I have family in Inverness so if I need tier points I do a CE single tkt booked way in advance then a BA Inverness-LHR -somewhere that is cheap in Europe and 80tps and return then a similar single back to LHR.. you benefit from the low taxes from Inverness. .. so 40+40+80+80+40+40 =320tps not a bargain but easy for me to keep silver.. plus as you say the package double tp is great...you can always use a few avios to reduce the cost..

That was well researched Matt, also well explained. you might have to watch it a few times if like me to take it all in🤔🤔🤔 I don't think I will ever get near Silver never mind Gold, but hopefully get our 2-4-1 vouchers each year to let us get away somewhere.

truly informative! BA no longer offers a service from my local airport and i would need to use a oneworld partner airline to collect tier points, presumably same rules apply

Brill yet again Matt. I see the Christmas beard is getting close to Santa style 😂

You’ve just solved a conundrum. Just traveled to Israel in pe and generated 180 TP, suddenly had 360 TP and bronze status. Now I understand why, holiday double tp, car hire. So will definitely make the 1500 points needed by our October expiry. Thanks Matt! Outstanding information as usual.

The maths you’ve pointed out for the length of the time you have the status is valid but only on your first qualifying year or if you use numerous airlines. If you fly regularly every year consistently it makes no difference

Matt. There was one thing in this video that I did notice and that was the Vegas trip pricing for a stay at the Luxor over the car hire. The car hire was more expensive but don't forget that on top of the price with the hotel booking you will have resort fees to pay, which for the Luxor I believe is around $35pn not including taxes. Steve. YNWA.

Interesting video Matt! The topic is very much on my my mind at the moment. My collection year ends on 8th Dec, so my grace period is over the Xmas holiday period and I'll soft land into silver in the new year. To go out with a bang, I've got a reward trip to California in January which managed to use up an Amex two-fer and and a Baec GUF2 days before both expired. I've never travelled in long haul First before, so I'm hoping the CCR will be fully stocked with LPGS when we depart!! I think I'll be looking at the US west coast mainly to get status back (I'd really like to explore the National Parks around Utah and Arizona), but I miss the Sri Lankan fares from the Middle East to Jakarta (I did one trip from AUH in early 2019 which cost a little under £500!!). From FlyerTalk, there are also some LHR-SOF runs which can be good value (but only 160TP per return). I've got a voucher from Qatar who I hope will have some offers going when the World Cup is over and done with. I've got a good friend in New Zealand who I visited in 2016 and 2018, so that's another TP challenge to repeat on OneWorld in 2023! Oh, and #ynwa (obviously!)

Matt. I love watching your videos multiple times as I always pick up more info and ideas. Thanks. In your MAN-LAS example for a TP run holiday, (09.10) you show 360TP EW double double to 1440TP. Wouldn't an LHR-HNL via JFK and LAX give you 420TP EW, double double to a 1680TP holiday. More than enough in one run for GOLD, or is LAX-HNL not a 140TP leg? Regards, Steve. C. YNWA.

I used to just do Sofia & back for 160 tier points. Often only paid around £180 rtn.

Excellent video Matt in particular as my year end is the same as yours 8/8 . Having finally made gold this year thanks to the reduced threshold and several holidays including the car. My dilemma was whether to try and maximise tier points or use the 4 2-4-1 vouchers my wife and I have between us . Since we also have >500k Avios between us your video has convinced me to use points for flights this year especially as you rightly say Silver has similar useful benefits. Eg lounge access , free seat selection , club checkin , fast track? (Have to say I haven’t been very impressed by the first class lounge at T5). I will be eagerly watching what decision you arrive at😊

I took 2 flights with BA one in 1st class, one in Business, and I've gathered 1140 tier points.

Instant favourite video! Thank you sincerely for doing all that research and legwork so that my lazy bones don’t have to. I hope Penguin is alright? They’re conspicuous in their absence in an office based clip… #JeSuisPenguin

Hi Matt. The double tier points on BA Holidays is now extended until December 2023. That's what I've seen on the BA holidays website today anyway.

Have been rewatching your videos over and over, they are so good. So to reconfirm, in order to earn the required status and enjoy it for just over 2 years, you must earn the needed number of tier points as early as possible at the start of the membership year, and no later than the end of the grace period?

excellent video matt - so really you should be looking to gain 1500 tps in the grace period if you are already a gold member looking to extend by maximum time period? this seems like a stretch for me as ive more comfortable to doing eu hops - sofia / catania / lux / dub - but im sure it can be done

Great video as always Matt. I'm in the exact opposite situation as you, plenty of travel coming up, some of which on my employer's dime, combine that with Qantas rolling over 40% of the tier points I earned this year, a double tier point promotion from Qantas that will net me 480 Qantas tier points on a $1,000 AUD business fare from Sydney to Auckland and I'm tempted to go for Qantas Platinum (equivalent to BA Gold). Also, unlike BA, it seems like lifetime status is somewhat attainable (7,000 QF tier points for lifetime Silver - OneWorld Ruby, 14,000 QF tier points for lifetime Gold - OneWorld Sapphire). I'll also be attempting to retain the Delta Gold Medallion status I status matched to earlier this year (potentially through a couple of flights from Australia to Europe and North America since mileage flown is all that matters there). Relatedly, Air France will provide you with lifetime Platinum (top tier) status after you have retained Platinum status for 10 years in a row, which might seem like a challenge at first, but if you can pull it off would mean certainty in ticking one airline alliance off your lifetime status challenge. In terms of finding goods deal on air fare, I agree that it can be kind of tricky. To be honest, most of my business class fares I'm booking are actually with airline miles I bought. For instance I spent $2,800 CAD to buy 160,000 Air Canada Aeroplan miles then transferred 60,000 AmEx points over to Air Canada to book a round the world itinerary that will take me from Sydney to Toronto with a 2 week stopover in Zurich, followed by LA to Sydney with a 3 day stopover in Seoul. Not bad if you ask me! Meanwhile Delta (and now United) awards airline status based on flights taken with award tickets which can potentially be a great deal, especially if you can buy those points on the cheap. Lastly, I will point out that there are still good deals in economy (and some even in premium cabins like Premium Economy) but you really need to look. It used to be that a few minutes or perhaps a couple of hours if you are trying to do a complex itinerary was all you needed to find the "best" fare. Now you need to spend more time playing around with dates, routings, stop-overs, etc. One final point on this topic, the next month or two for me will be crucial for flight booking now that the IATA slot conference concluded meaning most airlines have locked away their schedules for the coming months meaning deals ought to appear soon.

Another aspect that has changed slightly on the double TP offer is the hotel or car booking doesn’t have to be for the whole trip - just 5 days. When I booked mine back in 2021 the hotel/had to be for the whole duration which meant I limited my trip to just 10 days. Had this been the case when I booked I would probably have done a three/four week trip and just booked a nice hotel via BA for the last 5 days and stayed in much cheaper local accom for the rest.. and travelled around a lot more given the extra time and accom flexibility. That being said I managed to book MAN-LHR-DOH-HKT return taking in all three aircraft types in Qatar fleet, plus two of the 4 needed qualifying flights on BA yielding 1280 TPs for £2600ish and the LHR ground experience offer running for spending £2.5k +. Doubt prices are anywhere near that low now. Gold (nearly) in one trip.

£1.5 per tier point is hard to find these days, I agree, but here's one worth 560 points AUH-CMB-CGK return. £810 between Jan and March 2023. Just need to get to AUH :)

Just reached enough flights to secure silver status before the 31st discount cut-off, had many issues with my QR and BA flights not adding TP to my account so hopefully they will be added in time,

Great Vlog Matt. Very informative as always. I think I may have fallen for the 1125 tier point trap. But find it all a bit confusing. My TP collection started again on 09th Nov22. (Even though I have status until 08th Nov 23.). I will surpass the 1125 by mid Dec22 already. Any idea what actually happens after 31st Dec 22? What does my account change to? Or will I just enjoy Gold from now up until 08th Nov 24? Thx.

Got my 2023 points run booked for May, BUD-ANC with numerous stops

Hi Matt, great content. Could you please make a video on making a miles run from USA (star alliance or one world)? I am from San Diego, California.

Hi Matt, really enjoying your content, especially all things BAEC. Myself any my wife are starting to work our way through Hfps suggested card strategy to maximise points for a couple. Was just wondering if it’s possible to keep this running beyond the 3 cards, or do the big rewards soon dry up.

hey matt -.another great vid ! heres one for you. im booked on ba ce to sofia as part of a gold run - currently bronze - didnt select a seat at time of booking. now ive checked seats today and all but one seat in ce are gone. what does this mean exactly ? am i at risk of being downgraded to wt if i dont pay for this last seat? or do BA 'allocate' you a seat anyway at time of booking ?

Hi Matt, I really appreciate all the valuable content that you have on your channel, it is very useful :) I am looking to utilise the double tier points offer with a flight+car booking. are you sure that I don't need to pick up the car? will that have some sort of financial penalty associated with it? will I still get the double tier points in that case ? the reason I ask is I have seen different feedback regarding this online. I would really appreciate your feedback on this topic :)

Hi Matt, really good video and have been really enjoying watching your content! I do just have one question relating to membership re-renewal. My tier point collection year ended on the 8th April and my card (silver) expires at the end of May. Would I be correct in saying that if I can renew to Silver between now and the card expiry date (end of May) I will get the membership year of 2023-24 and 2024-25. I may of misinterpreted what your video was suggesting, so do please excuse a potentially silly question. Nevertheless really enjoy watching your videos, thanks, Tom.

Hi Matt, thank you very much for an incredible video! Love your channel! Do you know if you book a hotel or car hire through BA a month or so after you made the original flight booking, if you will still get doubly tier points. I booked the flight without knowing about the double tier points & wondered if I can still benefit. Thanks again for everything!

Bugger wish I’d seen the double tier points offer 🙁 just spent £3700 flying the missus & myself to Phuket via Doha premium economy ( Lgw-Doha leg only Qatar don’t have premium) gathered 320 points. Currently on silver collection year ended 8/11 card exp 31/12/22 so I assume will drop to bronze 😫 then have another 280 to get by 8/23 to get back to silver. The points year & card expiry is very confusing but would love to get gold even just once 🙏. Thanks for your videos I’ll definitely have to watch out for promotions & try your hacks.

Hello Daddy Matt! I've found my golden goose program to reach (and maintain) oneworld Sapphire. Might make a video of that. There's also a golden goose program to reach/maintain SkyTeam Elite Plus level. - Red

Hello Matt. I'm planning on doing nothing (TP Run wise) as my membership year is 8-July. So, I'm hoping for cheaper pricing next year. AUH-CMB-CGK sounds nice + could coincide with a LGW-KHI trip in November / December 2024 but that's long after July so not ideal. Frustrating that Qatar don't fly LGW-AUH so not sure how I'd manage that. In meantime, I can enjoy visiting countries in economy as cheaply as possible, as I've not travelled a whole lot! Considered J LHR-IST holiday for double double but that's c.£1,200 for two flights *not including car, when I live 5 mins from Gatwick + can get £500 for two flights. That £700 saving should buy many posh dinners in Istanbul, I suspect! PS - Your ITA Matrix video is a true public service. Will take me some time to get a grip of that! Well done on an amazing helpful resource for travellers! Must stop binge watching! :)

Hi Matt , thanks for your video ! I leave in Asia and UK ,sadly BA does not fly direct from Kuala Lumpur anymore. I have used BA oneworld partner Malaysian Airlines many times & just realised that BA does not give tier points with MAS ! Do you know which BA oneworld partners you can collect BA tier points ?

Thanks for your clear videos Matt. This is our first year trying to get to gold. Can I ask you about the Double Tier Point Holidays? The T&C's are vague. Do you need to stay in a hotel for the duration of the holiday or just the minimum of five nights. I am flying Jersey to Heathrow, Heathrow to Nashville, 5 nights in Nashville then separate flights to San Antonio staying with family for 10 days then back to UK via BA (route not decided). BA Hols said I need to stay for the duration in a hotel. But Flyers Talk states that is no longer the case. A dummy booking with BA (on the phone not holiday dept as couldn't get through) returned no Double Tier Points. But the T&C wording on BA changed from duration to Min 5 nights. So it's ambiguous. Any idea?

Hey! When is best to earn tier points? You did mention it in the video, but still didn’t get it! If my collection year ends on 8th of July and card expires on 31st Aug. When would be best time?

Matt, another good, interesting , informative video. I am in the same boat as you with my renewal date of August but will qualify for silver next week with a double tier point holiday to Bucharest. I have been looking at ways to use the BA double tier point holiday trip to maximise this but so far can't find too many cheap options. just one question. if you book a car for the 5 day holiday instead of a hotel, but don't pick the car up, surely you are wasting money as you have payed for a car for 5 days but don't use it!! OR am I missing something? Steve. YNWA

Have you ever thought about looking into Air Canadas Aeroplan rewards scheme? Seems good on first look. It would be worth a video

Great video Matt! Would you consider also making one for Star Alliance?

Great video Matt, many thanks. Two questions please, if I'm booking a tier point run with my partner and we both enter our BA Exec Club numbers, do we both get tier points for the trip? Secondly, if I depart from MAN for example, stay 5 days in my destination but return to LHR will this still count as a holiday and therefore I receive the double tier points? |Thank you very much.

Thankfully, I had a work trip which posted twice, which got me 420 tier points and I easily requalified under the reduced thresholds. Bit too late to book a tp run for gold. As you advise, it takes about 6 months notice for a tier point run. I will need 910 for gold under the old thresholds from january. I think my best hope is to keep going for silver each year - I have a friend in a 160 tier point destination who said I can crash for a week as a holiday of I get there. Did someone say BA flight plus car hire?

Matt. I've just had a thought. (Dangerous I know) You say in this video that you can't gain the 1600 TP required to make Gold status in one day, but for your followers do you think you could do it in 5 nights using the double tier points holiday option from BA, using another video of yours, where you did Sophia to Las Vegas baby as your trip with the connections you used. I think it was about 800+ TP initially which would give you the 1600 Tp for Gold. Thanks. Steve. YNWA.

Another excellent video Matt. A question for you please: I want to renew my Silver status. My TP collection year end is 8/06/23 and card expiry therefore 31/07/23. I currently have 320 TPs. In the video you say that it’s possible to get, in my case, 2 years of Silver, but would I have to earn 600 TPs in the window between 9/06 and 31/07, as my understanding is that the 320 TPs I already would be wiped by BA on 8/06. Or could I ask BA to carry them over to that grace period window when I could get the additional 280 TPs, giving me Silver to 2025? Thanks

Not easy to renew BA status without flying to USA. As I am not jabbed. I can't travel there currently. Even if the Covid restriction is lifted after Feb, it's still complicated as I have been to Iran, which means no ESTA. I am thinking of going back to QR, but QR prices to Asia is crazy expensive lately.

hey matt - following on from my previous post ref tp run to get gold - ive read that you could do a B2B to SOF - but when i booked i had to stay overnight. am i missing something ? i would prefer to fly back same day but cant see how you can do this? thanks

Hi Matt. Love your channel. Sorry if I sound a bit stupid but I wanted to clarify my situation. I am B.A. Gold since October 2022 as I qualified with 1,125 tier points under the reduced offer. On my account it states however that my tier point end date is the 8 Feb 2023 and that I require still 230 tier points to retain Gold. As I am currently on 1,270 tier points. My question is this, my understanding is that I should be gold until at least February 2024 as it rolls for a year once my tier point end date is reached. If I get the extra 230 tier points before the 8th of Feb would this therefore extend my gold status even further? I just cannot get my head around it all. Thanks for all your great information on your channel Matt!

I question I have is my holiday booking, flights are 8 days apart but 1 night in hotel, as I'm getting a cruise, will this generate the double tier points?, they extended the promo until Dec 2023. Also do the double points apply to ba flight numbers on partner airlines cause in seeing a connecting flight in interested in

I'm in a similar boat. Moving from AA to BA, the sweet spot (for me, anyway) seems to be BA silver. While I'd really like to qualify for Gold, the issue is trying to figure out how much value I''d really get out of it. Is it worth the hassle and expense for the amount I'd use it. If I watch the fare sales, I can get Silver in one trip either to the US or Singapore via Oslo and Doha.

Very insightful as always. In my naivety, I joined BAEC a few years ago in February. Living in the far north of Scotlnd, we always try to go away somewhere warm and sunny in…January! I’d love to move my membership forward to January or even December to allow those January trips to earn for me. I wonder; could I terminate my membership and re-apply? If so, is there anywhere I could “park” my Avios before transferring them back to my new EC account? (I’m thinking, say, move them to a hotel programme and then move them back). I don’t have that many (around 40,000, plus a similar number in Amex reward points).

Looking at fares to Vegas in summer 2023, it seems like prices have doubled at least. A tier point easily costs £2.50+ nowdays. Does it make sense to do tier runs anymore, or better just to pay to use a lounge?

Winter beard!!!

Hi Matt. If my status is Silver on 8th July, do I have to earn full 1500 points till 8th July 2024 or the remaining points from my silver status (around 900 TP needed)?

Matt. I am a little confused. in the video at 9:10 you talk about the TP for Man-Lhr-Jfk-Lax-Las with a screen shot with a price of 2.5k for flight only. you then say that the cheapest holiday booking you could find UTILISING THOSE FLIGHTS was the Luxor for £2.883. However when you show the hire car option at 10:06 for £3073 the flights are different. Why. The flights on the car hire booking wouldn't get you the 1440 tp Steve

About the topic ob BA status... I actually planned a flight for the 29th of december with Qatar Airways QSuite, trying to get my BA Silver Status for the lowered threshold of 450 Tier Points. From what I read Qatar always needs some time to credit these points to BA, what do you think will happen if the Tier Points get credited in 2023 will I still get my Silver or will I have to earn towards the 600.

My year ends in 08.11 so I am collected 1125 tier points between 08.11 and 31.12. However, from the BA app, it shows that I need 1500 tier points to retain gold instead of 1125.

Matt I have a question (not a comment). I’m running 40 tier points short of BA Silver status. I live close to EWR airport in NJ. Any advice on what the most practical way to achieve this is?!

Shame Manchester do not operate many BA flights

Does BA honour the adding of the double tier points after the return flight completion two weeks (14 calendar days)? I am banking on this in order to get gold before my tier points reset date. I land back to LHR from JFK on 15 April, and my tier point reset date is 8 May 2024. Then in 2024, I will do this strategy of tier points run, to re-earn the gold for two more years.

So if tier status remains for another 2 months, if you get the tier points during that period, does the status roll forward? I thought the tier points were removed at the anniversary?

Hi Matt just made silver with gold planned for December-however I was perplexed that when I took my mum with me on my most recent trip they would not allow me to add her as a guest at the BA Lounge Heathrow T3 & T5-I was travelling in club and she was booked on a separate booking reference in economy-we booked it later-They scanned my boarding card on my phone with silver membership and their system said it wouldn’t allow a guest-it happened twice and they let her in each time not understanding why-any ideas? Should I have just let them scan my membership bar code rather than the club Europe boarding pass? I contacted BA executive and they said I couldn’t bring in a guest if they were on a separate booking reference though both on the same BA flight-is this BS? By the way I did let her fly in business by swapping seats-worth the brownie points!

I’m starting to travel alone to get my tier points up this year but after purchasing my 1st ticket business transatlantic two days ago I’ve had nothing but issues with BA ‘call centers’ you must’ve had issues with BA at some point?! Can you do a segment on how to effectively contact BA? I paid $3k with BA 2 days ago & called to ask if I could change my LHR to PHL leg from the 1215 to the 1340 flight (checked prices were the same) and the rep quoted me a $9k diff…I am disgusted at the nerve and lack of common sense they have. I wish I never bought this ticket now and wish I had started earning with star alliance!!! Such a downer. Can have do a segment on shady BA practices? Or how one world partners such as AA & BA have so many “exceptions” I can list several if you msg me. Thanks

4 flights for me to get silver, but probably done by holiday trips in pe or business. Would love to reach gold by 8th October 23. Maybe…

Just flown 1st class from SYD to LHR with JAL for Xmas and at best only getting enough to get silver.... Am I doing something wrong ??

Hiya Matt just wanted to ask you how can I add more tire point on my Aegean membership

Hello Matt I'm new to your channel, excellent work I've just subscribed. Do you have a similar methodology for Virgin Atlantic? I'm Gold currently and have booked a trip to Australia, using flying club miles to BOM, (100 TP) then revenue tickets to SYD via SIN in business as I'll earn 125TP for each leg. So that return trip earns me 700TP and if I add that to the 175TP I have, that's 875 so gold again. BUT, I've just learned the gold qualifying total is going back up to 1000 on 1st April & my return flights aren't until 22nd April. So I need 125 more points by 30th June. Between my wife and I, we have 55,000 points & 3 upgrade vouchers. I also have 78000 Avios. I'm visiting a friend in Nice next week so was wondering if I fly Air France economy there & business class back to get 50TP & then do Avios to TLV & fly back Virgin upper to get 100TP would that be the best way??? Your guidance would be greatly valued, sir 🙂

Matt ignore this last comment. I have realised my mistake. Like I said dangerous for me to think. 🥴🥴🤬 Steve. YNWA.

Good video but I miss the old intro where you seemed to get grumpier in your passport photos as you got older! 😀😌🤨🙁☹