Making the most of BA Tier Points (and how earning 160 BA Tier points gets you to Silver and Gold faster)
If you understand the basics of British Airways’ Executive Club programme, you will know that in order to qualify for Silver or Gold, you will need to get either 600 or 1500 BA tier points (which are different from Avios). Find out more about this topic on this post.
- Bronze: 300 Tier Points or 18 eligible flights
- Silver: 600 Tier Points or 37 eligible flights
- Gold: 1500 Tier Points or 50 eligible flights
As a rule of thumb, when flying Business Class in European flights with BA (or Club Europe), a return flight earns you 80 BA tier points (40 each way). But would you like 160 BA Tier Points in one go? Yes, please.
What is new? You can actually double these tier points to 320 if you book a “BA Holiday” which is a flight + car hire or flight + hotel. The catch? Has to be done at the same time and for a minimum of 5 nights. But these will work very well and tier points are now credited quickly. Click here to book.
This British Airways Double Tier Points promotion has been extended until October 2023. It means that a European return flight will earn you 160 tier points (instead of the usual 80) and 320 Tier Points for European mid haul.
The same promotion applies to long haul flights – these will be doubled if you add a car hire element for at least 5 nights.
However, some flights are longer than others, and this is where it can get interesting – with a bit of homework, and for not a lot of extra cost, you will find below the list of British Airways European flight destinations earning 160 BA tier points in alphabetical order and with approximate lead-in prices.
- Algiers, Algeria (£550)
- Athens, Greece (£375)
- Bodrum, Turkey (£550)
- Bucharest, Romania (£300)
- Catania, Sicily, Italy (£250)
- Chania, Crete, Greece (£650)
- Corfu, Greece (£550)
- Dalaman, Turkey (£550)
- Funchal, Madeira Islands, Portugal (£290)
- Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain (£395)
- Helsinki, Finland (£290) also with Finnair
- Heraklion, Crete, Greece (£525)
- Istanbul, Turkey (£375)
- Kalamata, Greece (£485)
- Kefalonia, Greece (£475)
- Kos, Greece (£495)
- Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain (£350)
- Larnaca, Cyprus (£405)
- Malta (£310)
- Marrakech, Morocco (£305)
- Mykonos, Greece (£500)
- Paphos, Cyprus (£360)
- Reykjavik, Iceland (£290)
- Rhodes, Greece (£520)
- Santorini, Greece (£575)
- Skiathos, Greece (£410)
- Sofia, Bulgaria (£298)
- St Petersburg, Russia (£320)
- Tallinn, Estonia (£350) – with BA/Finnair via Helsinki, not direct, earns 200 TP return
- Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain (£375)
- Thessaloniki, Greece (£350)
- Tirana, Albania (£600)
- Zakynthos, Greece (£440)
These places have one thing in common (almost every place) – they are warm destinations (except maybe Russia and Finland or Estonia). Looking at the map you will see that they are flights over 3 hours, which qualifies as ‘medium haul’, making these escapes quite interesting if you are collecting BA Tier points with a view to qualify for silver or gold.
The British Airways European flight destinations earning 160 BA tier points list changes every year, so I will do my best to keep this list up to date. Most of these routes are seasonal (Turkey and Greek islands, for example), but not all are – and some are perfect for Winter Sun.
You can read some of my reviews of Thessaloniki – where I visited Ikos Olivia and Sani Dunes, Kalamata where I visited The Romanos Resort, Paphos in Cyprus (where I visited the Columbia Beach Resort). Funchal in Madeira (and the wonderful Belmond Reid’s Palace) can be a great idea, as can Istanbul.
I also recently been to Dalaman and discovered Gocek which was probably one of the most special places I have been to. And amazing value. We also went to Marrakesh and Tallinn.
Until the next flight (click here to book). And if you’d like more travel hacks, this may help. And ever used Google Flight Search? You should.
xo
Mrs. O
You can find more British Airways reviews here.
