Making the most of BA Tier Points (and how earning 160 BA Tier points gets you to Silver and Gold faster)
2022 update:
Executive Club Members could now earn double the Tier Points on flights taken as part of a package holiday with British Airways Holidays, between 24 August 2021 and 31 October 2022.
To qualify, you’ll need to book a holiday (flights + hotel or flights + car) of at least five nights before 22 October 2022. This includes solo travellers and any holidays you’ve already booked with BA. Click here for more information.
Please note that BA has reduced the BA requirements to hit BA Silver and Gold for 2022 by 25%.
This means you can benefit from lower Tier Point thresholds until this date, as shown below:
- Bronze: 225 Tier Points or 18 eligible flights
- Silver: 450 Tier Points or 37 eligible flights
- Gold: 1125 Tier Points
Please note that due to Covid travel and seasonal restrictions, not all routes may be operating
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.
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.
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.
