British Airways Executive Club – Part 4, Why the Silver status might be one of the best mid tier statuses

British Airways Silver status, the best mid tier status?.

• British Airways Executive Club – Part 1, Overview of the program and the different tiers
  
• British Airways Executive Club – Part 2, Other avios Partners and why you should register at all of them
• British Airways Executive Club – Part 3, Alternative ways to earn extra avios
• British Airways Executive Club – Part 4, Why the Silver status might be one of the best mid tier statuses out there
• British Airways Executive Club – Part 5, Top 5 Tier point runs out of Europe
• British Airways Executive Club – Part 6, Tier point runs in the rest of the world
• British Airways Executive Club – Part 7, Top 6 Avios redemptions you can make
• British Airways Executive Club – Part 8, More ways to use your Avios efficiently
• British Airways Executive Club – Part 9, BA Redemption Finder
• 2022 Avios peak and off-peak calendar
• Transferring AVIOS from Iberia Plus to British Airways Executive Club within Household Account

 

The Executive Club Silver status

The Silver Status comes with some nice benefits:

• Priority check in and boarding on each flight.
• Free seat selection at the time of booking.
• Access to business class lounges.
• Extra baggage allowance.
• 50% bonus Avios.
• Fast security track at London Heathrow airport.

Furthermore, you will receive all those benefits even when you fly with another oneworld airline and no matter what class you book. If you happen to fly more often with British Airways or with other oneworld airlines, you should definitely consider crediting your flights to British Airways.

Why is it one of the best mid tier statuses?

We think it is one of the best mid tier statuses out in Europe because it is relatively easy to reach the Silver status, even without putting in too much effort and without the need to do some fancy flights to or from some very exotic destinations. Depending on your flying pattern, you could even reach the silver status without any additional effort at all.

How tier points are collected

Collecting avios is not linked to collecting tier points for your status. You only have to acquire 600 tier points within your membership year to reach the Silver status and fly with British airways at least 4 times (no matter on which class you fly).

The difference between British Airways Executive Club and many other airline schemes is that the number of tier points you earn flying business class is completely independent of how much you pay for your ticket.

There is no difference in how many tier points you earn between, a normal ticket or a flexible ticket in the higher classes. Furthermore, at the British Airways Executive Club the world is divided into areas, so you will always earn a fixed amount of tier points for your route and you will even receive more tier points if you have connecting flights, as each leg of your booking will count independently.

How many tier points will you earn?

To see how many tier points you will get for a specific flight, just head to the avios calculator and put in each flight separately. Let’s have a look at the example of a return flight in business class from Frankfurt to New York via London.

As you can see you will earn 40 tier points on your flight to London as well as 40 tier points from London to Frankfurt. For the flight from London to New York and vice versa, you will receive 140 tier points. This sums up to 360 tier points in total for any business class flight via London to the United States originating from Western Europe.

With the business class flight from our example and without optimizing your booking further, you are already more than half way trough the tier points required for the British Airways Executive Club silver status.

Flying to the US and booking an additional intra US first class flight on each way, you would earn 60 additional tier for these legs, summing up your total number of tier points to 480 with only one single business class booking to the US.

This means that you would only need 3 more business class legs with British Airways within Europe to achieve the Silver status.

Considering that there are many very low return fares to London out there, like for example this one: Business class Luxembourg-London 160€, whole year, you can say that the status can be earned relatively easy, quick and in a convenient way.

Let’s have a look at the tier points you earn for bookings to Asia. Here you will receive the same amount of tier points at the British Airways Executive Club flying with BA than you would earn flying to the US.

On the other hand, if you happen to fly from London to Hong Kong with Qatar Airways via Doha, you would even receive 140 tier points for each of the legs, which would sum up to 560 tier point with one singe business class return booking to East Asia. The same is valid here, putting in additional connecting flights can drastically increase the tier points you earn and bring you closer to the British Airways Executive Club silver status.

Conclusion

If you plan to travel in business or first class with British Airways or a oneworld partner anyway, it is possible that you are already very close to the British Airways Executive Club Silver status. If you happen to fly twice a year to Asia or the United States, you literally reach the silver status without any additional effort, even if you scored bargain flights.

This means that even a regular traveler, without performing any tier point runs at all, can achieve a mid tier status earning him complimentary lounge access and priority on various other services.

 

Continue reading with British Airways Executive Club – Part 5, Top 5 Tier point runs out of Europe