BA Now Shows Tier Points During Booking - But There's a Catch

British Airways now displays tier point earnings during the flight booking process on ba.com, showing both base tier points and bonus tier points for each fare before you pay. It sounds like a welcome improvement for members chasing status under The British Airways Club system - but there is an important caveat: BA itself does not guarantee that the figure shown at checkout is what will actually post to your account.

When British Airways relaunched its loyalty programme as The British Airways Club in 2025, it moved from a fixed tier point model to one where you earn 1 tier point per £1 spent on the base fare. Taxes, government charges, and airport fees are excluded from the calculation - meaning the total you see at checkout is never the figure used to calculate your tier points.

That made planning status renewals significantly harder than it was under the old system, where a fixed number of tier points was assigned based on your travel class and flight distance - regardless of ticket price.

The new booking display attempts to address this by surfacing tier point estimates at the fare-selection stage. You can now see, for each cabin and fare type, how many base tier points and bonus tier points you would earn before committing to a booking.

If you are working towards Gold, Silver, or Bronze status, the new display is most useful as a planning tool rather than a cast-iron promise. Use the BA Tier Point Calculator to model your status position across multiple bookings, then cross-reference with what ba.com shows at checkout.

The practical workflow right now is a little clunky. When booking a return flight, you need to note down the tier points shown for your outbound leg before you search for the inbound - because ba.com does not display a running combined total until after payment. It is manageable, but it does require a notepad or screenshot habit.

Bonus tier points - which now vary depending on how flexible your ticket is - are shown separately from base tier points. You add them together to get your expected total per flight. Again, this is not as seamless as the old system where you simply looked up a table.

This is the part that matters most. Multiple BA members have reported discrepancies between the tier points shown during booking and the amount that actually posts after the flight. The situations most likely to cause issues include:

When members have complained to BA about shortfalls, the airline's response has been consistent: "the total we show you is a guide and I'm afraid we cannot guarantee you will earn this amount." That is a significant disclaimer for anyone making booking decisions based on the displayed figure.

The tier point display is a genuine improvement on having no visibility at all - but it comes with real limitations that are worth understanding before you rely on it.

If you want to map out which routes and fares give the best tier point return for your money, the BA Avios Flight Calculator can help you compare options before you book.

You earn 1 tier point per £1 spent on the base fare of your ticket. Taxes, airport charges, and government fees are excluded. Bonus tier points are added on top and vary depending on the flexibility of your fare.

BA describes it as a guide only and does not guarantee the figure shown will post. Connecting flights, Avios part-payments, and e-voucher bookings are particularly prone to posting errors, according to member reports.

Contact BA with your booking reference and a screenshot of the tier points shown at checkout. While BA does not guarantee the displayed figure, having a clear record gives you the strongest case when raising a dispute.

Yes - both base and bonus tier points contribute to your status threshold. However, bonus tier points are calculated based on ticket flexibility and have been reported to post incorrectly in some cases, so it is worth checking your balance after each flight.

Showing tier point estimates during booking is a step in the right direction from British Airways - especially given how opaque the earning calculation became when The British Airways Club launched in 2025. But the disclaimer that the figure is a guide and not a guarantee significantly undermines its usefulness, particularly for members making booking decisions around specific status targets.

Until BA irons out the posting errors and offers a combined outbound-plus-return total before checkout, treat the display as a useful estimate rather than a promise. Screenshot everything, and check your account after every qualifying flight.

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