British Airways Club: Big Tier Point Changes Coming 1 April 2026

Just when you thought you'd got your head around The British Airways Club and the spend-based tier point system that launched in April 2025, BA has announced another round of changes — effective 1 April 2026. The good news? For once, these are largely positive. If you fly on flexible fares, book American Airlines or Iberia flights, or spend money on seat selection and baggage, you're about to earn meaningfully more tier points than before.

Here's everything you need to know.

Since April 2025, The British Airways Club has operated on a spend-based model. You earn 1 tier point (TP) for every £1 of eligible spend — that's your base fare plus any carrier-imposed surcharges (the YQ/YR fees), but not the government taxes and airport charges portion. Until 31 March 2026, ancillary purchases like seat selection and extra bags earn TPs at 1 TP per £1. From 1 April 2026, that doubles to 2 TPs per £1.

On top of that spend base, BA introduced per-leg bonus TPs in November 2025 — and crucially, made those bonuses permanent. Those flat bonuses look like this:

These extra per-leg bonus TPs apply to BA-marketed and -operated flights only, and Basic (hand-baggage-only) fares are excluded from the bonus.

The tier thresholds you're working towards remain:

Three changes are coming in simultaneously, and they all broadly move in your favour.

The current flat per-cabin bonus is being replaced by a tiered structure that rewards flexible fares significantly more. The lowest fare types are not worse off, and in some cabins they improve. At the bottom end, Club World rises from 400 to 500 bonus TPs per leg, and First rises from 550 to 650.

The headline numbers for fully-flexible fares are genuinely impressive. Club World (long-haul business) moves from a flat 400 TPs per leg to up to 1,100 TPs per leg on Fully Flex. First class hits 1,250 TPs per leg on Fully Flex. Club Europe goes from a flat 175 TPs to up to 375 TPs on the most flexible fares, while the lowest Club Europe fare type remains at 175 bonus TPs per leg.

For frequent business flyers who book on company accounts or have reason to buy flexible — this is a big deal. A return Club World flight in fully-flex could now contribute 2,200 bonus TPs on top of your spend TPs, compared to 800 before. That's the kind of number that can meaningfully accelerate a Gold run or a Gold Guest List defence.

For leisure flyers buying the cheapest available fare, the change is more neutral — you won't lose anything, but you also won't suddenly be swimming in extra TPs. The spend TPs remain the same regardless of fare type.

This is one of the more practically useful changes. From 1 April 2026, flights marketed by American Airlines or Iberia will earn flat per-cabin bonus TPs — similar to how BA-marketed flights work today, but without the fare type distinction.

BA has now published the AA and Iberia bonus table in full. From 1 April 2026, AA/IB-marketed flights earn 75 short-haul economy, 175 short-haul business, 150 long-haul economy, 275 long-haul premium economy, 500 long-haul business, and 650 long-haul first, per leg. That's not nothing, especially if you're regularly flying between the UK and the US via oneworld partners.

It also opens up some interesting strategy for Silver chasers. If you're flying to Europe a handful of times per quarter on Iberia — say eight qualifying flights per year — the bonus TPs could stack up alongside your spend TPs in a way that makes Silver a more realistic target without BA-only flying.

For comparison, Iberia Plus has long offered more generous earning rates that apply across all oneworld partners — so this change at least reduces some of the gap, even if it doesn't fully close it.

Seat selection, extra baggage and Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) contributions will double from 1 TP per £1 to 2 TPs per £1. The SAF annual cap is also doubling from 1,000 TPs to 2,000 TPs per year, with each £1 of SAF contribution now also continuing to earn 10 Avios on top.

On the surface, doubling the rate sounds exciting. The reality is that ancillary spend tends to be modest relative to fares — a seat selection fee of £30 return now earns 60 TPs instead of 30. It all adds up at the margins, but it won't transform anyone's tier point haul on its own. The SAF cap increase is arguably more meaningful if you're intentionally contributing to hit it.

I'll be honest — the spend-based system that launched in April 2025 was quite punishing for certain traveller profiles, and a lot of loyal BA flyers voted with their feet towards other programmes. I know from conversations with readers that quite a few shifted allegiance to Qatar Airways Privilege Club or ramped up their Flying Blue Platinum activity as a result.

These April 2026 changes feel like BA acknowledging, without quite admitting, that the original structure was too harsh in some areas. The fare-type differentiation for bonus TPs makes intuitive sense — a passenger paying £8,000 for a fully-flexible Club World seat is worth more to the airline than one paying £1,500 for the cheapest available business fare, and the programme should reflect that. It's honestly the kind of nuance that was missing at launch.

The AA and Iberia earning is long overdue. The whole point of oneworld is that these programmes should work together, and having to fly BA metal specifically to earn meaningful tier points always felt like a weakness compared to how other alliance loyalty programmes operate.

Whether these changes are enough to pull defectors back is a different question. BA has tinkered with the programme a fair amount in the past 12 months, and some members will understandably take a wait-and-see approach before recommitting. But if you're already working towards Gold this year, the numbers are now meaningfully more achievable — particularly if you buy flex fares.

As a Gold member myself, I'll admit I'm keeping a close eye on how the Gold Guest List thresholds play out in practice. The 65,000 TP requirement (with a minimum 52,000 from BA/BA Holidays) is still a significant commitment — but with Fully Flex Club World contributing 2,200 bonus TPs return, the maths does get more tractable for frequent business travellers.

If you're planning your tier point strategy around these changes, our BA Tier Point Calculator can help you work out how many TPs different flights earn. For finding and booking award flights on BA and partner airlines, Award Travel Finder is worth a look — and if you want to search available reward seats in real time, Seats.aero remains one of the best tools out there.

If you're building up Avios to fuel redemptions alongside your status chase, check out our best Avios-earning credit cards guide and our Avios Balance Booster calculator to find the best value when buying or boosting Avios across BA, Qatar and Finnair.

The changes take effect based on the date of travel from 1 April 2026, so flights before that date earn under the previous structure.

Jack