It's been a crazy few months, and frankly the world travel has been mired in so much complexity that I haven't been able to keep up. Adding to the fact that I had to furlough myself, I feel like I may be waking from hibernation.

Several airlines have gone the route of extending elite statuses and while BA had reduced the Tier Points requirement back around Easter, things were a little quiet until an email from BA landed in my inbox.

All British Airways Executive Club statuses are extended by 12 months

Whatever level you currently have, you will be given at least 12 extra months. This seems pretty fair for all parties concerned. Customers have lost time to earn and use their status, and obviously BA will be hoping to fill its planes as travel restrictions are eased globally. You should see this new expiry date within ba.com sometime soon.

Reduction of 25% to hit all tiers

In addition to having an extra 12 months, all tiers from Bronze through to Gold Guest List and Concorde Room Card will have a 25% reduced threshold to qualify or re-qualify. This will mean the new requirements to hit each tier is as follows:

• Bronze – 225 Tier Points
• Silver – 450 Tier Points (also check this article about whether it is worth TP Running for Silver)
• Gold – 1,125 Tier Points
• Gold Guest List – 3,750 Tier points if qualifying from Gold and below, 2,250 if re-qualifying
• Concorde Room Card – 3,750 Tier Points.

It is still a little unclear whether the 4 eligible flights requirement will be lowered, although I cannot imagine anyone would notice the difference between 3 or 4 flights. (Edit: It appears that you still need 4 flights.)

This will be big news for Tier Point runners although I have absolutely no idea how the business and leisure world will look even just a couple of months from now. Assuming the world returns to normal (!) and travel patterns come close to previously, then this will certainly be a decent way to get a higher status for a some marginal extra spend.

The reduced thresholds will apply to all BAEC accounts that have membership year reset dates all the way up to July 2022, so if you time your qualifications right, you can actually receive two full years of cheaper qualification.

Extension to Companion Vouchers

If you earn a Companion Voucher within the months of July, August or September 2020 from your AMEX credit card then there will be an automatic 6 month extension applied to it. This is a repeat of the extensions that were granted to newly-issued vouchers between April and end of June 2020.

Bottom Line

For the most part this is a sensible decision given all of BA's market competitors had done similar status extensions. I am particularly interested to see the reduction of the tier thresholds as many individuals and companies will be thinking twice about every pound they spend. This may sway some middle-tier fliers into buying the extra couple of flights to hit the higher levels. I know I'm tempted.