Do British Airways tier points work on a calendar year or membership year basis?

A common question I get asked is are British Airways tier points are earned on a calendar year or membership year basis?  This is important to understand if you are targeting elite status.

If you’ve already read our introductory article about what British Airways tier points are, you’ll know that tier points are a way of tracking your elite status with British Airways. The more tier points you have, the higher up the ladder you can climb and the more rewards are open to you, such as complimentary lounge access, seat selection and more.

It is impossible to spend tier points – they are not a reward currency like Avios – and, crucially, they are also reset at the end of your membership year. This is because elite status at British Airways is based on a year-to-year basis.

That means that tier points operate on a membership year – rather than a calendar year – and depends when you joined British Airways Executive Club. You can easily see your year end online in your Executive Club login.

You cannot change your British Airways Executive Club membership year end as we explained in this article.  The best you can do is request a short extension to your Executive Club membership year which we explain here.

(This article is part of our ‘BA Q&A’ series which explains how British Airways Executive Club works.  You can see all of our ‘BA Q&A’ articles here. )

(Head for Points is the UK’s biggest frequent flyer website with 2.4 million monthly page views.  Want to learn more about earning and spending Avios?  Click here to read our latest news stories and click here to join the mailing list for our weekly or daily email newsletters.)

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

There are also good bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These are available to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.