British Airways has insisted changes to its loyalty programme will create a fairer system and are not designed to reduce the number of people rewarded.
The airline is switching from awarding points based on the distance flown or fare class to the amount spent, at a rate of one point for every pound.
To qualify for gold status – which features benefits such as access to first-class lounges and enhanced baggage allowance – customers will generally need to earn 20,000 points per year.
The announcement of the changes in late December 2024 led to frequent flyer website headforpoints.com to accuse the airline of “effectively washing its hands of the leisure market”, claiming it will be “impossible to earn gold for small business travellers, economy travellers or self-funded leisure travellers”.
On Wednesday, British Airways announced a bonus offer enabling customers to earn up to 550 additional points per flight based on their cabin class will be extended for the rest of the year.
It has also introduced a guarantee of bronze status for anyone taking at least 25 flights annually, such as commuters.
Benefits for this status include access to business class check-in desks and free seat selection from seven days before departure, even if travelling on an economy ticket.
British Airways chief commercial officer Colm Lacy said awarding points for spending is “the best way of recognising our customers’ loyalty and we’re confident it’s the right thing to do”.
He told the PA news agency: “This is not about reducing the number of members in each tier.
“The focus for this is making sure we have a loyalty scheme that rewards people for the right behaviours.”
Mr Lacy said “one of the benefits” of the changes is they will make it harder for people to use “gamification and loopholes” to earn points, as “that is not really rewarding loyalty”.
In the past, some customers opted to take multiple flights on indirect routes to reach their destination, as often these cheaper, inconvenient fares helped them achieve statuses.
Gilbert Ott, founder of the travel website God Save The Points, said people have an “emotional attachment to loyalty”, and the bonus offer creates “a little bit more of that game feeling”.
He said many loyalty schemes in the US are already based on spending, and these have often resulted in passengers getting “better benefits because airlines have the economics behind them”.
In relation to British Airways, he added: “It’s aggressive because they’re the first in the UK – and one of the first in Europe – to go to a system where money is the main driver.
“But my gut is, if you look in five years, almost everybody (will have done) the same.”
The overhaul, which comes into effect from April 1, includes dropping the word “Executive” from the programme’s name, which will become the British Airways Club.
There are also additions to how points can be earned, such as through the airline’s package holiday division British Airways Holidays.
