A running, dated log of every major British Airways Club and Avios change — the 2025 tier-point overhaul, the December 2025 devaluation, the October 2026 Amex earn-rate cut and what is coming next.
The Avios world moves quickly, and a change you miss can quietly cost you thousands of points. This page is our plain-English changelog: what changed, exactly when, and what it means for you. Newest and upcoming changes are at the top.
Jump to a section
These are confirmed changes that have not yet taken effect. Diarise them — a couple can be worth acting on before the date.
The British Airways American Express Premium Plus card will introduce a new tier-point earning structure: 1 tier point for every £10 of eligible spend, up to a cap of 3,000 tier points per collection year. A useful top-up towards status from everyday spending.
Across the British Airways American Express range, the standard earn rate drops from 1.5 to 1.25 Avios per £1 of eligible spend. The Accelerating Business card also stops earning On Business points, gaining instead a statement credit of up to £200 a year for Avios Hotels or Avios Car Hire. Enhanced welcome bonuses (see below) run only until 6 October 2026 — the day before.
If you are considering a British Airways American Express card, note the earn-rate cut on 7 October 2026 and the enhanced welcome bonuses that end the day before. See our current bonus offers page.
The changes below have taken effect, newest first. Together they mark the biggest reshaping of the programme in years — a move to spend-based status and a meaningful reward-flight devaluation.
The rate for earning tier points on travel extras (seat selection, extra baggage) and Sustainable Aviation Fuel contributions increased to 2 tier points per £1. SAF earning remains capped at 1,000 tier points per year.
A system-wide devaluation raised the Avios needed for reward flights by roughly 10% on average (8–14% depending on route and partner), with the cash fees on many bookings rising 13–23% on top. Bookings ticketed before this date kept the old rates. This is the single biggest cost change of the period.
Responding to a strong backlash, BA reintroduced a sector-based route to status for lower tiers (25 eligible BA flights for Bronze, 50 for Silver) and made a per-cabin bonus tier-point offer permanent (from 75 points in Euro Traveller up to 550 in First). Gold still has no sector-based shortcut.
The Executive Club was rebranded “The British Airways Club” and tier-point earning moved to a spend-based model: 1 tier point per £1 of eligible spend (base fare plus carrier-imposed charges, excluding government taxes) on BA-, American- and Iberia-marketed flights. All members moved to a single collection year running 1 April to 31 March, with new thresholds of 3,500 (Bronze), 7,500 (Silver) and 20,000 (Gold). New milestone Avios bonuses were added at 5,500, 11,000 and 16,000 tier points.
BA revealed the full details of the new programme ahead of its April 2025 launch, confirming the shift away from distance-and-fare tier points to a revenue-based system — the change that set everything above in motion.
We update this tracker whenever a confirmed change lands. This is general information, not financial advice.
The AviosArcana Editorial Team
We decode UK air-miles programmes in plain English, cross-checking every figure against the programmes’ published terms. We are independent and this is general information, not financial advice.