Thousands of British Airways Club members have been informed that they were mistakenly granted an additional year of elite status and are now facing a downgrade.
Background of the Status Changes
In April 2025, British Airways overhauled its frequent flyer programme, rebranding it as The British Airways Club and altering the criteria for achieving Silver, Gold, and Gold Guest List status. Previously, status was earned based on the number of flights taken. The new system primarily considers the amount spent within a year: £7,500 for Silver and £20,000 for Gold. Although the changes attracted widespread criticism, the airline allowed spending on BA Holidays to count towards the targets.
The Planned Downgrade Date
British Airways set 1 May 2026 as the date when members who failed to meet the spending thresholds in the previous year would lose their elite status. However, just days before this membership review, reports surfaced on frequent flyer forums that many passengers who had fallen well short of the tier targets were receiving extensions to their status for another year.
Rob Burgess, founder of the frequent flyer website Head for Points, commented on The Independent’s daily travel podcast: “A lot of people received emails from British Airways saying, ‘Don't worry about it, we're going to give you another year of Gold status or another year of Silver status’. The people who were getting these messages were those who had done virtually no flying with British Airways. I’ve not found anyone with a Gold extension who had more than £5,000 of qualifying spend.”
These revelations angered frequent flyers who had deliberately increased their spending with BA to meet the qualification levels. Mr Burgess described the situation as Gold cards “being handed out like confetti”.
Technical Error Identified
British Airways and other airlines have historically offered some flexibility to loyal customers who temporarily reduce their flying, often due to illness or parental leave. However, as more reports emerged from delighted passengers, IAG Loyalty—the entity that manages the scheme on behalf of BA—issued a statement confirming that the status extensions were made in error.
A spokesperson for IAG Loyalty said: “Earlier this week we renewed the status of a very small number of BA Club members according to our normal guidelines and criteria. This raised concerns with some of BA’s members, who believed we’d made a mistake. Our initial investigation didn’t identify any obvious issues; however, over the last 24 hours we’ve conducted some more detailed forensic work and have discovered that due to a technical issue, some members (fewer than one per cent) were incorrectly told they had retained their status when they hadn’t earned it or been entitled to it.”
The Independent understands that the number affected is below one per cent of those with Silver status and above, which still amounts to thousands of travellers. These members are now being informed that they will be downgraded from 1 May after all. The spokesperson added: “We’ll be contacting affected customers in the coming days to apologise and reinstate their correct tier.”
The standard downgrade for the year ahead is to the next tier down: Silver to Bronze and Gold to Silver. The latter still retains lounge access.
Separate Lufthansa Compensation
Separately, BA’s German rival Lufthansa has written to members of its Miles & More frequent flyer programme following a series of strikes that caused disruption. The airline stated: “The past week has involved disruption, uncertainty and additional effort for many of you. We fully understand how challenging it can be when plans can’t be carried out as intended. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience you may have experienced.” Passengers have been awarded additional points, including those leading to higher status.
Read more: Jet2 and Brittany Ferries vow no fuel surcharges for summer – while BA’s parent company talks of higher fares.
