In 2025, we felt something a little unexpected. Freedom. For the first time in a long while, we stopped automatically booking with British Airways and began trying other options. That shift led us to ask: is British Airways loyalty worth it?
In previous years, chasing British Airways Club Gold shaped almost every booking decision. We prioritised BA or oneworld carriers even when alternatives were cheaper, faster, or better, because retaining Gold made the trade-off feel worthwhile. The value equation was clear enough to justify the constraint.
That equation has now changed.
With a 20,000 Tier Point target now in place to reach Gold status, our view of loyalty has changed. Gold may still be achievable, but the cost required to retain it now demand closer scrutiny. Decisions feel far more value- and experience-driven, and the incentive to restrict ourselves to BA or oneworld has largely fallen away. This is less about walking away from BA loyalty and more about reassessing what loyalty itself is worth.
That personal shift made us curious to dig a little into whether British Airways loyalty is worth it. Were others feeling the same freedom, or were we outliers? To find out, we ran a poll among a private Facebook group of frequent flyers made up mainly of BA Gold and Gold Guest List members. Nearly 550 frequent flyers answered the poll, offering a rare snapshot of how some of BA’s most loyal customers are responding to the programme changes.
We asked simple poll question:
Since BA changed the Tier Point rules, have you flown more non oneworld airlines?
The answers were revealing.
40 percent flew different carriers without prioritising BA Tier Points.
The largest group, 40 percent, said they had tried multiple non oneworld airlines and no longer actively cared about BA Tier Points. A further 23 percent said they had tried a few non oneworld carriers. Taken together, almost two thirds of respondents said the changes had encouraged them to fly outside the oneworld ecosystem.
12 percent said they remained fully loyal to BA. Another 7 percent reported switching to a different oneworld programme rather than staying with BA.
The remainder said their behaviour had not changed, either because they had never chased Tier Points or because their travel choices were largely dictated by work. On the surface, this could look like a loyalty programme losing its grip. In reality, the picture is far more nuanced.
The poll was not intended to be a rigorous scientific or academic exercise. However, with nearly 550 responses from frequent flyers, mostly BA Gold and Gold Guest List members, it offers a real-world indication of how sentiment is shifting among some of the airline’s most frequent and engaged customers.
Loyalty, but only while the maths works
One of the most consistent themes was pragmatic loyalty. Many Gold members said they would continue flying BA while they retained Gold status, simply because the benefits still delivered value. Once that status dropped to Silver, however, many said they would reassess whether it was worth crediting flights elsewhere to maintain an equivalent tier with another airline or programme.
This was especially true for travellers whose work flights are booked by someone else, typically in economy, leaving them to rely on upgrades and leisure travel to sustain status. When that pathway becomes less predictable or more expensive, loyalty becomes conditional. This is not emotional disengagement. It is rational behaviour.
From loyalty to transaction?
Another thread was the sense that BA has shifted the Club from a loyalty programme into a transactional one, without sufficiently improving the underlying product.
Some described a steady erosion of goodwill. Changes are frequent and often felt less customer friendly, while basic improvements lagged behind. BA was seen to have relied heavily on its London hub dominance and an assumed recovery in business travel.
For long term loyalists, this broke the emotional contract. Once loyalty becomes purely transactional, convenience and value naturally take precedence over brand attachment. People are removing their exclusive focus on BA and some plan to fully switch once their current status runs out.
The quiet winners: Finnair, Iberia and Qatar?
Another interesting observation from the poll is that people are not abandoning oneworld. They are abandoning BA Club. Finnair Plus was repeatedly mentioned as offering one of the best routes to Emerald status. Iberia Plus came up as imperfect but workable, particularly for those flying American Airlines and benefitting from segment based earning. Qatar Airways Privilege Club was also cited as a programme where status could be achieved by crediting BA flights elsewhere.
Others went further Star Alliance and SkyTeam were mentioned as offering tier matching and retention structures that felt clearer and more generous.
Freedom, not anger, is the defining emotion
Perhaps the most striking emotion expressed was not frustration, but relief. Some described feeling free. The freedom to choose airlines based on schedule, price or onboard experience. Free to try carriers such as TAP, SAS, Virgin or KLM without the guilt of missing Tier Points. Free to acknowledge that other airlines can match or exceed BA in many areas.
So is British Airways loyalty worth it?
For some, yes. For many others, it depends. By changing the structure of its loyalty programme, BA has reshaped the mindset of its customers. Loyalty is no longer automatic or assumed. It has to be earned, flight by flight, decision by decision. For a growing number of frequent flyers, the question is whether the financial commitment required to retain status still makes sense, particularly when the incremental value of that status feels increasingly marginal.
BG1 Verdict
We will miss the First Wing. But when status costs more and delivers less, people change how they fly. That shift has made it easier to try new airlines without feeling tied to one brand. In 2025, we flew Aegean, Austrian Airlines, Delta, LATAM, Lufthansa, LOT and SWISS, just to name a few, all of which we’ve already reviewed on here.
For us, 2026 looks set to be just as exciting as 2025, with more freedom to explore new carriers and routes. Plenty more flight reviews to come.
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