May the 8th is a big day in the Expat Flyer household. It’s Mrs Expat Flyer’s birthday and more importantly the last of day of my British Airways Executive Club year. At midnight the tier points will reset to zero and my status is set for the year ahead.
This year could have been a downer. Having earned a meagre 425 tier point this year I would normally be facing a soft landing to Silver. The loss of access to the First Wing at Heathrow would be bad but I could manage. It would be the exclusion from Cathay Pacific’s excellent First lounges in Hong Kong and London that would have really hurt.
However, while it is not my birthday I have received a rather welcome gift from British Airways, another year of Gold status.
The low tier point count was due to the addition of Master Expat Flyer to the family last year. In the lead up to and immediately after his arrival, my travel dropped off quite dramatically. Luckily, this coincided with the British Airways Executive Club introducing a very new parent-friendly ‘status freeze’ benefit.
How to claim your ‘status freeze’
British Airways now allows new parents to put their account on hold for a year. You will continue to earn Avios and tier points as usual. However, your current status will roll over even if you do not earn enough tier points.
To qualify for the freeze members need to email baby@ba.com the following:
- a letter from their doctor, a birth certificate or documentation relating to the adoption or paternity leave
- their Executive Club membership name and number
As an added bonus, British Airways will give the new family member 1,000 Avios when they are enrolled in a Household Account.
This is one of a number of family-friendly policies that BA has rolled out recently. During the Easter school holidays, Gold members of the BA Executive Club were allowed to guest up to five extra guests into the Galleries lounges at Heathrow and Gatwick.