You can now get BA Bronze with no flying via Amex and SAF – but is it worth it?

There have been two key changes for 2026/27 to how you earn tier points in The British Airways Club.

Taken together, they mean that – for arguably a reasonable cost – you can now earn Bronze status in The British Airways Club without going anywhere near an aircraft.

Ignoring the obvious question (why would you want Bronze status if you never go on a plane?!), let’s look at whether it makes sense.

Here is a reminder of the two tweaks made to tier point earning for 2026/27 which, taken together, could change your thinking.

Remember that Bronze status requires you to earn 3,500 tier points by 31st March 2027.

Earning tier points from American Express

On the face of it, nothing has changed with the American Express tier point scheme.

If you have the British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card, you will earn:

• 750 tier points for spending £15,000
• 750 tier points for spending £20,000
• 1,000 tier points for spending £25,000

What has changed for 2026/27 is the timing.

Last year, you had to spend £25,000 between mid June 2025 and 1st February 2026 to earn the maximum 2,500 tier points.

This year, the spend period is far longer. It runs from 1st April 2026 to 1st February 2027. Assuming you registered on 1st April, you have ten months to spend £25,000 instead of just over seven months last year.

For some people, this will make the difference between being able to hit the target or not.

Full details of how to earn tier points from the British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card are in this HfP article. Remember that you must register before your spend starts to count.

Earn tier points for buying SAF

As part of its efforts to encourage the use of (expensive) Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF), British Airways offer tier points in return for donations towards the cost of SAF.

You can buy SAF via this page of ba.com.

The scheme changed on 1st April.

You used to receive 10 Avios and 1 tier point for every £1 you donated. This has now improved to 10 Avios and 2 tier points for every £1.

There is a maximum of 1,000 tier points per membership year to be earned via this route.

If you donated £500 towards SAF purchases, you would receive:

• 1,000 tier points and
• 5,000 Avios

Note that the transaction is handled by a partner, Choose, so I suspect that credit card payments on a British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card are NOT treated as BA spend and will not earn double Avios.

You don’t even need to pay with real money. You can use Avios instead, at the rate of 0.8p per Avios. You still earn tier points and earn Avios back if you go down this route.

1,000 tier points via £500 of SAF will cost you 62,500 Avios (!) although you will receive 5,000 Avios back for a net cost of 57,500 Avios.

Bronze status requires 3,500 tier points ….

…. which you can achieve by:

• spending £25,000 by 1st February on a British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card to earn 2,500 tier points

• spending £500, or using 62,500 Avios, on SAF credits to earn 1,000 tier points

But is Bronze status worth having?

What are the benefits of British Airways Bronze status?

You do NOT receive airport lounge access but the status is worth something.

The key benefit is free seat selection seven days before travel for you and everyone else on your booking.

Given how much British Airways charges for long haul seat selection – over £100 per person, each way, in Club World on some routes – it can be a worthwhile saving if you would otherwise have paid.

The other key benefits are:

• use of Club World or Club Europe business class check in desks, regardless of your flight class
• 1 extra Avios per £1 spent (7 per £1) on British Airways flights
• priority boarding
• 5% discount on almost all purchases at The Wine Flyer

If you are flying with a partner airline in the oneworld alliance (Qatar Airways, Cathay Pacific, American Airlines etc), you are also guaranteed to receive some benefits.

As a oneworld Ruby cardholder (which is what BA Bronze is), oneworld guarantees:

• access to business class priority check-in
• access to preferred or pre-reserved seating, in accordance with the individual policy of the oneworld airline operating the flight
• priority on waitlists and when on standby, in accordance with the individual policy of the oneworld airline operating the flight

Realistically, only the business class check-in benefit is worth having, but this can still be very helpful at busy airports.

The official ba.com page outlining the benefits of Bronze status is here.

Conclusion

I am not seriously suggesting that HfP readers should be spending £25,000 on their credit card and donating £500 towards SAF credits to earn Bronze status entirely from scratch!

It obviously makes no sense, since unless you are flying British Airways you won’t see any benefits from having the status.

However, you can overlay your own flying patterns on top of this analysis. Depending on how many tier points you will earn naturally from flying, you could reduce your Amex spend and/or forget about a SAF purchase.