Earn 720 Tier Points For £1,525/$1,982 (Oneworld Sapphire Status for £1,573/$2,045)

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British Airways and Qatar Airways are both running very good Business Class sales right now (I’ve written about both today) and, if you know what to look for, it’s possible to combine some of the better offers from these sales to rack up a serious number of Tier Points in the British Airways Executive Club. It’s even possible to earn oneworld Sapphire status for under £1,600.

Here’s How This Works

• Qatar Airways Business Class segments of over 2,000 miles will earn 140 Tier Points each.
• Most of the Qatar Airways Business Class fares I highlighted in an earlier post involve 4 segments of over 2,000 miles each and so will earn 560 Tier Points.
• Select British Airways short-haul Business Class flights (the longer ones) will earn 80 Tier Points per segment for a total of 160 Tier Points.
• It’s currently possible to pair a British Airways short-haul 160 Tier Point Business Class fare with a Qatar Airways 560 Tier Point long-haul Business Class fare to book a great trip and earn 720 Tier Points at the same time.

An Example Trip

Right now it’s possible to book a roundtrip Business Class fare between Helsinki and Bangkok for travel in January 2021 for a total of €1508.65…

…which is approximately equal to £1,298:

Visit Qatar Airways to book this Business Class fare

On its own, that’s a pretty good deal (560 Tier Points for £1,295) but if you add in connecting Business flights between London and Helsinki things get even better.

The flights in the screenshot above will connect well to the outbound and inbound Qatar Airways flights (if you look closely, the dates and times match up) and because Helsinki is an 80 Tier Point destination for British Airways, the roundtrip will earn a total of 160 Tier Points.

Visit BA.com to view the current Premium Cabin Sale

Both fares combined will cost approximately $1,525 and will earn a traveler 720 Tier Points in total.

Earning Oneworld Sapphire Status

British Airways Silver status matches up to oneworld Sapphire status which entitles the status holder to benefits such as Business Class lounge access (regardless of the cabin of travel) and free seat selection at the time of booking and this status can be had for just 600 Tier Points.

Annoyingly, British Airways requires a traveler to have booked a minimum of 4 segments through BA before Executive Club status can be earned so, assuming a traveler hasn’t already flown 2 or more segments on a British Airways issued ticket, the trip I’ve highlighted above would leave them 2 segments short of status…but that shouldn’t be too big an issue.

British Airways doesn’t require travelers to book specific cabins or fares to earn the 4 segment minimum so any cheap roundtrip fare booked during an Executive Club member’s year (and combined with the trip outlined above) will ensure that oneworld Sapphire status is earned.

With BA currently offering day trips between London and Dublin from £24 each way…

…this shouldn’t be hard to achieve economically.

Bottom Line

This is just an illustration of what’s possible so there are almost certainly other combinations of flights that can be booked to achieve the same result. 720 Tier points for an outlay of just £1,515 is a very good deal indeed and if you can parlay that into oneworld Sapphire status it gets even better.

Link to Qatar Airways Deals
Link to BA Sale