(chill electronic music)
- You have to be a Gold Card holder to use this lounge.
Unfortunately not, no.
So you're welcome to use- (voice fades out)
- As some of you might know,
I fly economy pretty much all the time.
But it's not always as bad as it seems.
I've realized that, having a Gold Card,
is like having the same benefits
of a first class passenger.
Like priority check-in,
free extra luggage,
free seat allocation,
and of course, access to first class lounges.
They do Bloody Marys here.
Oh!
All that for the price of the cheapest economy seat.
Thank you.
A few months ago,
I took 20 flights in two weeks
just to get Gold status.
Let me show you how I did it.
It's five in the morning.
I'm on my way to Heathrow.
Today I'm gonna be taking three flights, to get to Bangkok.
London, Oslo, Oslo, Doha, Doha, Bangkok.
It's what we have to do to get those points.
- [Fan] Can I take a photo of you?
- [Jean] Sure!
- [Fan] Yeah, I always watch your videos.
- [Jean] Oh, thank you!
Yeah.
- [Fan] It's so cool, I can't believe I bumped into you.
- [Jean] Okay.
- Hey, thanks so much.
- [Jean] You might be in that now.
Bye! - Bye!
- [Jean] Every time you fly with British Airways,
you earn two types of points.
Avios, and tier points.
With Avios, you can pay for things like hotel rooms,
car rental, and of course, my favorite, flights.
But this video is all about tier points.
You can't spend them, you can't buy them,
and you can't earn with credit cards.
You can only earn tier points with time in the sky.
These points will give you status,
also known as the executive club tiers.
These tiers are blue, bronze, silver, and gold.
The higher the status, the better the benefit.
(person singing on airplane)
- Sorry. - Bye.
- Have a good Christmas. - Aw, you too, bye.
- [Man] Thank you! Have a good one!
- See ya.
Flight one, done.
In the hallway now.
Only another 19 flights to go.
Let's do this.
British Airways is part of an alliance called Oneworld,
which is 13 major airlines sharing benefits with each other.
Every time you fly with any of these 13 airlines,
it's as if you were flying with British Airways,
which means you can also earn tier points
flying different airlines.
- Oh my god- - Do you mind if I record you?
- I watched it last night, yeah?
- [Jean] You watched it last night?
- Yeah, I actually, it was the Singapore Airlines?
- [Jean] Yes.
- From economy class all the way to first class.
- [Jean] Oh yeah, that's it.
- Yeah yeah.
- [Jean] Wow, cool! Thank you very much.
- [Airport Worker] No worries. Have a nice flight!
- Thank you.
You'll start with Blue.
All you need for this is to apply online for free,
and you'll get an email straight away
welcoming you to the executive club.
There aren't many benefits here,
but it gets the ball rolling.
(funky music)
Boarding now, it's my second flight of the day,
going from Oslo to Doha.
This flight is gonna be a business class flight.
Long haul, over 2000 miles.
Which means I'm gonna earn 140 tier points.
Which is very good.
I'm very excited, I never seen Qatar A350 before.
Oh my god, it's so beautiful, look at that!
The amount of tier points you earn
is based on two things.
The distance that you fly,
and the cabin that you're in.
So the further you go in the best possible cabin,
the better.
Everything is so pretty, like-
- Oh yeah? - The colors.
Yeah.
- [Flight Attendant] Oh, I'm glad to hear that!
- Okay, so there are two tricks to be played here.
First, find a good deal.
I found this Qatar airways in business class
from Oslo to Bangkok return for just 1300 pounds.
That is pretty cheap.
If I was flying from London to Bangkok
on Qatar business class,
it would have been over 3000 pounds.
So all I had to do
was make my way to Oslo as cheaply as possible,
to get the flight.
Flight number three, this is going from Doha to...
- Bangkok. - Bangkok.
It's Sean, my flatmate,
and he helps with the videos as well.
- Cheers!
- Cheers.
(chill hip hop music)
Second trick, connections are good.
Every flight over 2000 miles is a long haul flight,
which in business class gets you 140 tier points.
So it's better to break down your trip
into as many 2000 mile flights as possible.
That way, you'll fly more long hauls,
and earn more tier points, for the same distance.
Good morning from Bangkok.
And today I'm gonna be flying to Doha.
And, you know I'm making this video about tier point runs,
and how you can get class just to get the little perks
like priority lanes.
As you can see here,
economy queue is massive.
But you can avoid that by having status,
even if you're flying economy.
Let me show you what ...
The business class lane looks like.
(comedic music)
Hi. Business class? - Yes.
- Yeah, thank you.
Completely, completely, empty.
Hi!
(comedic music)
I am now bronze on British Airways,
which is Ruby on Oneworld.
That's because I've taken three long haul flights,
140 tier points each,
420 tier points now.
That's right.
At 300 tier points, you become bronze.
And that comes with priority check-in,
which can be very helpful to avoid long economy lines.
All right, thank you very much for everything.
Bye bye, thanks. - See you soon!
- Bye!
- [Flight Attendant] Good luck with your-
- Thank you! Cheers!
Back in Oslo.
At 600 tier points, you become silver,
which gives access to business class lounges.
About to board from snowy Oslo, to London, Heathrow.
But to have access to first class lounges
all around the world for you and your guest,
regardless of the cabin you're flying in, you need gold,
and for that, you need 1500 tier points.
That's a lot.
But when you fly economy as much as I do,
it's totally worth it.
Flight number six done.
Back in London.
Going home.
One day then back on board.
This next trip is gonna get me gold,
by using the same two tricks I've used before.
First, I found a very good deal
from Dublin to Hawaii all the way in business class
with British Airways and American Airlines,
for just under 1500 pounds.
- [Airport Worker] You picked the long way around,
all right.
The slow boat, as my mum calls it.
- Second, I'll break down this trip
into eight separate flights,
six of which are long hauls,
so that single booking is gonna give me
920 tier points.
But first, I need to get to Dublin,
and for that, I just booked the cheapest option.
About to go on board in this Ryanair flight from
London Gatwick to Dublin.
Flight number seven done.
Thank god for that.
It's seven a.m.
The whole trip is gonna take 28 hours, and starts here,
in Dublin airport.
So, this was flight number eight.
The flight was a bit late,
so we might have to do some running now.
Moving from terminal five to number three.
Might just about make the flight.
(mumbles) business.
♪ Boy run run run ♪
♪ To the money ♪
♪ Boy ♪
(background chatter)
- [Man] Hey, good morning.
♪ Run run run ♪
♪ To the money ♪
- Five minutes before boarding,
been flying for over 30 hours now.
And it's another six to go.
And that's Hawaii now.
♪ Go down go hard ♪
♪ Don't give up ♪
♪ Work them feet feet ♪
Thank you.
- [Woman] I had four flights.
(messages over PA)
- [Woman] Hi, how are you?
- Good, how you doing?
Now, another flight marathon happening.
Quiet here.
That was American Airlines from
Honolulu to Los Angeles.
♪ Boy run run run ♪
♪ To the money ♪
Just arrived in New York.
Now, just one more long haul flight to catch.
♪ Zoom ♪
- [Woman] Hello! Welcome aboard.
- [Jean] Hello, thank you!
- [Woman] Thank you very much,
that's great!
Nice to have you back again.
Welcome to Club World.
Just up front.
- Getting onboard on this British Airways
from New York to London.
♪ Boy run run run ♪
♪ To the money ♪
♪ Boy ♪
(beeping)
About to get on board on the last flight of this run.
And that's the last flight of the tier point run.
Now, all I need to do is go back to London.
Because I don't live in Amsterdam.
I should be gold now.
(hip hop music)
♪ Run run run ♪
♪ To the money ♪
(clock chiming)
Hi, good morning.
- [Airport Worker] Hello sir. Traveling first class today?
- [Jean] No, economy.
- [Airport Worker] Okay, so you have a gold card?
- [Jean] I do.
- [Airport Worker] Absolutely, come through
and enjoy your lounge.
- [Jean] Oh thank you!
- [Airport Worker] All right.
(chill hip hop music)
- The most painful part of this whole process
is that you have to earn these points
every 12 months.
All of your points will disappear on your anniversary.
So you've got a year to earn them, and enjoy them.
But there is some good news.
It's now easier to get status.
(airplane announcement)
That's right.
British Airways has reduced the amount of points needed
for each tier by 25 percent.
So, I'm tempted to give this another go.
(chill hip hop music)