Status Arbitrage: Get OneWorld Sapphire status from £998!

Today we are going to cover how to obtain OneWorld Sapphire status using the British Airways Executive Program from £998. This mid-tier status would grant you access to lounges in the United States when flying American Airlines and give you Priority boarding as well as access to Main Cabin Extra seats.

In order to do this efficiency we are going to take advantage of a fare from the Middle East to South East Asia with SriLankan mixed with a Premium Economy fare from London to the Middle East

We are using London as a sample, but the fare and concept work from across Europe...

This is a vacation Mileage Run to go from Zero status to British Airways Executive Club Silver with a few days vacations in Middle East and Jakarta...

This has 3 components. 

1. A positioning flight to get the first BA segments
2. The flight in Premium Economy with BA from LHR to Abu Dhabi or Dubai
3. The flight with SriLankan in Business Class from Abu Dhabi or Dubai to Jakarta, Indonesia

1) Position either Friday Night or Saturday morning to JER / INV for $60-90 (random search) HBO fare (5 TPs)

2) Random Saturday JER/ INV-LHR-AUH-LHR are pricing at $525 to $590 (Economy for short segment then Premium Economy) No hidden city and some flights allow decent connect time to check in the vacation luggage)

3) AUH-CMB-CGK 560 TPs for $658 (Current SriLankan sale)
Arrive from LHR early morning or evening (forcing a day in UAE) as AUH-CMB leaves 2300

4) Grab the return flight from AUH that leaves 130 AM and you are in LHR by 630 AM (if you grab the Monday flight head into the office)


Cost: $62 for the positioning flight, $525 for PE flight to Middle East and $658 Business Class from AUH to Jakarta grand total $1,245 or £998 and Zero to Silver status 😁 and 750 XPs


Tier Points Earnings: 5 each way for LHR to JER (10) , 90 each way (LHR-AUH) so 180 and 280 each way (AUH-CMB-CGK) or 560. Grand total 750 TPs , Avios varies as due to the flights you became Bronze as soon as you land in CGK. Return to London and you are Silver. Obviously this could be improved or reduce the time needed

Gold Status could be done as a second trip (later in the year for the same price) so you would become BA Gold under £2000 while on 2 Vacations and not on a crazy Scandinavia/Hawaii multi-segment trip...

Need help with Delta miles? Got doubts about FlyingBlue? Or if you want have any questions regarding miles / points. Reach out to the team here using the form below!