BIG NEWS: BA moves to revenue-based tier status for Bronze, Silver, Gold and Gold Guest List

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• Garethgerry says:

  18 Jan18 January 16:42

  Once again if BA was so bad, why did all of you bother with chasing executive club status. Why weren’t you all flying cheaper and better airlines you’ve suddenly identified, save yourselves money and get better service.

  • Davey11 says:

    18 Jan18 January 18:00

    Because the BAEC was really rather good.

  • Throwawayname says:

    18 Jan18 January 18:29

    I’ve always been doing that. Even when I was living in London, the closest I got to BA would be flying Iberia to Madrid on the odd occasion.

    Regardless of that, the BAEC did work well for a lot of people, particularly those based near LHR. It became less attractive with the revenue-based Avios earnings, and it’s now completely useless. As I said upthread, I am watching this with interest and hoping that a lot of folk in the regions finally desert BA and create more demand for full service carriers to fly to BHX, MAN, LBA, EMA, BRS etc.

  • Scott says:

    18 Jan18 January 19:24

    For me, Avios gave me the opportunity to fly CX, QF F etc.
    Lounges make things a little more relaxing and it’s nice having food and drink on rap even if I don’t really partake in a lot of it.
    Selecting a nice window or aisle seat at the time of booking is good.
    RFS flights have saved me a hit over the years
    Etc.

    Not all travel is with BA.

    AA, AY, QR, QF, CX, AS etc. all earn tier points and Avios.

    I do fly different airlines as they’re on my doorstep.
    Happy with Ryanair from MAN. Quite often a fraction of the price of BA and a superior experience a lot of the time.

    Fly Finnair from MAN and LHR more than BA, at least towards the Scandic areas.
    Ryanair takes me to GOT for less than an Uber to the city centre.

    Yes, there are some who would rather pay £400-£500 in CE via LHR than £17 with FR, but even with lounge access, tier points etc., there’s no justification in that price difference for me especially with seats that are no better
    (well, sometimes do pay £245-£280 with AY when I can get the A350 from LHR as that is worth it in business class rather
    than an A319 etc.)

  • Bertie says:

    18 Jan18 January 20:16

    Exactly and the new spend thresholds really aren’t that huge. In the real world loyalty is rewarded, someone spending £20k is more valuable than someone doing 10 £250 CE returns to SOF.

    • DoesNotDeserveGold says:

      19 Jan19 January 00:04

      I too, just like BA executives and you, am glad that instead of flying 10 times CE return to SOF I can fly Virgin Atlantic Upper Class to NYC. Win-win.

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    19 Jan19 January 00:46

    Because BA isn’t as bad as some noisy people make them out to be.

    ALL airlines have their issues with delays, cancellations, lounges, onboard food and bags.

    But some only seem to think these issues only affect BA.

    For example I have friends in AMS who waited 4 days this week for the bags that KL decided to leave behind in Valencia to be delivered to them.

    Sometimes there may be no choice left for a CE meal but try AY and there is only one choice in the first place on SH flights.

    However bad they are in processing some complaints there are other airlines which are far, far worse – and in some cases with no opportunity to take them to arbitration or MCOL.

    The grass isn’t always as green as some would make it out to be.

    • Throwawayname says:

      19 Jan19 January 01:08

      I don’t think that anyone is suggesting that BA are a truly horrible airline. Their principal issue is that they’re rather mediocre while simultaneously seeming to believe they’re better than the competition. They’re also based at an airport which is prone to disruptions and isn’t good for connecting passengers,.

      Consequently, while they’re not incredibly horrible, anyone not flying from/to London would be a fool to choose them unless they were significantly cheaper than the competition, and anyone flying to/from London isn’t really guaranteed a great experience either.

      The FFP was a way to retain pax despite those shortcomings….now that it’s gone, BA will need to be selling tickets even cheaper.

    • Richie says:

      19 Jan19 January 09:53

      Do you get freshly squeezed unpasteurised organic juice of your choice and mix with freshly made organic eggs of your choice in First class prior to your morning landing?

  • Phil says:

    19 Jan19 January 09:51

    Because BAEC status by giving BA focus spend compensated for some of those things.
    It gave you a lounge on a shorthaul lower class ticket and baggage allowance upgrades.

    So for instance a long weekend to see my friends and relatives in Europe I’d use BA and get a meal and be able to be dropped off at times convenient to them on a Monday hrs before flight

    Flying regional airport connections in Y were made a bit nicer with status, especially when connections home frequently delayed and sometimes cancelled meaning more time spent to kill in an airport

• James says:

  18 Jan18 January 21:34

  I may be wrong, but travelling for business is not the same game it was pre Covid – no longer can you really justify business class for European flights (nor would you really want to) and the days of buying a ticket the day before you travel are long gone. I also enjoy the handy emails that I get from the travel booking provider that tell me how much my team could have saved if they had booked x flight instead of y flight.

  Unless it’s working on something that could run over, in general I won’t book a fully flexible ticket, the business would rather pay say £150 to refund the ticket than an additional £1000 for flexibility. Equally travel costs are monitored now like a hawk, and this isn’t just at the firm I work at, speaking to friends at other finance firms, consulting, legal, tech etc – it’s a trend there as well.

  Quite simply, this isn’t the 90s anymore with big expense accounts, sure I have the power to direct my spend to certain brands, which makes travelling a little less painful, but if I’m getting nothing from those brands now when doing so, I’ll just go for the best product.

  In the past two weeks I’ve completed 4 long haul club world trips with BA. Old Club seats on 3/4 flights, no one once came and welcomed me aboard as GGL, and the experience waiting for bags at T5 continues to be painful.

  In contrast I flew Cathay and Qatar a few times in November and December, on board product and experience miles ahead. Just need to find an airline that delivers a similar experience going west and I can’t see myself proactively choosing BA if I’m not getting much back.

  • RC says:

    18 Jan18 January 22:07

    Closest thing to that is Delta (on Delta metal).
    And I stress ‘closest’. Not the same as.
    On one stop connection then Lufthansa.

  • Throwawayname says:

    18 Jan18 January 22:11

    Air France may not be the absolute best airline in the world, but they do have a really decent business class product going West (and indeed South – while BA fly to half a dozen places in the whole of sub-saharan Africa).

    • Gerry says:

      19 Jan19 January 01:10

      I’ve done a bunch of long hauls on Air France this year (US and Africa) and really enjoyed their business class. Food is delicious, service is very polished, I like the CDG lounges. I’m really excited each time I get to travel on AF, whereas flying BA feels like taking a bus.

  • Scott says:

    19 Jan19 January 10:02

    Even so, BA must have, or been mesmerised into believing there are plenty of loaded people and companies willing to throw £££££ at them.

    Jokingly, and hopefully OK, maybe they’ve got a lucrative contract with the UK Goverment to fly all the asylum seekers across from France etc. Cuts out the people smugglers with their dinghies and a “win win” for everyone else 😉

• Ming says:

  19 Jan19 January 00:39

  My apologies if covered elsewhere in the several thousand posts, bit forward me the really annoying aspect is the ridiculous and even duplications way that’s BA have presented these changes. So, clearly the change too a uniform April tier points year end was with these further changes in mind, but was as I recall presented as a beneficial simplification for customers. Now we are told that these tier point changes are because ‘our’ I.e. customer needs are changing. No. it is because BA thought that this might enhance profits over a particular time scale. I have no objection to that, but especially in the airline industry I think that a clear sense of being honest with customers and indeed potential customers has quite a premium.

• Tony says:

  19 Jan19 January 07:46

  Did my first trip since the changes and booked Virgin to JNB for business for the first time in over 5 years. Did the status match as well. Was very impressed with the upper class wing. The clubhouse was miles ahead of the first lounge and onboard crew far friendlier and attentive. Of course still old VS seats on JNB which arent the best but not too bad for sleeping on overnight flights. What impressed me the most is that on both legs priority bags actually arrived first and quickly. Who would have thought thats possible? On BA my bag always seems to come out last.

  Having said that I need to go to DFW at the end of the month. I was prepared to go indirect with VS/DL if needed but their indirect routing was actually way more expensive than the direct flights with BA/AA so will still use BA where it makes sense.

  I can probably fairly easily get silver with the new rules, I might have been able to retain my gold card if I spend every penny with BA and book holidays with BAH as well but no guarantee I dont fall short which based on past years I expect I would. So instead I will spend enought to get silver and shift the rest to also maintain Virgin Gold and STE+

  • Phil says:

    19 Jan19 January 10:11

    I think this is a lot of people’s thinking and what sinks BA’s daft plans.

    When Gold was more easily attainable it actually drove spend. The dangle of GGL or GfL seemed hard to do but people had ahope it might be possible.
    Therefore it drove spend as Gold and Silver were reachable and there was still a distant target.
    If you were regular Silver you might have got close to Gold a couple of times and that also made you dream.

    Now Silver is much harder and for many Gold seems too distant with anything beyond taking mythical status.

    When you set a target too distant people just give up. I do lots of trekking and mountaineeting and am ex-forces. I watch enough folks fold their arms and want to give up if told its 3km more until a bed for the night and over that ridge. If you break that 3km up into attainable targets with stops they continue and do it.
    So instead of striving for Gold they then go, Silver is far enough Gold is unobtainium that’s me.

    Now once they have silver and no chance of further bens, they will look about and when not cashing in said bens diect spend to another airline, possibly getting similar bens in that FFP.

    The bigger danger now for BA is they decide the other lot are nicer, cheaper or their gold more achievable without BA spend.

    Massive own goal

    • JDB says:

      19 Jan19 January 10:52

      @Phil – I think you are absolutely right about attainable milestones, or at least the sense of them. It will be interesting to see how this all pans out and just how much people really value status.

      I don’t have the data or analysis that BA has used to make this decision which has obviously angered many because it’s such a big lurch in the opposite direction to their post covid offers, but for all the shouting (including from GGLs), threats to move business, rush to status match etc. my gut feel is that BA will get away with it, possibly with a few concessions or incentives along the way to sugar the pill. Other voices get aggressively shouted down, so one doesn’t get a very balanced view.

      From my experience, the other carriers’ grass isn’t really quite as green as painted and the huge convenience of direct flights from Heathrow is still a massive draw in the south, obviously less for those who need to fly via London. Ethiopian to Cape Town is mentioned on another thread. While ET is a good airline, but I think it’s a difficult sell to transit in Addis Ababa vs a direct conveniently timed BA flight even, if it’s £1k cheaper.

      Avios also remains a superb scheme and even if they were to move to dynamic pricing, I believe it will continue to be one of the best around, plus they have the Amex and Barclaycard vouchers and for a UK resident Avios are very easy to earn.

      I’m not sure if I understand how the milestone bonuses will work (and are barely mentioned in the comments) but I don’t think that for many Silver is going to be as unattainable as feared and does it really matter so much in reality vs principle.

      Something needed to happen as the proliferation of elites had got out of hand but this was the sledgehammer approach against the background of very strong current trading, albeit with a fairly troubling UK economic backdrop.

      • Phil says:

        19 Jan19 January 11:52

        For a one time flight that is just JNB or CPT then ‘direct’ from LHR may still be attractive.
        In a world of more than one flight and to other places too the BA flight offered jam tomorrow benefits.
        Remove those and suddenly it does not stack up as well.

        That is the point that they may still get the JNB flight for a one-off but if you talk to someone getting lounge access cheaper somewhere else then like the MAN-LHR inconvenience I took they will take ET to Addis and score benefits with another carrier.

        The world is not London and now London does not equal BA.

• Garethgerry says:

  19 Jan19 January 10:21

  You can’t talk about teir point inflation without talking about the past. Clearly CW has changed for the better, and prices have dropped considerably in real terms since the early days of the club.

  Like 1% interest rates , a correction was inevitable and not welcome. Yes BA is responsible for both the steady inflation and the sudden correction.

  You choose flights to suit you. I choose BA for cape town direct and night flight.

  Aer dingus for north America, quick hop newquay to Dublin then onwards.

  Air Mauritius to Mauritius as its direct and not BA cr*p out of Gatwick.

  Going East just look at alternatives depending where we go

  Never fly CE as 5hr drive to Heathrow so low cost out of local.

  The biggest benefit of BA silver in business is seat selection, get it with business on most others anyway.

  So I can’t understand anyone choosing sub optimal flight for status

  • Rob says:

    19 Jan19 January 10:56

    You’re not doing an economy short haul per month though. If you were you’d be putting all long haul on BA so your short hauls were more pleasant.

    • Kevin says:

      19 Jan19 January 11:17

      I definitely wouldn’t. I’ve travelled a couple of times in club Europe recently using points (economy wasn’t available) and the lounge, priority boarding etc were barely “benefits”.

      The lounge was busier than quiet parts of the terminal and half the plane had priority boarding.

    • Ken says:

      19 Jan19 January 11:28

      But surely 3 long and a short haul every month is probably getting silver ?

      • Rob says:

        19 Jan19 January 11:59

        That’s the point. You do the 3 long hauls to get Silver to make the short hauls ok.

        • Phil says:

          19 Jan19 January 12:18

          Especially in cancellations or delays frequent for shorthaul

        • Ken says:

          19 Jan19 January 12:40

          But surely the short hauls would be concurrent with the 3 long haul. If you are silver already, that pattern of travel is likely to re-qualify you surely.

          Clearly it doesn’t work for people doing one Asia on another carrier to get 560, plus a couple of BA short hauls to get silver – but then I imagine they are the targets.

    • Phil says:

      19 Jan19 January 11:57

      Doesn’t even have to be every month.
      It is the jam tomorrow philosophy many of us take when viewing air travel and status.

      Break that and you take each flight on its own merit and BA lose a chunk of business.

    • Garethgerry says:

      19 Jan19 January 15:51

      Not use BA for short haul , if it involves significant inconvenience or extra cost.

    • Belfast Boy says:

      19 Jan19 January 16:13

      BA should never have offered lounge access to elites travelling economy. The number of times I have sat in the Belfast lounge to see 10 to 20 individuals and their partners scoffing their faces and then going into the Euro Traveller cabin

      • Phil says:

        19 Jan19 January 16:24

        It was so people would send spend their way. Without it BA would have lost out

      • Stephen Cutler says:

        19 Jan19 January 18:09

        When I first had Gold, BA offered lounge access, whatever airline you were flying. Not just partner airlines. That benefit didn’t last long.

        • GUWonder says:

          19 Jan19 January 22:03

          And back then the BA business lounges and BA’s other lounges for Oneworld Emeralds were much better than they are now.

      • Daniel says:

        19 Jan19 January 21:31

        Why would you bother going for Silver WITHOUT lounge access? Surely that is/was the point?

      • Dubious says:

        20 Jan20 January 02:19

        Probably not helped by food being removed from the BA Short Haul Y product offering

  • JDB says:

    19 Jan19 January 11:06

    @Garethgerry – I agree. People appear to be incensed that they are potentially going to be knocked off their status perch. Oh the ignominy! The response is to say that they never liked BA anyway and they only used BA for status which is just bonkers.

    We, and many people we know, are resigned to our low/no status fates and confident we will survive just fine.

    • Phil says:

      19 Jan19 January 12:17

      I think saying “knocked off their status perch. Oh the ignominy!” is deliberately provocative and does your argument no favours and does a good deal to undermine it.

      People also have a right to be angry no matter how rational you may find it, which therefore will colour their future purchasing decisions.

      To use another type of industry – breakdown cover. When the renewal came it had gone up considerably. I rang and the agent gave the usual excuses but gave a suggestion of dropping down from their top level to a lower level but paying almost the same as I used to pay.
      So slightly more for less.

      Naturally that prompted a suitable – well I pay for what I need not more. A rival company was running a new customers promotion and so I jumped ship.
      Had the company not been overly greedy or suggest worse terms for more money then they would have retained me. I have not had a breakdown callout in 7 years and changed my own tyre last time had a puncture, its peace of mind.
      It was easy money spurned for want of a £15 add on useful when driving in Scotland in remote areas.

      I have never returned to that company

      • JDB says:

        19 Jan19 January 12:40

        @Phil – my wording wasn’t intended to be deliberately provocative but while two wrongs don’t make right, I was matching the type of hyperbolic language used by a number of posters on recent pages of this article. I don’t count you in that, as your posts seem more measured and considered so, for me at least, carry more weight.

        I’m bit sure how well the breakdown company works in this case though because the relatively small number of UK providers are much of a muchness so changing company doesn’t make a lot of difference. Choosing to fly somewhere indirectly on an airline that, in our experience isn’t better and possibly worse – e.g. LH or LX business is a much bigger call.

        While TPs/status appears to concern many and they report it as effectively the last bit of string tying them to BA, there’s also the Avios universe which for anyone based in reach of LHR is pretty powerful and the relative ease of earning Avios vs points in say FB or Miles & More is significant.

        While we are affected, we just aren’t bothered and it won’t change anything for us, but I do understand the anger of others and their desire to look at other schemes.

        The key is whether, when push comes to shove, will they really desert BA in droves?

        • RC says:

          19 Jan19 January 13:33

          This from @JDB who thinks investors should value companies based on past performance. Er no. NPV of future cash flows. (Not the past) . Finance 101.
          You miss the point again here, and are blinkered or brainwashed by BA as much as the (nowadays ‘editorial for rent’ Times today).
          If you out aside a blinkered view of how great BA is (it isn’t), the point many are making is that without the status glue to paper over the cracks, many now won’t accept BA’s still (in many instances) below standard product, poor scheduling, appalling punctuality and arrogant attitude to customers.
          If BA had Emirates, Delta, Lufthansa or JAL quality and the same focus on customer care then they might get away with it.
          The issue is BA does not. In external data it’s mediocre to poor, internal NPS is still so weak they won’t publish it (though have told investors there is ‘a long way to go’.)
          This change is like Ratners (if you want some history) thinking it has a Tiffany’s product.
          As said before, unlike others this won’t see a sudden cliff edge collapse in revenue, but will see a slow erosive loss of repeat customers, customer stickiness to choosing BA, and inflict a slow but adverse impact financially – simply because the product is still, to put it frankly, lagging at best and cr-p on many days.

        • Ziggy says:

          19 Jan19 January 13:53

          @JDB – are you trying to be a hypocrite or does it come naturally?

          As I pointed out on page 125 of these comments, you have, so far, said that “people have enjoyed unduly cheaply acquired status”, you’ve talked about people “who think BA owes them a living” you’ve called people “faux Gold” and “faux silver”, you’ve called people “gamers”, you’ve now thrown in the idea that people are going to be ““knocked off their status perch” and here you are bleating on about other people using hyperbolic language and, in previous comments, complaining that people were being rude.

          If you want to know why so many people are happy to pile in on some of the things you write, take a long hard look in the mirror.

        • Phil says:

          19 Jan19 January 14:04

          Breakdown coverage is not equal amongst those providers as some put restrictions and some take longer to respond than others so it is an analogy that works. Some allow the person to be covered and some restrict to the vehicle.

          Similarly insurance you get varying levels of service and two quotes with similar prices may not be equal once drill into the specifics.

          Taking the JNB example – ET also fly to other African locations direct from Addis, while BA use AirLink as a partner to get you anywhere beyond a couple of hubs.

          There often is not a downgrade on business offering over BA & the recent issues BA has with delays and cancellations is set to continue, inconveniencing people now being asked to spend more.

          Add in that to attain the benefits of status most of my flights will have to be of a type giving that benefit anyway.

          On a personal level status offset some daft London-centric thought by BA.
          A 1hr 20 min connection is a risk if there are delays and running through connections and getting zero benefits of lounge access or planning longer stays.

          ET is a great service I’ve done it before and rate it higher than BA option. Which takes us back to why have I done 4 BA flights for every 1 ET to Africa – well it was because of some trips to Europe they made nicer.

          I think BA have an overly high opinion of their service and are lulled into this by how many people were kept in the fold by the BAEC.
          Now they get to see if they were swimming naked all along

        • JDB says:

          19 Jan19 January 15:10

          @RC – please don’t misrepresent what I said in respect of the great value of knowing about a company’s past. It’s not a valuation metric, but nevertheless a very important investment consideration. It never ceases to amaze me and others of my vintage how often young, less experienced investors/fund managers get suckered into investing in companies that subsequently disappoint big time, have profits warnings etc. when we, because we know the history and really understand the nature of the business, avoid it. Simply to scorn experience and knowledge seems remarkably foolish.

        • Throwawayname says:

          19 Jan19 January 16:52

          I’m not the biggest fan of Lufthansa, but they’re consistent and reliable, and usually have a lot of ways to get you to your destination in case of IROPS.

          On the other hand, the claim that the passenger experience on LX is no better than that on BA is, to put it mildly, interesting.

    • Ken says:

      19 Jan19 January 12:43

      It does indeed seem bonkers.
      But then people appear to want to get to the airport as early as possible “to make the most of the lounge”.

  • Scott says:

    19 Jan19 January 12:51

    I don’t think CW prices are better.
    For the most part, they seem to have doubled or trebled in places.

    I, along with others, used to get the decent sub-£1k upwards fares, but say for JFK, a lot of the time, it’s hitting the £3k mark from LHR (and cabins always seem to be full on my flights at that price point).

    • Scott says:

      19 Jan19 January 13:10

      I’m not incensed to be knock off my status perch.

      More bothered by the fact BA dropped this with little notice.
      Don’t trust them anymore as everything they seem to do is to trim this, take that.
      The BAEC did make things more palatable, and earning Avios and TP for flying seems like some sort of reward for loyalty.
      The same way I shop 99% of the time at Sainsbury as I like earning Nectar points. Not always the best prices and quality, but I feel rewarded which in turn makes me fairly loyal.

      A lot of people probably don’t trust BA with anything now.
      What’s next? More gutting of Avios earnings; lounge removal; golf for life removed etc.?
      You can’t plan anything on the basis they can just turn around and move the goalposts with minimal notice.

      Still sure though that many will still fly BA, pay a bit extra for a lounge etc. and potentially enjoy roughly what they enjoy now.
      What happens when you’re flying AA etc. and now can’t access Admirals Clubs etc. due to lack of status, I don’t know.

      (Not sure if a drop in BA status passengers would have any effect on CX, QF etc. lounges?)

      I’m not going to pay £20k for gold in future, and will evaluate whether silver is worth it.

      • Skywalker says:

        19 Jan19 January 13:17

        @Scott – golf being removed for life would be the last straw, tbh

        😒

      • RC says:

        19 Jan19 January 13:38

        Spot on.
        It’s Trust -and confidence.
        So much tinkering and changes (devaluations) in Avios and now this, who trusts BA not to change everything again in 6 months.
        Without trust in any goal one seeks to attain, there’s no point chasing that.
        But it appears The Times’ editor today has drunk the koolaide. (Though tbf the Editor failed upwards from the Mail, so it’s another ‘journalism for rent’ piece)

        • Phil says:

          19 Jan19 January 21:03

          The article states flyers of £63k wage or higher as 36% of JFK traffic for BA.
          £63k is not someone who’s going to shell out £10k for silver – more than 20% of their post-tax takehome.

          Even if they had 25% flying on those flights with £90k wage, translating to that £62k as post-tax they would be spending over 15% of takehome to get just Silver. Gold is over 40% and £90k is going to be a hell of a small group being top 3% of UK earners and inside top 10% for London.

      • Ken says:

        19 Jan19 January 15:03

        Nectar is a great example.

        Why anyone would willingly pay more or accept worse quality for a trivial amount of nectar points just seems nuts.

        If BA is so terrible and better carriers are available for better prices, why not fly them and enjoy a bite to eat or a drink in a restaurant. Or if a lounge is so important then pay for it.

      • JDB says:

        19 Jan19 January 15:15

        @Scott – I understand your point about the relatively short notice, but would a slow lingering death have been better than ripping off the plaster?

        Sorry about your golf being removed though. Now that would be serious.

        • RC says:

          19 Jan19 January 15:27

          The point is this is one of a series of constant Avios and TP changes.
          And will continue to be so. BA will have to keep raising thresholds with inflation or it will be effectively lowering thresholds in real terms. So it’ll be moving goal posts – or back to where it started – but having lost customer retention along the way. (Apart from the sheeple who’ll cling onto some idea of fabled glory days that never really existed).

        • Scott says:

          19 Jan19 January 16:00

          Well, a lot of people have already booked things, made plans etc. and may well lose out overall.
          3 months notice is nothing, and being announced in the middle of a busy post-Xmas booking / sale didn’t help.

          What is done is done, but if they had said April 2026, whilst a lot of people would have been unhappy, it would give time to look at options, change plans, and at least see what was happening.

          It’s the scale of changes that is the worst thing.
          3 months notice for increased thresholds such as 1500TP to 2500TP may not be bad, but something like £3k for gold to £20k, or £10k to £65k for GGL with practically no notice is a real kick in the teeth…….and to top it all, nothing has been added (as of yet) to sweeten the status levels.

• Belfast Boy says:

  19 Jan19 January 16:26

  The whole elite system whether airlines or hotels has become a joke mainly because it is no longer about physical loyalty, Credit cards are the monster that have destroyed the playing field. As a Hilton Diamond I recently stayed in three different Hilton’s in the US. I don’t know why I bothered as there were no upgrades and the breakfast credit barely buys a coffee and fruit juice. Credit cards have diluted the whole meaning of having elites and it is just as prevalent with BA. Therefore what BA is doing has some logic to it but they still cannot shake themselves free of the credit card carrot

• Garethgerry says:

  19 Jan19 January 16:44

  I don’t understand the logic , you should put up with a lot of inferior 12 hour flights to make the 2hr flights better.

  • Belfast Boy says:

    19 Jan19 January 16:59

    What logic are you talking about?

    • Garethgerry says:

      19 Jan19 January 17:23

      See some of the comments above starting with Robe

  • Phil says:

    19 Jan19 January 18:35

    If you take multiple 2hr flights in your life vs what will inevitably be less than 12hr longhauls for most people then it is a simple equation.
    The law of good enough applies as X offsets Y.

    I thought this should be quite obvious tbh

  • Rob says:

    19 Jan19 January 19:36

    Yes, basically. That’s what most BAEC members do.

• sxparkin says:

  19 Jan19 January 17:50

  Just read the UK Sunday Times Business Section article, P8…..what is strange is that BA state they are building ”momentum” – is this positive or negative though given that much of the alleged progress thus far was under the old BAEC scheme ! With the reconfiguration of Premium Seating from 60 to 73 % of capacity ..how are they going to cope with more ‘engineering’ based lack of planes on top of the current issues eg A380s for one, dropping Kuwait, Dallas etc ? Lots of other points but as others have alluded to the 55% of take off slots at LHR is the basis of the view that BA is doing the right thing from a position of brittle strength ( for now) – personally I think they have underestimated how many people be it Leisure and or Business will now look further afield for all the reasons stated in this fast approaching 4000 comments dialogue.

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