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A guest BA post by The Rt Hon Nigel Evans, ex MP and Deputy Speaker of the Commons

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Rob writes: we very rarely accept guest articles on Head for Points. However, when politician Nigel Evans – who spent 32 years as MP for Ribble Valley and was a Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons until the last election – offered to write about the British Airways Executive Club changes, I was interested.

What makes Nigel’s piece relevant is that it shows that unhappiness with British Airways runs deep and that interest in the topics we cover on HfP goes far beyond the hardcore frequent flyer community.

As Nigel said to me:

“I was chair of a number of a few committees, and was a delegate to the Council of Europe which took me extensively around the world . Needless to say I am Gold for Life with BA and at one stage was Gold on all three alliances simultaneously.

Whilst I will be unaffected by the BA changes – other than a beneficiary from deserted lounges in 12 months times – I am incensed by the cavalier way in which BA is treating its loyalty members.”

Over to Nigel. I have edited his piece and any errors are probably mine:

Nigel Evans

“They say that no one is as deaf as the one who chooses not to hear. British Airways whispered its changes to its well established and well loved loyalty programme during the Christmas break. It came as an unwelcome gift which would have been best left unwrapped. One can only assume there was no focus group played out with current members of BA Executive Club which would have quickly put this plan out of its misery.

British Airways is changing its loyalty programme to reward money spent rather than frequency of flying. There are nuances to it, but in essence the cost of getting elite status with BA is going to cost a huge amount more, in some cases by a factor of eight or more.

My friends who have been blindly loyal to British Airways for decades are in deep shock. They weren’t over surprised about the new tier points being awarded on revenue but they were traumatised by the huge increases required to have their loyalty recognised. Many have said to me they cannot retain their current status in the new scheme and are simply surrendering their planned trips with BA rather than even try.

There are a lot of savvy fliers who have engineered their business and leisure flights around gaining tier recognition with British Airways. A former owner of an airline once told me that frequent fliers have been known to fly in the opposite direction of where they want to go simply to fly with their chosen alliance and earn recognition.

Nigel Evans writes about British Airways

I was recently at a conference in Hampshire and there was only one side discussion of any note – who would people be transferring their loyalty to and which scheme would better reward their loyalty.

One former diplomat told me he had approached Virgin Atlantic to see if it would status match his BA gold card. Not only did they say yes, but they have since officially rolled out their status match with a further incentive of a prize draw for five lucky loyalty refugees to win a million points.

Another British Airways loyalty orphan told me he was switching immediately to Flying Blue on the day that Air France KLM announced its £99 status match. It also appears that Flying Blue is going one better and giving top tier status quietly to Gold Guest List victims. This is the highest level in their scheme and will allow enhanced recognition with extended lounge access to eight of your fellow travellers.

Another savvy frequent flyer texted me yesterday relating to his take on the changes – “I’m done with them”. He is looking at Flying Blue and planning his next BA-free break.

I am now waiting for Star Alliance to smell the stench from the rotting corpse of the BA bombshell and announce a status match offer. The scene is reminiscent of vultures circling above ready to swoop on the remains of an animal dying from, in this case, self inflicted wounds.

I have no doubt that British Airways has thought through these changes – after all they hide behind members feedback as their justification for the new scheme. I have no doubt some members have complained about lounges being crowded or the aircraft boarding by group number being a bit like the rush through the doors at the Harrod’s New Year’s sale. I have no doubt that the new scheme will rectify these problems but not in the way BA has intended.

Another friend is going to China next month and had already embarked on his loyalty journey with oneworld via BA. He has now taken out Flying Blue membership and taken a tier run to Scandinavia, he has a flight booked in business to Paris and next month will fly with SkyTeam to Shanghai. He would most certainly have booked BA to get him closer to his beloved Gold status but feels that BA have shown him no loyalty and two can dance that tango.

BA faces a big decision. It can plough on with its current proposals which have been universally greeted with total disbelief by the majority of frequent flyers I speak to or they can hear the screeching handbreak turns from former loyal members who are heading to pastures and alliances new.

The one thing I have learnt from my days in business is that the customer is always right and that they also have a choice. Unless British Airways wakes up and smells the Union coffee brewing in their lounges they will – without a doubt – soon be receiving fewer complaints from their incredibly loyal Executive Club members about crowded lounges. It will, unfortunately, be for all the wrong reasons.”

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Comments (336)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • TGLoyalty says:
    20 Jan20 January 19:29

    What happens if BA surprise everyone with more status bonus point promotions etc like the hotel groups do with double nights.

    It’s far too early to be discussing the death of anything.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      20 Jan20 January 22:24

      lol no

      Because they would make it so convoluted hardly anyone would ever gain them.

      It would be new bookings only (a lot of people would have aready booked them) for flights arriving / departing on a Tuesday or Wednesday with a minimum trip night of 5 nights but excluding the night of the return and o0t using any sprt of discount lile part pay with avios.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        20 Jan20 January 23:39

        Only time will tell. According to does the bookings in period only approach as it drives bookings.

        I prefer those that reward people who have already booked but it’s not like they are an outlier in the travel game

    • Joanna says:
      21 Jan21 January 11:24

      I think this is straw that broke the camels back. A Ratner moment.
      Many people will try out different alternatives that they may not have done in the past and realise that they should have done it years ago. Once lost is very much harder to get a good customer back again

  • John says:
    20 Jan20 January 20:49

    Nigel in his opening statement links his status to the public service work he has done. Are public servants allowed to earn status/avios while undertaking taxpayer funded duties? I am aware that in other countries it is strictly prohibited and would need to be declared as a benefit. Does the same approach not apply in the UK?

    • LittleNick says:
      20 Jan20 January 20:54

      HMRC deem airmiles not to be a benefit in terms of employment taxes. So I guess that same sort of logic also applies to governmental employees.

    • G says:
      20 Jan20 January 22:29

      It varies from department to department. Mine states “you should never be out of pocket, nor privately profit, from business travel”.

      And we are told not to extract avios etc from our flights. That said, no one checks.

      Australian Government officials get ultra discounted tickets on Qantas for example, but the fare conditions are not eligible for mileage accrual.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      20 Jan20 January 22:30

      Most of his trips would relate to All Party Parliamentary Groups and funded by a business or country and not the tax paper. And have to be declared on the Register of Members interests.

      Ordinary MPs would do very little tax payer funded trips and these would be restricted to select committees or being an official delegate (he mentioned the Council of Europe) and there is a process to justify each and every trip.

    • David says:
      21 Jan21 January 00:22

      Well, in that respect let’s make the status/avios earned by private sector employees taxable.
      It’s not like the person taking the flights is paying for anything, the business is – and ultimately the business’s customers through higher prices.

      • R01 says:
        21 Jan21 January 01:14

        An MP earns £90k a year and maybe an extra £10-15k for being on a select committee. They generally work pretty long and unsociable hours and get constant abuse on social media and from parts of the general public. Most of them could earn more in the public sector so the least we can do is let them keep loyalty scheme perks. It’s not like making them refuse them would save the taxpayer money.

        • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
          21 Jan21 January 02:13

          MPs don’t get extra pay for being on a Select Committee – the Chair does because of the additional work load involved but not members.

          Being a member of a select committee is considered as part of the work of being an MP. As is being on a committee examining a Bill.

        • Paul says:
          21 Jan21 January 07:33

          Given the much publicised employment struggles of the likes of Gullis, Truss and others removed by the electorate last year, i am not sure that that is true. Some might earn more, some still do via their second and third jobs, but many are poor middle managers at best promoted well beyond their own level of incompetence.

  • Phil says:
    20 Jan20 January 21:41

    Quite incredible seeing how many people have dived in at the MPwho is broadly talking sense and trying to lead the comments off in tangents…

  • Wing It One World says:
    20 Jan20 January 22:08

    I did fly SAS to ARN the other week and they were great ,boarded early from LHR took off a few minutes early, landed early and no bus in sight.

    I really think if you are going to increase the figures to gain status you should have a superior product , BA does not have that, they can hardly get their planes to take off on time. SAS was so efficient with there boarded whereas BA is a scrum. I think if BA improved the rest of their service the levels may well be acceptable.
    Please also note this is an airline that stopped serving Cognac due to so called supply issues, only airline to suffer supply issues even Lidl and Aldi could have supplied it to them. You don’t like the new limits them move, but BA need to improve the overall service to demand these higher targets. Im not saying these levels are obtainable for the masses but if you are paying for there ticket, you want the service to be reasonable, SKY TEAM LOUNGES SERVE COGNAC. I live near LHR and have so much choice.

    • Lee says:
      23 Jan23 January 16:56

      Ba has skipped so many thing recently. I do also miss the cognac and the good wines. F&B has REALLY gone downhill.

  • G says:
    20 Jan20 January 23:18

    For the record, I don’t disagree with anything Evans says here.

    However, he – to use Trumpian language – is part of our Westminster swamp.

    It’s also the principle that an MP is able to get Gold for Life…

    • m0deller says:
      21 Jan21 January 05:30

      Jealous?

      • G says:
        21 Jan21 January 07:09

        Well, in part yes, I will never get GfL as a result of these changes.

        However, do you can not agree that an MP, a public servant, should not be able to get GfL anyway in terms of time (should be in the UK) or money (MPs aren’t that well paid – so who is paying? The taxpayer)?

    • Phil says:
      21 Jan21 January 08:59

      I don’t think you’ve made any worthwhile point that needed to be said in comments relevant to the BAEC changes.

      You agree with what he said but took an opportunity to take a swipe at the author because you had nothing relevant to add.

      His politics are completely different to mine but as he’s talking sense on a subject I’m not going to bring up his voting record or expenses as its completely utterly irelevant to the article.

      Again this is symptomaticof the counterproductive shout down even those you agree with if you disagree on a different topic approach people have adopted

      Do you not think that any other public figure seeing these comments and barbs might think twice now about adding their voice to the BAEC backlash publicly and maybe, just maybe that makes such behaviour churlish and childish and invariably counter to your own interests?

  • Charlie says:
    20 Jan20 January 23:27

    RIP HfP. 🙂

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      21 Jan21 January 00:28

      Lot of life in the old girl yet!

      TBH it’s rather amusing to see the reaction from some that this is an awful article just because because he’s an ex MP rather than what he wrote.

      If it was Barry from the SAS status match fame or the likes of Simon Calder had written this those same people would have said how wonderful it was to see a voice of reason etc

      • John says:
        21 Jan21 January 05:12

        Simon Calder would never write “needless to say I am gold for life”.

        • Phil says:
          21 Jan21 January 09:01

          Which means he has no skin in the game but still put his head above the parapet and all it seems to have got is childish blue on blues

      • CJD says:
        21 Jan21 January 06:20

        The fact he’s an ex-Tory MP is neither here nor there, if Simon Calder or Barry had put their name to similar hyperbolic nonsense I’d have called that out too.

    • Red Flyer says:
      21 Jan21 January 04:33

      Poor judgement from Rob in letting this fella have a guest article imo. No need for an ex-MP to come on and waste an article on simply stating what we all know already.

      • Phil says:
        21 Jan21 January 09:03

        Nope he’s a public figure so carries more weight than just you or I.
        Add to that as GfL he has no real skin in this game but spoke up.

        Poor judgement is a good description of the majority of the comments on this article IMHO

  • Ross says:
    21 Jan21 January 07:05

    One piece of anecdota: booked an Ikos summer holiday yesterday for the family. This was £15k of spend that would have gone to BA Hols under the old system. Now I’ve gone for Jet2 from a regional airport closer to home, paid to book out the front row, and still saved £1k+. I can buy us all champagne and lounge access and still be up. Thank you to BA for the liberation from your scheme, a easier life awaits.

    • EC says:
      21 Jan21 January 08:17

      Funny – I did exactly the same last week. £30k between two families to Ikos. All would have been via BA Holidays (putting their terrible IT systems to the side). Now all via Easyjet and a travel agent.

      • NorthernLass says:
        21 Jan21 January 09:47

        Yet both of you could probably get Silver from that if you put yourselves as the only person on the BAH booking and paid separately for flights for the rest of the family!

    • Joanna says:
      21 Jan21 January 11:21

      There is a lot of complaining about BA, but the best thing we can all do is what you have done. Move your business elsewhere. Complaining on websites / Fora wont change there minds.

    • RC says:
      21 Jan21 January 11:47

      Row 2DEF on a Jet2 737 have awesome leg room. A big upgrade on BA

  • RC says:
    21 Jan21 January 11:45

    I’m very wary of some posts here.
    BA ‘s media/socials/PR strategy has finally woken up and is now trying to undermine, distract and drown out any criticism of their absolute brilliant business strategy and product.
    So beware of comments that seem to emanate from beyond the ‘looking glass’ in the alternative reality BA lives in.

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