Too little, too late? British Airways backtracks on sector based tier qualification

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• Simon says:

  6 Feb6 February 13:00

  Do we know if the bonus points fall into the category of the 32k with BA of 40k for GGL requirement?

  • Rob says:

    6 Feb6 February 13:24

    I would suspect so.

• Mark says:

  6 Feb6 February 15:30

  Not enough of a roll back for me. I went for the KLM/Air France status match. As a business and leisure traveller, I have a choice and already I have booked three return flights with KLM and Air France. BA have lost my business.

• PSowden says:

  6 Feb6 February 15:42

  BA are taking us for idiots. As someone who does commute from Switzerland (pro tip if you don’t have to fly via GVA go to Basel as at this time of the year it’s 1/4 to 1/5 the price most days) and did 60 sectors with BA. But I’d already moved most of my long haul flying, whee possible to Qatar and Cathay. So why would I, as a Gold card holder, want to stay and get silver when I can keep OWE with Qatar via my long haul flying and for my commute just pick the cheapest airline.
  I can’t avoid BA, but they are idiots if they think I won’t switch out as many flights as possible. If Qatar would introduce PE I would never fly BA long haul

• SunGuy says:

  6 Feb6 February 18:34

  Unfortunately – even the current “we voted for it” changes are very, very little and very, very late…..

  Come April 1 2026 …. the numbers of BA Gold will be limited to a miniscule number ….and silver will be the same from April 1 2027…..perfect for the metrics board!

  Can someone please tell me who thought this was a great idea – and if they will still be with the company by the end of this year? (I dont mean fired, I just mean the usual management technique of making some numbers look fantastic, then leaving before the brown stuff hits the whirly thing).

  Who exactly is this new “club” incentivising ?

  Then add in, Im sure we can all appreciate that with the serious cost cutting that has been done (right down to even creating a LCC at LGW – just to pay crews less) – so a dwindling product, dirty aircraft, many cancellations (due to engine issues – but even so, Im fairly sure that there could be money well spent to lease aircraft to provide a service as has been done in a miniscule number of cases), outstations no longer being employed by BA, lounge closures/non updates and so very much more ……and the service that is being provided is just not worth £7k spend (and more due to taxes) to just achieve silver.

  The worlds favourite airline – was once a tagline of this once fantastic carrier – now, not so much – despite the serious cuts and so on as mentioned, the one thing it had going for it was a fairly decent loyalty scheme – and not only has it been totally and utterly destroyed to the point of pretty much non-existance ….there is zero hope for any regular person out there to ever make it to Bronze let alone silver – its not attainable. Once you destroy aspiration to achieve status ….(which this new program absolutely does) – then you remove the wish (aspirational advantage) for people to want to travel with you…..

  There is a reason that student discount exist and internships and so on, its a kindof try before you buy – in the sence that, incentivise people to want your product, and make them feel part of the brand – the brand cares about them and maybe when they enter positions that “matter” where they can make decisions about whether to buy your product or someone elses, they will remember just how you treated them previously and choose yours over others…..

  Current BA management seem to have forgotten Sales & Marketting 101 ….

  • Mikeact says:

    6 Feb6 February 19:15

    .’ the numbers of BA Gold will be limited to a miniscule number’

    You mean in the UK ? Rubbish, I think not.

    • JDB says:

      6 Feb6 February 19:36

      Yes, I can’t think where the idea that there will only be a minuscule number of golds next year comes from. The make up of gold members will change, but I doubt numbers will drop much at all.

      • LittleNick says:

        6 Feb6 February 23:50

        If it becomes harder to get BA Gold is it surely not a logical consequence that less people will therefore have it under the new scheme? How is that difficult to comprehend? Yes corporates will have it but in most cases they already have it now, so they will just be getting it quicker, I can’t see how numbers of BA Golds will not fall

        • JDB says:

          7 Feb7 February 00:00

          @LittleNick – the OP stated “the numbers of BA Gold will be limited to a miniscule number” suggesting a huge drop in numbers. The changes will only shake out those who have previously earned status very cheaply who are not so numerous. What % of Golds do you think BA will lose net after April 2026? 10-15% ??

        • LittleNick says:

          7 Feb7 February 10:16

          @JDB I don’t think any of us can categorically say the extent to which the net number of Golds will drop from Apr-27 onwards unless we have some of BA’s data. Even then extrapolating historical data into the future is not an exact science in any field. I can hazard a guess that there will be very few Golds from purely leisure travel (excl Gold for Life members who already qualified prior to the new club). I might be wrong but are there many people (excl. corporate travellers) who spend Net £20k purely on BA alone? If they’ve got that sort of disposable income on luxury travel they’re probably not flying BA! I’d like to know what you think very cheaply is for BA Gold? £5k? £10k? £15k? etc?

        • Rob says:

          7 Feb7 February 10:46

          It’s simple maths, surely. Which of these numbers is larger:

          *the number of people who spend £20,000 NET on BA each who are not currently Gold

          *the number of people who are currently Gold but spend less than £20,000 net on BA

          I think 99% of us on here would assume the 2nd category is larger.

          The maths on the number of people in the lounges etc is a different calculation because it depends on flight patterns, but in pure ‘how many Golds’ terms the above is all that matters. Even BA’s cranky IT should be able to spew this data out in 30 seconds.

        • JDB says:

          7 Feb7 February 12:29

          @Rob – your maths/thesis is obviously correct in identifying that the second category is larger but the question is what’s the gap between the two categories and maybe how that might evolve either way with the threatened changes of behaviour.

• Anthony Dunn says:

  6 Feb6 February 19:10

  Mr Lacy of BA made a commercial decision that my spend/loyalty was worthless to him/IAG. My commercial decision is that, after the original decision, these tiny revisions don’t amount to a can of beans. I’m now actively researching and using the alternatives.

• Mike says:

  6 Feb6 February 19:14

  Has British Airways been taken over by Ryan Air or Easyjet and not told anyone.
  Definitely cost cutting all the time, had a business class flight from London to Jamaica absolutely appalling. Asked for a Jack & Coke and was told that we have stopped stocking this, it didn’t get any better as the main meal was a chicken curry, fish or vegetarian which I didn’t want
  FYI, I am a gold card holder but will now switch to star alliance now.

  • J says:

    6 Feb6 February 22:06

    Good for you but don’t expect any better from Lufthansa at least. They have even less competition than BA so offer little beyond the bare minimum.

  • Tom says:

    7 Feb7 February 02:05

    It literally has, that’s the point and why there won’t be a reverse course away from slowly hacking BA to death. Half of the leadership of IAG is from either Vueling or Aer Lingus (the original LCC masquerading as a full service airline) and so it’s not surprising they only understand how to cut costs further and not how to run a premium airline.

• Journeying John says:

  6 Feb6 February 22:07

  In summary.
  BA’s product is not competitive for many of their regular customers without the Club sweetener’s
  BA senior management believes they deliver a quality, competitive product
  The new Club is forcing many to reassess their options more objectively

  BA *may* aspire to be less of an airline and more a travel agent / credit card sales organisation… BUT both of those require functional customer service channels!

  • Rob says:

    7 Feb7 February 08:29

    Sounds fair.

  • Simon Adams says:

    8 Feb8 February 10:12

    Makes you think that there’s no connect between the marketing bods and customer services. Do they not read the online reviews or see the complaint date? Maybe they don’t care, like the rest of BA’s management.

• Simon Schus says:

  6 Feb6 February 23:43

  Iberia Plus change announcement on Feb 12th?

  • LittleNick says:

    6 Feb6 February 23:51

    Yes I thought Rob said they were delaying their announcement for a year?

    • JDB says:

      6 Feb6 February 23:53

      No, the announcement is next week but implementation next year.

      • LittleNick says:

        7 Feb7 February 10:29

        Ahh ok thanks

        • Rob says:

          7 Feb7 February 10:43

          Worth noting that Iberia has invited a lot of top tier members to the announcement so you have to suspect that it won’t be (for them) bad news.

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