Reply To: Unpopular opinion: BA has made a bold move to preserve exclusivity

[AJA]

Andrew. wrote:

I’m wondering if it will go the other way. I can’t be the only one who booked a business flight on a domestic during the sales, and up to 10 months in advance to get 80 tier points for about £160.

If demand for ClubEurope drops, will we potentially see domestic flights going back to all-economy?

I think this is partly the reason for the changes. BA has given away status far too cheaply and easily (even if it was their choice to do so). Now they are trying to reset the parameters but perhaps have gone too far in the other direction – time will tell.

I don’t think they will go as far as dropping CE from domestic flights. More likely the cabins will be smaller which is easily done thanks to that moveable curtain but also there will probably be aggressive upgrade offers to persuade people to sit at the front or maybe even freebie upgrades to people to persuade them that it’s worth it.

And more likely they can just open up space to last minute high fare paying business passengers. The reality is if they cheaply sell out the cabin to people buying ten months in advance they can’t really sell seats to last minute passengers especially as the preferred seats will likely have been preselected by those with status.

I am curious how many people will actually abandon BA. Lots say they will and yet the premium cabins are always full despite the IT failures, brunchgate, last minute cancellations, people saying lounges are overcrowded zoos with crap catering and aircraft are dirty etc.

I doubt I will reach Silver again let alone the heady heights of Gold and GGL but that won’t stop me flying BA given LHR is my preferred airport and it flies at convenient times to places I want to go to. But I will likely be as happy flying business class on another airline as the changes to the tier points required make it less likely I will ever spend enough with BA to do so. I will wait to see what the t&Cs of the tier points for spending on the BAPP will actually require because it is possible I will be able to regain Bronze status under the new scheme which given I fly business class anyway is really all I need. With fewer Gold and Silver Members preselecting seats for free at time of purchase the 7 day window may just become a more valuable perk.