I was under the impression that BA had formed a new company called "The mileage company" to handle BAMiles and Airmiles..... if this is the case, the miles should be ring-fenced.... perhaps BA will try and sell this off?
When Swiss Air went under, the Swiss miles were not lost because of a similar arrangement, and I was able to redeem on crossair SAAB50 flights the following year, from LCY to Ticino va one of the SWISS hubs....