I disagreed with the change in seating policy that meant non-status or non-full-fare pax could not allocate seating in advance (despite being Gold myself I had a tedious argument with BA when trying to get my elderly mother sat next to me) but the further change to ask CW pax to stump up even more cash for "preferred" seats on top of an already expensive ticket is just appalling. I know a number of cases personally where people have avoided BA because of this and, having tried other carriers BA is in danger of losing those people for good. I wonder if BA thinks they are actually winning any passengers with these policies?