Well, this thread poses a slightly different question than the normal whining by Chase customers. As a self confessed FFP whore I can at least shine some light on this from a European perspective.

I chose BA not for the BAEC but for the hard product. The BAEC FFP is not the most valuable if your primary goal is to earn as many cheap rides as possible. It does of course get a lot better if you live in the UK or US (241s etc) but for a mainland EU member life is hard. Yes, we can get to Gold quicker but that is less important than you might think, especially if you fly J/F a lot. We don't have credit cards or Tesco. There is no other way to earn miles than through flying and the occasional car rental (given that I keep my hotel points in their respective programmes).

Full miles in Y where a huge improvement and prevented my return to Lying Blue or Miles & More when the onboard (soft) product started to deteriorate. The best benefit of BA is the MFU or Upgradios. If that goes, I go.

However, as far as redemptions go BA is expensive, even from an EU perspective. A lot of that maybe due to UK taxes and therefore be outside of the control of BA but my bank account does not seem to care.

So yes, BA is not cheaper in miles and does require a larger cash component. If you do 4 redemptions per year, long haul in J or F that will mean an extra out of pocket of GBP 800 vs KLM or LH on the same routes. Since miles = money you could say this requires an extra 50.000 miles for the same trips.

If BA really 'enhances' their FFP by making it harder to redeem for mainland EU based customers it will be harder for me to be loyal to BAEC and I will look into Iberia's program as an alternative or even M&M. Still love the hard product though but I get the distinct feeling that only UK customers will be happy with the revitalisation....