And then further imagine what it will be like on here as tens of thousands of DC members who have never made a redemption fail to get through to Pune and turn to Google for help. We'd have half a dozen new "how do I make a redemption" threads per day. The effect on FOM's blood pressure doesn't bear thinking about.

FWIW I've come to the opinion that the "use them or lose them" scenario seems unlikely. The practicalities are such that for most people it would end up being a dead loss and BA would pick up much of the flak. But I could be completely wrong of course which is why I've been in major burn mode this month.