Firewind

First, that it required deliberate initiative to make the transfer happen (and, in many cases, the associated inconveniences and failures described on this board).

Second, that the Avios expiry is based on the last Diamond Club activity.

To the first point, every other merger/sale has automatically resulted in a new account in the surviving programme, usually with the option/encouragement that the customer initiate a merge of accounts if the customer already had one in the "new" programme. Pan Am => Delta; TWA => American; Air West => USAir; Northwest => Delta; United/CO => UA.

To the second, pegging the expiry to the last Diamond club activity is unique, and challenging, with no general notice to this effect, and then the challenge, in many cases, of checking the last activity via one channel, phone, after concluding the transfer.

These policies clearly are designed to rely on attrition to save money. I know, there are arguments that an airline is in business to make a profit. But these lead at least to a bad taste, and often to failure on the part of programme members. Transferring the bmi miles should not be cast as a special privilege in the context of a merged loyalty programme. In all other cases above, members have been treated as nearly as equals as possible. (OK, maybe not at the upper reaches in Mileage Plus.)

Now that most of us have slogged through the first issue, this is a plea that BA change its policy from basing the Avios expiry on the last bmi activity to base it on the transfer date. This would be the good faith thing to do, given the lack of explanation of the finer - some deleterious - points, the confidence course that the transfer policies have created, and would restore good faith.