Originally Posted by
Globaliser
This is not meant to be having a go at you, but this example does illustrate the point. How can it be designed to stop Silvers getting to Silver, when there is no change to TP earning in the vast majority of economy classes? The only classes in which TP earning is being reduced are Q, O and G - which are almost by definition the least profitable classes. If you need to keep Silver with the same level of flying, just lift your usual booking class by one or two levels.
I think you are being a bit too linear in terms of how you classify customers as profitable/unprofitable.
Silver can be tough to achieve with certain patterns of flying - even when you throw in a number of "profitable" flights/fare classes as well as a number of discount classes.
If you simply brand someone as an "unprofitable" customer because they happen to take one, two, three discount fares a year, you may very well be ignoring the fact that they may also be taking a number of other more profitable (yet small Tier-point-earning) fares.
In other words, you may well be making Silver unachievable for certain customers that are, actually, driving a healthy profit to BA despite their flying including *some* discount fares.