Originally Posted by
phol
You can fly tomorrow for a little over $700 on the first routing.
We can do this all day. American carriers have dropped their prices through competition with LCCs and are now *generally* very cheap. BA just haven't dropped the TP earnings accordingly, because without the US market they're in trouble.
I think they just can't be bothered to redefine the rules to distinguish between different kinds of "first" classes. It is just fiddling at the edges.
Why do they need to? If you're a BAEC member flying on AA or QR revenue two-class F but still crediting to BAEC then you're probably a profitable customer to BA. The appropriate agreements for QR/AA to buy F-rated Avios from Avios Group ltd to give to BAEC are in place.
Investing the time to modify the earning rate based on the flight number and keep that information updated whenever AA/QR changes an aircraft or route number is unlikely to yield any further revenue, nor staunch lounge costs much.