Originally Posted by
flatlander
The "2 guaranteed redemption seats in Club World on every flight" was only ever a sop to distract BAEC members from the recent massive devaluation of Avios and decrease in earning rates for most people.
BA didn't guarantee anything else because they didn't need to - the illusion of vastly more BUSINESS CLASS!!! availability for Avios (that you aren't going to have enough of, now, unless you really work out the Tesco Clubcard and BA Amex) was enough..
That was not why it was done.
Avios is being lined up for a potential sale. Aeroplan, the Air Canada scheme, did something almost identical before it was sold.
You would not buy the Avios business unless you were certain that BA would contractually guarantee you a flow of seats for your customers to redeem into. This is what you are seeing now.
The downside of Aeroplans sale, though, is that the redemption release became pretty firm. 2 J seats released and that was it - because there was no incentive to release more given the teeny tiny amount of cash Aeroplan pays.