Originally Posted by ppp909

I think BA need to take this (and other similar situations) and turn it into an opportunity. If you're a gold card holder, or even a lowly silver as I now am, having dropped down a couple of months back, then you're clearly a valued customer.

In this day and age, there are many opportunities for BA to recognise this. If a gold card holder books a holiday for him or herself, spouse and children, it's not difficult for a few lines of computer code to work out the status of the family, how often they fly etc. It would be very easy to display a page on MMB, the App, or even a printed boarding pass to state that as a GCH, only one guest is normally allowed. However, as a valued customer, the holder will be entitled to bring his or her family into Galleries South, or the B gate lounge, or wherever as it is likely to be quiet at that time of day.
At the point of booking, the holder could be told that a later flight would be eligible for this, but an earlier flight wouldn't, which would potentially influence someone to book their family into a less-loaded flight and leave more space for the busier flights. This would also lessen the load in the lounges and make their loyal customer happy at receiving special treatment as a reward for that loyalty. BA knows exactly who's on which flight, who's in which lounge, and when they enter, and have years worth of this data.

It's the 21st century: black and white rules should no longer be applicable. We already don't pay a standard fare regardless of flight or time of booking. If BA wants to continue to compete, it needs to keep its customers loyal. It's really not that difficult.