If you think back to 2012 and the dismantlement of all the outstanding BD earning opportunities, they were disappearing at extremely short notice, and sometimes none at all. I seem to recall the Hilton agreement was pulled with almost immediate effect.

That simply couldn't happen with MBNA because of the mountain of pre-purchased BD miles they'd acquired at a very favourable price. This is just the final act to purge the BD/DC generosity - it's probably been planned for years, just waiting for the time to act.