Reasons to put the CW upgrade on hold:

1) The CW upgrades cost money. (Have to buy new beds, have to pay staff to install them, etc.) If BA is *seriously* worried about running out of money within 5 months (!), then long-term concerns like fleet compatibility don't matter much.

2) Rhetorically, it's hard to fire / lay off employees -- saying roughly "we don't have enough money to pay you" -- while simultaneously spending money on capital improvements like new seats. Lousy for morale.

3) Beds in J were presumably advantageous for luring premium traffic to BA from other carriers. But if other carriers are suddenly letting their service deteriorate (United for one!), then there's no need. BA might get their J passengers without going to all this trouble.


Reasons to keep doing the CW upgrade:

1) Maybe have already paid for the new seats/beds?

2) Maybe still have to pay (at least something to) the people who would have installed them?

3) Fleet compatibility, as discussed.

4) Low opportunity cost for improving planes that are already unneeded. Doing this upgrade in a boom requires reducing capacity (or leasing extra planes, or some combination). Doing it in a downturn means there are no such additional costs.


I think these "reasons to keep going" are substantial, but the reasons to stop are not trivial. So I'm actually not sure the "right" answer here is so obvious...