Originally Posted by
Dave_C
But that's the point, LH/LX and AF first are all more expensive, have more exclusive service and better food and wine. You need to be elites in their respective programmes to either book in the first place, or get expanded availability. This is a good compromise as it allows investment to go into the product and rewards those genuinely frequent fliers with expanded access, as opposed to the credit card junkies.
It's not just "credit card junkies" who miss out in those circumstances. You're forgetting those who pay for every single ticket out of their own taxed income and reach middling levels of frequent flyer status, but who could never afford to scale the giddy heights easily attained by those who jet around all over the place at someone else's expense yet personally reap the benefits of being pandered to and having their egos stroked by the airline.
But to me, it seems inevitable that if BA's F capacity is reduced and it increases the cost of providing the service, one or both of two things will happen: there will be less award availability (which may be happening already, just concealed by the effects of the pandemic) and/or prices will go up.