Avios is still money, Avios is merely the bitcoin of IAG. But it's partly right, BA will want to see more revenue than that implied by Avios transactions, at least at the current bitcoin style exchange rate.

The other factor is that at the moment BA is not only operating a skeleton service but have mothballed a lot of the fleet, notably the A380. In the process BA have elminated about a third of First seats from the core fleet, and First is BA's least lucrative cabin. When BA returns to full operation then one can broadly assume that it will be quite difficult to redeem in First, and right now very difficult indeed given the skeleton service.