Ah! I think I understand you now. You have a lot of banked avios so why not use it up rather than handing over your hard earned dosh to the SleazyJet or TryanAir mob! However it’s not a lot of cash I hear and you certainly don’t need to be wealthy in that respect.

Over the years I’ve been on FT, there’s more often than not flyers who are redeeming avios, 2-4-1s etc and they, I find, are more demanding of services than most. I often wonder if this is part of the reason why BA struggle on many fronts. They built themselves into a hole of providing such a loyal rewarding system that it’s caused more of their service issues than it’s worth. I once worked for a company that fell into the trap of giving discounts and promos, this led to their most loyal customer base as well as customers who had heard, often asking “well? when is the next discount, I’m not paying full price you know!”

BAEC I read is one of the better if not the best Loyalty program in the business, that might just be the downfall but I am guessing and I base this on my experiences/insight I often see on here. We shall see what the Avios based on spend brings in the years to come.

I pay cash for my fares and in 10 odd years of BA CE I’ve hardly had a bad experience beyond the usual moans of the degradation of the service. Less leg room, changes in catering, removal of the wardrobes/bulkheads. The crew have 98.99% been very good.