If there's a benefit to switching to revenue earning, I don't see why BA would wait to harvest it. As has been pointed out, the switch to a single year enables global changes - what other global changes could be envisaged? The timing of the alignment announcement at the start of February leaves room for other announcements before the start of April, and I doubt that's a coincidence personally.

The idea this isn't possible here because credit card rules is obvious nonsense, since Finnair just did it. There is a ludicrous amount of wishful thinking happening here.

And the end point? Have a look, this is the message airline CEOs are getting rammed into their thinking every single day. It's not hard to find similar vision pieces from big consultancy companies. Note how little any of this has to do with lounges. You'll also find that some case studies are given where customers pay a subscription for a tailored service to build brand engagements. Using a revenue model enables the sort of spin off into a standalone entity these consultants are shouting about.

Airlines - Wakeup and Smell the Money (traveldatadaily.com)