Indeed. My take on this is that most non-UK-based BAEC members /BA fliers who until now had at least the relative ease of earning status (that made connecting in LHR tolerable) to compensate for the inconvenience will now look elsewhere. If I can't get to status with either BA under the new scheme or LH with its traditionally higher-to-reach thresholds the incentive to fly BA on a connection is gone and I might as well go for the most convenient routing. Time will tell.