Originally Posted by
Midships
TBH I've wondered just how sustainable the existing program was. One Business return in QR to say Singapore and then eat and drink as much as you want in lounges for short haul flights to/from the UK, extra baggage, blah, blah, blah. These pages full of advice on how to game the system and get status for the least possible expenditure. Guesting strangers into the lounge, (I know the Mods stopped that here but it still happens elsewhere).
I may be unpopular here, but I'm surprised it took this long to reform. As they say, other airlines are available.
And if the other airlines loyalty programs aren't as good, that kind of explains why BA did what they did. I enjoyed the ride while it lasted, but frankly I'm not that surprised.
I'm not surprised they've changed it, but I am surprised at how brutal the threshhold for Gold is. As for "gaming" the system, that implies that people were not abiding by the rules, but if the rules allow it then is it actually gaming?
In the cold light of day this may make commercial sense for BA if most of their higher spenders don't abandon ship, on the basis that BA offers the best connections out of LHR. In my case, my destinations are a mix of Skyteam and Star strongholds, and mostly short haul, so concentrating on a single alliance other than OW is likley to be more hassle than it is worth, and despite the understandable anger on here, I imagine BA's thinking is that ultimately people will not cut off their nose to spite ther face. However, what I think is likley to happen in reality for me is that I will still use OW and re-qualify to silver, but also give more premium business to other alliances, so overall spend will almost certainly go down. If what I do is replicated by many others, then I strugle to see how that works for BA, but they must have conisdered this scenario, so I guess they believe it will. The part of me that isn't still annoyed by this is now quite intrigued.