Originally Posted by Svevo

The comments above that BA's frequent flyer program has served it as a kind of insurance policy really resonate with me. As a gold member, I have continued flying with BA despite its degradation into a thoroughly mediocre airline. In fact, I have continued flying with BA despite its dirty airplanes, its truly horrible IT, its meltdowns in the face of any kind of weather, its wholesale termination of its most experienced (and generally most gracious) cabin crew, its excruciatingly slow customer service, and, of course, brunch-gate. So today is a kind of independence day for me. I know that the grass isn't always greener, but I know that it is greener often enough. There are plenty of airlines better than BA that charge roughly the same price for tickets, and I will give them my business instead. (At the same time, I have an enormous stash of Avios, and I will spend every last mile that my custom as earned me.)

I have no idea whether BA's decision is wise. I will guess that, in the short term, BA might be pleased with itself and see continued growth in profits. I will also predict that, in the long term, jettisoning the loyalty of its non-corporate travelers will be seen as short-sighted. Just as BA is focused on its bottom line, so are the corporations who fly them.

Originally Posted by orbitmic

I think for anyone looking, it's worth considering which airline works best for you. Personally, I prefer Skyteam to Star, and from that point of view, AFKL's Flying Blue is a fair programme in the sense that it's not great for rewards (that part is revenue based) but it's actually pretty good for status. Note that the initial climb is a bit slow as I think you go back to zero with each new status, but once you are at Gold or Platinum, iit's actually fairly easy to maintain. You'd get to use one stop on AF, KL or VS but also ex-DUB on DL.

If preferring *A, I think that many people seem to like TK. A3 used to be very good but has been downgraded a few times especially if you don't use A3 itself that much, so I've effectively let it slip.

Having said all that, I think that there may be value for anyone to wait for a few days. Unlike those wanting to stick to OW, moving to ST or *A opens the prospect of status matches and I wouldn't be surprised to see many of BA competitors launching aggressive status match campaigns in coming weeks, presumably starting with VS on BA's own turf. Frankly, they would be crazy not to.